Every little bit helps!

Karen, my daughter, and I are pleased to announce that our fundraising efforts were rewarded with a donation of £37 to the British Legion Poppy Appeal and £205 to Brighter Future for the 76 poppies we made.

. Karen sold lots of them to the three choirs she belongs to. The bank manager admired them so we will target the bank if we make them next year!

The quince jelly making is finished and selling well.Our thanks to the people who donated the quinces.

Our  next big fundraising event was the sale of Christmas and general  cards at St Edmund’s Church on November 15th.  Selling after each service at my church we made  a further  £210 for Brighter Future.

The card making, which I began in August, and was assisted by Karen, and to which  Sarah donated 100 of her lovely cards, were on sale for two days at the Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre in St Mary’s Church on 27 and 28th November..

 As Karen and Sarah were both involved for much of the time singing with the choir and running their choir stall, Simon bravely volunteered to run the Brighter Future stall for us.

 Of  course I was in India by then, so it was very good of the Karen, Sarah and Simon to take over the task of transporting, setting up the stall with pictures of the Indian children, selling, standing for hours and clearing away at the end of the two days.

There were craft items and quince jelly for sale too!  The quince jelly was made by Karen with some help in the chopping from me. It involved hours and hours of boiling and straining. 

Our thanks to Suzzie, a local sponsor who gave us scarves to sell and to Teresa for her Christmas pudding novelty table decorations.

There were a number of people that knew about us from last year’s sale – Karen said Brighter Future had quite a fan club!

The total raised for Brighter Future at this Christmas Fayre was £383!!

 The left overs from St Mary's sale were offered for sale at a Mini Christmas Sale in the crypt of St Edmunds. They were selling to the same parishionerrs as on 15th November so they did very well to sell anything at all., Another way of looking at it is that the same people were prepared to give more money to Brighter Future.
Karen was singing at the local hospital so Simon 

set up the stall and Karen arrived a bit later.

 Karen and Simon raised another 47pounds for us.


A grand total of 845 pounds !



Being ex teachers we would like this donation to go into the Education Fund for the HIV children. This fund goes towards paying for college fees and student's expences.

The pre Christmas rush

     

The Prem Nivas Christmas Tree

is made of small tree branches that were collected locally and  assembled by Janaki and Ashok.

The sticks were wound with green lights and the whole structure was planted in a cement flower pot.  





The Primary School children made decorations to hang on the tree.

 




The next job was to refurbish the crib figures which each child  made of pegs and material two years ago.A large star has been fixed on the roof of the main hall. 

The  tree lights lasted two weeks so today Janaki has gone to Gajapathinagaram village  for two new sets of lights. 

The High School children are having their quarterly exams this week and trying to practice dances and songs for the Christmas party as well.

At Shanti Nivas the lights are put up by our electrician as they are strung all around the parapet of the Hospice and Thompson House. Swathi ,the children's housemother, is teaching  songs and dances and we will put up the tree on the 20th . It is not a very big tree as it was bought from Tesco's several years ago and came as my  hand luggage. The smallest children put the balls on it after some lights have been installed by the older boys. We can't find the crib figures so will have to make new ones!

'Old Macdonald' masks

Prem Nivas children had a rehearsal of their Christmas songs when they were connected to Monkston School 5th and 6th year students in Milton Keynes by Skype. This relationship between the children was established two years ago.  The Headmaster and his wife sponsor two of the Brighter Future children

It was time to get the Shanti Nivas vegetable garden ready for sowing. Pydi, Nagaraju and 

The Prem Nivas garden is not started yet. 

Yerrinaidu were my willing helpers. The boys were shown what to do by a neighbouring farmer.
Ladies fingers, aubergines, beans, melon type vegetables and green leaves planted. Tomatoes, spinach and herbs to go in soon.

The soil is so hard it needs ploughing with oxen or a tractor first.

Our Hospice

Brighter Future has a Hospice at Shanti Nivas.

It was built at the same time as the children's home  and was funded by the Pickford Memorial Trust. David Pickford was a long time friend of our then Chairman, Danny Parisipogula. David was a trustee of BFIT for many years. The Hospice was built and funded by his family. as a memorial to David. It  opened in August 2012.

