The phrase ‘there’s another random day’ has been used by our kids virtually every day we have been here so far. These random days are brought into a sharper focus, I find, when you blog. Blogging forces you to reflect on the day you have had and get some perspective on it.

Getting perspective on what you experience out here is even harder if you are trying to keep half an eye on what is happening back home in the UK. Today was no different.

One minute we are blogging about our church in Hereford just having £000’s spent on it to give it a much needed face lift and then, soon after that, I am walking from the new offices of the Fishermen Trust to a fairly new slum that has been set up two minutes away. What a contrast to life at home and my blog piece on the Church refurb!

The slum is next to a rubbish tip and swamp and houses about 40 families that are working on building a local bridge. When they are finished, they will move on to another area where there is more work. Nomads I guess you could call them. The consequences of this lifestyle are the kids obviously do not get an education as they are never around long enough.

We went to the slum today just to meet people there and find out more about what kind of slum it was. We met with around 30 odd kids. Raj translated and we found out there were no parents around, they were all working at the construction site – women here work on the construction sites too.

There was just one ‘Auntie’ (the name they use for an older lady) who wasn’t altogether there! The older three kids look after the babies all day.

We spent some time chatting and playing with the kids and gave them a few small presents that a friend had brought out. The look on the kids’ faces when they got the gifts cannot be conveyed in a blog, I can tell you. The kids lived in huts made from old bits of wood and a plastic sheet over the top with four or five to just one room.

In response to the desperate situations we see here, some of which I saw in even greater detail today, I am constantly told when back in the UK: ‘Yeah, but you can’t compare these two worlds can you?’ Or, ‘We need to do both don’t we? Give to the poor and plough more money into our properties’ But is that really right? Are you sure you can’t compare?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticizing my Church for refurbishing its building – not at all – but at some point, someone somewhere has to shout very loudly “this injustice has to stop!”

Why should my kids, just because of where they were born, have an abundance of wealth and provision whilst these little ones have nothing other than the responsibility of raising their tiny brothers and sisters in squalor? I am writing this piece for a blog for ‘New Start’ magazine. What kind of new start are these kids entitled to? Forgive the rant but I think you may feel the same if you saw what we have seen.

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Dave Hider is head of care and supported housing for Bromsgrove-based West Mercia Housing Group.

You can read more about Dave’s work in India at, www.thehiders.co.uk