We had an interesting anniversary dinner in Mumbai last night. After a rather hairy taxi journey, we found the Saffron Spice Restaurant. In most areas the assumption is that we are Australian or American, but the manager of this restaurant understood we were British and promptly changed the Indian background music to a very poor medley of English songs, including classics such as “Roll Out the Barrel”, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” and “Daisy, Daisy”. Our cringing reached a crescendo with the playing of the “Birdie Song”.    

Mumbai erupted in to chaos today after the arrest of a local political leader who had been encouraging local groups to disrupt examinations for the Railway Board as a protest against people from Northern Indian coming to the City and taking “local jobs”. This leader, Raj Thackeray, was arrested at 0230 this morning and the City is in chaos today. Roads have been blocked and a large number of the auto rickshaw drivers who are from Northern India are not working, as they fear for their safety. Schools are shut and people are staying at home. Thankfully we had booked a driver for today, however we did have to change our itinerary in light of this situation and were unable to visit one project just outside Mumbai as in that area they were big protests and burning of buses.

We started the day at the World Vision office in Mumbai. Here we met Heather who was introducing us to some local small projects in need of support. We started the morning with worship and prayers with the office staff, in particular praying for the current situation in Mumbai. We went on from here to visit Soloman and his wife who runs a small home for orphaned children found on the Railway Stations in the City.

Soloman had previously worked for a local Christian NGO in the slum areas and around the railway stations but in 1999 his life changed. He found a man dying on the side of the road with his 8 year old son trying to drip feed him water. He was so close to death that the ambulance refused to take him and suggested Soloman call the local Municipal Council to take away the body. Soloman sat with him as he died, leaving his son Sati as an orphan. Soloman took the boy home with him and decided at that point that God was calling him to offer a home to more homeless and orphaned boys. Having worked with street and railway children for so long he knew how difficult it was to find space in the local orphanages.

His wife and he now offer a home to twelve boys ranging from 6 years old up to 18. Their home is very simple, with one room and a small kitchen downstairs and one room and a small bathroom upstairs. The boys did have bunk beds, but slept two per bunk. All boys are now attending school and all said they enjoyed their studies.   Soloman said he wanted to see them all with skills before they left him so that they would be assured of getting jobs. We met Karan who is now 11 and had been living with Soloman since he was 3, his favourite subject at school is English (I think he was playing to his audience!).

 

We also met Babu who was now 13 and had been living here since he was 4. Vishal was the only boy to say that his favourite subject was Maths, Soloman explained that when he was found he was living on the street with some blind beggars and managing their money for them. The boys were delightful and all so handsome.

 

We were met by Pastor Raju and his wife Shilba and, unfortunately, were not able to go with them to visit their project due to the unrest. However, we spent some time with them talking about their organisation called Way True Life which works with street children from the railways and slums in their area. We heard how Pastor Raju started a pavement school for these children about 10 years ago on a voluntary basis as he was training to be a social worker. He married a few years later and his wife Shilba, also a social worker, started helping him with his work. In 2005 they registered a charity but continued to both work so that they could finance this centre. They did use this as a night shelter also, but have had to close this as they cannot pay the salary of the night staff worker. They have been able to open a small day care centre for pre-school slum children, and pay the salaries of the staff themselves. However, it was obvious that they are really struggling for funds. They continue to spend time with the children at the railway station, many are run aways and some can be persuaded to go back to their families. The main risk with children living at the station is that they spend any money from begging and carrying bags on solvents and become addicted. Pastor Raju brought some pictures for us to see, attached is one of him with some of the older children who are now solvent addicts living at the station and one showing his early pavement school. They try and talk the children in to going back to school, and if they are orphans or cannot be reconciled with parents, then they will try and find them a place at a local orphanage. So far they have placed 75 children with orphanages, but they explained that this is very difficult because the homes are so full. Their dream now is to open up a home themselves for some of these children and with their background as social workers they are perfectly qualified for this. They would also like to start courses for vocational training for older children who have dropped out of school. They were such a lovely couple and we were amazed at their personal commitment and dedication to the work they do, even sacrificing their own daughters education to help the very poorest children. Pastor Raju himself grew up in an Orphanage so he perfectly understands being given a second chance through a children’s home. Pastor Raju holds his Sunday service in the home of a local resident who lets him use her courtyard. He stressed that his services were for all faiths, as his area has a lot of Hindu and Muslim residents. He said “I preach the word of God which is what I am called to do. It is then up to God to fulfil the transformation”. He told us some inspiring stories of local residents who had come to a relationship with Jesus through his ministry.

We are now back at our hotel and must begin getting our things together ready for the flight back tomorrow. This has been the most amazing trip, we have met some truly inspiring people and look forward to keeping in touch with them in the future and hope that Rianna’s Fund can offer a few projects such much needed support.

 

Goodbye from Aunty and Uncle.

 

We arrived in Mumbai yesterday morning. Our flight from Hyderabad was actually cancelled, the credit crunch is hitting India now and a number of airlines are rationalising. We managed to pick up another flight half an hour later with Air India so no great disruption for us.

 

We are staying in the most outrageously luxurious hotel for our three nights here. It is all free thanks to a large amount of Starwood points we had accumulated, but after a day in the Mumbai slums I am finding the contrast very difficult.

So, some scary statistics – Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is a city of approximately 20 million, with 8 – 10 million living in slums. Only 3 in every 10 people in Mumbai have a regular salary, of the rest a few have their own small business (maybe a tea stall or auto rickshaw driver) but the majority are day labourers who can earn as little as 30 rupees (38p) per day with no guarantee of regular work.

