"Providing love and care to those in Need"
AJEETA-Indian Gypsy Girl
Hello and welcome to Philadelphia Mission-India. Org. My name is Trevor Irwin and I am Founder of Philadelphia Mission, A British registered Charity. Reg No: 1049410.
I have been on mission work in Africa and India site 1994. I first went to India in 2005, to set up an orphanage and have been back on 4 occasions In 2009, I returned again to minister among the India Gypsies. Philadelphia Mission in partnership with THE INDIAN NEW LIFE MISSION to Gypsies, are dedicated to help these people.
The NARI-KOR-AVARS gypsy tribe, are the most disadvantaged of all the gypsy tribes. These gypsies are in extreme poverty and are treated as untouchables and are denied even the most basic rights in Hindu Society. They are treated also as Outcasts, as they are the lowest in the Hindu Caste System.
Indian Gypsy girl alone in a park [Chennai]
They have no land, no clean water, sanitation, little food, and clothing. 91% of their children do not attend school. This is because they are abused, beaten and chased from the school, just because they are gypsies from the NARI-KOR-AVARS tribe. The death rate is 21-100 ratio among children aged 0-7 years old. If they are sick and manage to get to medical centers or hospitals, they are often refused treatment. Excuses like "we don't have medicines", or "a doctor is not available" are common. Sometimes they are chased off the hospital grounds. (I personally witnessed this on my recent visit). Their only source of income is the handmade beads and bracelets they make, and hunting. In the two gypsy camps i visited and spend some time there, I noticed the river behind the camp. I asked if they catch fish there. I was told by the Elders and some mothers, they are not allowed to catch fish as the Indian Fisheries charge them for a fishing permit and they cannot afford one.
We at Philadelphia Mission are working with organizations in Africa and India.
See our Africa Mission website at:
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After seeing their work, and personally spending time with the NARI-KOR-AVAR gypsies, I can truly testify to their terrible pain and struggling. They only get about 20 rupees per handmade bead necklace. That's less than 40 cents. They are bought by dealers and then sold in main cities and tourist areas, and a huge profit made at the gypsies' expense. If the gypsies don't sell these bracelets, they go hungry. I have seen children like skeletons because they had no food. In every camp In the two settlements I went to, I saw the mothers give their children boiled rice and very little else, as they said all of them sold very little the day before. Their homes are made of sticks and plastic sheets. They sleep on pavements and open land outside the city of Chennai. Often they are chased away by locals and sometimes police.
The Indian New Life Mission was Started by its Founder Pastor Timothy Roland, a native India pastor, 30 years ago, THE INDIAN NEW LIFE MISSION is the only organization i have personally seen working with these people.
THE INDIAN NEW LIFE MISSION has won many to Christ through love, food donations, and evangelism. They Also run an Orphanage which has 40 gypsy children. All at School and well cared for.
I and the Philadelphia
Mission have decided, after prayer and guidance from the Lord, to help these
forgotten and outcast people. They may be called outcasts and treated as such
by almost all others in India, but they are not outcasts in God's sight. They
are precious and He loves them very much.
Jeremiah 30:17 says: "For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an outcast".