I have been at Shanti Nivas for the last week.
Thompson House and the Pickford Memorial Hospice are at Brighter Future's very rural site called Shanti Nivas. The site is 2 km from the main road which runs the 28 km from Vizianagaram to Gajapatinagaram, where our other children's homes are situated.
Thompson House has 26 HIV infected children at present. The children go to the very good government schools in Ompalli village, just 2km away. The older children cycle to school and the younger ones go in our auto-rickshaw.
After school the children have a teacher to supervise their homework and help when necessary. The schools were closed for about two months recently due to the political unrest and strikes. Now the children have to go to school every day, including Sundays so that they can complete the syllabus in time for the end of year exams. They don't complain and are very aware of the opportunities that education gives them. Our children are often in classes below their age group because they were refused education as young children when it was discovered that their parents, or they, had HIV. Some had never been to school before coming to Brighter Future homes.
We made Christmas cards and the five children who had arrived after last Christmas made a peg doll figure to go in the crib.
Little white lights were strung up over the crib
Although they had very little spare time the children were very good at offering to help me prepare the vegetable garden for seed sewing. The children sewed seeds of spinach, aubergine, lady's finger and several different kinds of beans. Some seeds had started coming up up after five days.
The hospice has 15 beds but there are usually about 10 patients, both HIV/AIDS adults and children. The number fluctuates from week to week as some become well enough to go home, others sadly die. Many of the patients are suffering from TB. Some are referred to us because they have a short time to live, others have complications because they did not take their anti retroviral medicines for a number of reasons. All are anaemic and malnourished.
If we had a large screen TV, with a facility to play CD's, they could watch folk stories educational CD's and animated children's films.
There are always jobs that need doing and I go around looking for them! Getting new washing lines put up, cleaning walls that have become grubby, teaching children to use the computer, seeing what's broken! There are never enough hours in the day for me.
On Sunday 14th I moved to Prem Nivas to start work on their vegetable garden plots.
Thompson House has 26 HIV infected children at present. The children go to the very good government schools in Ompalli village, just 2km away. The older children cycle to school and the younger ones go in our auto-rickshaw.
After school the children have a teacher to supervise their homework and help when necessary. The schools were closed for about two months recently due to the political unrest and strikes. Now the children have to go to school every day, including Sundays so that they can complete the syllabus in time for the end of year exams. They don't complain and are very aware of the opportunities that education gives them. Our children are often in classes below their age group because they were refused education as young children when it was discovered that their parents, or they, had HIV. Some had never been to school before coming to Brighter Future homes.
We made Christmas cards and the five children who had arrived after last Christmas made a peg doll figure to go in the crib.
Although they had very little spare time the children were very good at offering to help me prepare the vegetable garden for seed sewing. The children sewed seeds of spinach, aubergine, lady's finger and several different kinds of beans. Some seeds had started coming up up after five days.
The hospice has 15 beds but there are usually about 10 patients, both HIV/AIDS adults and children. The number fluctuates from week to week as some become well enough to go home, others sadly die. Many of the patients are suffering from TB. Some are referred to us because they have a short time to live, others have complications because they did not take their anti retroviral medicines for a number of reasons. All are anaemic and malnourished.
I took some children's books for them to read, or to be read from. Most of our patients cannot read or write, If they cannot write they have to 'sign' documents with an indelible ink thumbprint, right had for men and left for ladies.
The nurse and one of our children read stories to some patients.
One lady who was accompanying her deaf and dumb daughter, asked me if I had some Christian books.so I took her a a very nicely illustrated Children's Bible in Telugu.
We played games. Memory games and dominoes, simple jigsaw puzzles and learning to recognise numbers puzzles.
If we had a large screen TV, with a facility to play CD's, they could watch folk stories educational CD's and animated children's films.The nurse and one of our children read stories to some patients.
There are always jobs that need doing and I go around looking for them! Getting new washing lines put up, cleaning walls that have become grubby, teaching children to use the computer, seeing what's broken! There are never enough hours in the day for me.
On Sunday 14th I moved to Prem Nivas to start work on their vegetable garden plots.