We hooked up with Sarita from the local NGO at 0915 this morning and headed off to Bandra to visit a pre-school centre for slum children. Bandra is just one of the slum areas around Mumbai, and is home to between 5,000 – 8,000 families. They are mainly from the nomadic Banjara tribe who can no longer make ends meet in the rural areas and they head to Mumbai with great dreams of getting well paid jobs. The size of this slum area was just daunting; we stepped out along the river and were met with the same acrid stench of polluted water and waste that we had experienced in Chennai.

It turns out they were being really kind to us by inviting us to see one of the more luxurious slum areas, and they told us about the pools of stagnant water and the filthy children with sores and boils all over their skin when they first arrived here, a condition which still exists in many of the other slums.

 

We walked up a narrow space between the slum dwellings in to the centre, which is for children between 2 – 6 years and caterers to between 30 – 40 children. All of the teachers here have been trained and employed from the slum area, and we heard about the vision to get the community to take ownership of this project and then move on to start other similar ones.

 

 

 

 

The centre is not only for pre-school children, there is an extra floor (up a very narrow ladder) where there is a centre for training school drop outs in computers and tailoring, and the downstairs is used as a homework club and for English teaching for the older children once the play group leaves in the afternoon. From this small space they also have a health clinic and offer an immunisation programme. They now have a lady who offers ante natal and post natal care and advice, and they were so proud to tell us that some of the gypsy women were now actually attending the local hospital for deliveries rather than having their babies in the slums where the umbilical cord would be cut using a sharp stone.

Again we heard about the problem with HIV in this poor community and how they are trying to work to create greater awareness amongst the teenagers. Even small children are taught about the importance of washing hands and some basic hygiene, which they share with their parents.

 

We left the day care centre and walked around the corner to meet up with Andyat the Blue Edge Project. We had noticed the huge number of teenagers hanging around in this area and were told that many were now joining gangs and being lured in to crime. Often, these young people had not completed their education and so the Blue Edge Centre has been funded by the local branch of DHL as a Soft Skills training centre. Young people between 18 – 20 are invited to come here for an intensive 4 month course in English, computer skills, life skills, interview techniques and customer service. They have morning and afternoon programmes and so in this really small space can cater for up to 50 students for the four-month course. They are invited to the DHL office and given certificates when they graduate. The project started in February this year and we were told about the successes of some of their graduates, infact Andy kept a spreadsheet on all students showing their current situations. Andy is originally from Hong Kong but had been in India for over 10 years and was obviously passionate about his work with these young people. He encouraged them to keep up their education via a night school or maybe going on to college after this course. We met some of the students who were obviously enjoying their time here.

In the afternoon we had arranged to meet up with the Director of Oasis India to talk to him about possible opportunities to work together. Oasis India work in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore with poor communities and we talked to him about an exciting new initiative using sport to get children off the streets.   They have had a huge amount of success particularly with boys of 10 – 14 from slum areas and by engaging them in soccer; cricket and hockey clubs they build self esteem and are able to communicate with them about life skills and education generally. They have found that the children have a huge level of commitment to this type of activity and can then begin to have dreams for their future and start attending school.

It has been another day when we have been amazed and humbled by the work being carried out by Christian organisations in this country. The salaries paid by most of the NGO’s are so poor that a lot of the staff have to rely on family support to allow them to stay in their current jobs.

 

Tomorrow is our last day in India and we are heading out tonight to find a traditional restaurant (yes, another curry) where we can celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We had been warned that prayers and hymns were broadcast from the Cathedral across the compound from 0500, but we still startled when it woke us up. This lasts for half an hour and then the children attend morning prayers from 0700.

 

After breakfast we joined the school for outside assembly and prayers, we then joined the staff from the Diocese office and the Curates in their small worship area for prayers before they start work. They asked again that we pray for the problems of persecution in India, the Bishop is actually heading off to Manila on Sunday to attend a conference about the problems and decide on the Church’s response. It was good to hear that the Indian prime minister had to answer embarrassing questions about the situation at a recent meeting of world leaders, and Church leaders here are hoping that strong action will not be taken.

 

Returning to the school we took our seats for the Cultural Programme of entertainment. The children were obviously very excited and the programme commenced with a delightful dance by some of the youngest girls to that great Indian classic “I’m A Barbie Girl”.

 

There was then a traditional tribal dance, and wonderful play about the use of the English language where children played the parts of “noun”, “verb”, “adverb”, etc. 

 

 

 

The next item in the programme was a volleyball match, English Medium School verses the Telugu Secondary School. It all got a bit over-competitive with Terry managing the English Medium team and Bishop Devamani managing the Telugu boys. The Bishop even served a few times for his team, whereas Terry’s contribution was simply a team huddle before the off and then shouting a lot from the sideline. There was huge excitement when the English Medium boys won, and everyone had to retire for tea and cakes to recover from the excitement.

 

 

 

We visited the health clinic on the site where the Bishop’s Daughter Carol works as a junior Doctor.

We were amazed at how basic it was, but Carol was very excited about some of the equipment they have so we didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm. She has only been there for a few months and has her hands full with two clinics a day, however, we discussed at length the real health issues in this area and her plans to build a programme of health awareness to take in to the schools. Just basic things like hygiene, safe drinking water and HIV awareness she said would make such a huge difference not only to the children, but also to their families and villages when they returned to them. Making children agents for change, we love this idea and shared a few other thoughts and told her of the contacts we had made at the HIV clinic in Hyderabad.

Lunch was next on the agenda, another hearty curry made especially for us by the headmasters wife, it was delicious. After lunch we went to visit the headmistress of the local Telugu School which sits within the compound. This school is also the responsibility of Dornakal Dioceses but is mainly funded by the government. However, we were told of the current problems getting government funding and saw that the school currently has vacancies for seven teachers but no government funds to employ them.   Their school building was built in 1975 and we were horrified to see how poorly constructed it was, with ceilings caving in and plasterwork coming away in many areas. The primary school children have to sit on the floor as they don’t have any benches and the school has two girls’ toilets for 426 children.

