The Free to Live Trust is delighted and excited to partner with the Guild 2018-21.
Together we will change the lives of some of the most exploited women and children in the world.
Our Partnership Goals.
With the support of the Guild we plan to develop Seema’s Project as follows.
- Start a lunch programme for children of the red-light district.
- Increase the number of children cared for at the Bori Home.
- Rescue and rehabilitate some of the trafficked sex workers.
- Provide skills training for the teenagers when they leave school.
Contact Us:
To please email: talks@freetolivetrust.org
Or phone : 01479481047
Office address: 4 Dalmore Road, Carrbridge PH23 3BG.
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April 2021
!!THANK YOU TO THE GUILD!!
The FTLT’s three year partnership with the Guild finished at the end of March. Our journey together has been a huge privilege for us and an opportunity to see first hand the dedication, faith and commitment of Guild members. The prayerful support of the Guild as well as the amazing fundraising has impacted on the lives of some of the most vulnerable women and children in the world. Thank you.
If you didn’t have a chance to watch the online service of Celebration for the Projects then please click below. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBQ42k0-FBg&t=44s
Our final Guild Newsletter is available March 2021 Leaflet Final
Prayer Points:
We thank God for the amazing support the FTLT has received for Seema’s Project over these last few years.
Please pray for the safety of our partners, Seema and Shirish, as they continue to shine God’s light in the red-light district, reaching out with love to the women who are forced to work there and their children.
Please pray for all the children in the care of Seema’s Project.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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February 2021
New Video
A recent video of a dance performed by the children at Bori for you all to enjoy of the children. Choreography by Shiny Waghmode, Seema and Shirish’s daughter who is an excellent dancer.
January 2021
The children’s Centre in Bori is bustling with young people. Seema and team are continuing with in house education till the schools re-open. Fortunately India’s vaccination programme is underway.
Two of our long term residents Rohit and Sahil have started Horticultural College in the county town of Baramati.
January 26th was Republic Day .
The children can be seen saluting the Indian flag on the roof of the Centre building, on a very sunny morning.
To see further updates please click below for January Guild Newsletter.
Prayer Points
Please pray for a smooth roll out of the Indian Vaccination programme so this vast country can return to normal.
Please pray for the children and young adults in the care of the project.
Thank you .
FTLT Team.
December 2020
Christmas Greetings to all Free to Live Trust supporters.
May you have a peaceful and joyful Christmas celebration and a Happy New Year.
Christmas 2020 Newsletter.
Excitement on Christmas Eve at the Bori Centre
Prayer Requests:
Please continue to hold Seema, her team and the children at our Bori Centre, in your prayers.
Please thank God, that in the past few months, more young women and children have been rescued from abuse and exploitation of the red-light district.
Thank you
FTLT Team.
November 2020
Seema and her team are continuing to feed the hungry street children of Pune’s red-light district, thanks to funding from the Guild. This week Seema plans to transfer another 12 children to the Bori Centre.
The schools are still closed in this part of India and Seema thinks a new lockdown is imminent as the second wave spreads across the region. However, our new staff in the Bori Centre work hard to ensure that the children are still receiving a good education.
Take a look at the recent video from our partners in India.
Prayer Points:
Please pray that the new children will, after quarantine, settle well in the Bori Centre.
Please give thanks for the many blessings God has showered on this Project.
Thank you for your continued support.
FTLT Team.
October 2020
The Covid pandemic is raging across India and is now affecting rural communities. Close to the Children’s Centre is the small village of Bori where over sixty residents now have coronavirus. Seema’s husband, Shirish, collects provisions for the children and staff from this community.
The schools are still closed in this part of India. Krishna is the new housemaster at the children’s centre. He is funded by the Guild Project Partnership. Krishna’s primary role is to look after the boys in the centre but he runs classes for the children too.
Prayer Points
Please pray for Seema and Shirish, who are both in their sixties, that the Lord will keep them safe from covid.
Please give thanks for Krishna and for the skills he brings to the Project.
Thank you for your prayers.
FTLT Team
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September 2020.
Thanks to the support of the Guild, Seema has appointed several new employees to help with the increased workload at Bori: a housemaster for the boys home, a counsellor to help with the emotional needs of the children and rescued women, a cook and other kitchen staff. Renu remains as a key carer for the children.
There was much excitement as the children welcomed a new calf to the herd of four cows. The cows supply regular milk for the children…and cakes!
Seema and team have rescued another young woman -AB- this time from a town near Bori. This is a tragic story of exploitation, abuse and downright cruelty which reminds us why we do this work.
