Our Mission

I'm assuming everyone who will be reading my blog this summer already knows about Rising Star Outreach ("everyone" referring to my mother). In case there are, in fact, other people who will occasionally glance at this page, I should probably give a brief background on the organization:

Rising Star Outreach was started by a woman named Becky Douglas. While visiting India in 2000, she was shocked to see that leprosy not only still existed, but that she was approached by countless Leprosy beggars at every stop. When she returned to the United States, Becky was so haunted by those images that she knew she had to act. She called four close friends, and around her kitchen table they quietly formed Rising Star Outreach in 2002. The first official Rising Star Outreach children's home was rented and opened in 2004 with 27 children from the Leprosy colonies. The success of the home was stunning, and in 2005 a second children's home was rented and opened for 32 additional colony children.

As word got out among the Leprosy colonies of the Rising Star Outreach children's homes, the waiting list began to grow until it became clear that there was a significant need for a permanent facility. In 2005, Rising Star purchased 13.5 acres of land, where a new children's hostel and school building now stand.

While Rising Star had finally found a way to care for the children of Leprosy victims, the suffering of their families who remained behind in the colonies could not be ignored. By providing small loans (around $15), people were able to purchase equipment necessary to begin their own small business. For the first time in history, Leprosy patients had an alternative to begging and were rising above the stigma of their disease.

As the colonies began to improve their economic situation, the primary challenge they faced was the lack of consistent medical care. Access to hospitals was difficult, both logistically and due to the social stigma. Rising Star Outreach responded to this problem with the initiation of a Mobile Medical Unit in 2005. Finally, severely deformed Leprosy victims' problem of being unable to leave the colony for adequate medical care was resolved. Run completely by a team of excellent Indian doctors, the unit travels to the colonies and provides leprosy screening, medicine for treatment, and ulcer care.

Rising Star Outreach has now grown into a nationally recognized force in the fight against Leprosy. They have clarified their mission to focus on one specific objective: to help the Leprosy colonies become thriving, self-sufficient communities.

To accomplish this, Rising Star continually builds on their three basic initiatives.

1. To teach the children from the colonies pride in their Indian heritage and to provide them tools necessary to break the generational cycle of dependence on society and instead become productive members of that society.

2. To encourage ostracized families to work toward independence by providing loans for small businesses and structural improvements.

3. To address the physical ravages of Leprosy's bitter attack and screen for new cases through mobile medical units.

(*Much of this post has been taken from Rising Star's website. If you want to learn more or want to volunteer, either from your home or in India, visit risingstaroutreach.org)

I came to Rising Star last year with my family, and couldn't get enough of it - I decided to come back for 14 weeks as their medical coordinator this summer. I was initially hoping to do a "picture of the day" each day here, but obviously, that isn't working out too well. Being a coordinator is busy, busy, busy! So far it has been absolutely wonderful though, and India has (again) taught me so much. I look forward to what the rest of the summer has in store for the children, leprosy patients, and finally, me.