It is now time for us to leave and we’re really sad to go having spent such a wonderful few days in this beautiful area of India. As we set off on the return journey we are even more aware of the children we see working in the fields and herding goats and are mindful of the fantastic opportunity being offered to some children through the English Medium School.

Only 150 miles back to our hotel and we were mostly travelling on the major road to Hyderabad – six and a half hours later we have arrived back at our hotel!   Thankfully there is never a dull moment on India’s roads. It rained for most of our return journey so we amused ourselves with seeing the array of different items being used as rain cover, empty sand bags, papers and a whole selection of plastic bags, all worn without the slightest bit of embarrassment. Maybe this is why we feel we fit in so well in this country.

I am taking off my Rianna’s Fund hat for a day tomorrow and donning my Trade Justice hat as I head off to find out more about the problems being faced by cotton farmers in India and then we’re off to Mumbai on Sunday, so I’ll be back with news from Mumbai on Monday.

 

God bless you all and can I ask for our prayers for the remainder of our trip and a safe journey back on 22^nd October.

 

Another early start and a long drive into the countryside of Andhra Pradesh to visit the English Medium School where Rianna’s Fund helped build two new classrooms in 2007. We were hopeful that the five hour estimate for this journey was an exaggeration, but it wasn’t. This driver was a little calmer than some we have experienced which was just as well with the distance we were travelling. Once we’d cleared the city limits of Hyderabad the countryside was beautiful and the main obstacles were farm vehicles, goat herds, cattle and even the occasional monkey, the ones with the red bottoms. As we got closer to Dornakal it was obvious that farming was a major pastime here, with crops of cotton, rice, maize and wheat being the main ones we identified. We were told that this is a tribal area and that 25% of the locals are farmers with the other 75% being day labourers. The wage for a day labourer is 600 rupees per day (about 90p), with the wages increasing to 100 rupees (about £1.20) if they were involved in construction. However, the work is obviously very erratic and these are very poor areas.

 

 

We arrived to a fantastic welcome at the compound of Bishop Devamani, with children lined up along the track on both sides. We were shown to the Bishop’s house and enjoyed lunch with him together with his wife Christina and daughter Carol. Carol is 24 and training to be a doctor. She is currently working in the health centre on the compound and with the local children before returning to her studies, and is a delightful young lady. 

 

 

 

 

After a lovely lunch we walked through some of the compound, which is an amazingly beautiful place. It houses the following:

We were welcomed by the children from the English Medium School. A total of 350 attend, but some had not returned from the recent holiday so there were only some of them present. They made a real fuss of us and hung garlands of flowers round our necks and handed small bunches of flowers from children in each class. One little girl of 3½ found it all too much and burst in to tears when she handed Terry the flowers – well, she’s probably never seen a nose like that before!

All of the children who attend the English Medium School are from the local peasant communities, and some walk as far as 7 – 8 km each day to attend school. Some children live in hostels on site as their villages are too far away for a daily journey. There is a local school on the same premises which teaches in the local language of Telugu, however, if children do not learn English then they cannot go on to any form of further education or to any of the well paid office or government jobs. In very poor rural areas like this the parents often pull children out of school at 12 or 13 as they need them at home helping with work and do not see the point of schooling them, especially if they are girls who will often be married by the time they are 15 or 16. This area is still very tribal, we were told, but parents of brighter children were beginning to see the benefits of a good education for them. English Medium Schools would normally charge fees but this school if provided free of charge and enables children to break out of the cycle of poverty. We heard stories of children who would certainly have become day labourers like their fathers, but had gone on to University and to work in Government positions. There is a quota in India for OBC’s (Other Backward Castes) which actually means that well educated children from poor families often are given preferential treatment when it comes to Universities and job placements.

 

We were shown the classrooms that Rianna’s Fund had funded and shown a site where they want to build more classrooms to replace the old ones which are in poor repair and prone to flooding in the rainy season. We were also shown a structure currently being used as a classroom which they want to turn in to a toilet block, currently the school has no toilets and the children have to wander in to the bushes.

Most of our time with the children will be tomorrow, but we did have a quick look around and met the children from the deaf school who were thrilled to see us and have their picture taken.

 

We went to look at the Cathedral on the compound, a beautiful but very unusual Christian building. The Bishop explained that it was built in 1912 and wanted to appeal to all religions in the area, so Hindus and Muslims as well as Christians. We bumped in to an Indian film crew who were making a film about historic Church buildings across India and wanted to ask for our comments. We joined the evening service later with 800 children, the sound of singing was deafening but amazing to hear.                       

Before we returned to our room we were warned to look out for scorpions and snakes. We were also told to make sure we bolted our door as the monkey colonies in the area could be very dangerous – and there was me thinking the looked cute! We had a wonderful dinner and then retired to bed, exhausted after our long journey.

We slept so well and enjoyed a very traditional Indian breakfast in the hotel before heading back to the ACET India office for the morning clinic. A lot of children were coming in for treatment this morning and we had been invited to observe and find out a few of their stories.

 

Nikita is 5 years old. Both her mother and father have died of HIV and she is living with her grandfather who bought her to the clinic this morning. She is a delightful little girl and sat well on Dr Saija’s lap while he examined her. She has scars on her arms from scratching at her skin, poor skin condition is common for HIV sufferers and had mild anaemia, but generally was very good. She is generally in good health and we were told that with the care she is getting then she could live up to maybe 20 years old. The biggest concern for her is that her grandfather is very old and there is a worry what will happen to her when he dies. It is only after they have left the clinic that we realise that the file she was playing with on the end of the desk is her mother’s file with the word “DECEASED” across the top. The family had asked for a death certificate to be issued so they could claim on their life insurance, however, the doctor explained that insurance companies will not pay out for HIV deaths.

