Birthdays.

. In India there is a very nice  tradition which is to share your good news and special occassions with friends and relatives.It is more about giving than receiving!
 Religious festivals, promotions at work, a new job and good news are shared by GIVING.  This usually takes the form of givng the very sugary, very soft boiled concoctions of sugar and nuts, decorated with thin sheets of silver. At festival times the well known sweetmakers sell thousands of boxes of their sweets by the kilogram. In the main it is the men who go to sweet makers, and without a queueing system it is quite a chaotic scene. The varieties of sweets are displayed in the glass cases and boxes are filled to order with the chosen assortment. I went to get some sweets as a 'thank you' for a friend and I was the only women in the melee of about 100 men! 

Yerrinaidu in his new tee shirt with cake, biscuits and sweets.

At Brighter Future in India we encourage this giving tradition. When a child has a birthday. A cake, with his name on it, is ordered from the local bakers. Biscuits and wrapped sweets, or fruits, are bought to be distributed to all the children in the home.

Yerrinaidu chooses a friend to help cut the cake.

Candles and the singing of Happy Birthday, with a second verse that says "and God Bless You", are followed by the cutting of the cake. 




At this stage another custom is performed,  namely the putting of the first piece of cake into you chosen friend's mouth! He then reciprocates. There is even the odd dabbing of icing cream on the face at times!

Satya giving out fruits on her birthday

Candles galore!

The cake, biscuits and other eatables are distributed and the children who have made cards for the birthday person or bought little gifts present them to the birthday child. This routine is usually followed by a little concert or when I am around by games for the little children like 'Wake up Mr Bear'  and other party games.

Some sponsors send gifts or money and the birthday child can be taken to buy what they would like. Quite often this is a new dress or tee shirt and jeans - what is called 'civil dress' as opposed to school or hostel uniform.Some children choose toys or games.    

A Treat for the College Students

Victor and his wife, Mary, decided to make a special event for the college students. The idea was to thank them  for all thier help with the children's Christmas party and to mark their independence. 

The young people had a picnic lunch at Shanti Nivas, doing all the preparation and cooking themselves. Nobody helped them and Victor and Mary were invited to the lunch.  

They all had a great time .....

.....and Candy, the dog, came too!

Christmas Greetings to all our sponsors and donors

All the children, hospice patients, Director Victor, his family and staff gathered at Shanti Nivas to Celebrate Christmas. 

Their programme of games and entertainment culminated in the candlelit singing of Silent Night.

Brighter Future International Trust would like to thank all our dear friends who have supported us throughout the year, especially in our hours of need, following the cyclone.

We wish you all a very Holy, Happy and Safe Christmas!

leprosy colony residents celebrate opening.

We have built 30 toilets and bathrooms for the patients, 

Patients are very happy and they have thanked HEART FOR INDIA UK and BRIGHTER FUTURE UK for the financial support for building toilets and bathrooms.

Karuna Nivas children go on a picnic!

They went to the seaside on 9th November. 

Mr Tavdu gets a moped!

Mr Tavdu is the project coordinator at Shanti Nivas, responsible for the chilren in Thompson House and the patients in the hospice. He arranges thier visits to the government centres in Vizianagaram when they need to have blood tests to see how thy are responsing to the anti-retroviral therapy, liases with the primary testing personel and takes registered hospice patients for  TB screening.

Shanti Nivas, being 10 km from Vizianagaram and 2km from the nearest village of Gotlam (where there are a few basic shops) is relatively isolated. Mt Tavdu's

Mary hands over the log book and the bike at Thompson House.

new lightweight motorbike will be very useful in the day to day running of the project.

Home produced milk for the children!

 Victor has  purchased a cow with a 4 days old baby cow, to provide milk for the Shanti Nivas children and the patients in the Pickford Memorial Hospice. They cost  Rs, 35,000/-   - about £400. Next week we will buy one more cow.

Now we have to build a cow shed  in the campus. This will probably be a supported roof with open sides like the buffalo shed at Prem Nivas.

At present the mother cow giving  6 - 7 litres of milk a day.  Appa Rao, our watchman cum gardener, is looking after the cow and her baby.

