She is known to them simply as 'Auntie', but to many children across India she is so much more than that.
Julie Foster is a Trustee of Children United! a charity which works with a congregation of Sisters based in the country to help them to build and run schools, orphanages, children's hostels and creches.
The organisation was formed in the late 1980's after Reverand Philip Jepps, from St Andrew's Church in Kettering, visited a 'Boys' Town' project in India. While there, he was taken ill and admitted to a hospital run by a congregation of Sisters - members of the Catholic Cross of Chavanod, originally from France - who looked after him until he was well enough to return home.
In return the St. Andrews' congregation decided to raise some money to assist the Sisters in their work.
Rev. Jepps' daughter Helen, together with another Trustee Stephanie Fretter visited in 1990 and the charity grew from there.
Julie has been working for Children United! for 13 years and recently began another trip to see how the charity's numerous projects are progressing.
Many of them are funded by the efforts of school children in the South Northamptonshire region, including those from Blisworth School, Caroline Chisholm School, Hunsbury Park School and Milton Malsor School.
Even the Sisters know Julie as 'Auntie' and her trips around India - and work at home - make fascinating reading.
This section of The Hunsbury Herald covers all the latest news from Julie's efforts with Children United!
Motoring in India:
Greetings from India! I have been visiting India for the past 20 years, for a charity I set up called Children United!
We work with a group of Sisters (Nuns) and help them in their work with the poor. We link schools here in the UK to ones in India. I visit the various projects - schools, orphanages, children’s hostels, crèches and women’s refuges and take photos and films to show the schools and groups in the UK exactly how their money has been spent.
Now with impending old age and a dodgy knee, I tend towards the luxury of taxis rather than the buses I used to use when younger and fitter. I have just been in the worst taxi ever and having the prospect of at least a four-hour wait for a Sister, I thought I would compose a guide to motoring in southern India.
BUSES come in two categories - luxury and standard. Both tend to be very old and battered and filthy both inside and out. Luxury coaches tend to be longer-distance and only stop at main towns.
The others stop every few hundred yards or so. Luxury buses have upholstered seats (still filthy) while bench seats are on the standard buses. The only glass is in the front windscreen but the other ‘windows’ have bars over them, so there is no chance of getting out in an emergency.
Each seat holds three and there are frequent seat changes as decency dictates that I cannot sit next to a man, so if there is a spare seat and the wife is sitting next to the window, she and her husband must swap so I can sit next to the wife.
I have my destination written both in English and the local language, and on arriving at a bus stand, find an extremely smart gentleman dressed in khaki uniform (usually a retired police officer), bow politely and say ‘Carli Vanicom’ (good morning) and show him where I want to go to.
He will summon some minion, who will take me to the correct bus stand. I have even been escorted onto the bus before anyone else and one man flicked his handkerchief over the seat to ‘dust’ it for me. The conductor is instructed to tell me when I have reached my destination.
Otherwise, in order to get a seat, pass over the crowds a piece of luggage or even clothing and someone will put it on a seat, thus ‘saving’ it for you. If seated and a lady with a baby or small child gets on the bus, you take the baby from her.
I really enjoyed this until half-an-hour into a six-hour journey one baby ‘wee’d’ on me! It is a really cheap way to travel, horrible if you are standing squashed in the aisle although I am taller than most so can breathe, unlike those hanging out of the doors in the dust. It is rather scary when you see the driver starting the engine by touching two wires together!
MOTORBIKES: Privately owned cars are rarely seen in the poor rural areas where I go, but if you are quite well-off, then the family vehicle will be a motorbike.
Also there are lots of ‘Honda Melody’ type motorcycles for rich ladies and even some school girls, made by Suzuki as well as Honda. The most popular type of motorbike is the Royal Enfield and these are the preferred motorbikes of all Parish Priests. Whole families will ride on the motorbike. So Dad will drive with one or two children between him and the handlebars. Mum will be at the back, riding side-saddle with the baby on her lap and there may be a child or two, squashed between her and Dad.