AB is only seventeen. Because of her refusal to do as her brothel keeper demanded she had fuel poured over her and she was set alight, not on one occasion, but twice. She has fresh burns to her arms and upper trunk and healing burns to her trunk and legs. Seema reports that AB was in a dreadful state, but now she is safe and her physical condition is improving however, her emotional and psychological wounds will take a long time to heal.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for AB, for the healing of her body and mind.
Please thank God that the children are well and that Seema has found good and dedicated staff to help at Bori.
Please continue to pray for Seema and her team as they seek to rescue more young women.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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August 2020
Seema and team rescue five young women.
Life in the red-light district has become intolerable for the women as the police have closed down the area during lockdown. Starvation has become a bigger threat to these women and children than covid.
Fortunately Seema and team, have rescued five sex workers and they are now in a safe house.
Prayer Points
Please pray that the women will settle into the safe house and that they will start new lives well away from those who would exploit them.
Please continue to pray for the sixty children in Seema’s care in the Bori Centre.
Thank you .
FTLT Team
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June 2020
Thanks to the Guild -Seema Rescues 40 Children at risk of starvation.
Seema and her husband, Shirish, had become so concerned about the welfare of the street children during the coronavirus pandemic that they won permission from the government to admit the children to the Bori Rehabilitation Centre. Twenty-five children, two of whom are a brother and sister living on the street at Pune Railway station, travelled the eighty miles to Bori on Friday June 19th; they are currently in quarantine. A further twenty children from the red-light district are due to arrive by the end of June. This means there will be sixty plus children at the Bori Centre.
Thanks to the support of the Guild the FTLT has sent, on top of the usual quarterly maintenance funds, an additional Covid Emergency Fund of £10,000 for the employment of extra staff and provisions.
Seema and Shirish send grateful thanks to Guild members for the amazing support that has allowed them to expand their work so rapidly during this health emergency.
Prayer Points:
Please thank God for the rescue of forty of the most vulnerable children from Pune’s red-light district to the centre in Bori.
Please pray that the village of Bori remains covid free in case the influx in children is blamed for any local outbreak. The children are currently quarantined.
Thank you.
FTLT Team
MAY 2020
The coronavirus pandemic continues to hit India very badly with the poor slum dwellers being worst affected. Maharashtra State is particularly badly affected with Seema reporting that Pune is in the red-zone for the pandemic. The BBC reports that the public health service in Mumbai is at breaking point with patients two to a bed and on the floor. How fortunate are we with our amazing NHS.
Seema and team have continued to supply food to the women and children of the red-light district. This is despite the fact that the police have closed down, not only the area, but also the project’s indoor Feeding Programme.
A special treat for the children.
India’s lockdown happened so fast that Seema and her husband, Shirish, were stuck in their flat in Pune for several weeks but fortunately they managed to get special permission from the government to go to Bori and stay there. Both were delighted to meet up with the children and staff at the Bori centre.
Thanks to modern technology we were able to chat with Seema and the children over video link.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for the safe return, at the end of the health crisis, of the children removed by their mothers at the outset of the pandemic. This was due to a mother’s instinct and fear of the unknown. Seema is confident they will return.
Please continue to pray for Seema, her staff and the children in her care.
Thank you for your prayers.
FTLT Team.
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April 2020
Coronavirus is hitting the poor people of India very badly. The slum dwellers of the major cities, where generations are living together in small ramshackle houses, are particularly at risk from this highly contagious virus. The women and children of Pune’s red-light district are no exception.
The lockdown has hit a large portion of the population who live a hand-to-mouth existence, many experiencing hardship. Our children, though are safely in rural isolation. Sadly, however through fear of the unknown, some of the mothers have taken their children away from the Centre as they want to have them close to look after them. We look forward to their return after the crisis is over.
Prayer Points
Please thank God that Seema and her team have been able to provide food for the sex workers and their children in the red-light district.
Please also give thanks for Pooja, another of the directors of our partner’s the Waghmode Foundation, who runs a local NGO ‘God’s Helping Hands’ taking food to the city’s street children.
Please continue to pray for the children and staff in the Bori Centre during this health crisis.
Thank you for your prayers. Please keep safe and well.
FTLT Team.
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March 2020
Coronavirus Crisis.
We at the Free to Live Trust are very sad that due to the current health crisis we have not been able to visit all the Guilds planned for the rest of the 2019-2020 season.
Life for all of us is becoming restricted in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few weeks ago. The aim being to reduce the spread of the virus and thus not overload the NHS. So, many of us will be confined to our homes for many months. We look forward to re-booking Guilds as soon as life returns to normal.
This health crisis is now a problem in India too.
