News of POOR April 2008
A big Hi to Everyone!
First of all, warmest thanks to those of you who have helped us out in
so many different ways. Many exciting new developments have taken place,
and slowly our NGO is starting to take serious shape. With the help of
Val, our website is finally starting to look really good…and work too.
Homeo Clinic
In December we started a homeopathic clinic in a tribal santhal village
on the edge of Durgapur, three hours from Kolkata. Every week around 35
patients attend and they are very happy with their treatment. In the
future we hope to develop this project to take in more villages further
from the town and to start several other services in this extremely
deprived area.
Sponsor a Child
The child sponsorship programme which we are running in coordination
with SOS India, is doing great and now we have over 75 sponsors for
orphans and poor schoolchildren in India. However, we still have a long
waiting list of children desperately in need of sponsors, so if you know
anyone who would like to help out, do get in touch.
One very small yet touching example of how a sponsor can make a huge
difference to the life of a child: recently the problems of Ram and
Vikash, two young Bihari boys aged 8 and 9 years, were brought to our
notice. Their father came from Bihar 20 years ago to work, but only
brought his family 6 years ago, after they were thrown out of the Bihar
house by his father. He is suffering from severe diabetes and went blind
as a result. So their mother has been washing and cleaning in people’s
houses in order to be able to keep the family alive. She works so hard
that she couldn’t take proper care of Ram and his Vikash. Their landlady
has been feeding the children. Ram went to kindergarten in Bihar for a
short time when he was 3 years old, but since then he has never been to
school, because even the government schools charge fees. He has only had
tuition from the landlady’s son and other kind people, so that he could
learn to read a little. His brother has never been to school at all. So
at the age of 8 and 9 years the children cannot even write their names.
Now we got two sponsors for them and they will be sent to a school in
Alipooduar in a few days. There they will have a special tutor for the
first year to help them to catch up and after that they will join the
regular classes of the school.
Organizer needed for Indian Festival in Nagoya, Japan
Would anyone like to organize an Indian Festival in Nagoya, Japan to
fundraise for the Uma Nivas Well and Irrigation System?
Last year Linda managed to fundraise over $1500 (in spite of pouring
rain!!!) for a well for the Uma Nivas orphanage by holding an Indian
festival in Nagoya. To finish the well and put in an irrigation system
to make the orphanage self sufficient for food, more help is needed.
Linda, would love to organize another festival this year, but due to her
extremely poor health, she is unable to do it. If anyone else is able to
do it, Linda will be very happy to share the many contacts in Nagoya who
helped her last year. In the meantime a temporary water line has been
set up at Uma Nivas orphanage which gives a small amount of daily water,
though not enough for the children’s baths and irrigation of the garden.
If anyone would like to take on this project, please contact Linda. Her
email id is lindadonan at hotmail.com.
News of Anindita, the Kidney Transplant Patient
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| Before… | 6 months after… |
Anindita’s kidney transplant operation was held in October last year.
Now she is well enough to go home and hopefully she will be able to lead
a normal life again. Heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed to
saving this young life.
Nabhipur School
An NGO based in New Zealand has just agreed to fundraise for Nabhipur
School, which was destroyed by floods last year, and we hope that the
new building will be constructed within a short time, so that the school
will be ready for the new session starting in May.
Jaipur Orphanage, Karundighi and Vellore Schools get Help
Just now we arranged a tin roof for Karundighi School classrooms which
were open to the sky. We also arranged a cement floor for Vellore school
where the smallest children were studying sitting on mats on sand and
getting really dirty….and doors and windows for the kitchen at a Jaipur
orphanage where a cat was regularly visiting and stealing the children’s
food.
Still needing Help..
Jaipur orphanage still needs lots of help to finish its building,
putting in doors and windows, finishing plastering etc.
Goddha School for tribal children needs a roof and toilet…. Can anyone
help?
Can Anyone Help Soma?
Soma was born deaf. She was born into a desperately poor labouring
family. When she was four years old, her father died. Soma helped her
mother around the house, cooking, cleaning and labouring in the fields.
She never went to school. So she never learnt to speak and communicates
with sign language.
A year ago some social workers brought Soma, now 23 years old, to
Kolkata, taught her to read and write and took her to the doctors here.
After a lot of tests the doctors gave her a special hearing aid with
which she could hear a little. Soma was ecstatic.
The hearing aid cost Rs. 10,000 (US $250). In order to hear properly,
Soma needs a second hearing aid for her other ear. She also needs at
least 6 months of daily speech therapy classes. Each class will cost Rs.
150.
Soma wants to learn tailoring, so she can become economically
independent. But without being able to speak, she will not be able to
realize her dream. Can you help us to help Soma?
Volunteers
In the last few months we have had 4 volunteers – Ben, Vanessa and
Theresa helped out teaching spoken English to the kids at Uma Nivas in
March. Becky is still working with the orphans in Jaipur. Our Uma Nivas
volunteers also helped clean out the jungle in the garden in preparation
for putting a new layer of top soil so we can plant vegetables and
gradually become self sufficient. Many thanks to all of you!
With our warmest wishes to everyone!
How you can Help…
You could volunteer at one of our projects.
You could help us fundraise:
- You could give a gift of love to a poor child in India from our
gift catalogue
- help us to sell Christmas cards.
We got two beautiful Christmas cards donated by the winners of a school
Christmas card competition held in Japan last year. Together with two
cards painted by our orphans we are planning to print sets of 4
Christmas cards for next Christmas. If anyone would like to help sell
them, please contact
Email: info at poor.org.in
- help us fundraise by holding an auction, arrange a sponsored walk, swim
or bike ride.
Maybe there are many other things too that I haven’t thought of.