When my friend’s sister got married, their brother would collect me each day on his motorbike. Saris and motorbikes are not compatible! So I have to ride ‘side-saddle’ and make sure that I am sitting on the parts of my sari that would otherwise be blowing about in the wind.
Again, decency dictates that I cannot be in bodily contact with the man. So I have to maintain a gap between us - that’s very difficult. When there is nothing else to hold onto, as happened once, I threw modesty to the wind and put my hands on his shoulders. After all, I am a married woman and treated with great respect, so hope my good reputation did not disappear as we drove along.
Some Sisters have motorcycles, especially community nurses/midwives who have to travel to many remote villages to visit their patients/hold clinics etc. Sr. Shiny offered to take me to one of her outlying villages on her motorcycle. So with bike fully laden, we set off. I later told her that in the UK we have to wear helmets; yes, she also was supposed to wear one. Yes, she also was supposed to take a proficiency test but hadn’t. Yes, she also was supposed to have insurance, but why did she need insurance when she had God to protect her?
LORRIES: Most are either Tata or Ashok Leyland make, all are brightly painted and have various slogans. ‘Sound Horn’ is always there as you have to blow your horn whenever overtaking anything or going around a corner.
Other advice includes ‘Rash Driving Reduces Life,’ ‘Avoid Drunk And Drive,’ ‘One Family, One Child,’ and ‘Be Clean, Be Green.’
Unnerving journeys include being behind a lorry-load of bullocks, about eight of them, all tied together so that their rear ends were facing me. I was in an auto (rickshaw) with about two meters of air only between me and their bottoms. Thankfully none of them needed to relieve themselves!
I have also followed a lorry carrying an elephant; this is considered very lucky but it didn’t feel so, as again his rear was facing me!
One of the strangest sights is a moving haystack. A lorry is so loaded that the straw nearly reaches the ground, so from the back and side the vehicle cannot be seen at all.
Lorries tend to be kept in good repair as they are the owner’s livelihood and must last for many, many years. However, some repair methods are rather different to ours. For example, if you have a leak in your radiator, simply place one small boy on the side of your lorry, standing on the corner of the front bumper. Have another small boy in the cab with you who has several containers of water. He will fill a jug with water, pass to the boy outside who will pour in the water to top up the rad. They had not heard of Radseal, although I did suggest an egg-white or two as a possible solution.
AUTOS or auto-rickshaws to give them their full names. Also known as tic-tics and seen throughout Asia. A small two-stroke engine motorcycle with a fabric covered cab on the back. Very cheap, but not suitable for long journeys or in very hilly areas.
How many Sisters (Nuns) can you get into the back of an auto? Answer - eight. No, it’s not a joke. After midnight Mass on a New Year’s Eve (or rather 2.30am by the time it had finished,) it was minus two degrees but it felt much colder as I was only dressed in a sari and sandals. There were no taxis around so we all squeezed into the one auto. Thankfully it was all down-hill as there was no way it would cope with the merest uphill slope.
TAXIS: The most commonly used are the big Ambassador Novas, but smaller foreign cars are occasionally seen. Again the quality and condition vary greatly, but the best thing is that the Sisters use taxis owned by former pupils or fathers of present pupils. So you are charged a fair price, taken door to door and have your luggage carried for you.
At Kodai Kanal, one Dad wanted to take me down the mountain to Batlagundu as he had a brand new car. Said car duly arrived, sparklingly new and I made the appropriate noises - it was the nicest and best taxi I had ever seen etc. I usually sit in the front, as I am not a good traveller and I was astounded to see seat belts fitted - the first time I had seen them in India. The belt unreeled beautifully, only to find that there was no clasp to fit it into! The driver chided me, asking why I wanted to wear a seat-belt? The Sisters were praying for me, so a seat belt was unnecessary.
CARS: Usually only the big Ambassador Nova taxis are seen. On a recent drive through Kerala (the most prosperous state in India,) I saw cars by Suzuki, Honda, Maruti, Fiat, Renault, Seat, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi and Hyundai.
