After sitting in the hospital waiting room in Tamil Nadu, India all day, BYU student Emily Predmore was still waiting for treatment for Ashok, a little boy with tuberculosis. The doctor said they couldn't treat him because he didn't have insurance. But Predmore stayed and hoped for a miracle.

Ashok lives with his parents in a leprosy colony in Tamil Nadu, India, and could not find treatment anywhere because of his social class. Without Predmore, he would have been turned away immediately.

Predmore and Ashok met three years ago when Predmore, a sophomore majoring in international relations, traveled to India with Rising Star Outreach. This program is a non-profit organization created to bring higher standard of care and excellence to schools and leprosy colonies in India.

But health care is not the only service that Rising Star provides. They also focus on child education, teaching young members of the colonies with a goal to see the Indian leprosy colonies develop into clean, thriving, and respected villages by the year 2020.

Anywhere from 700 to 1,000 volunteers, many of them BYU students, take time off during the summer to travel to India, paying their own way to help out anywhere from three weeks to three months.

"It's really a heartwarming thing to see young, successful, marketable young people, who can do anything they want, working with these colonies," said Amy Antonelli, executive director of Rising Star.

Rising Star Outreach brings hope to the lives of those suffering from leprosy, living in colonies and being constantly shunned by society, Antonelli said. Rising Star works with locals on three levels: organizing mobile medical clinics, children's schools and developing micro loans to start small businesses.

Chris Harrison, 24, a senior majoring in English, visited the colonies last year as a volunteer to strengthen the micro lending program. Last summer, he wrote up a proposal to LDS Foundations for grants to expand the program in India.

"Every day we worked with kids in the orphanage," Harrison said. "It's when you take the kids back to their parents in the colonies and you see how little they have, it breaks your heart."

Today, Ashok is eight years old. Predmore said when he sees her, he shrieks out her name with his shrill voice and runs to her, giving her a big hug with his skinny little body.

Ashok now tells any volunteer who comes that he "is going to Emily's college when he grows up."



Copyright Brigham Young University 27 Feb 2007