 

Simian (meaning Peacock) is a charming 13 year old girl who has been attending the clinic regularly with her grandmother. Her grandmother sat and cried as she told her story. Simian’s mother was her only daughter and she is now caring for Simian knowing that she will die young. She really struggles and ACET were able to refer her to a food programme that will help her with some rice supplies.  

A lady who attended this morning looked very sick and asked the doctor for help. She is working in an office and they have been asking why she is sick so often. She can not tell them that she is HIV positive and asked the doctor for some strong medicine so that she can carry on working. One other man had travelled 400 km to attend the clinic. There are so many heart wrenching stories, and again we were amazed at the patience and compassion shown here by the staff and volunteers. Dr Sujai pointed out that they do not wash their hands between patients or wear face masks as most doctors would when dealing with patients, many of who have TB. He said that they can not tell sufferers that it is okay to live normally with their families if they visit a doctor who does not reinforce this.    

We spent some time talking to Dr Sujai’s wife, Dr Lavanya. She is a research doctor and she told us about the team of five Phd students who work at the clinic and at the moment are doing more in depth research in to early detection of HIV. The symptoms of HIV can take 3 – 5 years to become apparent and often the signs are other opportunistic infections such as stomach problems, TB, weight loss, infections that don’t heal or fevers that don’t clear up. We talked about the problem with persecution of Christians and she said that ACET is a well respected Research Centre and Clinic so they are not having as many problems as organisation who firstly promote their Christianity.

Once again we were amazed by the level of compassionate care being shown by all the staff in the home and the way they share the love of Christ in such an unconditional way. We were very sorry to say goodbye to them.

 

We are off to see another home tonight and then early tomorrow heading deep in to the country to visit an English Medium School. Not sure how reliable communications will be so the next update may be at the weekend.

 

There is just one interesting piece from the newspaper yesterday, which I wanted to share with you. Currently Christians are listed as a minority group in India and employers, schools, colleges, etc. are obliged to take on a certain percentage of those listed as OBC’s. I had to read further to find out that these minority groups are listed as Other Backward Castes!

 

Thanks again to everyone who is following our progress.

Getting used to spending each day in permanent state of heavy perspiration!

 

Early to rise today and off to the airport for our flight to Hyderabad. The driver dropping us at the airport managed to scrape another car, we are just amazed that is the first accident we have been in and thankful that it was only a scrape. We grabbed our bags and left the two drivers shouting at each other. Our flight landed around 0930 at the most wonderful modern airport, and for the first three minutes in the taxi we were thinking “what are we doing here?”. Beautiful buildings, gardens, fountains, where is the poverty? We soon found ourselves in more familiar surroundings, women working on heavy construction at the side of the roads, slum housing and the deafening sound of car horns.

We checked in to the Peppermint Hotel, and shortly afterwards grabbed a taxi down to the offices of ACET India (Aids Care Education and Training) based in the centre of the city. We have already been in contact via email with Dr Sujai & Dr Lavanya the two doctors who run ACET here and we were aware that today was their HIV clinic. However, we were not prepared to be shown straight in, sat down next to Dr Sujai’s consulting desk and observe while he saw patients and took time out to explain their situations to us. The true horror of AIDS really hit home as these amazing people shared their stories with us.

The first lady was infected by her husband who had died about 5 years ago and left her with three girls. She had been managing with the anti retroviral drugs since she discovered she was HIV positive and had been attending the clinic from time to time for guidance on how to manage her condition. She had come in today as she was in a lot of pain, she had a large seeping wound on her upper thigh (Dr Sujai said he would spare us the sight of it as it was really horrible), she had anaemia and oral thrush, all signs of deterioration of her health. She was obviously in a lot of pain and very worried that she might infect her family, the doctor and his staff listened to her and gave her some practical as well as medical advice. Her brother had come with her and was told that he did not need to keep her in a separate room as he had been, she should be allowed to live normally with her family. She was very worried about her daughter washing her clothes, which were soaked in puss, but the Doctor advised that she soak them first in warm water for 15 minutes and then it would be fine for her daughters to wash as usual. As she moved on to have her wound bandaged and get some medication, helpers in the clinic kept checking on her and talking to her.

 

Another lady told us how her husband had infected her and then left her. They had three children and the husband left with their son leaving her to cope with her two daughters. Her youngest daughter Lavinia who was crippled by polio when she was younger and is now 16. She has just undergone surgery to her legs and Dr Sujai told us of this child’s amazing faith. When she went to the hospital for her operation she was waiting with other children who were very afraid and she sat one of them on her knee. The doctors asked why she did not seem to be worried about her operation. “The other children have come alone” she said, “but I have not so I am not afraid”. The doctor looked around and asked who has come with you, to which she answered “I have come with the Lord and he gives me strength”. When the Doctor asked where this Lord was she said “you can not see him, he is here in my heart”. She is trying to bring her mother to God and keeps telling her to stop worshipping idols. We prayed with her mother that her daughter would be able to walk once her legs had healed.

This clinic is a haven for HIV sufferers, not only are they given medical advice but there is also a listening ear and their hands are held, they are given hugs and prayers if they want them. The love just pours of out this place and the compassionate way these people are treated is such a great witness. The doctor explained that some hospitals will now treat HIV patients but they are very uncaring and do not offer any additional support. In particular the doctors would not touch the patients, so finding a place where they can be treated compassionately is amazing for them. We were told that India definitely has enough of the anti retroviral drugs now, however the Doctors fail to explain that these drugs need to be combined with a really good diet, so often the patients still fall sick.