The mother cow is called Ganga and the children have christened the baby Manga!

December 1st is World Aids Day

In 2013 the rally was a candlelight one.

Vizianagaram is the town where Brighter Future is based, although we have children's homes and leprosy colonies in the villages up to 100 miles from the town.
Each year a rally is held in the town centre to highlight the government's work to decrease the numbers of people infected with HIV/AIDS. Groups of nurses, scouts, police cadets and other youth groups walk with banners through the town and end up at a venue where government staff make speeches. As Brighter Future is the only organisation that cares for Children with HIV/AIDS they are invited to send children to attend the rally. A day off school and a walk around Vizianagaram may be exciting but waiting around and listening to speeches is very boring for the children. A bag of water and a few biscuits is not much compensation!

Victor and senior boys at the 2014 Rally

The good news is that new HIV/Aids infections in India have declined by 50% since 2007. A UN report estimates that there are now 2.9 million cases in India, making it  third in world ranking, behind South Africa and Nigeria.  The total population of India is over 1200 million so the percentage of people with HIV/AIDS is only 4%. 

and Laxmi nurse and some girls were there too!

The government's National policy started with awareness and condom distruibution and went on to target sections of the population like sex workers and lorry drivers. The emphasis is now concentrating on  treatment and the prevention of passing the virus through childbirth and breast feeding. Centres and sub centres for testing have been opened in large urban areas. The north eastern states and south India have the greatest number of cases.. The north eastern distribution, bordering Nepal, Burma, and Thailand  is assosiated with intravenous drug use.
In southern India the spread of the virus is associated with  low literacy, and migratiory labour. and men having sex with men.  The numbers of female sex workers with HIV has fallen from 10.1% to 2.7%.

 There are 70,000 people receiving ART (anti retroviral therapy) in India - the largest in any single country.but treatment coverage is only 36 %, whereas 51 per cent of deaths are AIDS related 

  Officially New cases continue to decline.  but  Brighter Future knows from it's experience, working in three districts among a total popultion of 7 million, that many cases are not registered because of lack of awareness and stigma while  deaths go unrecorded or are mis-recorded.

 The HIV-Aids budget is only 5% of the health budget as India has other pressing needs like malaria, diabetes, heart disease and TB to deal with.Recently there were drug shortages. ( see blog of  11th Sept 2014). Also the threshold at which treatment should be started is lowered from the WHO recommended 500 to 300 and in some parts of our area, to 200, meaning that people are more sick when they start treatment. They have more problems adjusting to the drugs and they are more susceptible to side effects and open to other diseases like TB.  Are these mismanagement, infrastructure  or money saving isuses?

A new law is before the Indian parliament to outlaw discrimination but there is the likelihood that  the laws will not be enforced. Our children have bus passes to get tothe hospital for blood tests but the bus conductors will not accept them or only give 1 rupee off instead of half fare. Our Narasannapeta patients who have been given a bus pass don't use it  because the  conductor will announce that the holder is HIV+ to the whole bus. Brighter Future  have complained in vain to the bus companies! This year, however, Indian Railways have included a concession for HIV+ patients by labelling them as 'Immuno- suppressed' and grouping them with cancer patients.  

All ship shape at Shanti Nivas

The last of the cyclone damage to buildings and infrastructure has been repaired.

 The children are helping to plant a new mango tree

New roofing sheets have been fitted on the  shower and toilet block. Doors which were broken have been replaced.

 Street lighting for the whole of the Shanti Nivas campus, which includes the Pickford Memorial Hospice, is now functioning again.

Sweeping the roads and general tidying by girls and staff.
The sparceness of the tree cover is now obvious to me.  

At this stage the electricity
poles are in place and waiting for the cables.

The older boys enjoyed making bonfires.  Watched enviously by a little one?

Good news for Shanti Nivas!

from Victor

"Finally, last evening power restored after so much of work done (after 29 days)  in the paddy fields, transporting and erecting electrical poles, wires re-connected and clearing big trees fallen on the wires and poles.   

This pole is being set up just outside a paddy field.

You can see the water in the rice field. Rice has to be grown in water for about 3 months. Did the government agree to compensate the farmers for trampling on their crop?

