Each year the Sevenhill Group give a percentage of their profits to charity.
In recent years the charity we have supported has been the Village of Hope – a leprosy colony in Delhi, India.
The Village is one of the oldest projects of the Hope Foundation and is situated on the outskirts of East Delhi on 22.5 acres of land that have been allocated to leprosy sufferers and their families by the Government of Delhi. Housing 792 families, it provides free bandaging and wound care for sufferers in the community, and a vocational training centre for youth and women to give them key skills and empower them to find employment. Fear of leprosy still strikes at the heart of Indian society, mainly because of its disfiguring and horrifying physical appearance. Consequently, the stigma of the disease is immense.
The main focus of Sevenhill’s help has been to provide a bandaging service for patients and an education programme for women and children of leprosy patients. Within the vocational training centre, sewing and computing courses are offered. The sewing centre teaches cutting and tailoring skills to help women find employment and give them an independent future. Computing courses are also given to youths in the community – offering free computer education and a chance for young people in the Village to fulfil their potential.
Rupan, aged 18, is one of the youngsters who live in the Village. His father has been affected by leprosy since childhood. Financial constraints meant that there was little income for Rupan to continue his education so he had to drop out of school, despite his dream to become a hardware engineer. However, once he discovered the Village of Hope was offering free computer courses he realised that this was his opportunity to be trained. He says “Initially I was very slow in learning, but with the passage of time I began to match up my speed to other students and today I am a confident student who has good knowledge of computers. I would like to give a big thank you to the Hope Foundation.”
We are very proud of our association with the Village of Hope.