Kuku Arora

Kuku Arora is 38 years old. He is a professional tailor. Wholeheartedly, he fathers 112 children: his own 2 and 110 "adopted" ones.

When he in 2002 felt the urge to help a small neglected girl from the streets by proposing to her parents that he would come up for food, hygienic care and education, he had never imagined that an after-school care for 110 children would arise from that. Kuku himself often says that he had never allowed himself to think about the consequences and costs at earlier stages, since this most probably would have disheartened him too much to continue.

Until September 2008, he had come up for all the costs of the children all by himself, with the exception of a few church contributions and individual, local donators.

Kuku sheperds the children like a father: he takes care of absolutely everything!

These are only a few of his self-appointed tasks:

• Preparing for school / kindergarden entrance requirements
• School / Kindergarden / Preschool / Playschool registration
• Tailoring school uniforms
• Training personal hygiene
• Renting and equipping after-school care facilities
• Recruiting teachers and educators
• Providing food and drinks
• Resolving family disputes
• Emergency medical care
• Going on outings with the children
• Being a confidant for the children

As mentioned, these are only a few excerpts of his long list of activities.

It takes a very big heart to invest so much time and money, next to having an own family and job. In his ambition to give the children from the streets a real perspective for life, he is completely selfless.

Kuku has this incredibly big heart! Those who know him, praise his calmness and ease. He radiates harmony, kindness and peacefulness. The children love, honour and respect him for good reason. They know that Kuku gave them a great opportunity, and they will not waste it.

Priti Arora

Priti Arora 36 years old and is married to Kuku Arora.

Next to raising their two children (Mira, 4 and Kabir,9), she works as a tour guide in Delhi and gives private English lessons.

Thanks to Priti's commitment, her helpfulness and sincerity, the Sunshine Project not only came into being but was also placed on a sound basis. It was and still is her main concern to help the Sunshine Kids on a longterm basis and to let them experience a happy childhood.

She supports Kuku in all his tasks, selects schools for the children, runs all errands, accompanies the children to doctors in case of an emergency and is responsible for the bookkeeping.

Since the number of Sunshine Kids has risen considerably over the past year and the project has reached new dimensions (rebuilding, child sponsorships), Priti has decided to cut down on her English tuition, in order to have more time available for the children.

Julia Hillebrecht

Julia Hillebrecht is 38 years old, married and mother of 2 daughters (Dana, 4 and Maya,1).
Since 1997, Julia has flown as a flight attendant with the Lufthansa German Airlines.

Due to a job offer of her husband, the family moved to New Delhi at the beginning of 2008. Soon thereafter, she met Kuku Arora as a tailor. It did not take long before she heard of his wonderful project and was personally intrigued by the children.

Since September 2008, Julia has intensively been involved with the Sunshine project and has dedicated herself to its continuance.
She helps to bring in donations and works at publicising the project internationally.
This is the reason, why she developed this homepage, to offer a platform to all interested parties.
Through her professional connection to Lufthansa, she succeeded in winning over the support of the Lufthansa HelpAlliance, which provided the project with a generous donation in February 2009. (Read more under "News" – February 2009).

In spring 2009, she called the Child Sponsorship Programmeme into life, which aimed at finding 110 child sponsorships to cover the monthly fixed costs of the project. (Read more under "Child Sponsorship Programmeme"). She was immensely successful, finding all sponsors within an incredible 2 weeks. Her other tasks involve sending letters with photos of the children to the sponsors, checking the account credits and being a contact person to all sponsors.

Furthermore it will be her job to keep the child sponsors informed on the development of their children once a year and to pass the children’s Christmas wishes onto them.

If you have further questions or recommendations, please do not hesitate to contact Julia at juliahillebrecht@yahoo.de.

Joachim von Kölichen

Joachim von Kölichen is 41 years old. He is pastor of the German-speaking Protestant Churches in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Since 2007, Joachim lives in Delhi. His involvement with the Sunshine Project came about through his occupation, since his congregation was already intrigued by Kuku’s charity work before Joachim started his term of office.

Being a pastor, he wanted to keep up with the project and worked on intensifying the ties, but meanwhile his commitment has exceeded the "normal" level of a working relationship. As a person, he is quite simply fascinated by the eager and thankful children.

Joachim has set up a free-of-charge church account in Germany and has taken over the task of filling in and sending out contribution receipts.

Furthermore, Joachim is our closest mentor. All projects to be planned for the children are always discussed with him first, since he is a person of a great sense and sensibility. He is always available for advice and support.

In this space, we would like to thank all donators and supporters:

All of you are people behind this project!

Only through your continuous help, no matter in which form, we will succeed in securing the continuity and quality of the project on a long-term basis.

During the past few months, several friends of the project have rendered outstanding voluntary services to the project. As we would like to officially thank them, they are mentioned in name below. (In alphabetical order):

• Ben Beer, who equipped all children with new toothbrushes and toothpastes and organises in-kind donations to Delhi, besides sponsoring a child.
• Annette Döring, who searched for and found numerous child sponsors in France and Germany.
• Friderike Fischer, who organised a bazaar named "Sunshine Bazaar" at her Primary School, whose proceeds were able to pay for an additional Englisch teacher for one year for our children (see "Press" September 2009).
• Tobias Gerlinger and Ari Bizimis, who called upon their friends to donate money for the children on the event of their birthday party.
• Jutta Gonder, who offered a midsummernight yoga workshop with her yoga-studio (www.privateyogainstitute.de) and forwarded the proceeds to the project.
• Manuel Grebing, who created pdf-files for the project and supported us with his special knowledge in a calender project. Furthermore, he and his wife Susanne donated their entire wedding collection to the children. Of the collected money, jerseys and socks could be purchased for all children for the coming winter.
• Eckart Hillebrecht, who gives daily advice and practical support and has made purchases for the project.
• Cornelia Lubnau, who volunteered to teach German to a talented boy from the project, already over years.
• Anand Mahindra, whose know-how helped us to develop this wonderful homepage, reacting to our modest PC-knowledge with much humour and understanding.
• Pia Mai, who forewent birthday presents because she wished for donations to the Sunshine Kids instead.
• Silvio Mondello, who tirelessly searched for child sponsors besides presenting generous donations.
• Brigitte Trenner, who pampered us with home baked treats at parties and special occasions.
• Silke Wittenberg, who translated all texts for this homepage into English with considerable speed and has also advised the project with her creative talent.