If you own such a car, there are now workshops offering computerised wheel alignment and such like. Adverts in Kerala (on huge boards next to the road) included “What if the heavens open today?” showing a Volkswagon car, extolling the virtues of ESP. Most manufacturers concentrate on showing how economical their vehicles are, with 23 km/litre the best I have seen. Petrol is 60.69 rupees/litre and diesel 40.73 rupees/litre, so that’s £1/litre and 66p/litre - expensive!
Also appearing now are little Piaggio trucks, open backed with what seems little carrying capacity, but very nippy and well suited to the roads here.
Car repair garages are very difficult to see as everything, including the mechanics, are totally covered in oil and dirt and absolutely black. The opposite to this is the workshop that is totally white. Everything, including the men and boys who are working there, are covered in a thick white dust, which drifts around the surrounding area. Their trade? Asbestos sheeting, which they will cut to size for you using an ordinary saw.
Exhaust blowing? Go to the major roundabout in the town. On said roundabout will be a man with oxy-acetylene welding equipment. Your exhaust will be removed and a small boy will dodge the traffic and get the pipe or box to the man who will then weld on a patch or patches to repair. Exhaust will be refitted and you can go on your way.
Rear suspension gone? Go to a scrap yard and purchase a rear seat squab. Place on top of the rear seat already in your car and your passengers in the back will be totally cushioned against pot-holes. Downside to this repair? Concussion due to constantly hitting head on roof.
The taxi I have just travelled in? Hardly a square inch of bodywork that was not damaged and some gaping holes. When I got into the (filthy!) front seat I could see a line of daylight between the sill and the floor. ‘Floor’ is an exaggeration as my seat was not actually attached to anything, although a plank of wood was involved somehow. The oil warning light was on, but the rest of the dash just had holes in it, where the other instruments should have been. Lots of wiring showing everywhere.
Nice happy friendly driver but he didn’t shut up all the time we were travelling, even though he knew I did not understand a word he was saying. The roads here are particularly bad, due to recent flooding, so for the first half-hour he did not get out of second gear. However, when we reached good roads, he still didn’t go above second gear - the others obviously didn’t work!
This piece was written a few weeks ago and I recently had another long journey and again decided to go in a taxi, as going by bus would involve six or seven bus changes and I had too much luggage to cope with that.
The taxi arrived and I was astonished. A brand new Toyota (sorry didn’t notice which model in my state of shock,) in metallic ice blue with 3600km on the clock. It still had the plastic on the seats and had AIR CONDITIONING, electric windows and door mirrors, CD player and even an air freshener.
Let me just repeat AIR CONDITIONING as you cannot begin to understand what that meant to me. It is hot here, usually very hot. During the daytime, especially between 11.30am and 4pm, it can be extremely hot, going down to merely ‘hot’ at night.
Two places I visit, Munnar and Kodai Kanal are high up in mountains, so they are much cooler, but down on the plains you just have to put up with the heat. So I had the prospect of a seven-hour journey in an air-conditioned car. Bliss!
The driver seemed to be a very nice chap - very friendly but quite young to have such a new car. Unfortunately he drove like a young driver. His foot was either hard down on the accelerator or hard down on the brake. So, despite always taking a travel sickness pill, I had to ask him to stop so I could be sick within about three miles of leaving the convent!
Part of our journey took us onto a motorway! I had never been on one before in India and was very impressed. We travelled about 70 miles on it and it varied between two and three lanes each way.
So... things seen on a motorway that you do not see on motorways in the UK:
1. Crossroads. At most towns there would be vehicles crossing the motorway, dodging the oncoming traffic.
2. Cows, either led by people or wandering in a line on their own, going to be milked, or as is quite normal throughout India, just sitting in the road.
3. Goats and donkeys.
4. A ‘crocodile line’ of small children going to school.
5. A group of men playing cards.
6. Groups of men just chatting.
7. Ladies, wearing high visibility jackets, sweeping newly laid parts of the road with grass brushes.
8. Ladies carrying kerbstones on their heads, wearing yellow hard hats with flat tops!
9. Everyone uses their mobile phone while driving. Phone calls here are so cheap that everyone can afford a mobile phone. A five minute call costs 10 paise. There are 100 paise in one rupee and 70 rupees to the pound. So that makes a call cost about a tenth of a penny. However seeing a man riding a motorbike, texting, was quite a sight!