The need for a hospice, where mothers and children could be admitted together to avoid separation, was apparent as the other only centre was up to  a hundred kilometres from our area of opperation. Run by Rotary they only admitted patients for two or three days and would not take children.

The aim of our Hospice is to offer nursing care to HIV/AIDS patients during the acute phases of their illness, to offer support during the periods when patients need to adapt to the severity of starting ART treatment and to offer palliative care for the terminally ill. The dying have often been abandoned by relatives and are homeless. Their alterative can be  to die on the streets.

 Many of our severely ill patients are suffering from co-infection with TB. They may have been only recently diagnosed as having HIV AIDS. The HIV virus goes through 5 recognisable stages until it reaches its terminal AIDS phase.Patients suffer fevers and body pains, weakness, nausea and diarrhoea, especially if they are protein defficient. 

 Malnutrition is endemic among people whose main diet is rice served with only vegetable flavoured water called rasam.Fresh and green vegetables are rarely affordable and if available are cooked for a long time which destroys the vitamin content. Lentils, the main source of protein among traditionally vegetarian people, are very expensive and watered down to go further..

The patients need building up with vitamins and a protein rich diet if they are to tolerate and respond to the anti-retroviral drugs.Our food and drugs bill is therefore naturally large!. 

We have one or two supporters in the UK who contribute £10 a month towards the care of a hospice patient and would dearly like to find more!  
We need to find  funding  or grants.Until recently had some help. from the Right Now Foundation.( who are child orientated). However the numbers of children admitted was declining and the adult admissions increased.  The grant ceased in March 2015. 

To attract a nurse and doctor to work with HIV infected people is difficult and expensive. There is stigma attached to even working with HIV/AIDS patients. 
We have a very good nurse who is experienced in caring for HIV patients and are we are shortly to have a well qualified doctor who will visit the hospice twice a week and be on call at all times.

Over the years I have sent proposals to all the main HIV/AIDS charities. they say carry on with the good work  but they have a policy of not accepting un-solicited proposals and also  like to give to government departments. They want to have large numbers of beneficieries and are not interested in small genuine grass roots organisations like ours. 

We need to find several small trusts able to give grants of a £1000 or more. 

If you have any contacts do let me (pmanya.norris@gmail.com) or Brighter Future International Trust (brighterfuturefriends@gmail.com) know.

To give you some idea of the cost of running the hospice the nurse’s salary is £720 pa., the cleaner and helper £360 each. Medicines vitamins and supplements cost £5000pa and food, electricity and transport account for another £4000pa.We need to find several small trusts able to  give small grants of a £1000 or more.

This year five children have died among loving friends and carers. 
Brighter Future has also paid for them to be transported to their home villages and cremated according to the local custom. 

Congratulations to Sandeep

Sandeep is a student at                                           college . he is studying Engineering. he is delighted to have passed his first year exams with a mark of   %.

The chance of a lifetime!

                    

         

                               

Brighter Future has been caring for many young people since they were first found as 6 or 7 year olds. They were suffering from HIV. Their parents had died of AIDS. Their grandparents were old, very poor or simply could not manage their severe symptoms. There was no treatment available and hundreds of children like them were dying each week. Seeing them today it is hard to believe that they came to Brighter Future as malnourished, undersized children with skin diseases, open wounds, diarrhoea and sickness.

Many of the children had been denied their early years of education by schools, because of thier home circumstances, being orphaned or through the stigma of being being HIV positive.

Brighter Future works in a predominantly agricultural area where literacy is low, unemployment high and the weather a succession of droughts and cyclones. 

When we developed our strategy of caring for HIV+ children we knew that we would need to give them the opportunities that 'normal' children have -  medical care to help them survive, and the chance of education, training and independent living. 

The Problem

In our three homes for HIV children we have a number of boys over the school leaving age, who are behind in their studies, have lost confidence in their ability to catch up with their peers and some who are simply not academically inclined.

Prem Nivas senior boys.

