DISCLAIMER: The young girl, Tamanna, mentioned in this story, is a FICTIONAL CHARACTER, although, the places and names are real Indian names and locations! Enjoy!

     "Hope Starts with Us."

                A Sequel to "Life Without Food."

               Written & Illustrated By: Faith W.

    Ever since 2019, Faith has been inspired to help the hungry children and their families, through Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). Now, it is 2021, and although she raised over $300 to feed 1,000 kids around the world, and wrote her first book about FMSC (Life Without Food), Faith decided she needed to do something to keep her momentum going after taking a year off during the Covid-19 pandemic. One day while she was researching for more ways to help, Faith came across an article about a girl around her age named Tamanna.

The more that Faith read about Tamanna, the more interested she became. Tamanna was just an average 15 year old girl, living in Alirajpur district in Madhya Pradesh, India. She lived with her mother and her younger sister, Aadrika. Tamanna's father died when she was only five years old. She helped her mother, Binita, care for her little sister and had to go out and look for food for the family. 

Wow, Faith thought. Tamanna and her family are going through a very hard time. Faith imagined how it would be if she had to pray just to get a bite of food to eat everyday. There has to be something I can do... That's when she suddenly had an amazing idea - one that would change Tamanna's and her family's life forever. Faith immediately called the people who she knew would support her - Feed My Starving Children.

After calling her friends at FMSC and after a month of hard work, Faith finally was ready to spring into action. Her plan was simple- she would gather her friends and family to go with her to Feed My Starving to help pack food. Then with the help of FMSC partners, she would deliver three special boxes to Tamanna! She was going to surprise Tamanna and her family with food for at least a year! Faith couldn't wait to see her excited face in person- in India!

17 hours and 53 minutes later, Faith, and her mom and dad arrived in India! Faith had already managed to contact Tamanna's mom (through the amazing invention of technology) and she gave Faith's mom their home address. After a 20 minute drive, they finally arrived at her house. The first thing that Faith  noticed, was that Tamanna's house was very very small and had big holes in the walls. There were a lot of ants, and Spider's Webs, and the worst part,  mold. This was defiantly not stable living conditions. I wish we could help with this too... , thought Faith sadly, exchanging looks with her parent

Binita welcomed them with open arms, and went to get Tamanna, who was playing with Aadrika in their room. When Tamanna and Aadrika came out, Faith said "surprise!" and handed her a box of food from FMSC! "Oh my goodness, are you Faith? I follow you on
Instagram!" Tamanna shouted. "Wow! really? That's a crazy coincidence!" Faith said surprised. Tamanna gave Faith a big hug and started crying. "Thank you so so so much, for the food. You truly don't know how much this means to me, my mom, and my sister" Tamanna said gratefully.

"Aww, you're so welcome, Tamanna! I can tell you and your family are really sweet people. May God bless you all!" Faith said cheerfully. Just as they were about to say goodbye, Tamanna grabbed her mom by the hand. "But mom, they flew all the way out here from Arizona! Why can't they at least stay the night? We can all eat together!" "Well, you do have a point. We have more than enough for all of us! As long as it's fine with Faith and her parents" Binita said.

"Why not!" Faith said. So Faith and her family, and Tamanna and her family all ate a yummy dinner of rice, vegetables, and soy protein. They even stayed for a sleepover, and had a blast talking, and playing games! This would definitely be something none of them, would ever forget.