| Dear Friends |
March 2008
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| Sangeetha is a nine year old girl who came to us as an AIDS orphan. She does not have HIV. She has been in our care for two years, and has kept in good health. |
| Suddenly three weeks ago as I write, she collapsed. She became paralysed, unable to talk, etc. After scans she was found to have acute encephalomyelitis, and the hospitals and doctors told us she would be little more than a vegetable if she survived. After intensive care in a large private hospital in Madurai, when she showed no improvement and was totally paralysed and in a coma, we brought her back to Leonard Hospital in nearby Batlagundu run by the Holy Cross Sisters. We gave instructions to discontinue any life-saving processes since she showed no signs of recovery. To survive like a vegetable in India, especially as a girl, would be a life of hell. |
| The day she was admitted to the paediatric ward she herself suddenly removed the various tubes into her body, sat up and said: “I am hungry, give me something to eat.” Immediately she became normal and 3 or 4 days later was discharged from the hospital as totally cured. She is back in our Children’s Village and back in school as a little happy, busy girl, like all the others, with her huge smile.
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| The children and child-care staff had been praying constantly to Blessed Mother Teresa and I had fixed Sangeetha’s photo to the portrait of Blessed Mother Teresa in the prayer hall of one of our Children’s Villages. We nagged Mother Teresa for her recovery. Sangeetha is now fully recovered after two weeks of being so seriously ill that we had all given up hope of her survival.
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| At the other end of the human scale is an old lady about whom we know nothing. As I was visiting one of our schools I noticed a movement on the roadside. I thought it was just one of the many stray dogs so common in the villages, but I went back, not sure, to find it was a woman in a condition as bad as it could possibly be. She was just lying there in the dirt, in a mess of filthy clothes, semi-conscious, her long matted hair full of vermin. How long she had been wandering no-one could tell me. “She is from an outside village,” was all the information I could get. She was not going to live long in such extreme conditions of poverty. No-one should ever have to end a life of hard work, no matter how harsh, in such extreme poverty and abandonment.
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| She was picked up by our good staff, brought in our jeep to the main centre, bathed, hair cut and she was put into clean clothes. She was then fed - when was her last meal? Now she is in one of our little rooms for the very old who have nowhere to go and she will be cared for as best we can.
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| These are two stories which are typical of the kind of outreach and caring that are common to the work of Reaching the Unreached. They tell of individuals in great need who without the intervention of our staff would almost certainly not survive. This is all far removed from the glamorous pictures being presented by the media about India. The remote interior villages are hardly touched by the growing technology in the big cities. The villages in which we work over an area of 25 km radius from our campus are still very primitive in every way; scarce water, no sewage systems at all, little electricity, wretched housing, tenth rate schools if they exist, etc, etc. Medical care will be many miles away and transport to and fro rare.
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| In addition to our own busy clinic we also have a mobile clinic that goes out every evening to these remoter villages. This mobile clinic contains all that is necessary for the ordinary needs of villages, even a small laboratory that can do the usual tests including for the HIV virus.
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| We also have a mobile school-science lab. which visits the many poorly equipped schools every day. These schools, which are mostly government schools, do not have even a test tube but depend entirely on the illustrations in the standard text books. These children can now see and participate in all the experiments needed for their final exams. So great is the demand from the Government that we are now investing in another mobile science lab in order to reach still more schools.
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| We also have another mobile unit for tailoring. This is for grown up girls and housewives. We move the sewing machines and other equipment from village to village every six months and two teachers travel there each day. The village must provide a suitable room for this. With our help these women can learn dress-making and other similar crafts for their own family use and also for sale as an income generating activity.
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| This quarter let me introduce the work of Mr Rajamanickam, who is Manager of the Community Development Programme. He writes: |
| With the ultimate aim of making villages self-sufficient, RTU started a rural development programme in 1987 Emphasis was given to poverty alleviation and community health. Our study revealed that more than 80% of the rural population was living below the poverty line, and their health condition was poor. Our programme included Self Help Groups, health education and raising awareness about AIDS .
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| To promote economic development, we introduced a small savings scheme within the Self Help Groups, for which each member saves an amount every month and pools it in their Group. When the total reaches a substantial level, the Group starts to give loans to meet members’ immediate credit needs and to get rid of greedy money lenders. There are over 1320 members in 79 groups.
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| As the women had no assets in their name, formal financial institutions had denied them access to credit. We built up the small savings and credit schemes and enabled them to receive Government subsidised loans and make links with financial institutions. Group members are equipped with skills on various income generating activities, and to create a ‘culture of repayment’ amongst them. |
| Unemployment is the root cause of poverty in the villages. Job opportunities are very limited. We motivated women members of the Self Help Groups to start income generation by purchasing cows (for milk), and by also selling vegetables, pottery and leather chappals (a type of sandal). At present 467 families in 27 villages are actively involved and have improved their economic and living conditions.
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And so the objectives are:
To create a savings habit amongst village people, especially the women
To improve their economic status through income generation programmes
To set people free from the clutches of the money lenders
To sustain the self-help groups through the formation of a Federation
To use government welfare schemes to help the women’s development
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Health is a fundamental human right and a necessary condition for development. We aim to involve the village communities in maintaining and improving their health conditions. RTU selected Health Workers from the villages and trained them to educate the villagers on health and hygiene and AIDS awareness; and to accompany the sick to hospital.
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Annual costs for rural development programmes are around Rs.250,000 (£3100) to cover monitoring, training, referrals, medical and veterinary camps, travel, cultural programmes etc; for Self Help Group members and village leaders.
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“I am Vanitha. I am a member of the Nehru Self Help Group in Viralipatti village. My husband’s name is Thirumalal and he works as a daily wage labourer in a stationery shop in Theni. Due to our low income we were living in abject poverty. Since my father was a tailor, I learned tailoring from him in my childhood. I got a loan of Rs.5000 (about £60) from Nehru SHG and bought a sewing machine. I stitch women’s and children’s dresses, and all the women in our village approach me for their tailoring needs. Now I am earning Rs.100 to Rs.120 every day (£1.25 - £1.50) and financially I am in a comfortable position. I educate my children in school and provide them with nutritious food and good dresses. We are all very healthy and happy. The loan from our SHG helped me to become self-sufficient. My status in society has risen and all respect me.”
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“I am Rajeswari and my husband is Rajendran. I am a member of Karpooramullai Self Help Group in Renganathapuram village. My husband was in ill health and could not do any hard work. I received a Rs.5000 loan from the Self Help Group and started a small shop in the village. My husband takes care of the shop. The shop is thriving: we sell Rs.400 daily and earn Rs.75 to Rs.100.”
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| Cordially yours, |
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| Brother James
Kimpton |