Things seen coming straight towards us that were on the wrong side of the ‘crash barrier‘. (Crash barrier is actually narrow raised section with bushes planted on it.):
1. A bus; actually several buses. One with no suspension on the near-side and people hanging off the side of the bus having to crouch so as not to touch their feet on the ground. I guess the bus was going at least 30mph.
2. A JCB.
3. A small boy riding an adult’s bike coming towards us in the ‘fast’ lane.
4. An ambulance.
I then noticed that a lorry had a spare tyre that was totally bald. So I started to check the other lorries. The next three also had bald tyres, but the next two didn’t. They didn’t have a spare tyre. There are lots of weighbridges for lorries, but I guess they do not have MOT’s, either for lorries or cars. (Or buses, or any vehicles I suspect.)
I wondered about safety checks on aeroplanes. I flew from Madurai to Bangalore as it only cost £52 and saved me two days on a bus. At the airport there were the usual big jets but also a funny-looking one with props. Yes, I ended up going on that one! I did take notes - it was an ATR 72 500 and piloted by a LADY captain!
I have not seen any ‘old’ cars or vehicles. Neither have I ever seen any ‘proper’ trains, only diesel ones pulling up to 30 carriages. There are ‘proper’ trains in the mountains near our orphanages at Munnar and Kodai Kanal (there were some TV programmes last year about them,) so perhaps one year I can visit our projects and Gervais can ride up and down mountains on steam trains to his heart’s content.
Wednesday, March 23:
My first stop was at Ritapuram School. The new school building is finished and in use and there are lots of new desks and benches - thanks to Burton Latimer Church, Luke & Clipston School. We just need to finish the science lab and our work here will be done.
Then on to Pandithitta School - and more than twice the children than when I was here two years ago! The new library is fabulous, thanks to Thrapston Probus and Standen’s Barn School. The school had it’s very important Government inspection on January 19 and passed, with a confirmation that we would complete the science laboratory here as well.
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| Children at Pandithitta School |
Munnar Nursery now has books, tables, chairs, and money for milk thanks to Weston Favell School. We would like to continue to pay for the milk and snacks.
Batlagundu Crèche and Vettimukal Nursery - also take children from the poorest families, enabling their mothers to go for work. The children get a healthy lunch and milk, thanks to Stanion and Hunsbury Park Schools, and we would like to continue to give an annual donation to both projects.
Kodai Kanal School and Boarding - supported by Blisworth and Creaton Schools. Now with 288 children in the Boarding! In 2011, they just want help with feeding these children.
Karisalpatti Boarding - 62 abandoned / very poor children aged 5-10, who need feeding! We are setting up a sponsorship scheme to feed them.
Thangachimadam - how long has St Loy’s school single-handedly supported the Orphanage? The school now has it’s first computer but we would like to pay for a water filter and books for the children.
Mannackannad - our Special School, opened 10 years ago, successfully changing attitudes towards disability in India, but now needs repairing and redecorating.
Maski - Two projects here; for orphaned and abandoned teenage girls, a hostel where they learn how to sew. They are then given a sewing machine and rehomed with vetted families. Also a boarding hostel for children who live too far away from secondary schools. We would like to continue to help both projects.
Malur - a women’s refuge with up to sixty ladies and their children. Corby Rotary and Mr Bridge helped to set up a new dispensary here. Malur has asked for help with the children’s food and education in 2011.
The total raised in 2010 was £11,653.01 -
Batlagundu crèche £355.98
Kodai Kanal School and boarding £1463.45 (plus 12 computers from Mercedes at Brixworth)
Malur women’s refuge £1050
Maski boarding and sewing projects £688.66
Munnar boarding £2285
Munnar nursery £100
Pandithitta school £722
Ritapuram school £1914.13
Thangachimadam orphanage £1840
Vettimukal Nursery £75
Thangachimadam School £500
Posting huge amounts of medical supplies to Malur and Batlagundu Children’s Clinics £322
The remaining money, allocated to Mannackannnad and Maski, has been carried forward to this year, meaning the total raised over the years is now nearly £93,000.
