INDIA!

I am excited to announce:

I AM GOING TO INDIA!!!

I am so incredibly excited. Let me tell you a little bit about what I will be doing:

I am going as a volunteer for the Rising Star Outreach program.

I first heard about this program a few years ago when a family in our ward did it and absolutely loved it. Then last summer my roommate participated in it and had only good things to say. "You literally wash the feet of the lepers, Kell. It will change your life forever." I've wanted to do something like this forEVER and now I finally have the opportunity. My roommate playing with the kids in the school:

So, what they do: Leprosy in India is considered a curse. Those who contract the disease are outcast from society and are often consigned to remote leprosy colonies where they have no choice but to beg for their survival. Rising Star Outreach helps these families by educating their children, offering medical treatment, and, using micro-credit, giving parents a way to go from begging on the streets to becoming self-sufficient.

So as a volunteer, you rotate between doing three different things throughout the three weeks you are there: Mobile medical units with doctors and nurses that go to the leper colonies to offer free medical care, assisting with construction in the colonies, and tutoring/teaching english to the children in the school. Amazing, right?

I will be staying in a volunteer hostel that is right on the 14 acre campus of the school. Completely safe and taken care of.

I will be updating my blog as often as I can while I am there to share my experience with you.

I need help in getting there! If you would like to help out this amazing program and sponsor me, (each volunteer is required to raise $1,750, a small portion of which covers my stay), please go to www.risingstaroutreach.org/volunteerpartners and put my name, McKell Forbes, as the volunteer you are supporting. I would love you forever if you made a contribution! Anything helps. For more information on Rising Star, go here.

I will keep you up on the details! It is going to be amazing!