Many have turned to Christ after being helped by the staff at this clinic, they experience the unconditional love and are drawn to know more. It is so moving to sit and hear their stories, listen to the doctor give medical and practical advice and then to pray for them.

 

We met an English lady called Helen from a church in the Midlands who is volunteering over here for 6 months. We were discussing the number of children coming in to be treated and she showed us a space where they wanted to create a play area for the children. A local lady called Vali and her had been trained as Play Councillors and wanted to get to know the children who came in regularly and see if they could get them to open up and talk about their problems more. She is trying to raise money to paint and equip this room. They have been given a new cupboard for the play area and I was asked to inaugurate the cupboard. A ribbon was tied across it and I was asked to cut it with scissors. The staff then fooled around with some of the first toys they had been given for this cupboard. We prayed for their work and that they God gives them strength to continue with this amazing work.

 

We enjoyed lunch in the ACET offices, we are now real experts are eating with our hands and enjoyed home made rice and curries which were delicious. Terry is feeling a lot better so managed to enjoy it as well. 

 

Over lunch we met Bhaskar who runs a project called “Rescue & Restore” which is a home for street children from Hyderabad and other children who have been abandoned. Bhaskar had lived on the street himself when he was a child so knows about their troubles. He came to know God after many years living on the street and now works for YWAM. He and his wife had first taken in children from the street to their house, but gradually they made contacts with a church in the Netherlands who started supporting them and had eventually helped him buy land and build a home for the children. He currently has 42 children living with him and was very proud to tell us that he has five children going through college – “imagine” he said, “these children are from the streets and they are going to college now”. 

 

It was a long and hair raising drive to the Rescue and Restore home, definitely this was our worst driver yet.   It was only 20km but it took us about 1½ hours to get there and amazingly we only had two scrapes during this time – once we scraped a wall and then a scooter went in to the back of us. As we came out of the city the roads were even worse and we had to navigate around cattle and goats as well as oxen pulling carts. 

The home is an absolute haven, set in a small compound with gardens.

 

Bhaskar first showed where the children help him with growing a variety of foods – bananas, coconuts, mangos, as well as lots of flowers. A wonderful boy called Krishnu joined us in the garden, he was 14 years old and full of life. He told us he arrived here only 3 months ago and loved it, he had made to many friends and was obviously extremely happy. He particularly enjoyed working in the gardens. The children are largely boys as Bhaskar explained that he did not have the female helpers to take in many girls. However, there were four girls there who had been brought here as emergencies until other homes could be found for them. As we went up on to the first floor we found all the children sitting on the floor quietly doing their homework with a helper / teacher volunteer from YWAM who was assisting them.

Bhaskar told us some of their stories – one boy was left with them as he had a heart condition and his parents didn’t want him, others were picked up off the streets having run away from difficult situations at home, a lot had lost one or both parents. They were such a delightful bunch of children, and we enjoyed looking at their homework before they entertained us with some lively singing.

 

Bhaskar’s biggest worry is that the Church in the Netherlands have been reducing their payments and have told him that they will have to stop supporting him in the near future. We later discussed with him his plans to hand the home over to one of the boys who was now studying Social Work at College. In four years time he will qualify and Bhaskar then wants to open another home in a town in northern Andra Pradesh where they have a huge problem with street children, and particularly with gangs. It was already dark and we were very tired, but plans had been made for us to visit a family in another village. Here we met a young couple called Ebby and Sarah who have two boys of their own and have taken in four homeless boys to their family. At the moment they are living in a small house and the family includes a delightful old gentleman called George who they have also taken in. Their plans are to build a bigger home and get licensed to take in more children. This is a small project entirely supported by ACET India and they are looking to help Ebby and Sarah realise their dreams and provide a home for more HIV infected and affected children.

 

The journey back was a nightmare; how the driver didn’t kill anyone we do not know. He then had to admit he didn’t know where our hotel was. Thankfully we found a gentleman on a scooter who took pity on us and offered to lead us to the hotel so the driver could follow. We arrived back at 1030 and crawled up to our beds.   The £30 hotel option obviously doesn’t include double glazing. However, even the constant sounds of car horns couldn’t stop us from dropping straight off to sleep.

After a relatively quiet day yesterday we are on the go again today. The rains have really arrived, yesterday saw heavy downpours for most of the day and we woke to thunder this morning. “Oh dear, rain again” I say to a local, “yes, wonderful isn’t it” comes the reply. I think we are coming from different points of view.

We met again with Sam and Priya today to have another conversation about their plans to offer life skills training within the poorer schools. This will include AIDS awareness and dealing with the issues of prejudice around this; health and healthy eating; hygiene; career advice and other issues affecting children, particularly those from the very poorest of backgrounds.

 

We have a couple of hours free time before heading back in to the centre of Chennai with a lunatic driver. Believe me, we have experienced some crazy drivers so far but this one would win prizes. We made it in one piece and met up again with Gayathri from Steria who was taking us to look at another project supported by her company Steria.

This project is called the “Home for Physically Challenged Girls” and is a home and workshop for disabled girls. Some are physically disabled, others are deaf or dumb, and some are simply victims of situations like trafficking and have been rescued and found shelter here. Quite a few children have been affected by polio and have been abandoned by their families. There are now 25 children living here and they are part of a crafts workshop making the most beautiful straw cards, screen-printing and lamination products. Many of these items are made from re-cycled newspapers, but even though the raw materials are either free or very inexpensive, we are told that the market for these types of products in India is very limited and so the workshop is struggling to make ends meet. 

