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.