 Rather than suffering from being regarded as backward the young people are capable of taking a technical training. Some have already demonstrated a leaning towards electrical repairs and mechanical problem solving.

The fear, stigma and ignorance attached to HIV infection means that the children cannot get jobs or training if it is known that they are HIV positive. To be skilled and experienced would give them an opening in the local employment market, self- employment or to form a joint venture unit.

The Solution to this problem has been given to Brighter Future India in the form of a grant from The Betty Lawes Foundation

Brighter Future approached the Foundation with a plan to establish a small vocational training unit providing training in electrical and plumbing skills. The area around Vizianagaram is being rapidly developed with private houses and apartments creating a demand for these skills. Victor has identified both a qualified electrician and a local plumbing skilled sanitary ware shop owner, who are willing to train our young people and  employ them when suitable skilled.

We already have a building available on the Shanti Nivas site 5 miles from Vizianagaram. All that would be needed is a small extension, security gates and teaching equipment.

Currently there are 10 boys (over 14 yrs) in need of vocational training from the three HIV+ homes .  

Self-confidence and self-reliance can replace the young people’s earlier sense of failure and helplessness.

With a skill our boys would be able to find employment in the large and growing development of surrounding districts where such skills are in demand, especially in the newly formed State of Andhra Pradesh.

Employment will enable them to break out of the cycle of poverty and avoid the emotionally draining stigma of being HIV+.

We thank the Trustees of the Betty Lawes Foundation for their trust and support in giving this opportunity to our children.  

                         

A ground breaking ceremony

The ceremony was the blessing of the ground where the  cornerstone of a special new building will be started at Shanti Nivas. A small hole is made in the ground, prayers are said for a successful build, and for the success of the use to which the building is dedicated. Some cement is put on a few stones Mary, Victor and all present join in the prayers. There is later a further ceremony with the builders who will be involved, using the traditional coconut breaking ritual of the Bhumi-puja, to bring good luck and a good building.

You are probably wondering what this is all about so for the blog this month I have invited a very special lady, Faye, to tell you about her charity, 'Spread Some Sunshine' and how it is supporting Victor in India. 

You may remember Faye and her team from my previous blogs about the London 10K




and their brave swim in the freezing sea off Brighton.

“My charity Spread Some Sunshine first became involved with BFIT 3 years ago after a mutual friend kindly introduced Victor and myself. Our charity aims to bring smiles to children living in poverty, pain or suffering so we wanted to get involved with the fantastic work that Victor and his team carry out with HIV orphans in India.

We started off by introducing our birthday scheme (which allows UK families to buy a birthday gift for a child overseas) to one of the homes that cares for 23 children. It was very successful and the UK sponsors loved receiving the photos that victor would email over each time a gift was handed over.

In 2014, my mother and I flew out to experience BFIT's great work first hand and had an incredible trip. Victor was truly inspirational and we hit it off immediately! We visited all of the children's homes and projects and spent time in the leprosy colonies distributing food.

 Through chatting with Victor we discovered that on site chickens would be really beneficial at the orphanages so on our return we set up an Easter themed "adopt a chook" scheme and are currently building our second chicken shed and supplying chickens.

We were lucky enough to spend some time with Victor on his UK visit and over dinner he mentioned his aim to build a home where HIV positive pregnant ladies with little support can receive love and care during their pregnancy.

 Victor's aim was to build a house that could home around ten women at a time and to ensure they received the appropriate medical treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV to the baby during delivery. This was something we were really keen to get involved in so in July this year we ran the British 10k on BFIT's behalf and raised £4000. We also raised some funds towards it by swimming the choppy waters between the piers in Brighton.

Work on the house is now beginning and we are planning more events to fund the second half of the building cost. We will be putting all money's raised from our annual cheeky naked calendar (which uses well positioned props!) towards the calendar and are planning a Bollywood night in February. 

In March, my mother and I, plus one of our fundraising supporters, will be lucky enough to go back to India and hopefully see the house in its final stages!

 It has truly been a privilege meeting Victor and his team and helping to spread a little sunshine into some special children's lives."

