First Unitarian Church is honored to Share the Plate in March with the Annie Margaret Barr Higher Secondary School in the village of Kharang in the Khasi Hills of Northeast India. A celebration of food and culture will kick off the month in the Undercroft gallery on March 2. Khasi Hills team members will also be available all month to share stories and culture during coffee hour.

As part of a global Unitarian Universalist Association initiative, we have been partners with Unitarian friends in the Khasi Hills of India since 2003. This is a very poor, remote section of Northeast India, and home to the 3rd largest population of Unitarians in the world. This Unitarian School is open to boys and girls of all backgrounds. Through your generous support, First UU Pittsburgh raises $9,600 each year to pay the salaries of 2 of the high school teachers. That’s 2 adults, each supporting themselves and their dependents on $4,800 U.S. dollars per year. Last year, we led a global initiative raising funds for the Rainwater Harvesting Facility currently being constructed at the school site. This will provide water for the school to stay open during the dry season, which can last up to 4 months.

This partnership ties into our UU theme for the month, abundance and inequality, as we help to correct financial inequality by sharing our abundance. When we share our abundance in this way, we weave a much stronger fabric for life of both the givers and the receivers. It is both physical security and the confidence of feeling secure that is needed for children and communities to thrive. When we talk every few months to our school contacts, they are brimming with confidence and joy over the growth and stability of the school.

We thank you for your dedicated generosity to our siblings in spirit in Northeast India all these years. Together we can accomplish so much more than we each could separately.