There are curfews and lockdowns across the country. This means that the opportunity to grow the project at this time is limited but as here in UK ‘this will pass’ and life will return to normal in the months ahead.
The mothers of our children at Bori are prostitutes of Pune’s red–light district and are especially at risk as many are in poor health with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. They have little or no access to decent health care. Social distancing of course, is an impossibility when your life is controlled by a madam!
The undernourished street children will also be in danger due to the current lockdown in India which will impact severely on them, as it will be much more difficult to deliver our Feeding Programme during this time.
Coronavirus will result in further ill health and possibly deaths in this deprived, marginalised community.
Prayer Points
We must join with the Christian community across the world and pray for an end to this pandemic.
Please pray for health care staff working for those affected by the virus.
Please pray for the women and children of the red-light district who are especially vulnerable to the lockdowns and the virus itself.
Please pray for our children in our care in the centre in Bori.
We pray for Guild members across Scotland for their health and protection during the crisis.
Thank you
FTLT Team
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January-February 2020
Last month, Seema and the children at the Bori Centre were delighted to welcome Guild member Helen Malcolm. Helen had journeyed from Inverness to Pune to visit he son, who works in the city. Helen was determined to travel the eighty miles , sometimes on rough tracks, to meet the children she had heard about at her Guild Project meeting.
The children and staff loved meeting Helen.
Feeding Programme
This outreach to the street children of the red-light district is going well. There are between 40-50 children attending daily. After the meal, the staff help the children with their homework and spend time making crafts with them.
Three children have been admitted from this programme to the centre in Bori. We pray that they will settle quickly in their new home well away from the risks of life on the street.
Prayer Points:
Please thank God for the many blessings He has showered on this Project and for His continual guidance.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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December 2019
Seema and her team have rescued two young women from Pune’s red-light district.
JR lived in a city far from Pune where she was married to a man twice her age. He grew tired of her, brought her to the red-light district of Pune and sold her into the brothels. Seema and team spent many weeks trying to rescue her.
SS lived in an another state of India. She was lured by her boyfriend to Pune where he sold her into the brothels.
These girls, who have been through terrible ordeals are now safe. They will receive love, care and rehabilitation from Seema and team thanks to the support of the Guild.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for the restoration of these to young women, for their physical and emotional health.
Please pray that Seema will be able to rescue many more young women whose lives have been blighted by sexual exploitation.
Seasons Greetings:
As we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, may we experience a closer walk with Him.
Happy Christmas.
FTLT Team.
September -October 2019
As autumn arrives our volunteer speakers are off on their travels across Scotland for the new Guild season, ready to meet new ‘Companions on the Road’. We look forward to sharing with members the work of the Free to Live Trust-Seema’s Project. It is always humbling for us to encounter enthusiastic Guild members who are happy to work hard in support of vulnerable children and young women so many miles away in India. Not only is the financial support of the Guild greatly appreciated but members prayers are so important- remembering Seema and her team and for the healing and development of the children in Bori. Thank you.
Recent Developments.
Laxmi is settling into college life.
Two of our rescued sex workers are to be married in the New Year. Their future husbands are from the Bori area. Seema is delighted with this, as it means that the girls have been accepted back into mainstream life.
Seema has won a prestigious award from Ample Mission for her work with the women and children of the red-light district.
Prayer Points:
Please pray that Seema and her team will identify children from the Feeding Programme who would benefit from admission to the Bori Centre.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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June -July 2019
Guild Talks:
We are delighted that so many Guilds have shown interest in our work again this year. We have received many invitations to speak at meetings from north, south, east and west. We look forward to meeting many new faces, worshiping with you and sharing about the work of the Free to Live Trust.
In Bori the children have been given new school uniforms in preparation for the next year at school.
Sports kits have also been renewed.
We are excited to report that Laxmi, one of our older girls, has passed her final school exams. She has a place at Shardha College, in the county town of Baramati where she will study horticulture. Shardha College was established by Seema’s father-in-law the late Rev Hari Waghmode who received his undergraduate training at Wilson College in Bombay in the sixties – it was run by the Church of Scotland.
Prayer Points:
Please remember all the children as they prepare to start the new school year. Pray especially for Laxmi who will leave Bori and live in the college hostel while she studies.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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May-June 2019
Thanks to the arrival of funds from the Guild, Seema and her team have been in a position to restart the feeding programme in Pune’s red-light district. Seema began her outreach to the street children of the red-light district several years ago. However, due to the financial pressures of supporting the children in the centre at Bori this had to stop.
