A picture is worth an education? Two foreigners track down homeless Indian girl, fund her studies

Everyone loves a good Christmas story. Many of us grew up reading the Gift of Magi (O Henry), A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) and A letter from Santa Claus (Mark Twain). If you’re looking for a real Christmas story to fill your heart with warmth, look no further.

A few weeks ago, Dick Smith, on a trip to India, had chanced upon a homeless family living under a train bridge in Vadodara. Dick was desperate to help the family out in any manner possible. He enlisted the help of his friends Chris Bray and his wife Jess to help look for the girl and her family. Dick showed the Chris the photos he had taken on his iPhone of the homeless family. With just a hazy picture of a little girl in a pink bracelet, Chris and Jess left for India to look for the girl and her family and help them with accommodation and funding her education.

“Well aware they might not be there anymore, that they might not need or want help, and the complexities of attempting to, he still wanted us to try…This distant photo of the family and the Google Map location is all we had to go off - and to make it worse, as you can see, the girl and all the main people in the photo were looking the other way - we couldn’t even see anyone’s face! In a country of 1.25 billion people, and no way of knowing if they’d still be there or not, trying to find let alone attempt to help this family was going to be quite the adventure…” wrote Chris on the Facebook post.

Once in India, Chris and his wife took the help of the receptionist at the hotel, Jayati who helped them with English translations and taking them to the bridge under which the picture was taken. On the second day, they went to the settlement under the bridge only to find that no one recognised the family or were denying knowing them, till a man in red with a plastic leg came along, who was also present in the picture that Dick had originally taken.

He recognised the girl in the pink bracelet and pointed to her mother. Chris and Jess then arranged for a bank account to be set up in the name of the child, Divya but with a few conditions. They insisted that Divya must attend school regularly, else funding can be stopped. The school principal will provide monthly attendance reports to Dick’s acquaintance Dr Chellani, who is also a second signatory on the account, to oversee and ensure the funds are spent correctly)

Here’s how the four foreigners tracked one girl from 1.25 billion people and gave her a new shot at life.

Once in India, Chris and Jess tracked the family down, and upon Jayanti’s (the receptionist at their hotel) request, the couple bought the girl and her family some basic gifts to show their good intentions.

Along with Mr. Chellani, Chris and Jess asked about the little girl near the bridge. Initially, everyone denied knowing them or recognising the girl.

They then saw the man in red with a plastic leg, who was also there in the original picture that Dick had clicked. He pointed them to the mother of the little girl.

Soon, they found the girl but scared of strangers and not understanding what was going on the little girl, named Divya, got upset.

Soon, they stated the process of setting up her bank account and passport images were taken so that a it could be opened in Divya’s name with her mother as the guardian.

Here, we see Divya with her mother, father and two siblings at the bank.

Divya was then enrolled in a school (and she seems very happy to be there.)

The four people who deserve all the credit to this wonderful Christmas story! (Left: Chris and Jess Bray; Right: Dick and Pip who are funding Divya’s education)

Hats off to these four for what is a Christmas miracle for young Divya and her family!