Change the World Through Love and Service
Alone we are a Drop - Together we are an Ocean

Background
The journey that changed Fr. Raja’s destiny
Around 15 years ago, Fr. Raja (Daddy) was travelling by train from Visakhapatnam to Vijayawada. He saw a happy couple travelling in the same compartment with their child. Fr. Raja observed that the mother was feeding the child good food and the child was very happy and without any worries.


Meanwhile, the train stopped and Fr. Raja witnessed a small boy, about 8 years old on the platform. He was in very bad condition. The boy was very thin and weak and wore only tattered shorts. On seeing the terrible state of this boy, the mother from the same compartment threw her leftover food from the window of the train onto the platform for the child. He immediately reached out for the food but before he could grab it a dog snatched it from his grasp. As the train was leaving the platform, Fr. Raja threw out some money for the little innocent boy but he doesn’t know if he ever got it.


This incident lingered in the mind of Fr. Raja over the next 10 days. On his return journey by train, travelling the same route, he was reading that daily newspaper. He noticed a gruesome photograph in the paper which shocked and frightened him. A drove of pigs ate from a garbage bin outside a restaurant while a young boy lay dead beside the rubbish. With trembling hands, he took a closer look at the photo and realised it was the weak young boy he had seen at the train station 10 days earlier.


Though Fr. Raja could have had a very different career as a priest in the US or Europe, he chose to work with the poor and vulnerable in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He felt his services would be more beneficial to those living in this area, and so his vision was to bring happiness to those who were poor and unfortunate.


As a true Indian, he sincerely wanted to help these needy people. With a determined mind, he made the decision to dedicate the rest of his life to help the poor and needy. With the objective of providing a service to the homeless, helpless, poor and unwanted, Fr. Raja chose to build a home in the rural area of Mylavaram in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the building took the shape of Daddy Home, a place of care and love for the needy and oppressed.


That train journey not only changed the life of Fr. Raja… but also resulted in changing the destiny of many helpless lives.
Mylavaram   
Mylavaram - in which “Daddy Home” is located - is a remote village with a population of about 5,000 people. This village is very basic with mostly low caste people, and consisting of a few shops and food stalls. These people are daily workers/labourers with only three months of seasonal work a year. For the remaining 9 months there is no work for them as rain only falls for a short period of time. Most of the people are living below the poverty line and are landless workers.

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