| Dear Friends |
December 2004
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Dear Friends
Late one night recently two women come through the gate of our Children’s Village called Anbu Illam (Place of Love). One of them is carrying a tiny baby and I find out that it was born 5 days before in a hospital where they had to use surgery. It is a baby boy and the mother’s name is Mary. The other lady is her sister and she had to accompany Mary because she was so utterly weak. Indeed they had hardly come inside before she collapsed. They had travelled at least 200 miles from Kerala and wanted to leave the child with us. She claims that her husband has deserted her and that she has been driven out of her own village. We immediately took the mother to a hospital ten kilometres away because I was afraid she would die, she was so terribly weak. However she decided to leave the hospital after a few days against everyone’s advice and off she went back to Kerala leaving the baby with us.
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| When I told this story to the children and asked them what the baby’s name should be since the mother was Mary. They all thought it should be called Jesus. We could not have a child with that name so we have called it Christudas, which is near enough.
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| This is a true Christmas story with which I can greet you all at this season.
Another new born baby came to us which had been found left on a roadside. Next to the child was a collection of documents from a medical laboratory in Tiruchi which is a good 100 miles from here. The documents stated that the mother and the baby were both HIV positive. There were no addresses on the documents. Why should a mother come 100 miles to leave a baby on a roadside where pigs roamed and also leave documents to show that there was AIDS involved?
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| A child we have never before had to welcome was a bright little girl who is eight years old. She had been married to a man who is 37 years old with all the usual village ceremonies which included the tying of a small gold thali on cords soaked in saffron. This is the equivalent of a wedding ring and indicates that the girl is truly married. The law is clear that the minimum age must be eighteen not eight. So, the man was arrested and the police brought the child to us. She is now in school where she wants to be and lives in our Anbu Illam Children’s Village, secure and happy – and very lucky. |
| At the same time we admitted two other children. One is a boy whose parents have both died from AIDS. He is one of the growing number of AIDS orphans now in our care. Presently we have 130 such boys and girls. Since the beginning of the year the increase in such children is dramatic, from 40 to 130 in six months and increasing every month. We are one of the very few institutions who will gladly accept any such children. |
| Then in came Murugeswari a seven year old girl who had had several serious abdominal operations. One had gone wrong and caused a large hernia. She is now well and safe and back in school. She had missed a lot of schooling and so is in the lower classes and also in our Children’s Village.
I am most grateful to those who sponsor a child in our care. This is truly a valuable help for the years ahead.
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| This growing problem of an AIDS/HIV epidemic is now beginning, only beginning to show its very ugly and very problematic consequences. Eventually both husband and wife will invariably become infected with the disease for which there is no cure. If the sufferers have plenty of money all they can do is slow down the disease until it becomes terminal. The cost is way beyond the normal average income and for those who are inflicted with HIV beyond their dreams, because quite simply they cannot work and thus earn. And so the whole family will suffer grievously and be reduced to starvation levels. And we began to find more and more families reduced to penury, which for us all in our work was intolerable, especially as it involved children who for no fault of their own could not survive. The disease has no respect for caste or financial levels. And so with RTU policies such as they are, we decided that we would have to adopt such families. In two weeks we found 30 families living close to starvation and we know this number will increase dramatically. I am writing this in October and by the time it reaches you we know that number will treble. |
| We are determined to support these families with all they need for as long as they need. To start we will provide them with cash for their daily needs as well as whatever is needed for medical care, children’s schooling, etc.. We have no fixed fund for this but this is how RTU operates anyway.
This is in addition to two other similar programmes, similar in so far as poverty creates untold hardship among village people.
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| Because we have endured a 5-year drought with regularly failing monsoons (we can expect normal rains only in November each year) and because the villagers are farmers, there has been no steady income. No work means no food. We found children going from house to house begging for a little to eat and going to local schools without breakfast. The norm was one meal a day and that was wholly inadequate – just a little rice. There was no money for vegetables from distant markets. All the other consequences from no source of income can easily be imagined. We now have 207 families on this programme, with monthly support. For this also we have no fixed finance, but have so far managed. With an average of 5 to a family, 1035 will benefit and be able to survive. |
| Because our three Children’s Villages are full up and because many children still needed help, we started a home-sponsorship programme for children who would normally be admitted to a Children’s Village. As long as children go to school we support them but they still are able to live at home. This way the child was not institutionalised, and also the whole family benefited. We also provide each child in the family with all it needs to continue schooling. On this programme we now have 243 families so that 720 children benefit and have no excuse for not going to school. This obviates starting more Children’s Villages.
