| Dear Friends |
June 2005
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| Dear Friends
On May 1st we had the grand opening ceremony for our fourth Children’s Village, Sirumalar Children’s Village which means Little Flower Children’s Village. The whole lay-out of this new Children’s Village is extraordinarily beautiful as well as being very functional. It truly is a paradise for the 112 children who will be living here with their “mothers” in 16 delightful houses which are all well equipped in every way. The centre piece of the whole is a simple but elegant auditorium where the inhabitants of this new Village can assemble. The mothers have their own shop where they can sell one another all the groceries needed to care for their children. Other buildings are the manager’s house and office and a meeting hall. There is plenty of available space for extension and in a corner of the large playground there are a variety of swings and slides.
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| This entire complex covering 2½ acres was built in a little more than 3 months. All the work was done by our own masons using local labour. The steel trusses for the roofs were made by the village blacksmiths. All the cement blocks, doors, windows, shelves were made in our own cement products department. Hardly any wood at all has been used in any of the buildings. We are convinced that this family-style system for the care of the poorest children who have already suffered enough is the best possible, though we are aware that it is also expensive. |
| The entire cost of this new Children’s Village was gifted by three organizations in Germany, from purchasing the land to planting all the gardens surrounding the buildings, and still some funds remain in case we need to build more houses. These three organisations were, German Agro Action in Bonn and Provinzial Insurance Co., Kiel and our old friends, Yoga-Vereinigung Rajagopalan. With the big demand this year for admissions and with the possibility of tsunami orphans arriving, this seems more than likely. We are profoundly grateful to the people in Germany who were so generous.
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| We have very recently received a request to construct 12 classes at St Joseph’s High School, Keelamudiman, a La Salle School. This is a Coastal village affected by tsunami. We learnt that most of the victims are studying in this school. The cost of construction, toilets and furnishings will work out at approximately £57,000. RTU UK are delighted to be able to support in part this request from RTU India, which has been approved by Brother James and his Director, Mr Gomathymurugan, and will be financed out of your contributions towards the Tsunami appeal, as these school children are mainly victims of the disaster.
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| Within days of the terrible tsunami disaster we made it very clear that we would gladly welcome any boys or girls from there who needed a refuge. Due to short-sighted government policies not one child has arrived after four months. However our admissions are going on rapidly and we expect 155 new children to be with us before schools start in June. Of these at least 130 will be from families affected by the AIDS epidemic who are either already orphans or whose parents suffering from HIV are too ill to care for the children. That will bring the number of AIDS affected children in our total care to about 300. This whole AIDS epidemic is going to be a huge problem and we are among the very few places who will gladly accept any such children. Only a minority seem to be aware or to care that the major problem is already the children left behind due to this terrible disease. The requests for admission for Tsunami affected children are now being received but often cancelled by government officials. Example, from a possible 25 down to 4, at the last count. Already we are having to build an extra 4 houses at the new Sirumalar Village in order to accommodate these Tsunami/and AIDS requests with the probability of more in the pipeline. However, our greatest worry is the ongoing escalating AIDS situation, which according to the latest figures put India on a par with Africa in this terrible plague. |
| We are finding families where the parents are either dead already or are so ill as to be unable to manage and where older children are left to cope somehow. I am surprised that this very real and great problem of children orphaned due to AIDS/HIV is not getting the attention it should or is completely ignored. This year, as last year, preference is being given to such children. |
| Our doors are wide open to welcome all children in need.
An example of the great need for places of refuge for children are the following stories.
We discovered a very young mother with four tiny children, from a new born to a four year old. She was married at 12 years of age. By 18 she already had 3 girls. Her husband then divorced her because she had only girl babies. She is not yet 20 and then had an affair with a neighbour and now has a baby boy in her arms. She has been chased out by everyone. We have taken the three little girls into one of our Children’s Villages and that allows the mother to work in another institution.
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| Another small girl came into our care very recently. She is eleven years old, a lovely Muslim child. Her father died some time last year. The mother and child were then forced to stay with one of the grandmothers who had no love for the girl and would not allow her to go to school and even burned all her school books. Eventually the mother fell in love with another man who insisted that she get rid of the girl if she wanted to join him. So the mother took the child with her on the bus to join this man, and at a distant very busy bus station told her to get out and go anywhere she liked, she was not wanted any more, and then went off to an unknown destination leaving the girl to manage all alone. In India, bus stations, like railway stations, are the worse places for a girl of this age to be entirely on her own. Fortunately the police noticed the child and brought her to one of our Children’s Villages which was nearby. She is now safe and happy with us, is again going to one of our schools, and has a new and affectionate “mother”. She is a lucky child, as many thousands of such children end up in brothels.
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| This is an excerpt from a letter I received in May from one of our girls who came as an orphan little girl and who has been right through our whole caring process and is now a staff nurse in a prestigious hospital in Bangalore. These are her own words. This will illustrate the difficulties as well as the success of children in our care. |
| “My dear Grandfather,
Loving greeting from Selvarani. How are you? I am fine. You might have wondered about me that not even a single letter from me. I am very sorry thatha. The reason is after getting a nice job only I have a right to write a letter for you. Otherwise if I am always depending on you that is not a correct way. Because from my childhood up to this stage you only brought me up, for everything I am indebted for you.
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| Month of April 28th only I attended the interview in St. John’s Hospital, at Bangalore. Everybody told me that it is a big institution you won’t get it. But I was selected. May 2nd I am going to join. But first year they will consider me as a trainee, so the payment is only Rs.3,000/- per month.
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| Thatha (Grandfather – Brother James), still I remember the incident which happened to me. We all went to Velanganni as a picnic. There I lost Rs.500/-. For that, at the age of 10, I got scolding from everybody. Nobody was there to console me. For 3 days I was crying like anything. Though you have hundreds of children under you, but you noticed me, and you gave sweets. You are the only person made me to laugh, and you gave Rs.500/- and you asked me to give that to my foster mother – Saraswathy. That day I may be a little girl, but if I remember also I used to cry. I felt alone. That day like a God you only came to me and showed your love to me. Often I used to pray for you.
Thank you very much for your kind love and help.” |
| In addition to the Children’s Villages we have two other innovative programmes for children in need. One is for children who can stay at home for as long as the parent/s can cope on the understanding that eventually the children may have to come into our care. In this way the whole family can benefit and the child is not institutionalised. There are about 150 families on this programme. Another similar programme is for families where both parents are HIV+. We have around 35 families receiving this benefit. This year the total number of children still with us in our care in four Children’s Villages, three youth hostels, a variety of boarding (residential) schools and colleges, and doing professional studies, comes to around 900. Already a large number are married or otherwise independent.
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| All this is a very important part of our whole work, which aims at overall development over a very wide area.
As always I am very aware that without the wonderful support and encouragement we receive from people like you, none of all this would be possible.
God bless each and everyone of you,
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| 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
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| Cordially yours, |
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| Brother James
Kimpton |
