Greetings from RTU. This month was a hard one for the older children in our schools who took their 10th, 11th and 12th standard Government exams. They have worked extremely hard with the help of our teachers and we wish them all the best for results day. Their future careers depend on how well they achieve in these exams.

Work on the J K Meditation Hall is making progress and our staff members have been doing some voluntary physical labour on the construction site, carrying sand, water, cement and bricks to assist the skilled labourers. It was great to see everyone helping and very edifying for our own children to see their foster mothers and teachers working at the site of their beloved Thatha’s grave. Now the builders are busy with constructing pillars upon which the whole roof will stand.

Children's Village news

On 8th March, International Women’s Day was celebrated with our 58 foster mothers, 6 hostel wardens and other staff members of our childcare team. We organised activities and life-oriented games. Mrs Saraswathi, Inspector of the All Women’s Police Station, in nearby Bodinayakkanur and her team of women police constables took part in this celebration, greeted all the mothers, and encouraged them to take good care of the girl children to help them grow with confidence and bravery. (Read more about our Children's Villages and the foster mothers who care for our children)

    

This month, Mrs Sutha, aged 33, came from Theni with her daughters to join us as a foster mother. Her husband was behaving violently towards her and their children. He chased them out and so she moved in with her elderly parents who lived in a small hut without any basic facilities. They are agricultural coolie labourers and earn very little. This was not enough to feed the family and life was becoming increasingly hard for them. One of their relatives, who works at Jeevan Jyothi Hospice, referred them to RTU. Now Sutha has joined as a foster mother in Sirumalar Children’s Village and three of her daughters are now staying with her and attend our St Peter’s School. One of the twin girls, Lakshmi Devi, is very fond of her grandmother so she is staying with her.

On 10th March, five of our boys from our Miriam Dean Hostel Boys attended the state level competition in Silambam at Chennai and won awards and certificates. RTU is very proud of these young achievers.

  

16 of our students have successfully completed their 3½ year General Nursing & Midwifery course this month. They are now doing their apprenticeships and have started earning. Many of them came to RTU in 1996 and received our care and support since they were young children. RTU has covered the costs of their course fees, food, accommodation, uniform, books and other expenses thus transforming their lives completely. What a great satisfaction it is to all of us that these girls can now look forward to a great career! (Read more about our support to students)

Bavithra, aged 20, is from Kadamalaikundu, a very remote village in Theni District.  She lost her father due to AIDS and her mother, who is a daily wage labourer, is HIV+. Bavithra came to RTU in 2004 when she was just 13 years of age. She did her higher secondary school studies in our schools and scored good marks in the public exams. She was good at her studies and aspired to become a nurse. Therefore, we helped her to get a place at Shenbagam Multi-Specialty Hospital, in Madurai in 2014. With great hope and spirit, she successfully completed her 3½ year General Nursing & Midwifery Course in January 2018 and she is doing her internship in the same hospital. She is earning a good salary now and helps her mother. She is a talented, committed to her service, and has earned a good name in this hospital.

News from our schools 

Mrs Sampurna Priya, Assistant Elementary Educational Officer from Periyakulam, paid her annual inspection visit to St Peter’s Primary School and Arul Malar Primary School and appreciated the school teachers and children.
 
A ‘Science Mela’ was conducted at St Peter’s Higher Secondary School. Students exhibited their talents by setting up science experiments and models. Our mobile science labs visit 98 rural Government schools to enable children to take science as an option for their studies.

  

A food festival was celebrated at Arul Malar Primary School. All the children and teachers prepared and tasted traditional food to raise awareness about nutrition.

During exam time, we like to arrange field trips for our younger students. 5th standard students from Arul Malar Primary School went to Vaigai Dam for their field trip. The visit gave them awareness about the dam’s importance for storing water, for drinking and irrigation. They also learned about important natural resources and water conservation, flood control, low flow augmentation, hydroelectric generation, water quality and wildlife. (Read more about our schools)

  

Housing and Water

Dr D K Oza, President of RTU, inaugurated a new house in the remote village of Viralipatti in Dindigul District. He supported us financially to build this house for Kalavathi and we thank him for his generous support. We have also built other new houses in the same village thanks to our supporters. For all our beneficiary families, a new home is an abode of happiness and our house-building always brings with it joy and excitement.

  

We recently drilled a bore well to the depth of 251ft to bring clean, safe water to a school in Aathoor. 420 school children and 16 teachers will benefit from this new water facility.  We also drilled another bore well to the depth of 600ft in Soundarapandian Primary School in K Kurumbapatti. 104 students and 5 teachers will benefit. (Read more about our well-drilling programme)

  

We want to seize this opportunity to express our gratitude to you. You have been helping RTU to prosper for the benefit of the poorest people in our area, particularly women and children, and we thank you for your unending support. Your unconditional love and the way you encourage us by your continued involvement are special memories that we will always treasure. Together we are in this work to fight poverty and discrimination. Thank you for your inspiration and contribution.

Fr J Antony Paulsamy, OFM Cap.

Director of RTU in India
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