Day 3 - Thursday 9th October
 Another hot and humid day in Chennai and an early start for the Rianna’s Fund team. Our breakfast meeting this morning is with a gentleman called Sririam from an organisation called NalandaWay Foundation. Sririam is the CEO and Founder of this organisation who work with some of the most damaged children in a variety of ways through drama, art and music. At present they are helping 4,200 children across India, primarily in the South of India, but Sririam was thrilled to tell us that he had new plans to work in Kashmir now that the curfew had been lifted. This area of Northern India has been the subject of dispute between Pakistan and India since patrician 60 years ago, with occasional periods of intense fighting which have wreaked havoc with the lives of people living here.
Our timing was good as we were able to visit a drama workshop currently running for children from various problem backgrounds. Some are HIV positive, others are children of sex workers, some have suffered huge trauma in other areas of their lives. They come together for a three day workshop to talk about their experiences with each other and then work together to write a script for a short film which is due to be produced in December. This film will then be used to create further awareness amongst communities of the issues these children face and help them to tackle these issues with children they come across. It also gives children a chance to tell their story, and acts as amazing therapy for those that take part.
We were introduced to a group of about 12 children who were in to their second day of this workshop. They were working on scenes for the film today and we were encouraged to interact with them by first playing a game. The game appeared quite simple, we had to name the person on our right and / or left when asked ..... sounds simple but their names were not easy to pronounce and we were all rather slow compared to the kids. Making a mistake meant coming in to the middle of the circle and doing something creative. I was not aware that singing a Chelsea song and balancing a chair on your head were creative activities, but Steve and Jon seemed to think this was fine! We had a lot of laughs and it was easy to forget that these children have lived through horrific experiences. It turned out that many were on their second or third workshop and had made huge progress during that time. We were later introduced to some girls who were here for the first time and the difference was huge – they were quiet, withdrawn and very reluctant to talk or even look at you.
 We took time to talk to the children (through a translator) about what this workshop meant to them. They all spoke confidently about their newfound confidence, the friendships they had made and their aspirations for the future. Samuel said before he didn’t have any dreams for the future, in fact he was not even attending school. He now goes to school and wants to work as a Journalist or Film Director when he is older.
Sema was a delightful young lady of about 14. She said that in her village a girl was just expected to get married at 16 and have babies. She now has ambitions and said “I want to show people in my village that I am not just another little woman, I will do something with my life”. Shala Kumal said he wanted to take this experience back to his village and try to help other children who had very hard lives.
We stayed on to share tea (chai) with the children and they asked us lots of questions. Their English was quite basic and they tried to teach us some simple Tamil – the phrase old dogs and new tricks come to mind!
Sririam explained about another project he has in the North of Tamil Nadu where there are a lot of cases of child trafficking and children sold in to bonded labour or child prostitution. Here they were working with a group of children who initially could not even talk to them. Gradually with the help of counselling they were learning to share their experiences and had now formed Percussion Group and were planning a series of concerts around India. Sririam explained that initial funding was vital to start this project, but now they would be earning money from ticket sales and so would be generating their own income.
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