Thank you Faye and 'Spread Some Sunshine'!

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Karen, my daughter, and I are pleased to announce that our fundraising efforts were rewarded with a donation of £37 to the British Legion Poppy Appeal and £205 to Brighter Future for the 76 poppies we made. Karen sold lots of them to the three choirs she belongs to. The bank manager admired them so we will target the bank if we make them next year!
The quince jelly making is finished and selling well. along with one card selling session at my church we took £210.

Manya

NB. The last day for International Standard Post to India is Monday 7th December.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two of our HIV children died this month.

Despite being on anti-viral therapy (ART) two of our young people have died this month.
ART does not cure HIV/AIDS, there is no cure, but the treatment is supposed to slow down the progression of HIV into AIDS. There are five recognisable stages of the virus. The earliest stage has no symptoms.  It used to be unrecognisable, even by blood test, under the age of 2 and a half, but I read recently that there is now a method of earlier detection. If the person has no symptoms, having been confirmed HIV infected by a blood test, then they are said to be a-symptomatic. One or two of out children remained a-symptomatic for several years. We were so worried that they might have been misdiagnosed, and hence condemned to  the stigma of having HIV, that we had them retested!

In the second stage of the viral infection the appearance of other infections make themselves known. Skin infections, sickness, diarrhoea, a propensity to catch everything going, shingles, measles, chicken pox and the usual childhood infections, including malaria, because HIV/AIDS has weakened and gradually destroys the immune system. By the fifth stage, full blown AIDS, the immune system is completely destroyed. Certain infections, like TB are acquired on the way and are in themselves killers.  The ART drugs are very toxic and eventually destroy the liver or kidneys.The children have to be on them for life and their long term effect is not known, as treatment for children in India only started in 2007.

Our young boy at Karuna Nivas would have been thirteen this year. He had been with us since he was seven years old.He died of cancer of the ear and throat - Kaposi's sarcoma This complication is relatively unknown now in the west, as in the west the drugs give to treat HIV have improved.

Our other child victim was also a teenager. She had been detected as having severe anaemia and died of liver failure.

One of these children had a sponsor who sent pictures and a letter to let her know that there was someone, many thousands of miles away who cared about her.

 We have many unsponsored HIV/AIDS children who would appreciate an uncle or aunty to whom they could send a card at Christmas and receive one in return. We don't know how long they will live but we do our best to give them a happy and loved childhood.

The more  children who are sponsored the better. 

Swathi's double celebration!

The Shanti Nivas Children 

 This confident and happy girl is Swathi.She is celebrating her 20th birthday and taking up the position of  Assistant House Mother to the 28 children at Thompson House.on the Shanti Nivas campus. 

The adoring smiles of the children show how much she is loved by them.

Swathi first came to Prem Nivas on the day the home for HIV positive children opened in October 2006. Swarti was our eldest girl and was the first to finish High school from where she went on to gain her 'A' levels in Physics, Maths and Biology at a college in Gajapathinagaram, the village where Prem Nivas is situated.

Since the day she joined us Swathi had wanted to be a nurse but because she is HIV positive it was not possible. One of our sponsors paid for Swathi to study secretarial subjects including English and Computer Studies at a vocational training centre in Vizianagaram.   After her course Swathi  divided her time between helping Victor in the office in DMC House and caring for the children at Prem Nivas. She was able to pass on her computer knowledge and typing skills to some of the older children. Some of our youngest children live at Prem Nivas.

We thought that Swathi might try to find employment locally but suddenly we were faced with the prospect of the Shanti Nivas Housemother leaving to study Theology.  Swathi seemed to be the  ideal replacement for Kamala. Swathi has always looked after the children younger than herself and they regard her as 'Akka',  - big sister! 

Now Swathi is very happy to be employed by Brighter Future as Assistant Housemother and she is teaching computer skills too whenever the children's  timetable allows.

When the children are at School I am sure that Swathi will find her way to visit patients in the Hospice, where we currently have 3 children and four adults. Her innate nursing skills will be appreciated.

