Several years ago, Meridian Magazine had a fundraiser to help finance a new campus for children from leprosy colonies in Bihar, India.  Bihar is arguably the poorest state in India where the level of poverty is something most Americans cannot even imagine.

The response was incredible!  More than 1,500 readers joined in the campaign.  It was unbelievable!  Meridian readers donated $422,000 to help build a new campus in Bihar for Rising Star Outreach.  This campus was planned to serve 700 children.  The potential of its impact would be astounding.

But then the pandemic struck.  In India, schools were shut down for two years.  But even worse, the  renewal of licenses for foreign charities was put on hold for nearly four agonizing years.  We began to despair of ever being able to build our desperately needed campus.

But 2024 brought several blessings: the first was the renewal of licenses by the government.  We were finally able to purchase land and start the new campus.

Today it stands as a beautiful witness of what can happen when people join together to lift the poor and the outcast.

Last week we dedicated the new campus.  What a joyous day! The Andrus families (Brent and Cheri, and Jeremy and Kristin) drove the initial idea of a campus in Bihar, and it has been named after them.

Andrus families at the dedication ceremony for Rising Star Outreach’s new Bihar campus, a life-changing initiative for leprosy colony children.

Kristin Andrus captured the sheer ecstasy of the occasion.  Look what together we have done!

 

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We already had a student body of 300 students.  They have been moved to the campus.  They are so thrilled!  You’d think we’d invited them into the Celestial Kingdom.  They’ve never seen such beautiful buildings.

A panoramic view of the newly built Rising Star Outreach Bihar campus, featuring dormitories, medical centers, and soon-to-open schools.

The students’ dorms are wonderful.  And they are BIG!  They have been built to house a total of 700 children.  The boys’ dorm was named for Suku Thankappan, the fabulous director of all our projects in the North of India. Suku gave up a lucrative and prestigious career to come direct our work.  He oversaw the construction of the campus.  Best of all, he loves the students passionately and they love him back!

The Suku Thankappan Home for Boys, part of the Rising Star Outreach Bihar campus, named in honor of its compassionate project director.

The girls’ dorm was named for my deceased daughter, Amber, whose service to an Indian orphanage is what helped to begin our work.  It’s so wonderful that our students now sleep in new bunk beds, instead of on the cold floor.  It’s especially cold in the wintertime!  The rooms are light and airy.  No longer are they in the dark, damp quarters they were in previously.

Amber Douglas Home for Girls at Rising Star Outreach Bihar campus with safe dormitories for children from leprosy colonies.

Inside the girls’ dormitory at Rising Star Outreach Bihar campus, young girls enjoy a safe and nurturing environment with modern amenities.

Thanks to Diane and King Husein, the campus also houses a medical clinic where the doctors can provide medical services, not only for our students, but for the people in all the leprosy colonies around.  It is the center for our medical units which will deliver thousands of treatments in our fight against leprosy.

The Diane & King Husein Medical Centre, a vital part of the Bihar campus, offers healthcare services to children and nearby communities.

The school is still under construction.  In the meantime, we are holding school in the boys’ dorm.  The school will include classrooms for grades K-12, computer labs, science labs, and a library.  It is named in honor of the Marriott Foundation and hotels.  The Marriotts bought the land for us and have been our chief supporter for the past 20 years.

The Marriott Foundation-supported school building under construction will house classrooms, computer labs, and libraries for Bihar campus students.

The campus boasts a sewage treatment facility and a reverse osmosis water treatment facility.  These are luxuries unknown to most people living in Bihar.  But definitely the most cherished thing on the campus is the playground!  These children have never seen a playground before.  As they saw it going up there were gasps of disbelief.  They overwhelmed the play equipment even before we had finished construction of the playground.  We kept trying to keep them off it until the construction was completed, but there was no holding them back!  We finally just gave up trying.  The children’s shouts of joy fill the air until the dark of night.  The playground is just outside the Guest House, which houses our volunteers.  Hearing the children’s laughter on the playground is the first thing I could hear in the mornings.  What a delightful sound to wake up to!

