BFH India is an outreach dedicated to meeting the needs of the poor and disenfranchised children of India. One particular emphasis is our outreach to children in crisis. The children in our orphanage are drawn mainly from an economically, socially and culturally down trodden populations called “untouchables.  Therefore, even prior to their admission to the ORPHANAGE, the children have already become victims of centuries of existing self-destructive social and cultural practices. Any physical contact with them was dreaded, as it was considered impure, defiling, polluting and inauspicious.

They cannot touch the OTHERS in society. They could not draw water from the same well as their physical touch or contact would pollute the water, and make it impure and unworthy and unfit for drinking and washing.

These people are called social outcasts, and in fact they are considered

“NO PEOPLE” with no fundamental rights. The “untouchables” could exist only beyond the pale of the society. And there is no historical parallel to this particular Indian mode of living notwithstanding some form of practice of "untouchable system” elsewhere in the world. The UNTOUCHABLES live in small geographical enclave called PAETA (in Telugu language).

There are several isolated PAETAS in each village with its own chief, its own honor code, etc. Prevailing sub-cultural tendencies, customs, and habits of their ancestors has influenced the PATTERNS of behavior of the children, born in PAETA. As we bring these children out of poverty, we want to unite with the needy as a powerful and reliable resource to make them experience a NEW LIFE where their “Human Rights” are a social priority. We have been working world wide to nurture the needy in India and others in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti and here in the United States with the same goal which is targeting the poverty and social discrimination from its source.

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                                                                                    Joseph Kelley, Director and Founder