 

The youngest of the girls is Pooja aged 7. She has the face of an angel. She is physically disabled and we are told that she was left by her mother at just 2 months old and she was brought up by the other girls and ladies who work here. She is a very happy little girl, she has medical challenges and does not have a great life expectancy. A lot of the children have been left from an early age, and many have lived here for most of their lives. We meet a delightful young girl who is unable to walk and works on the ground. In fact this workshop is also their home as they sleep on the concrete floor. One young girl recently became engaged and will move on from the project, but a few have been here from the start of the project 25 years ago. It has a really peaceful feel to the place and you can sense how strong the bond is between these young ladies.

We spent time chatting to the children and were then entertained by some beautiful singing. They are practicing for a cultural show which they will perform at the Steria offices in November.

 

We left and headed off to a shopping mall – yes, my worst nightmare, but Gayathri promised to hold my hand and help me find a new shalwar kameez (pants and top set worn by Indian ladies). She was true to her word and the process was quite painless and I now have a beautiful outfit.

We will have an early start tomorrow to catch our flight to Hyderabad. Thank fully Terry is feeling better so hopefully he can be back on top form for another curry tomorrow night!

 

A day of rest for us in terms of visiting projects, just as well as Terry has been brought to a standstill by Delhi belly! Steve and Jon left early this morning so it is now just Mr & Mrs Sherring for the remainder of the trip.

Today the rains have arrived, sad for us but a huge cause of celebration for the people of Chennai. The rains are late this year, which has been causing big problems in the city, including electricity shut down for 3 hours each day (we are assuming hydro energy must be very important here).

 

I left Terry to sleep off the upset stomach and headed off to the Powerhouse Church. The Powerhouse Church (www.powerhousechurch.org) was established by a Jeyakaran Emmanuel and his wife and has been meeting for about 10 years. They now have five different meeting places for worship around Chennai, including one in an American Restaurant where you can get 20% discount on your lunch if you stay on to eat after the service. I joined the service at the IID College in their hall and we enjoyed lively service and fellowship. The congregation was largely made up of young couples, and about 40 people attended. Mostly our prayers and worship were related to the persecution of Christians this sadly is a huge and growing problem in India at the moment.

In India Christians make up about 3.5% of the population and the current government are trying to get Christians listed as a minority group and hence bring in extra protection. The worst attacks have been in the state of Orissa where the murder of a Hindu leader was blamed on a Christian group. Riots followed and 50,000 Christians were driven out of their homes and more than 30 people were killed in Kandhamal when rioters attacked Christians. Thousands of houses and a large number of churches and prayer houses were burnt down and damaged. The situation is now said to be under control and 13,000 have returned to their homes, however, 23,000 remain in temporary shelters. Since this time and throughout the country there has been a spate of vandalism at Christian places of workship. The most horrific situation we have read about is the rape of a Catholic nun in the state of Kerala. We are told that one good thing that has come from this situation is that all Christian religions are now working together, but it is a very worrying time.

One of the other very sad results of this unrest is that Christian charities who work on the ground are, in some areas, finding it difficult to help the poor and needy. In fact, Christian NGO’s have all left Orissa until the situation is stabilised.

 

I would ask you all to keep this situation in your prayers. It’s one thing reading about it when you live in Ashtead but being here has really made me feel that we must at least pray into this dreadful situation. I have asked the guys from the Powerhouse Church to keep us in touch with the situation once we return to England. 

 

A massive “THANK YOU” to Russ Oliver from Epsom who has introduced us to so many people over the past few days. Russ and his friend David flew out with us on 6^th October and went home this morning. Russ has been out to Chennai six times now and regularly brings out business contacts from the UK to see projects in this City. He very kindly agreed to join us for the first five days and effect introductions to the people and projects he knows – we are hugely grateful to him for using his time and resources help us in this way.

 

Today we started with a breakfast meeting with Gayathri Mohan who is the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for an IT company called Steria. The introduction was effected via Jon Lane’s next door neighbour who also works for Steria and spends a lot of his time in Chennai. Steria are very committed to their CSR and support projects in areas where they have offices – that is Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. She was very keen for us to visit an orphanage and school which is really struggling to make ends meet.

 

The Annai Fathima Trust was founded 30 years ago by Mrs Rani Krishnan and her husband as an orphanage and school for abandoned children. Mr Krishnan died about four years ago and Mrs Rani Krishnan has been really struggling to make ends meet since this time as her husband had historically looked after fundraising and she was the mother figure and carer for the children. The CSR team from Steria became aware of their struggles earlier this year and, even though their budget for the year was already committed, they managed to raise some additional funds to help pay for food for the children.

 

Annai Fathima is home to 172 children, 52 of these are orphans from the Tsunami, the others all have different stories – some were dustbin babies (yes, literally abandoned by their mothers, often because they are girls), others were children to single parent families who could not live with the shame within their communities.   

We were given a fabulous welcome and we were asked to open the new room with some computers which had been provided by Steria. In this picture Gayathri of Steria is on the left and Mrs Rani Krishnan is in the blue sari. For your information, we haven’t spilt carrot soup on our faces, we were marked with a saffron mix when we arrived – I think this is a sort of blessing and just hope if comes out of my T Shirt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then moved to the Hall for a welcome from all the children and some fabulous entertainment. The girls showed us a number of traditional dances in the most beautiful costumes which were made by the children and staff. The boys showed us their best dance moves, firstly to traditional music and then Jon, Steve and Terry were invited to join them and dance – no comment from me as Steve has a recording of my dancing attempt so I think we can arrange a trade before one of us gets access to You Tube!

 

We met Elsa a lady in her late 20’s who has suffered with Polio and is confined to a wheelchair (centre in attached picture). Steria have supported her through her education and college and she is now working as a teacher at Annai Fathima, teaching computers, English and art.

