I just want to give you a little history lesson about Gujarat. (the Indian state I am in). We keep hearing people mention the 2002 riots and today I found out what they really were. So there has all ways been big tension between the Muslims and Hindus, especially since the partition in the 1940s. Many things happened to make the tension even hotter but it exploded on February 27, 2002 when a train got set on fire and Muslims were blamed. Today we went to a Muslim neighborhood called Navapura, which was set ablaze, and many Muslims were killed on February 28,2002. We met a woman today who lost her kids and husband during the riots but was lucky enough to find them in the refugee camp a week later. Another interesting fact I learned is that the BJP is a very popular and powerful political party and one of their main beliefs is that India should belong to the Hindus and Muslims should be kicked out. So the chief minister of Gujarat who is BJP basically instigated these riots. He also told the police to turn the other way for a few days of the riots so Muslims could be taken care of. Today we went to an area where these Muslim families have rebuilt their homes yet they cannot positively say that a riot will not break out tomorrow. We also went to an area were Muslims were forced to move and even though they pay for their house, the government owns the land and could kick them out of there today. We talked to some very empowering Muslim women today who have started a women’s microcredit group. They all donate a certain amount of money to the pot of money and these women can take out loans. This is very helpful for them because they can have a future and not have to deal with the discrimination of the banks. This way they can all save their money and give out loans to women so their kids can go to school or so they can buy a sewing machine and have a job or even have something to fall back on if another riot breaks out and they have to start from nothing again.