Getting Ready for Christmas

Having delayed as long as possible we finally started on the things children like to do preparing for Christmas. The crib figures were revamped, being the wooden peg figures from a good few years ago.

Swathi told the Primary children the Christmas story in Telugu and we talked about it in English. The older children had decided with Swathi what they would like in the way of decorations this year.


The boys were made responsible for the star to go on the roof and for the lighting of the crib area and the making of a Christmas tree with lights. Sampath, Govind and Giri are the most electrically aware in that they can connect wires to a plug. They are always most careful to turn the electricity supply on and off as necessary.

Sampath estimated the amount of wire needed for the star which was attached to the volleyball post with a piece of cook Kalyani-mamma's firewood.


He went to buy the bits and pieces and an extension lead - called a plug box here.


I had bought the hooks for the tree earlier and showed Sampath how to drill a few of the holes for the rawplugs.



We thought we had four sets of lights but once tested and carefully strung up the crib lights refused to work so tonight one of the boys will go and buy some more.

Govind

The girls are responsible for decorating their rooms. The Christmas tree lights would look better at night if there were more green ones at the top so they will be searched for too. One day Prem Nivas may have its own artificial Christmas tree  but meanwhile it is the children's own work.

The High School exams are from the 15th to the 22nd so dance practise is after homework time!I have started supervising homework time and have the opportunity to read my Kindle!

At lunchtime the little children watched Little Donkey and the 12 day of Christmas on my laptop and some of the children remembered bits of them from last year. They have made cards for Monkston school Year 1 class in Milton Keynes, to keep up the tradition started a few years ago.


 Last year the Monkston children had made origami Father Christmases for our children and this year we have strung them up on the Christmas tree.

Back row Prem, Raju. Rajesh, Madhavi
front row Prasanna, Prabhas, Lavanya

The children are all practising dances for the evening concert at the Christmas party at Shanti Nivas. The gyrating  dances are done to hymn tunes to keep the occasion Christian. 

The Youngest and Newest Primary Children

Visitors from the UK, who are The Leprosy Mission supporters, came to see Prem Nivas last week. They had a a busy schedule visiting leprosy colonies but found time to visit our home for HIV infected children at Prem Nivas.
Swathi, our housemother, and Gowri did a dance for them and the newest and youngest Primary School children enjoyed entertaining them with 'Five Little Monkeys'.

The newest monkeys, Lavanya, Jagan, Prabhas and Rajesh 

December 7th brought another birthday celebration and the children were given bananas and a packet of biscuits.

December 8th brought another special donated breakfast for all the children. It was to celebrate little Rory's birthday. he helped his uncles to distribute the food to the children as is the custom.

The children enjoyed a huge breakfast of puris, warrahs, idlis and two chutneys. this was followed by a sweet vermicilli dish.

Donations and Gifts from Local Indian Residents

 Special Functions and Celebrations at Prem Nivas this week.

This is the Hindu month of Kartik and it is especially devoted to the god Shiva. Religious people make a special effort to do good works in Kartik to honour this important god. Last Sunday we had a special lunch cooked here by members of a group who revere Sai Baba. Sai Baba who died in 1918 is regarded as a saint by his devotees and as an incarnation of Shiva.

The group who visited our home for HIV+ children at Prem Nivas are local people and the group comprised men and women. The  men told me they are a group of Sai Baba people who believe in doing good works.

On this occasion the whole group  set to work to prepare a meal, the men  joining in the work too. I met the three men who were peeling the skin off hot cooked potatoes while the ladies cut raw potato into cubes, tomatoes  and other vegetables into slices using a traditional curved blade that is held in place with one's foot while sitting down.

I noticed that there were about 30 green chillies ready to go into the preparation. The ladies added ghee to the cooking pot over our wood fire used to infuse the spices  and stew the vegetables . I wondered why have cooked potato as well as the raw potato and asked one of the men if it was intended as a thickening agent. He said yes and it seemed logical.

I am sure the children enjoyed the sumptuous meal and thanked the Sai Baba team. Being allergic to chilli I had an alternative lunch.





This last week has also seen birthday celebrants coming to
give treats to our children.

A mother and father brought their daughter aged 7 and her little 3 year old brother, who was the birthday boy, to give our children one of their favourite things - a glass of milk and a sweet bun.

 Another of this week's donors gave a different breakfast to the children, making it and serving it themselves, as is the custom.

One lady brought Indian sweets like sticky balls of rice crispies, her servant had made them, but it is the thought that counts and they went down well with the children.