Victor says Swathi is very Happy working for Brighter Future.  

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My daughters and I are in full swing making Christmas and general cards to sell for Brighter Future. We have two bookings at churches in Bury St Edmunds to sell the cards. We have also been making felt Poppies  to wear at any time of the year.The poppies are £2.50 each. 

We are giving 50p for each poppy bought to the British Legion and taking £2 for Brighter Future! 

Faye organises another great team and Fun Day!

Do you remember how difficult it was to find runners for the London 10K  this year?

Faye's 2013 team 

 Danny was as active as usual and now that school has started again he will soon be letting us know how much his team raised by sponsorship. 

Faye's charity came to our rescue again and ran to raise funds for  Brighter Future. 

Faye's 2015 team

Faye's 2015 10K team collected £4500 in sponsorship and they are donating it to Brighter Future for a very special and specific project at our Shanti Nivas campus in Vizianagaram district. 
Faye has been supporting Brighter Future since meeting Victor and Danny in 2014. Faye has been out to see Victor and his work in coastal Andhra Pradesh.Victor visited Faye and her family when he was in England in June this year.

Faye and her supporters are raisng funds to build a Mother's Home for women who are HIV+ and have no where to live. They may have been evicted from the traditional joint-family home after their husbands died. Many were blamed for his death! Others are evicted from rented accommodation because they have HIV. Yet others cannot pay  rent  for a roof over their heads as they have no income other than what they can glean by begging. One of our ladies lives in a shelter of leaves built for her, near the railway line, by some students.

 Brighter Future always tries to respond to local needs. Victor and his staff see what  the situation is where they operate and try to offer a solution.

 That is how the idea of a Mother's home was born. It is not a new idea. Brighter Future India first mooted the idea of a Mother's home in 2012 when the Shanti Nivas campus opened its doors to the HIV+ children of Thompson House and when the Hospice. There was room to build, but as usual, there was no money to build a home.Now Faye has come to the rescue and has taken on the not inconsiderable burden of raising funds for the project. (If any one would like to 'chip in' they are most welcome!)
 

Eight brave souls!

Faye and eight friends did a sponsored swim at Brighton last month. It made me shiver to see the photos of them in the water! Faye said it was very cold for the swim between the two piers.  They also had the problem of the current changing to cope with at the end of the swim.  This event was part of a 'Fun Day' and raised £1000 towards the Mother's Home project. What a wonderful and inspiring person Faye is!. 

A huge thankyou to all Faye's friends and their sponsors. 

The website appeal for mattresses

That appeal for mattresses!
You may have seen the appeal that Victor sent, with photos, that was on the web site.
I am pleased to say that three people from Lincolnshire,who wish to be anonymous, have responded generously to the appeal and the mattresses are being delivered as they are made.

The foam sheet  mattresses are covered with 'rexine' for hard wear and have a cooler surface included in the construction for comfort in the hot season.  Each  mattress also has a sheeting bag made for it.
The children tuck their mosquito nets under the mattress.

A special message from Manya

An assurance to all of our sponsors and donors

In view of all the recent news in the media about Kids Company and of scams about the selling on of data base information  I would like to assure all our sponsors and donors that Brighter Future International Trust administrative staff are all volunteers and do not receive salaries. 
Furthermore they keep  administrative costs to a minimum. The quarterly Newsletter is funded by one of the trustees and he also pays for the postage that it's distribution entails. The new website, brighterfutureinternationaltrust.co.uk was also paid for by the same gentleman, as well as the new printed letterheads for BFIT stationary.
Brighter Future does not disclose our data base information outside of Brighter Future. 
The trustees regard it as their duty to be good stewards of your gifts and donations.

Personally, I do claim for ink cartridges and stationary from time to time but I pay my own fares to India and other costs, like injections and visas,that this entails!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our kind sponsors and donors for their continued support. Some of our child sponsors have been with us since 2004 when Danny and Victor set up the charity in India! Our newer supporters are equally appreciated and new ones are always welcome with open arms to join the 'Brighter Future Family' of sponsors and donors.

