Sister India Blog

It’s that time again!Summer is drawing to a close and we think you need to top it off with a great book! That’s right, Sister India Reads book club is back!

Grab some coffee and cozy up, we are diving into another truly great read from beloved young adult author, Mitali Perkins. Nominated for the National Book Award, and winner of multiple Best Book of the Year awards, "You Bring the Distant Near” explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse, from the perspective of Indian girls who’ve moved to the US. It’s appropriate for ages 12 and older, and we’re all enjoying this wonderful book. 


You can order the book on AmazonSmile (sign up to benefit Sister India on Smile!) Shopping through smile.amazon.com  donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Sister India after you select us as your charitable organization.

This doesn't just include this book- anytime 
you shop through AmazonSmile, Sister India gets donations on eligible purchases. …

You’ve heard the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child,” but in this story, a little girl is making waves in hers. 
Lily is a 12 year-old-girl who comes from a poor family in India. She is the third child of five with three other sisters and one brother.  Her father works as a mechanic earning very little; what money he does make is put toward his alcohol and tobacco addictions, leaving her mother to provide for the family.
Lily’s mother earns 100-150 Indian rupees per day cutting pieces of cloth, which is roughly $1.44 to $2.15 American dollars. With this meager amount, she must provide for her family of seven. Lily and her sister often help their mother with her work cutting cloth. 

Lily learned about our classes through her sister and started attending regularly. She is always on time and eager to learn! Our teachers encouraged her and taught her literacy skills, and she is now able to read words in Hindi. Her teachers say that she continues to improve, and she spends two hours …

When you hear this over and over again, you sort of feel like the repetitive warnings and having time to prepare oneself should somehow "soften the blow". After all, I've seen the pictures, I've watched the documentaries, I've read the books, heard all the stories and cried with the testimonies. And shouldn't three summers in a poor village in west Africa be considered somewhat of an inoculation to whatever I could encounter on a ten-day trip to Gandhi's dream?




The truth is, there is no real preparation for the reality of India. I think back now on those days and marvel at the imprint they have left on my life. I still find myself processing some of the experiences, trying to make sense of some of the scenes and marveling at every encounter. There have been a couple of times that I have gone over my travel journal to make sure that what I am remembering really happened and it is not just a distortion of the truth resulting fro…

This post will give you step by step instructions on how to create your own page on SisterIndia.org. To register click this link:Let's get started!

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