All these 29 days the total Shanti Nivas campus has been run on our own generator, thanks to Gavin and Stewart  for their donation for the generator, (which we started buying on the never never last February), otherwise there could have been so much of trouble for the children and patients. 

 Children homes lights, wirings, street lights wiring, new fittings, motor wirings, Hospice, kitchen and pump house, In all the places power is now restored." 

Some Visag cyclone damage

 Not a leaf of green left on trees

These pictures were taken by Victor's son. He is studying in Visakhapatnam, often called by its old name of Visag. Richie took the photos in the early days of the cyclone and they are of places that the children will know from their outings in Visag - the zoo and the area where we always take them to the beach for their 'Picnic'- near the Gittam university.

The hills should be covered with green vegetation.

Cables down 

The zoo entrance

Both the university on Beach Road and the airport at the other end of Visag suffered similar damage.

Bad news from Srikakulam where we support HIV/AIDS widows and children living in villages

From Victor;-
Our Pastor told me last night that there are HIV women in our working area, Srikakulam district, and its surrounding villages,  who are in need of cyclone reconstruction support. Many  of  their houses as roofs blew off( being made of palm tree leaves),  electricity meter's wires were ripped out and there is need to replace belongings lost in the wind, like cooking utensils, blankets,  clothes etc. We need to help these HIV infected women and children.

 The women suffer from frequent fevers and muscle pains because of thier compromised immune systems. They also suffer from stigma and are often blamed for their husband's deaths from AIDS wheras in most cases they were infected by thier husbands.

They  find it very difficult to get any employment, be it agricultural labouring or washing dishes in roadside eating places.  They and their children need our support ..

Sadly Shanti Nivas electricity not yet restored. We are all trying so hard to get the labourers and officers to do the restoration.

News from Victor

Bad news about electricity for Shanti Nivas

Victor wrote yesterday

"Shanti Nivas campus electricity not yet restored even after 20 days , as there was 12 poles fell down during cyclone which lines comes from village called Vendram , all these poles were in farmers paddy fields.  At present there is water and loose muddy soil until knee height in the fields and farmers are objecting to replace the poles as they are asking reimbursement for the loss from government.So at present there is no hope that Shanti Nivas campus will get electricity for another few months, until crops are harvested and paddy land has become dried.      (This is not expected until January after the Pongal holidays) 

Presently we are running Shanti Nivas campus on generator. 

I am planning to file a petition to district authorities ( Dist Collector )  and see what happens".

The DMC House Neem Tree

Surgery or mutilation?

The Neem tree at DMC House had grown very tall in its restricted space and suffered in the cyclone. 

Neem trees have medicinal properties and all parts of the tree are frequently and widely used as an antiseptic in India. In rural India people use the twigs as toothbrushes. Bundles of twigs are sold in roadside markets or can be cut or broken from wayside trees. 

In my travelling days I used to see lorry drivers wandering around the truck parking areas with a neem twig sticking out of their mouths. Neem is antiseptic and a well chewed neem twig gets into those flossing places. 

Commercial preparations for shampoos and many skin conditioners contain neem. 

At Prem Nivas, every second Sunday, the children apply a paste of neem leaves, which has been made in the mixer, all over thier bodies and hair to clear and prevent skin infections. 

The tree 'surgeons' don't have saws so the results seem more like mutilation to me, 
but this particular tree has bounced back from several severe prunings in it's ten year history with Brighter Future.

An Unexpected Consequence - new pictures!

The submersible pump that brings water from the bore well at DMC House has had to be replaced. When the power was restored after the cyclone the high voltage surge burnt out the DMC's only means of getting water. You can see the blackened walls surrounding the old well head.

They have probably had to use a public hand pump or buy a tanker load of water until the new pump was installed and wired up! That would raise storage problems.

A new submersible pump and the purchase and fitting fitting of high voltage cable was an emergency issue.


Relatively minor power surges are commonplace in India. All electrical devises, from fridges to computers have to be routed through a 'stabilizer' or 'spike' to avaoid these surges in voltage. Some luxury items now have built in stabilisers.

We don't know how lucky we are!