Things you don't hear in a UK school:
Teacher to her class: "Well done children, you are all here today. So we have all 86 children here."
Headmistress to children: "Remember to keep all doors bolted, or the monkeys will come in."
Aims for 2011 - It’s mainly food we need this year. Prices start at 2p for a school dinner! We are starting a child sponsorship scheme, or if you don’t want to sponsor a child, would you consider setting up a standing order to buy the children an egg each month instead? £3 pays for an egg, £2.58 for lentils, £1.50 for protein powder, or £1.72 for a tumbler of milk for all 62 children at Karisalpatti.
Our bank details:- Barclays Bank, Kettering.
Account name: Children United.
Acc. No: 10941735
Sort code: 20-45-81
Details on our website or write/email if you would like further information on the charity or any of the projects.
Please remember that every single penny you give goes to the children - there are no deductions either in the UK or in India. If you pay tax, then we can claim this back through Gift Aid. That gives us another 25p for every pound donated.
Monday, February 7:
I had been to Karisalpatti before to visit friends.
It was just a small convent with a women's sewing project. My friend Hilaria was recently transferred here and as Karisalpatti is only a short distance from Batlagundu, I asked my nice taxi-man to take me there.
I expected a quiet restful day, drinking tea and eating too many biscuits. When I got there I did not recognise the place!
From a tiny convent to a huge one and two other large buildings each side of metal gates. The building to the left had a Leonard Hospital sign on the front so that was self-explanatory.
The building to the right was still being constructed.
So after meeting some of the Sisters and having a cup of coffee I went on a tour of the campus.
The only thing I could recognise was the view of the mountains from the roof. Before, the convent seemed to be just in the middle of a field, but they had planted lots of trees - supportas and limes (which were fruiting) and coconut, plantain (banana), mango and papaya which were quite small so not fruiting yet.
The trees were watered by a system of little channels and dams and they had a new well, which was full due to recent rain.
Beautiful
It was just so beautiful and peaceful there. Lots of birds and butterflies and no lorries thundering past sounding their horns as they do in Batlagundu. The hospital turned out to be a dispensary, so like a little hospital but run by a nurse, rather than by a doctor.
The building being constructed turned out to be an orphanage/boarding. I had never heard of it before, although we already help several boardings, orphanages and children's hostels as they tend to have very little income. Most of our children in these establishments have been abandoned. Some are true orphans or may have family problems. Whatever their circumstances, usually they are unable to give any money towards their keep - food, clothing, school fees and uniforms, medical care, toiletries etc. etc.
This boarding started three years ago with just ten children. Now they have 62, aged from five to ten, and a waiting list.
The ground floor of the building was the original boarding hall - just one large room and two small rooms at the end - one the kitchen and the other the warden.
Outside there was a little building which housed the toilets and a large sink. Some people who had worked with Sr. Hilaria on a previous project went to visit her as they were nearby. On seeing 60 children all squashed in one room trying to sleep, they offered the money to build another room above.
Now the older children will be upstairs so they can study without the disturbance of the younger children running around and playing. Of course, they will all have more space to sleep as well.
There are big concrete shelves at one end of the room, so the children can keep their trunks (big metal boxes) with any spare clothing, toothbrush and paste etc. in.
There is a blackboard on the wall, but that's about all. On the outside of the building along one side there is a step about 20cm high and deep, that they sit on to eat their meals. Now they are building a wall about 2m from the building with pillars to support a tin roof, so the children can still eat here when it is raining and also gives them more undercover space to play in.
So that's the good news. Now the bad. Their food.
No protein, meat, fish, eggs, cheese etc. No milk or yogurt. No fat, no sugar
If you feel brave enough, why not try it just for one day. Then try to imagine it for seven days a week, every week of the year, if you can. Let me tell you their daily routine.
They wake at 6am and do some housework - picking up any litter, sweeping up the leaves and generally keeping the campus clean and tidy.
