Dear Friend

Welcome to Stepping Stones Ministries UK website.

We hope that you will take the time to browse through the site and if you have any questions to contact us via our email link.

Stepping Stones Ministries is essentially a Christian registered charity based in the U.K. but working with and on behalf of the very poor, particularly children, in West Bengal, India.

Our faith in Christ and compassion for the poor in India is the motivation behind all that we are doing. We believe that as Christians it is our responsibility to go and assist the poor. Actually, India is home to 1/3rd of the worlds poor. UNICEF recently calculated that there are over 100,000 homeless children in Calcutta alone. Also, approximately 2,350,000 children under 5 die each year in India, more often a result of poverty.

Because of poverty, reality for many parents is that they can not provide adequate care for their children. India is a beautiful country and its population of approximately 1.2 billion live mostly in the 700,000 villages, many in very remote areas where employment is scarce and wages low. Living conditions are often extremely basic and literacy rates and career opportunities are very low.

Sadly, many villagers choose to migrate to the cities like Calcutta only to find that there are few jobs, no affordable accommodation and an abundance of people willing to take from them what little they have left.

Once this occurs, many will turn to begging, crime, or prostitution to provide for themselves and their families. Calcutta has over 100,000 prostitutes and over that number of people registered with HIV/Aids. There is little or no state welfare system in India that provides for such people, so many become destitute. Some will survive on hand outs, living on the streets, maintaining a pitiful existence in squalor, trying to stay one step ahead of starvation, sickness and death.

Amongst this chaos are the children, many who are orphaned or abandoned by parents that simply can not support them. The abuse and suffering of thousands of street children in Calcutta and other cities throughout India is beyond belief.

I have just painted a very bleak picture. But, for too many this is reality and we can't simply ignore it. Jesus's love for the poor & helpless (particularly children) is very clear and we believe that, by working together with like minded organisations and individuals, trusting God and putting love into action, we can make a difference to some.

Please, check out the other links to see how we are doing just that.