These new programmes, we know, will cost RTU up to £50,000 annually. We know that Providence will provide all we need. It never fails.
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| And now an entry from my diary: Soon after starting work in the morning, a very distressed young mother came to me with such a tiny, sickly, marasmic baby boy. “You take care of this child. You save it.” I took it in my arms. It was barely alive, like a tiny dying baby bird. It was dying. So thin, so emaciated. A triangular face, pinched, no fat at all, and its little shrunken arms stretched out. I took it to our small prayer room, sat down, placed it on my lap and prayed deeply after blessing it with holy oil. It was so vulnerable, so close to death, so fragile.
(The next day, (a short entry) The little baby that was so ill yesterday is safe now.)
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| Although we live in an area which is more than 98% Hindu and Muslim, Christmas in our work is celebrated with many functions. Each year we have a beautifully conducted Christmas Eve Service and the hall is full to overflowing, mostly our own children and staff. But during the previous week each of the schools and Children’s Villages will have put on their own Nativity plays. This will involve the 2000 or so children we help in one way or another. All the boys and girls who are in our full care, all 750 of them, will receive new clothes and other treats. I sometimes say to myself that Mary and Joseph had only one Jesus to care for and we have 750 and more to fully care for, if we are to believe the Gospel: “Whoever receives one such child in my name, receives me.”
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| Christmas is also a very happy time for all of us. Each Christmas time all our children from the three Children’s Villages, the three Youth Hostels and the growing crowd in boarding schools, come together for several days. Accommodation becomes a bit of a problem in just one centre for the boys and girls and all their carers. Somehow we manage and everyone has a time of joy and sharing.
To end on another happy note: one of our girls studying to be a doctor has passed her final exams and can now put MBBS after her name. She came to us as a baby and is now a House Surgeon in a big hospital. Many of our protégées have done remarkably well in their professional studies.
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| Without your generosity, much of what we do would not be possible. To all of you who help RTU in various ways, many, many thanks, a Happy Christmas and God bless you.
Cordially yours
Brother James Kimpton
If you are able to make a donation, cheques etc should be made out to Reaching the Unreached and sent to the following:
Max Philbrick, 11 Crofts Avenue, Corbridge, Northumberland NE45 5LY
Phone: 01434 632707
Email: max.philbrick@rtu.org.uk
If you would like to receive this newsletter in a large print version, please let us know and we will supply it.
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| PLEASE READ THIS: IT IS IMPORTANT
Dear Friends
Since the going of Christine and Linda, your RTU Trustees have been searching for a new way ahead to take us into the future as a well run Charity. As a result of consultation and interview we have selected Max Philbrick to take charge of the day to day running of R.T.U. He will, come the New Year be responsible for all that has previously been done here in Bournemouth, with the exception of the Newsletter, which will still operate from Bournemouth. Max has already had two spells of training at Bournemouth, and since September has been working in tandem with Jo, here, on the financial side. So as from January 1st 2005 the RTU Office will be:
Max Philbrick
11 Crofts Avenue
Corbridge
Northumberland NE45 5LY
01434 632707
Email: max.philbrick@rtu.org.uk
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All future communications should be addressed to the above. Do not worry if you forget and send to me as you have been used to doing. I shall forward all such mail on to Corbridge.
I know that Jo and I will feel a huge gap in our lives once the move is complete. We know, too, that we can rely upon you all to continue to support RTU and Max as you have done for us over the years. Max has had some considerable experience of Third World projects, and I know, will give you every service and confidence in the future. Brother James in India is fully aware of this change and gives it his complete support. Max will be making a training visit to RTU Village India in January, along with our Trustee, Richard Adams. This will be invaluable to Max at this early stage at RTU.
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Jo and I will still be Trustees, and you are welcome, if you so wish, to keep in touch. Thank you all again for your support, encouragement and friendship over the years.
David and Jo Cassidy
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| Cordially yours, |
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| Brother James
Kimpton |
