I stood facing the entrance to 'The Zion Development Centre,' run by Compassion International. I travelled 300 Kilometres and miraculously found this place only to discover it abandoned. A lady led me to the caretaker, who lived in a tiny house with a small screen door behind the white building. I shouted his name through the screen door. A man in his fifties walked out, squinting in the bright sunlight.
"Yes, what do you want?" He asked in Telugu.
"I am here to see this girl," holding up the sponsor card, "My friend in Australia sponsors her through Compassion and she sent her a letter and a gift bag."
The man looked at me with suspicious eyes. "The centre opens at 5pm, come back tonight."
With my most earnest expression, I explained the purpose of my short visit.
"I have to leave this afternoon. Can you please call the person in charge of this centre?"
It worked. He pulled out his cellphone (yes, caretakers in rural India have mobiles) and handed me the phone. I spoke to Raju, one of the trainers at the centre. He agreed to meet me in half an hour. The old man then spoke to me gently and got me a drink while we waited. He explained his hesitancy in helping me: Recently, a man posing as a sponsor turned out to be a pedophile. The caretaker shot me an apologetic look when I told him about my friend in Australia. "She hasn't met this little girl yet, but loves her so much."
The morning proceedings picked up speed with the arrival of Raju. He was shocked that I found the centre without an address. The little girl, he said, was enrolled in a nearby school. He sent an assistant to bring the girl. While we waited for her, Raju explained the sponsorship program. The centre accepts children within a 2-3 Kilometre radius, from under privileged backgrounds. They pay for them to attend a local school during the day. A group of 200 children and young adults meet at the Zion Centre at 5pm, for activities, games, homework and personality development programs until 8pm. They then return home to their families.
I was finally about to meet this little girl, after staring at her picture in my cupboard for months!