After cleaning their teeth and washing, they get dressed and have prayers, including 15 minutes meditation. Breakfast is at 7.30am - boiled rice. Never anything else, served plain or sometimes with some spice in the water. Water to drink - again never anything else.
They then get ready for school, finish any homework or study. They leave for school at 8.30am and it is only a short walk away on the same road.
At school the lessons are much the same as we have, apart from learning English as well as their own native language which is Tamil.
They have school dinners which is boiled rice with a thin gravy called sambal made of water, spice and dhal. Very occasionally there is some chopped egg in it, but no vegetables, meat or fish.
They finish school and come home at 4.30pm.
On Sundays, a few of the children may have a relative or friend visit them who may bring some biscuits or sweets.
So on Monday, if you have had a visitor you can have a snack after school. After school chores include doing your own washing, unless you are in the first standard (aged 5) when the fifth standard children (10 year-olds) will help you.
You fetch water in a jug or bucket, wet your clothes, rub them with soap on a stone bench, rinse them and hang them to dry. Most of the clothes they were wearing were too small and torn/all buttons missing/held together with safety pins.
Most of the children love gardening - pulling up the weeds and grass that grow in the orchard and looking after the greens that they cultivate.
During February to April, the supporta trees fruit and the children are allowed to eat as many as they want. Supportas look like our kiwi fruit, but inside they are brown instead of green and have several large black pips.
Hopefully the guava trees will soon start fruiting but it will be many years before the plantain (banana) and mango trees do. They get about 15 limes a week from the lime trees and these are made into a pickle to flavour the rice, but there is never enough.
They play until 6pm, study until 7pm and come into the convent to watch the national and international news until 7.30pm. Then the evening meal - boiled rice with either a little dhal or vegetable, but never both.
So no protein, meat, fish, eggs, cheese etc. No milk or yogurt. No fat, no sugar, which growing children need. A completely unbalanced diet with insufficient vitamins, minerals etc. And nothing nice to eat!
8.15pm is story time and bed.
The children here only go to school on Saturdays if they need to catch up with any work. On the day I visited, they were all at school as there had been two holidays in January, Pongal, their harvest festival and Republic Day.
At the weekends they have more free time although they still have some jobs to do and they have to do their homework.
Most children sleep for much of the weekends, probably because they are all anaemic - a blood disorder due to their poor diet. The nurse treats about 25 of them each day for infections, coughs, colds etc. for the same reason.
The children at the orphanage at Thangachimadam are very rarely ill - because the children at St. Loy’s School pay for them to have such a good diet.
So, the cost of a better diet.
1 litre of milk would give 10 tumblers full. So they would need six litres of milk for all the children to have one tumbler of milk. This would cost £1.71. Ideally we would like them to have three tumblers a week - we are looking into supplying calcium powder at Kodai Kanal Boarding as they also do not have any milk, but whole milk also has protein, fat and essential vitamins so is much better for them.
Eggs cost 3.5 rupees each. So 62 eggs would cost 217 rupees which is £3.10. One egg a week would be sufficient as they could have half an egg twice a week.
Vegetables - depends on the time of the year and the type of vegetable, but between 15 and 50 rupees (between 21p and 71p) would buy enough vegetables for all of the children for one meal.
Dhal (lentils). They would need 2kg for all of the children for one meal to make a healthy and nutritious sauce for the rice. Dhal costs about 90 rupees/kg, so this would cost 180 rupees = £2.57.
Biscuits for a snack after school. Three rupees for a packet of 11 biscuits and each child would eat three biscuits. So 186 biscuits needed = 17 packets = 51 rupees = 73p. Other after-school snacks could be tiffin, rather like our Bombay mix with dried peas, peanuts and different grains. Or green dhal - boiled mung beans, or chickpeas. Grown locally so reasonably 'cheap'
Sweets as an occasional treat. 45 rupees for 100 sweets. So each sweet is 0.45 rupee each x 62 = 28 rupees = 40p.
Fish and meat are out of the question, but protein powder is made from nuts and different kinds of grain. This costs 35 rupees/kg = 50p; they would need 3kg a week (£1.50) and this could be mixed into the sambal and would also thicken it.
