A Richmond resident and a local Rotary club worked together to get bathrooms for an orphanage in India built.
Lorraine Wilson told the Richmond News she was deeply moved during a 2013 visit to an orphanage run by Children of Mother Earth (CoME) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s poorest provinces.
“The visit changed my life,” she said.
Many children at the orphanage have been abandoned at the train station because their families can’t care for them, Wilson explained. At the orphanage, they are fed and educated.
During the tour, one young girl attached herself to Wilson, holding her hand.
When she was leaving, the girl asked her, “Will you come back for me?” Wilson said, her voice cracking with emotion.
Although poverty exists worldwide, she said the level of poverty in India is “mind-boggling.”
The orphanage itself is a donated concrete building that’s very “sparse,” Wilson explained.
At that point in 2013, more than 30 children at the orphanage shared one bathroom.
Wilson approached the Richmond Sunrise Rotary about getting funds to build the bathrooms when she returned from her trip.
After delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sunrise Rotary reached out to the local Rotary in India, which helped facilitate the construction of the four bathrooms and five toilets for $10,000, according to the Rotary club.
“It’s amazing what they did with $10,000,” Wilson told the News, adding that a bathroom at an orphanage is a “luxury.”
The Lucknow CoME orphanage is currently home to 50 children.
Ravi Manas, who founded and runs four CoME orphanages in India, expressed his gratitude to Wilson and Richmond Sunrise Rotary for getting the bathroom facilities built.
Manas said there are both tangible and intangible benefits to having these facilities at the orphanage.
The tangible benefits are hygienic conditions that promote “health, dignity and comfort.”
“Many of our children come from environments where access to such basic facilities is either limited or nonexistent,” he said in an email. “Having proper toilets and bathrooms in a safe and clean space is not just a matter of sanitation—it’s a step towards restoring their sense of self-worth.”
But, he added, the intangible benefits are “even more profound” and serves as a “living lesson in humanity.”
“It shows the children that kindness knows no borders, that people across the world care about their well-being. It instills in them a sense of hope—a belief that they are not alone, that they are seen and supported,” Manas explained.
“It also plants the seed of social responsibility. These children now understand that when they grow up, they too must reach out and uplift others in need. They are learning, through (Wilson's) example, what it means to be global citizens with compassion at heart."
Richmond Sunrise Rotary raises money largely through its annual gala, explained its treasurer, Bobby Girrha. This year’s gala in May raised about $160,000, which goes to local projects — such as scholarships — and international projects.
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