According to Seema there are over a hundred children on the streets of this poor district; the children of the sex workers are turfed out of the brothels at a very young age to fend for themselves. Thanks to the support of the Guild Seema has set up a feeding programme of a nutritious meal six days a week for at least fifty children. This will be run by Renu a young woman helped by Seema in the past.
Through this programme, Seema plans to rescue even more vulnerable children.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for Renu as she develops this feeding project and that the most at risk children will be identified and helped.
Thank you.
FTLT Team
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April 2019
The Church of Scotland Project Coordinators Conference was held in Edinburgh on Thursday April 11th. It was hard to believe a year had passed since the launch of the six new projects. It was good to chat with Project Coordinators from across Scotland and make plans for the coming year. Speaking with other Project Leaders and hearing their news and updates was very uplifting. A good day was had by all who attended. Lets hope the next year doesn’t go by so quickly.
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Prayer Points:
After the atrocities in Sri Lanka, please pray for Christians in India. Please continue to pray for Seema and her team for their safety and for the protection of their church communities.
Thank you,
FTLT Team.
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March 2019
As we come to the end of the first year of the Guild Partnership, the Trustees of the FTLT would like to thank all of the Guilds who have invited us to their meetings to share the work of the Trust. Thank you, not only for your financial support but for your prayers too. We look forward to worshiping and sharing with many more of you in the years a head.
We were delighted to receive the first payment from the Guild. With this money we will initiate our feeding programme aimed at supporting some of the street children of the Pune’s red-light district. There are over one hundred street children in the area and the project will cater for fifty of the most needy children.
The building of the boys home at Bori is almost complete with the first of the older boys now in residence. Guild funds will help to fund additional staff and with the fixtures and fittings necessary for the expansion at the Bori Centre.
Over the last few months Seema and her staff have rescued three sex workers. These young women will be rehabilitated at Bori where they will be offered training in such skills as hairdressing and dressmaking. One of the young women has re-entered education and she is expected to go to college in the summer.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for Renu, the staff member, responsible for running the feeding programme. Also for Seema, as she recruits additional staff for the Bori Centre.
Thank You,
FTLT Team
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January 2019
Very early in the New Year our team of four flew out of Edinburgh airport leaving the cold Scottish weather for the warmth of India. After a couple of days in Pune, when we met the Waghmode Foundation Board and visited Kayakalpa Offices in the red-light district, we made the three hour road trip to visit the children in the Rehabilitation Centre in the village of Bori. It is always a delight to meet the children again. This was Pam Cairns, co-founder of FTLT, fourth visit to India. In 2014, Pam first met the children when they were cooped up in two small upstairs rooms in Pune’s red-light district. Now they have a spacious home in the countryside well away from those who would abuse them. The children are well integrated into the local schools and supported by the villagers from the surrounding community. The most striking thing that any visitor to the home will notice is how happy the children are and how well they relate to one another- a credit to Seema and her team.
Prayer Points:
Please pray for Seema and her staff as they make preparations to start the lunch programme in Pune’s red-light district. This programme will provide a nutritious meal for up to fifty of the many street children of the district.
Thank you,
FTLT Team.
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December 2018
As we approach the end of the year, we are pleased to report good progress with the boys’ extension wing.
Trustees of the FTLT will be visiting the Project over the coming months and look forward to seeing the progress for themselves. The highlight of any visit to the community at Bori,of course, is meeting with the children again.
Prayer Points:
Please give thanks to the Lord for the over thirty children that Seema’s Project has rescued so far from the streets of Pune. With the new extension and your support we will rescue even more.
Please asked the Lord to guide as we travel through 2019 as we continue to reach out to trafficked sex workers and their children.
Thank you,
FTLT Team.
November 2018
It has been a busy couple of months for our speakers. Our team has travelled the length and breadth of Scotland from Nairn to Newton Stewart. All of our speakers have been encouraged by the warm welcome and the enthusiasm for the work of FTLT. We have met women and men of exceptional commitment to Christ shown through their work with the Guild. It is a privilege for us to be partnering with such a dedicated community; from the smallest to the biggest Guild compassion and love are found in abundance.
Prayer Points:
Please thank God for the many blessings He has showered on Seema’s Project thus far.
Please pray for the children of Bori as they sit their school exams at the end of term.
Thank you.
FTLT Team.
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August 2018
The FTLT is delight with the number of requests we have received from Guilds across Scotland for this first project year.
We look forward to meeting your members, worshipping with you and sharing news of the Trust’s work and Seema’s Project.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for Seema and her team as they continue to care for the sex workers of the red-light district and their children.
Pray that the building of the boys home extension at Bori will be completed in the near future.
Thank you.
FTLT Team
The Free To Live Trust 