Food Parcels for One Hunded HIV/AIDS Sufferers

Every month Brighter Future takes life saving food and medicine parcels to Narasannapeta.

Narasannapeta is the large vilage, with a population of 75000, in Srikakulam district, about 100km from Brighter Future's base at DMC House in Vizianagaram.

 Srikakulam district is sandwiched between the mountainous Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Biscay. It borders the state of Odisha and is officially regarded as 'backward' because of the poverty of its people, who rely on agriculture  and gathering forest crops, in a difficult climate. There is little industry.  Women and girls play a very traditional role in the household and  literacy rates are low, especially among women.

On the edge of Narasannapetta, 25 km from the chief town of Srikakulam district, confusingly also called Srikakulam, is our Karuna Nivas Home for  children with HIV/Aids  Karuna Nivas opened in 2010 in an old school building next to Narasannapeta Leprosy Colony. Brighter Future rents the building from the Leprosy Colony. We have 20 children at Karuna Nivas in the care of Mary our Nurse/Housemother and her staff.

The children, apart from Ram babu our graduate, go to local schools and it is while they are at school during the day, that Brighter Future uses the building as a community centre where HIV infected mothers can see our Doctor and Nurse, meet one another and collect parcels of food and medicine to supplement their own resources.

This month 100 women came to collect the 5kg rice, 1/2 kg each of wheat, soya, peanuts and cooking oil. 
These women are malnourished and very few of them can find work on the days that they feel well. Although our Pastor has helped them to apply for pensions only a handful of them actually receive the £2 a month. 
Government pension plans tend to be proposed and superseded before they come to fruition! Two years ago it was announced that only government registered women, who had not missed one single appointment since 2008 to collect their ART (anti retro viral medicine), would be eligible for a pension.  A year wise roll out was proposed. How can anyone who is racked with weakness, sickness and body pains not miss one single appointment? Finding food takes up a large proportion of the day for many of our women, begging and scavenging. Many cannot find the  bus fare to the medicine collection point! Those that have little jobs, like washing up in roadside cafe's get paid in kind not cash. If you want agricultural work you assemble at a known place and wait to be chosen to work - rather like the biblical story of hiring the workers for the vineyard.
With lentils costing 80p a kg how far would £2 go?

New HIV/Aids patients found and tested positive in July 2015

Our mothers with a permanent address and ration books can get  35kg of cheap government rice. Those with young children  are glad that their child is eligible  for a hot meal at school.The majority of our HIV/Aids patients rely on our food parcels to survive from one month to the next. Some have no other source of food. We also give prophylaxis to supplement the 10 tablets the government gives them. Our doctor gives  vitamins and other general medicines as  needed. 

Over the last eight years that Brighter Future has been caring for these people there has been some significant changes. We now have men coming for food parcels. Previously widows came after their husbands had died. Nowadays we have men coming for the parcels - they are surviving because  ART is available  - they are living instead of dying. They are also able to spread the infection and need councilling about their lifestyle!

Food and medicine parcels cost £7 per person per month. 

Another part of this project is when our staff go into the villages to find people who do not know they have HIV. The doctor and pastor set up a general 'health camp' and villagers come along with their problems. Prescriptions are given and suspect HIV cases are discretely invited to go with our nurse to be tested at the special government centres in the large towns. Confirmed cases that have a large amounts of the virus in their bodies are started on the drugs that will slow down the progress of the virus. Those with less virus have to wait until they are more severely infected! 
(In the West treatment is started when the patient has less virus in the blood, In the West all children are started on the ART as soon as HIV is confirmed).

It was this programme that found Nilaveni.

Nilaveni

Getting started on the very toxic drugs can cause a lot of sickness, diarrhoea and fever in malnourished people with protein deficiency. Some abandon the treatment. Some stop and start. Both very dangerous scenarios.

Our food and vitamin parcels help the patients to adjust to the medicines. Some patients are admitted to our Hospice to acclimatise to the treatment.Of course as India has 70% of the world's TB it is also necessary to test for that infection and treat it. In children the TB manifests itself as glandular TB rather than pulmonary TB.