The Karuna Nivas, Shanti Nivas and Prem Nivas Picnic

The children from our three homes for HIV orphan children were the first of our Brighter Future Children to go on the 2014 Picnic. 
The Karuna Nivas children arrived to stay at Shanti Nivas the night before the Picnic.They brought their best clothes and a change of clothes for the beach, their plates and drinking glasses for the evening dinner and for breakfast on the Picnic day  - 9th February. They enjoyed a game of cricket a took turns on the playground equipment.
It was to be an early start the next day as they had to be at DMC House by 8am to board the bus.   We decided that the children would have 2 large buns and hot milk for breakfast so that those on anti retroviral medicine and TB treatment, could take their medicines and hopefully not have any travel sickness on the 2 hour journey to Visakhapatnam.

After a few photos at DMC House the children piled into the coach. .

The food canisters and rice bags of spare clothes  were stowed in the rear compartment and under the coach. A wheelchair was included to transport the food to the eating place, which was uphill from the coach park at Kailash Hill.The wheelchair was our driver, Jagdish's idea! Jagdish drove our vehicle and  followed the coach with the big senior boys.

The children were taken to Kailashgiri first where was lots of space to run around and play.

Jhansi

equipment to enjoy.

Nagamani

Shanti Nivas update

I have spent quite a lot of time at Shanti Nivas this year - visiting the patients in the Hospice, playing games with them and organising this and that.

The children of  Thompson House are as adorable as ever. The older boys are young men and the girls getting very beautiful.

Seeing them after 6 months makes their maturity  noticeable.The children come to my room after 'snacks time' and before homework time, to collect toys, puzzles and games..

 The shower curtains have been fitted and the children are getting used to using the showers and getting dried and dressed quickly in this "cold" season. where night time .drop to 14c but daytime temperatures are 31C or more.It is the weather that is blamed for the children getting coughs and colds!


The children are also enjoying  their beautifully illustrated Telugu books.. They sit with their packed school bags and shoes, reading the books until their auto-rickshaw arrives to take them to school. After school the children play with toys and games until it is time for their homework tuition .

The national Holiday of Republic Day on January 26th was celebrated at school and then the children had the day off.

The garden takes up a quite a lot of my time. I can't manage the digging these days but  checking on the watering and a bit of weeding are the norm. When there is no electric power to use the hose
 there are usually two or three little children at hand after schooltime, willing to water with a jug and bucket, filled from the new hand pump. It is a bit hit and miss as they splash  water here ad there, but it is fun for them and they are learning that plants need water to grow..

 The Shanti Nivas children are still going to school seven days a week . 'Mothers' of patients help around the campus, clearing leaves and sweeping, while Balram a patient, kindly waters the tomato plants near the kitchen by hand.

It is a busy time for Victor and the office staff preparing reports for the trusts who support  various projects. We have twice had to postpone my visit to Narasanapeta to the HIV/AIDS outreach programme but it continues to find new patients who don't know that they have the virus. We still manage to give some food and medicine parcels .The London Run in July 2013 monies were for this project, They are estimated to be 6000 pounds but we  need 12000 to run this project and prevent death by starvation.

The Hospice patients continue to enjoy playing with the games and reading books when they are not  resting or watching TV..

Patients watching a children's story CD on my laptop.

I now have only three weeks left of my visit to Brighter Future India.

The children are anxiously waiting for Director Uncle to announce the date of the picnics. The Rainbow Children always go first and Karuna Nivas, Prem Nivas and Shanti Nivas follow about a week later. We have to hire a big coach to take the children to the sea side. The price negotiations and booking must be done first.
I was invited to a birthday party - Durga's, so I am at Prem Nivas again for a few days.Brighter Future children's birthdays are celebrated with a cake and some children get presents from their sponsors. Indian birthdays, festivals and auspicious days are usually celebrated with

giving, rather than receiving. People buy  friends and colleagues sweets when they have good news,etc.


  I take the opportunity to check what needs repairing on the bikes and generally around the campus, as well as catch up with the children's news and progress.

The current  favourite sport seems to be volleyball so  Hari and Janaki  have  re-painted the badminton lines and added   'junior' size volleyball court markings.They are asking for a net and a volleyball too.Last week we bought them badminton cocks.

In the afternoons the fifth year of our primary school are revising their mouse control using the Paint programme and the second year children are seeing a few story CD's of fables and fairy tales on my laptop.The youngest children watch and learn nursery rhymes while I am at Prem Nivas.


To welcome me back the inverter for the dining hall, sick room and  my room had ceased to function and had to be sent for servicing. Luckily the guest room  had power and I moved in there for a few hours to have a nap with the air conditioning unit. It is 29C (84F) in the daytime and 13C (55F) at night here in Prem Nivas. My room has an asbestos sheet roof so it gets quite uncomfortable in the afternoons.

Balama Aunty and Satya

The other week Kalyani mamma, Ballama aunty and  Gowri, our teacher, joined in the gardening and proved to be splendid agriculturalists, rapidly clearing away weeds, digging and spreading compost..

Kalyani mamma  weeding and sunita carrying thee weeds away on her head. Prasanna looks on 

Tomorrow,Sunday, the children are off school so  we are going to try and make a couple of new beds for more vegetable growing.  The grass and weeds have to be cleared from the ground that has not been cultivated for years. After removing the grass the  ground has to be watered and digging can begin.

Watering the far beds is a concerted effort to avoid the existing plants.

Fire buckets have other uses!

Nagamani, Giri and Govind, carrying well rotted buffalo compost to the garden.

The picnic dates have been announced. Rainabow children on 16th Feb and PN, Kn and Sn on 9th!

The Extra Christmas Party Pictures I Promised!

Swathi came to join the Christmas party from her vocational training course

in Vizianagaram where she is studying English and computer and secretarial  skills.






The younger children decorated the new Christmas tree after the Shanti Nivas boys had fixed the lights on it..

The young  children played on the swings, especially the Rainbow children because they do not have space for play equipment at their home. Mahalaxmi Aunty kept an eye on them. Even the big children enjoyed the swings!

Other children played with the construction sets, games and toys until it was time for lunch. The main meal was in the evening after the gift giving and entertainment had taken place.

The Christmas Tata was Arun , a Rainbow boy, and  he is very good at amusing the children, running in ad out of the dancers, distributing sweets and generally being funny. Arun was Tata last year too.
After new clothes were distributed to all the children they received their presents and so to did all the staff. . Prem Nivas children gave little calendars they  had made to our guests.
The evening entertainment began. Each Home had organised groups of children to perform songs and dances and dramas. The children screamed their appreciation and clapped vigourously.




The entertainment concluded with cutting the cake and a candlelit  Silent Night

Then it was time for the sumptuous dinner.

Dinner for the older children was served around the bonfire. The young children and sedate elders ate in the dining hall.

Everybody at Brighter Future India would like to thank the local people who donated food and the UK sponsors who sent money  to provide the children with yet another wonderful Christmas Party.