India.

Almost a sixth of the world's population is in India. Well over one billion people in one incredibly diverse and complicated country. The opulence and riches of it's cities, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad stand intricately intertwined and in such stark contrast to the shanty towns and millions of homeless. In fact out of the 100 million homeless people in the world there are close to 80 million homeless in India alone. Over 60 percent of those are women.

There are 35 million Orphans in India and 18 million of them live on the streets. They are generally from the lower castes and are ripe for exploitation at the hands of human traffickers. Social prejudice along with extreme poverty are two of the main factors that perpetuate these staggering statistics. India is also home to 63% of all slum dwellers in South Asia. Approximately 35 percent or 260 million people (a group almost equal to the entire population of the United States) still earns $1 or less a day.

I am going to India this May. I have a dear friend whose family has an orphanage there. He is going to take me to those shanty towns and slums. I am going to put faces to those statistics. I am going to put stories to those faces. I am praying for a revelation. I have to believe there is a solution. That there is hope for the millions of bonded laborers in India. Freedom for the whole families who have been enslaved for years by false loans and broken promises mixed with some naive sense of honor and the desperation that comes with extreme poverty. Justice for the children as young as 7 forced to work 14 hours a day in firework factories until the ends of their fingers are so badly blistered and then cauterized by their evil taskmasters so they can get back to work. I have to believe there is hope, because they have ceased to believe that there is.

Please get involved. Please join the fight against poverty, against human trafficking, against injustice and exploitation. Please find an organization to join and join Conspiracy of Hope, we'd love to have you. Please, before it's too late.