Vijayawada, August 03: Two Austrian students have flown all the way to Vijayawada to contribute for the upliftment of streetchildren. Sabrina Jamnig and Eva Mitterlehner who are pursuing post graduation in Vienna University, Vienna, will stay in the city for four months to work with the NGO Navjeevan Bala Bhavan trust. They have been teaching English and Mathematics to the trust students besides teaching craft.
Speaking to Express, Sabrina, a developmental studies student, told that they were here to gain acquaintance with this side of the world and to make their summer holidays productive. She expressed interest to start an NGO in Andhra Pradesh to serve the poor on completion of her studies if she is able to secure permission by the government. Several NGOs in Austria have lost the faith of people but few NGOs in India genuinely work for the cause of the poor, she said.
The duo are going to financially support a child each, untill the children are able to stand on their own, along with Sabrina’s father, an employee of the United Nations Organisation, Mitterlehner, a linguistic studies student, added. They also visited Ghana in West Africa, before coming to India. The divide between the rich and the poor in Ghana is wide but given a decade India can compete with western nations, she felt.
The girls have also visited villages in Krishna district to understand the local life style. Dressing up in traditional attire these two girls with five other German students participated in the Sri
Krishnadevaraya coronary celebrations in Vijayawada on July 23.
Coordinator to foreign volunteers in the trust, E. Abisha Shirley shared that every year several foreigners approach them for volunteering. As many as 150 volunteers who earlier visited the trust are sponsoring students of the trust, Shirley said.
–Agenices