As a change from boiled rice for breakfast every morning they would like to occasionally give idli - a kind of steamed rice cake, or uppama - a grain like wheat that can be made into a kind of porridge. Uppama flour costs 42r/kg = 60p, Aashirvaad flour is 36r/kg = 51p and there is also roasted rava, which is like semolina. The most nutritious grains such as ragi and jola are too expensive.
For the evening rice they just want something to give it taste or variety -such as pickle or dried vegetables, although fresh would obviously do them more good. I did suggest frying some onions, garlic, chillis and/or spice in oil which would give a very strong flavour to stir into the rice, but oil is 139 rupees / litre = £1.99, so far too expensive to use.
They receive 10,000 rupees from the Diocese each month (£142.86) which is spent mainly on rice. It also has to pay for water in the dry season, electricity and bottled gas for cooking, repairs, the septic tank to be emptied, the cooks and the girl who looks after the children's wages etc.
These children are getting the best education and children at our Boardings are always top of their classes and can go onto college etc. The Sisters also run nursing/teaching colleges. When they qualify, to ‘pay back’ the cost of their education, teachers have to work for us for three years and nurses four. This they are happy to do as it also gives them ‘work experience’ enabling them to get much better jobs.
Other costs
We would really like the children to have school uniforms. Not as vital as a good diet you may think, but the children are very conscious that they are not the same as the other children in the school. Cost for two sets of uniform (they have one plain and one checked) for each child is 300 rupees = £4.28.
Play equipment - just a cricket set, some balls, skipping ropes, Frisbees and such like.
Medical costs - Sr. Stella treats at least 25 children each day, mainly for various infections as well as the normal cuts and grazes. This will decrease rapidly once the children's diet improves.
Toiletries - toothbrushes are 10 rupees each =14p. Toothpaste 50r (71p) for a very big 200g tube. Soap 18 rupees (2.5p) per bar.
Children's backgrounds
Most are abandoned. It is very common for children to be abandoned due to poverty or when a woman remarries. If your husband dies or leaves you, there is no council housing, social security etc. So many remarry and it is very unusual for the husband to take on her children as well.
Such is the case with Raja and his two brothers. His two brothers are younger than him and so are at Paravai. This is a refuge that the Sisters run near Madurai.
It takes in abandoned/widowed/disabled/destitute women and gives them a small home. They look after four or five orphaned or abandoned babies and young children. When the children are five, they then come to one of the orphanages/boardings.
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| Meena and Asha were found living at a local train station and begging for food. A child sponsorship scheme has been set up at Karisalpatti to feed the children and pay for their schooling. |
Death of the mother in childbirth is also common, so some of the children here have a father who is unable to look after them and work. Such is the case with Kaunal, who has a little sister at Paravai.
The day that I visited, whilst we were sitting around the table trying to work out how much it would cost to give all the children an egg a week etc. a lady came to the door. She had come to fetch Kaunal as his father had been killed the previous evening. He had been working in the forests and when travelling home in the back of a lorry, a bolt had come undone and he fell out, landing on his head. Being the only son, Kaunal will have to carry out the funeral which will include having his head shaved and staying with the pyre for ten days afterwards. He is only seven.
We help the women's refuge at Malur and four orphanages/boardings - Kodai Kanal, Munnar, Maski and Thangachimadam. Bellary is now supported by the huge number of children who pay to go to the school there. Thangachimadam has been very generously supported by St. Loy's School for many many years, but we now need to add Karisalpatti to the list.
All of the children at all of these places are there for very good reasons. Even the children at Karisalpatti are so lucky because there are so many who have been turned away due to lack of space and finance.
So how to raise the money?
Penny pots. These have been very successful in the past. Just asking people to collect all their pennies for us. In a school with even just a couple of hundred children, it mounts up to a large amount. We need to get more schools, organisations, even businesses as well as individuals to collect for us.
Direct debits? In the twenty years I have been working for the children in India I have never directly asked for money. I ask the children to collect pennies if they would like to and when I give talks I ask for a donation to the charity rather than for a speaker's fee.
