I'm going to India!!

Hello to my fellow family and friends!!

I am SO excited to be going to India this August, 2010! I've always been drawn to India but didn't expect to ever go. I had two friends go last summer and they had only the best to report on their experiences. Now its my turn and I can't wait.

I will be volunteering in India through Rising Star Outreach (www.risingstaroutreach.org). Check them out for more information! We will be working with Leprosy patients and their families near a leprosy colony outside Chennai, India. I will be spending nearly three weeks teaching children English and computer skills, assisting at the medical centers, and doing other projects that arise during my time there. This work is slowing reconnecting the outcast leprosy community with the rest of society again.

Leprosy in India is considered a curse. Those who contract the disease are outcast from society and are often consigned to remote leprosy colonies where they have no choice but to beg for their survival. Rising Star Outreach helps these families by educating their children, offering medical treatment, and using micro-credit. Thus giving parents a way to go from begging on the streets to becoming self-sufficient.

I anticipate an amazing adventure full of loving and applying some of "the healer's art" that I have been learning in the BYU nursing program.