Muneeswari, a Dalit mother from Tamil Nadu, India shared her story in the Appeal resources. For most of her life she has spent her days working alongside other women on the rice fields and caring for her family. Now she has a small home registered in her own name and her pay has almost tripled thanks to support from the village sangam or association.

Thanks to CWS’s local partner, the Women Development Resource Centre, Muneeswari has learnt about human rights and received the assistance she is entitled to under the Indian constitution. She has grown in confidence through WDRC’s training programmes for the more than 24,000 members of the women’s sangam, funded with your donations to CWS.

Now Director Manohari Doss has written about a brutal attack on a young Dalit girl.

In mid-December eight-year-old Preethika never returned to class after going outside to the toilet – there are no sanitation facilities for Dalit children. At lunchtime her sister went to look for her and was horrified to find her burnt body. She fled and told her family. The local sangam rallied support and blocked the road. The Dalit community organised protests and a two-day hunger strike, demanding the police arrest the culprit. They refuse to let their children attend school, saying it is not safe – schools across the state have been closed because of Covid-19 since January 10. The police say they are investigating but six weeks later there is no evidence of action.

WDRC is planning to make children’s rights and protection its next priority.

“Our objective is for 100 percent enrolment of girls from ages five to fifteen years at school. We want to stop girl child marriage and girl child labour in this pandemic situation,” says Manohari.

CWS will be focusing on justice this year.

“The death of Preethika shows why the call for justice is urgent. Our partners are deliberately and intentionally working to make communities safer. Their goal is to uphold the human rights of everybody, especially for young girls. Your donation to the Christmas Appeal is a way of showing your commitment to the world that God loves. We seek justice for everyone,” says CWS National Director Murray Overton.

Donations to the Christmas Appeal fund can be made online www.cws.org.nz/, by bank deposit or by phone: 0800 74 73 72.