Meet Lavanya - A Candidate for Employment

Lavanya is a 21-year-old girl, married at the young age of 18 with two kids by the age of 20.  Lavanya was left reeling when she lost her husband at the age of 21.  Ostracized and shunned, she is no longer invited to any community functions or celebrations, she has no social outlet, no livelihood, two children to support, and she is shown no sign of kindness by her neighbors.  In an already harsh world, she now finds herself at the bottom of the totem pole, an easy target for others to take advantage of.   In recent conversations with Lavanya, she shared her heart, her struggles, and her experiences as a young widow living alone in the village.  Distraught, she says that she would rather die than find herself in her present circumstances.  In fact, it is not uncommon for many women in India to commit suicide upon the death of their husbands. As a widow she is not allowed to remarry, rather she is doomed to endure these abuses in solitude for the remainder of her years.  Hopelessness reaches to new heights among young women who know they will be forced to live out the rest of their seemingly very long life subjected to the cruelty of the ideology toward widows.  As if that weren’t enough, she is regularly propositioned by men looking to take advantage of the fact that she is defenseless and alone.  Lavanya has continued to endure her plight with has much strength and grace as she can conjure, but in addition to all the other struggles she is most inhibited by the fact that she has two young children to care for and no income with which to do so.  Unlike the western world, there is no support for single mothers, there are no daycares, no government assistance, not even neighborly assistance.  Lavanya is on her own and unable to leave her two young children to go to work.  I am absolutely convinced that Project Dignity can help widows like Lavanya who are in great need. Lavanya is an amazing woman with a sweet personality and a wonderful sense of humor. Your prayers and support will enable her to become the next beneficiary of this project!