I don't like these 'Please give us £3 a month adverts' as by the time they have paid for the advertisement, staff, offices, overheads and other costs etc. etc. etc. how much money actually gets to where it is supposed to go to?
We are different in that we promise that every single penny given goes to the children - there are no overheads either in the UK or in India. All volunteers pay their own expenses and we also cover the cost of bank transfers, accountancy fees etc.
So if someone is willing to give £2.57 a month, that pays for 2kg of lentils. Or £3.10 a month would give all the children at Karisalpatti an egg. We encourage people to give to a specific project so that they have their 'own children' and can receive updates and newsletters.
Similarly if they wanted to pay for school uniforms for example, the money could easily be allocated thus. By having a direct debit they would only have to authorise their bank once and the projects could have a regular income.
By signing a Gift Aid form we can also claim another 25p for each £1 given, back from the tax-man!
Visit our website for more information and to see lots of photos of the various projects: www.childrenunited.btck.co.uk
If you have any suggestions to help us we would love to hear from you!
Please write to:-
Children United!
35, Derwent Crescent
Kettering
Northants
NN16 8UH
Or email: indiacu@talk21.com
Our registered charity number is:
1098864
Our bank details are:
Barclays Bank Kettering
Acc. name: Children United
Acc. no: 10941735
Sort code: 20-45-81
Friday, February 4:
Yesterday I managed a completely pungent-free (anything with chilli is pungent) day.
For breakfast today it was bulls-eye again - rice pancake with egg, followed by plantain (banana) and coffee. Made with all (full-fat) milk and coffee powder.
Most Indians seem to have huge amounts of sugar in it as well, but ours is specially made without.
You may be interested in their tea making method. Take one saucepan and pour in milk (this is going to be an all-milk tea, no water is used.) Add sugar and tea-bags to taste. Bring to the boil and simmer. Remove tea bags, pour into jug and serve.
Cravings
So... I was just about keeping my food cravings under control until I went to check my emails. Nice email from Gervais saying that he has posted essential supplies to me!
Followed by several nice photos - Braybrooke Church (he went on a ramble there yesterday with Kettering Rambling Club), the first snowdrops, and then a plate with lots of (frozen) chips, two eggs, a bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup and THREE Fry's chocolate creams. I'm now desperately hoping that he bought a four-pack and one of them is in my parcel of essential supplies!
At the moment I need Gervais to bring marmite sandwiches and a Fry’s chocolate cream to the airport when he picks me up. This may change the longer I am here!
Thursday, February 3:
Food
I am now on week five of my trip in India and have already hit the ‘I hate boiled rice’ stage.
Mumblings as I walk over to the refectory for breakfast, consist of ‘I really don’t want curry for breakfast,‘I really DON’T want curry for breakfast, ‘I REALLY don’t want curry for breakfast...'
Don’t get me wrong, whatever I have for lunch is lovely, but the portions of rice are getting smaller and smaller, and the portions of curry are getting larger. Supper is always lovely as I have chapattis or some kind of rice pancake with the curry. There are always bananas and other fruit.
It’s just curry for breakfast... So, I mentioned that Pat had never tried puttu or bull’s-eye (no, not that bull’s-eye!) before. Next day bull’s-eye, which is a rice pancake with an egg in the middle and you can tear off the edges and dip it in your egg yolk.
Served with curry of course, but we have ours without. Today puttu which is rice flour put into a cylindrical tube and steamed. You crumble it with your fingers and it looks like desiccated coconut. It is served with curry (of course!) but I mash up a banana and mix it in with that.
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| Children United! work with the Sisters |
Apart from bulls-eye and puttu, there might by idli (steamed rice cakes, a bit like very moist sponge cake, but no taste), dulsi (a very thin rice pancake) or apomb, which is a thicker rice pancake, something like a very thin crumpet.
These are all made by grinding rice and a white dhal (lentil) together until they are a powder. They are then mixed with water to form a batter and left overnight to ferment.
Then cooked in a variety of ways but always served with curry. There are also different types of porridge made with different grains - jola or ragi.