 

We were shown around by Remeggious who is now 26 years old but was brought up in the home from when he was very small. The Trust managed to support him through College and an Engineering Degree, he now works for the World Bank. He told us about his 2 years in Ireland studying for his MBA when he also worked in the evenings so that he could send money back to help his “mother” who was struggling so much. He is now back in India and helps out as much as he can with the other children. We met a number of older children who were studying for Carpentry, Biotechnology and Electrician. All still live at the home until they are able to support themselves and wherever possible Mrs Krishnan tries to arrange support for college education, she has now seen 15 of her children graduate in the past 30 years.

The home’s main problem is that it has no regular support aside from a small government grant for 25 children which is £3 per month for each of these children. The site is in bad repair, the newly constructed road (IT Highway) is higher than their land and hence during the rainy season the runoff is a big problem, and without proper drainage stagnant water sits around the site. They explained that the mosquitoes gather there spending disease.

 

The children’s sleeping areas were two large halls with bare concrete floors, one for girls and one for boys.   The roof of this building is a plastic covering and consequently means this space is always very hot and also leaks when it rains. There were two wells on the site but both were completely empty. They are now considering a deep water bore hole for future access to water.

 

Mrs Rani Krishnan is obviously an amazing mother figure as the children were all fantastic. She is committed to making sure the children leave her and go on to a bright future, many are now nurses, or work in catering or other jobs. She has so far arranged marriages for 36 of the girls who have left the home and told us how they all come back for Christmas, and when they are expecting babies they return to her for the two months before the births so she can be with them.

We had a fabulous morning and were made so welcome by the staff and children. As we drove through the main gate we looked up at the bright shiny office block sitting opposite and were amazed again at how such corporate affluence can sit side by side with such poverty.

 

It is Jon and Steve’s last day so we headed off in a put-put (electric rickshaw) for a really hairy journey to a traditional Tamil restaurant. Tomorrow is a day of rest for Terry and I, in fact he has nodded off in front of the TV already and it’s only 1700.

 

Wow, what a day!

 

Our early morning visit was changed to an early evening visit, but we are learning that we have to be flexible with our arrangements. We all felt exhausted today, I think the heat and long days are getting to us. Pick up was at 0900 and off to visit Elim School and Orphanage. We arrived at our re-scheduled time to a sea off children all running to get in line for the arrival of their visitors. We are greeted by over 200 children. 190 are orphans living on this site, which is amazingly at the far end of the IT Highway in Chennai. We are still getting our heads around seeing the most amazing high-tech buildings and right next door could be a rubbish dump or slum area. 90 children attend on a daily basis for schooling.

 

The children looked so smart in their uniforms and were obviously very excited by our visit. They proceeded to entertain us with singing, dancing and a short play. The orphanage is another project for IID and living on site is Mr Benjamin, his wife and son together with a number of staff. After the entertainment we distributed cake which had been bought as a treat for the kids and it was then time for games. Jon and Steve tried to get the children interested in a game of football which was obviously not their prime interest, and eventually a game of cricket was arranged. I got involved in some highly competitive running races and made a complete fool of myself when I was asked to race with the teachers and helpers – nobody explained that women in Saris do not run and that this was a walking race. Thanks guys!

 

We were shown around the site. The children’s quarters were very basic and we were all a little horrified that they sleep on the floor, but apparently that is cooler for them. The sleeping areas have a resident family within them who are on hand for the children. Our hearts broke when we met two young boys who had arrived only the day before, one was obviously very distressed and initially would not take cake or look at us at all. He started to show some interest when I showed them a picture of my dog – I don’t think they have Great Danes in India.

 

Exhausted and rather sweaty we headed off to the next visit. This was to see Wilson who is running a project funded by YWAM. Wilson and his wife have been working for 12 years caring for terminally sick women and children who are HIV positive. Originally his centre was a hospice and he explained that his worst day was burying four people in one day. The situation has improved with some drugs available through the government, so their work is now about counselling people to live with the disease and giving them skill training. Up until a few years ago family and friends would have shunned anyone suffering with AIDS, however, through awareness programmes there is now greater acceptance and so care within the homes has become possible for some patients. Wilson and his wife also care for 15 orphans who are HIV positive; the youngest is 2½. Up until 2006 the children were home schooled, as schools locally would not take children who were HIV positive. They have now found a Christian school 7 miles away that will take them. Even though 7 miles is a very long journey on India roads, Wilson told us how relieved he was that the children were now in mainstream education. 

We left Wilson and spent another hour sitting in the most horrendous traffic before we got back to the hotel. Our driver arrived again at 1800 as we had asked if we could meet up again with the street children we met in the Park earlier this week. The plan was to go to their drop in centre close to the bus depot where they live.   We arrived at the bus depot early and were mobbed by the children who were just so pleased to see us with great shouts of “Aunty” and “Uncle” as they ran towards us. It was great to see them again, however, seeing the conditions they live in was a heartbreaker for all of us. The true horror hit home when one of them proudly showed us a thin stretch of dirty pavement and said “this is where I live”. Their fathers and local beggars started crowding round us asking for money, and bizarrely these children were trying to protect us and telling people that we were their friends.   We managed to hide our distress until we left them with promises to send on photos and that we would return to see them.   I cannot describe to you how I felt as we drove away.   I shed my first tears of the trip. I know the answer is not easy, but I do know that I must return to keep my promise. I just hope and pray that we can find a way to help these children.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the big rubbish tip where many of the street children work during the day. They wade through the rubbish to pull out any aluminium and plastic to sell before these piles of rubbish are sent for landfill. The stench was vile. Thankfully, it was late and none of the children were working in the dark, I have to admit I would have struggled to cope with this after our bus shelter experience.

Back at the hotel we tried to make sense of our day, but we have all been deeply affected by what we saw. We all thanked God for the local organisation who is working on the ground to run the local drop in centre and who try to offer these children at least an avenue of respite from their daily lives.

