In North India, YesWeServe partners with AGNI - Association of Good Neighbors, India. The ministry is carried out among the Dalit caste (The "Untouchables"), and a lot of it takes place in rural areas. As if the caste system isn't enough of a disadvantage to the Dalits, being a woman makes things even more of a daily, ongoing trial.
Imagine growing up without a name, without your own identity. You meet someone for the first time, say, the administrator at the school where you are hoping to enroll your children.
Imagine the routine interview when you're are asked for your name, and your reply is restricted to something along the lines of "I am so-and-so's wife, or - mother, or daughter:" Imagine your feeling of helplessness when the person across the desk from you reiterates the question: "No, what is YOUR NAME?" - and you have nothing further to offer beyond what you have already offered...
Imagine that the person across from you is the Principal of Thomas Academy, which operates under the AGNI ministry umbrella, and she sizes up your situation and offers you a possibility which has never even existed within your frame of reference; "You are Rebecca."
Imagine all the floodlights going on in your eyes, in your heart and in your soul when you realize that you have an identiy, that you are Somebody, that you exist not only as someone else's relation, but that God has created you, wonderfully, to by YOU, to be "Rebecca"!
