Poverty alleviation and child sponsorship in India

News of POOR, October 2008

Warmest greetings to all of you from all of us at POOR. I would like to thank those of you who have sacrificed your time and energy to help us make a real difference to the lives of the poor and needy here in India.

With warmest wishes to all

Changes

George has resigned as secretary and has gone to Sri Lanka to take up a new job developing poor village schools over there. We wish him well in his new venture. He has been replaced by Barnali, who is very dynamic and a committed social worker.

The website is gradually taking shape. We have added a gift catalogue of Gifts that Give, and soon a downloadable version will also be ready to upload. So this Christmas, instead of giving a gift to a relative who doesn't really need it, why not do something to a poor child? Make a difference!

Jaipur

In Jaipur, after being tutored by Becky, Adriana, Natasha and Ulrike, the children's school teacher was deeply impressed with their academic performance, and Sumitra, an older orphan, who learned how to use the internet from Natasha, sent me an email a few days ago saying, "Nidhi and Deepa both got 20/20 in English and 18 and a half out of 20 in Hindi. In general knowledge and maths they got 19 and 1/2 out of 20. They have got such good marks because of you sending us good volunteers!" (Nidhi and Deepa are 10 and 11 years old.) Sumitra also wrote that 5 doors have now arrived and been fitted, so Jaipur is no longer a house without doors or proper security. Many thanks to the volunteers whose kind donations have made this possible.

Volunteering news

This year so far, 15 volunteers have helped out at our Jaipur, Uma Nivas and Trivandrum projects. You can read about some of their experiences on the website. Those volunteers who haven't yet sent us their feedback, please do it soon, so we can share your experiences with others who might think of helping too. As a result of all the input the children's English is slowly becoming very good!
Some of the most important happenings at individual projects are mentioned below. There is not enough space to thank all of you personally, but all your contributions have been deeply appreciated and won't be forgotten.

Panskura Christmas English Camp

Would you like to volunteer at our Christmas English Camp for poor school children and orphans and help to make a real difference to the lives of the poor? If you are interested to come and have fun and play while making a real difference to a child's life, please write to us at info@poor.org.in

Information
Dates: 23 -29th December inclusive
Place: Panskura, West Bengal (2 hours from Kolkata)
Cost: US $200 per person

The Programme includes 6 days spoken English classes, games, dance and songs; Special Christmas party with Santa Claus, gifts and songs around the Christmas tree; Cultural programme on the last day.

Child sponsorship programme

We have recently added the child sponsorship programme to the POOR website. If you know anyone who would like to sponsor a child, please ask them to visit us at www.poor.org.in.
We have already arranged sponsors to help support the education of over 80 Indian orphans and poor village children in different places in partnership with SOS India, based in Portugal. But there are still many more orphans and poor schoolchildren in need of our help. It only costs £8.00 or €10.00 per month…not more than the cost of one meal in a restaurant. Can anyone help? Even a small amount, given regularly, can change the life of a child in need.

Well/irrigation system for Uma Nivas

Linda Donan, a former volunteer, managed to fundraise a huge Rs.120,000 for a well/irrigation system for Uma Nivas orphanage in spite of having serious health problems at the time. In January, once the monsoon subsides and the land dries out, we are calling a team of experts to help us organize an irrigation system for the project. Our aim is to try to make for the orphanage, high school and children's hostels self-sufficient for food. Many, many thanks for your kindness, Linda. I wish you good health so you can come and see the results of your hard work!

First floor roof for Purulia school

At Uma Nivas, with the most generous help of our volunteer, Annette, an upstairs floor has been built on top of our nearby Purulia School, whose roof was badly leaking and in danger of imminent collapse. So now classes can be held upstairs, even though there are no walls, windows or doors yet on the new classrooms. As a result the leaking has stopped, and congestion on the ground floor caused by having the school hostel and classrooms in one small place has been eased. Thanks to this development our school will be able to increase its intake of students and poor hostel children, thus providing a better service to the local community. Thanks very, very much, Annette. We hope you will come back again and again to see the school grow!

More rooms for Uma Nivas high school hostel

The 8 hostel rooms Didi started to build last year are now complete and the children have moved in. With the extra space created, we have been able to give study scholarships to 5 deserving high school girls from the local villages. We hope in the future to build more rooms for the hostel, so we can increase the numbers of the scholarships we offer

New wall for Trivandrum

Our Trivandrum Mutathara school wall, which was very dirty, got a new coat of paint from Helen and Cassie. That will really create a good impression of our school with the neighbours. I'm sure the children will love to see all the pretty flowers you painted! Thanks a lot, Helen and Cassie!

Computer for Jaipur orphanage

With the help of Rahul, a kind donor with a big heart, who I met on a plane several years ago, we have now got a computer for the orphanage. So all Jaipur volunteers watch out!!! The children are on email and they are writing to everyone they know!!!

Cyclone damaged school rebuilt

Nabhipur School, located in a poor village of North Bengal, which was badly damaged in a cyclone last year, is now getting rebuilt with the help of AMURT, New Zealand. The walls and roof are already finished, and soon the doors and windows will be fitted. The neighbours are excited that the new school building is much stronger than the old one. It is made of bricks which cannot be so easily damaged by the frequent floods that occur during the monsoon (the former building was made of bamboo), so many new children are being admitted.Yoiks! We will be needing more classrooms soon too!

Vellore school emergency

A railing for the stairs and flooring for the verandah have now been completed with the help of kind donors…We had to do it as an emergency, as three new orphans, all young and very energetic young boys, were recently taken in by the orphanage. We were terrified that one of them might fall off the unprotected stairs and kill themselves!

Homeopathic Clinic needs Help

The homeopathic clinic we were running for the tribal villagers living on the edge of Durgapur has now shifted to Nagpol, a village near Bandel, where there is a much higher demand for our service: at least 50 patients attend the weekly clinic, located in an interior area where no other medical care is available. We have already received an invitation to open a second clinic in another village, but we do not at present have the funds to run it. We need around Rs. 1500 per month (US. $ 35) to do it. If you know anyone who would like to sponsor this project, please get in touch!