 

I must apologise for the length of this blog, but the past two days have been so full and I can’t bring myself to edit any of it. We have an easier day tomorrow and Jon and Steve then head back to England.

 

To those who are reading this, thank you for sharing this journey with us. I really feel that writing this down is helping me make some sense of everything I see.

 

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.  

Wednesday – another bright and sunny day in Chennai, this morning we visited a local project working with street children, including those directly living on the streets, some on railway and bus stations and others in slum areas. Many do live with their families in these conditions, and some are actually responsible for earning money to support their mothers and fathers.

 

Today was a Hindu holiday in Chennai so a great relief that the traffic was lighter. We were invited to join some street children who had been taken for a day out at a local recreation park. The children ranged from 3 years of age up to 17 and the local NGO worker explained that on national holidays they tried to arrange activities for the children to stop them begging on the streets and outside the temples. We had an amazing few hours with these children, we played games and had chance to sit with some of them and talk about their lives and the issues they face. The picture shows Nanthinee who lives with her paralysed father, mother and younger sister in the local bus depot – yes, literally on the pavement at the side of the depot. Nanthinee either begs or works with her mother on a building sites lifting and carrying paving stones. We chatted, laughed and shared a few hugs – we learned so much from her. (She asked me who is my God and then drew a picture of the cross alongside her Muslim symbol and her friend drew a picture of Ganesh as she was a Hindu. This was such a special morning).

After grabbing a bite we headed off to meet another local project working with children whose families live along the edge of the River in Chennai. The stench from this heavily polluted River hit us as we got out of the car, it was vile. We walked through the piles of rubbish to meet the families and children who live amongst the debris that is dumped by the river. Their shelters are plastic sheets and flies were everywhere. These are migrant workers, many working in the sewerage systems in Chennai. The children explained how the local organisation had helped them set up a Child Council and had persuaded them all to attend school. The child council meets with the local NGO to discuss their needs and represents the other children in their “community”.

 

This has been a truly challenging day and we have lots to consider......

The Hotel is a haven of air conditioning, clean cotton sheets and serenity – a far cry from just outside where the madness of Chennai unfolds for us.

 

We landed at 0325 local time, after two hours in the airport waiting for baggage; we managed to get one-hour sleep before our breakfast meeting with Silvano who works for IID.

 

For Rianna’s Fund the trip is about beginning to understand the issues faced by the poorest of children in this area and meeting up with some of the local organisations who are offering some assistance to see if there are projects which Rianna’s Fund can become involved with. It is also forming relationships with some local NGO’s (Non Governmental Organisations), which may blossom now, or in the future.

 

IID is an organisation that has been involved in helping the very poorest in this area for over 30 years.   Silvano took us the short drive to the coast to see the Ethos Project and Day Care Centre. The South Eastern coast of India was one of the main areas hit by the Tsunami in 2004. Some very basic huts have set up along the beach, and step back just a few hundred metres and you are in a slum area. Here basic housing is in huts made of palm leaves, and children sit among the rubbish surrounded by flies.

The Ethos Day Care Centre has been built to offer an alternative to pre-school children aged between 3 – 5 years old from the slums. The centre also offers a daily distribution of milk and bread for mothers of younger children. They entertained us singing and performing the actions to a number of songs. One small boy led us in the Lord’s prayer. Meanwhile, we melted in to puddles of sweat from the heat inside the day centre. The teachers were delightful and so committed to their work.

 

Our next visit was to the other side of the City through the most horrific traffic. Mopeds transporting whole families with children perched on the handlebars, taxis, rickshaws, buses overflowing with bodies, and push bikes being used to carry huge amounts of provisions, and all the time that deafening sound of blaring horns – this could only be India.

Our next stop was at the IID College. Here children from the school drop outs and children from IID Orphanages can receive training in practical skills such as Accountancy, Computing, Tailoring and even the old craft of batik.

 

On again to our lunchtime meeting and to our delight this was in an air-conditioned hotel - what joy! Here we enjoyed a banana leaf lunch; small portions of different food are served on a banana leaf and eaten with your hand. We met Sam and Priya who had previously worked for IID running a home and community centre for 105 boys. Through them we visited a community centre, which was another 40 minutes drive. At this community centre we met two groups of the most marginalized people being helped via the Church of South India – families affected by AIDS and transgender.

 

We were very encouraged to hear of some of the positive work being undertaken by the Indian government to create awareness of HIV AIDS, however, in a society where clear sex education is still not accepted, the messages are not always clear. We met ladies who had been infected by their husbands prior to their deaths from the disease. The stigma of being HIV positive has led to their families ostracising them and so they are left to support themselves and their children, many who are also HIV positive. There is access to anti retroviral drugs but we heard of the problems associated with taking these drugs, mainly lethargy and the need for a very regular and wholesome food intake, which is not always available.

Each year Rianna’s Fund has been able to continue to advance in helping underprivileged children in the world and on October 6^th a team from Rianna’s Fund will be travelling to India to look at some possible projects for the Charity to support.

 

In spite of the growing wealth in certain areas of India, over 30% of the population live on less than $1 per day and social barriers often prevent the poorest from benefiting from the new prosperity.

 

Rianna’s Fund have previously supported a classroom build in a rural area of India, but now wants to better understand the issues facing the poorest of children and hopefully offer support to those children most in need. The trip will include time with organisations in Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Dornakal.

 

This trip we are going to be keeping a blog of the visit so please visit www.sgsgashtead.com after 6^th October for regular updates.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support; as usual anyone travelling on the trips will be funding their own travel expenses to ensure that maximum funding go to the children who need it.

 

We would welcome your prayers for the trip and look forward to sharing our experiences with you on our return.