Children from the Bihar campus delight in their first-ever playground, a vibrant and joyful addition to the Rising Star Outreach initiative.

Still to be built are the cafeteria and a dorm for the teachers to live in.  Being literally in the middle of nowhere, without housing we would not be able to attract good teachers, thus, the need for a teacher’s dorm.

At the moment, we are using a temporary kitchen and cafeteria.

A temporary kitchen at the Bihar campus, painted vibrantly by students, awaits its transformation into the new campus office space.

The kids have painted it all the colors of India.  Above their colored bricks they have enshrined the seven habits of success, taught by Steven Covey.  When the new cafeteria is completed, the temporary kitchen will become the offices of the campus and school leaders.

The new cafeteria will be named for the Proctors and the Meridian readers.  It is the next building to be built.  It will also host school assemblies and be a wonderful place of gathering.  I’ll include a picture in a subsequent article as soon as it is completed!

A beautiful thing that has happened over this journey is the changing of the hearts of the government officials in Bihar.  Initially they fought us.  They protested the purchase of our land and tried to stop us by stalling needed construction license.

But over these past six years their hearts have begun to change.  We were stunned that many of the government officials who formerly opposed us, came to the dedication of the new campus and participated, enthusiastically telling everyone how thrilled they were that we have created this haven for children from leprosy colonies.

We even had a Member of Parliament come and speak about how proud he is of the work we have done! (this is a position similar to a U.S. Senator).  He pulled me aside afterwards and thanked me profusely for bringing this change to the people in his state.  He added that if we ever needed anything we were to contact him, and he would take care of it.  I was totally stunned.  But I have learned over and over again in our work in India that God can change hearts!

I had an interesting experience several years ago when the Little Flower charity originally invited us to take over their school in Bihar.  In one of my first visits to the school I was accompanied by Maria Padilla, one of our supporters who worked as the head of global supply for Apple computers.  Maria wanted to see our computer class.

The class had never seen an actual computer, so Maria passed her laptop around the room for the students to touch and explore.  The children were enchanted.  Then she pulled out her iPhone.  She told the students that she was going to take a video of them sharing their dreams and goals.  They looked confused.  They had never seen a video before!  They had never even seen a movie before! 

So, Maria took a short video of me and then played it back to the students.  There were gasps of disbelief from the students.  Now they ALL wanted a video of themselves.  Maria pointed her iPhone at a girl on the front row and asked her what her goals were.  The student answered, “Madam, I want to be a nurse.”  Maria asked, “What about becoming a doctor?” The student quickly said, “Oh no ma’am, I want to be a nurse.”

Maria then asked the girl next to her to stand and share her dream.  The girl said, “I want to be a nurse.”  Maria countered with, “Would you like to become a doctor?” The girl responded shyly, “Oh no—a nurse!”  Maria then trained her iPhone on the boy in the next desk and asked him the same question.  He responded that his goal was to become a nurse.  Maria shot me a sidewise glance. . .

In the end, Maria had a video of all 30 students saying they wanted to become a nurse! Exasperated, Maria asked me, “What is the deal with nurses around here?” I responded that in all the years that the Little Flower school had been in existence it had only had two students graduate from the eighth grade.  They had both gone on to become nurses.  They both ate every day, and they both owned a small home.  It was the only vision the students had.

But now, thanks to all of you, their world is expanding.  They are now taught by qualified teachers. They are learning about the world outside their new campus. While on the campus this time I had various students share their goals with me.  They want to be a policeman, an engineer, an airline pilot, a Bharathanatyam dancer, a designer of AI.  What a change!  They have learned to dream!

I couldn’t help but wonder if God must marvel at how restricted our own dreams are?  Are we like the Little Flower students?  God dreams of us becoming as he is.  I’m afraid, that sometimes I’m the guilty one of having myopic vision!

All of us at Rising Star Outreach send our heartfelt appreciation to all the readers at Meridian Magazine who so generously support our work and help make it possible.  I know that many of you have sacrificed significantly to offer your support.  May God bless you all!