Another lovely custom is to mark  the death anniversary of a father  by giving a special meal. Our children are often selected for this honouring of a close relative.

Because Prem Nivas is on the edge of a large village, or what seems to have grown into a small town over the last 10 years that we have been here, our children are often the recipients of dinners, lunches, snacks and other lovely things.

Thank you to all our donors at home and abroad.

Children's Day

On November 14th children in India celebrate "Children's Day" .In Delhi  politicians and dignitaries gather at the funeral site of Mr Nehru to mark Children's Day.

The custom of having a special day for children was started in 1959  by the United Nations on November 20th as Universal Children's Day.  This was  in the time of the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru understood that the future of India lay in their hands and wanted all children to have 'rights'. Among them the right to education, the right to be free from child labour, the right to be safe and to receive health care.
After Nehru's death it was decided that Children's Day or Bal Diwas would  be celebrated in India on the birth anniversary of Mr Nehru, November 14th.  Children refer to him respectfully as 'Uncle Nehru' or 'Chacha Nehru' as indeed they do to all male adults. Victor was known as 'Pedda Uncle'  or 'Big Uncle' when we first started Prem Nivas. Yesterday I heard Yerrinaidu, one of our children, address the telephone engineer as 'uncle'.

Teachers usually arrange special functions at school for the children and children  show extra respect to their teachers, giving flowers or putting on little plays and reciting poems for the teachers and the whole school. At the High School in Gajapathinagaram our children had sweets, heard stories and made speeches.
Here at Prem Nivas, housemother Swathi went round to each Primary school child with a phone greeting from her sister Priyanka.

Ramya ans Sai bought this lovely cake for the children.

In the evening a regular visitor to our home,Ramya, and her friend Sai Kumar came laden with gifts for the children including a large cake, samosas, savoury snacks, pencils and rubbers

I cut the first piece to go in Prasanna's mouth! She returned the action.

Gowri teacher helps with the savoury things.

Ramya passes to Sravani 

.

 Sai waits while Swathi divides up the cake

Thank you for our Children's Day Gifts Ramya!

I am in India with the children again!

 I left home on November 5th and for a change entered through Mumbai for the first time since 1998. This because I had been invited to stay as a guest of the gentleman who pays the salary of the doctor who visits the HIV+ children and hospice patients once a month or on call when needed in an emergency. The airport had become much larger and more efficient and I had the luxury of being met and transported to my friend's family residence.
With three suit cases I decided to make the journey to Visianagaram by train despite it being one of 33 hours. I had several interesting fellow travelers so the time went quickly and they offloaded my luggage where Mahesh and the BF driver China Rao were waiting for me. Luckily the train was only half an hour late as it was nearly midnight.

 I had to wait until Monday to be taken to Prem Nivas  but en route I met Victor at DMC House and attended a prayer meeting conducted by the children in the new upstairs room.

The large upper room is used for morning assemblies and for video presentations

Here I renewed acquaintance with some of the degree students including Sandeep and Vasavi who are in their final years.

 Several of the girls  present there were embarking on nursing courses, both general nursing GNM and B.Sc Nursing degree courses.

 A tour of the new offices and kitchen followed -  all very pristine with new paint and tiles.

Prem Nivas was next on the agenda. I was                                                                                               greeted enthusiastically by  high school students                                                                                     (in their lunch break)

and the primary aged children from Brighter Future's own school.



The art work was Sampat's.









The little ones  were waiting to greet me with a mala of marigolds.

How the had grown!   I had a bit of trouble remembering some of their names - at my age I forget many words. However, with a first letter provided, I managed to get everyone's name at the second try.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
There were two new little faces since last  March, Lavanya and Jagan!

Little Prabhas was found the next day enthuiastically copying a story in what to him was a comfortable position!

The children come to my room when they have breaks and after school to play games on my tablets! games being maths , tables and reading! They have to be rationed! 

Victor and Mary's visit to the UK.

Victor and Mary arrived on 22nd August and spent the first few days acclimatising with his brother, Danny, and his family in Ashford, Kent.  It was Mary's first visit to the UK!

Selfies taken to send to the sponsored children in India.

Various meetings with trustees of  the Pickford Memorial Trust and Hearts for India Trust took place as these good people support the our Hospice for HIV children and adults, as well as our children's homes and leprosy projects whenever they can. Mary had a shopping date with Chris Copp of HFI as she was to cook a curry for their  trustees and guests. I heard that it was a splendid meal!  Victor gave a talk at a church in March and Chris ferried Mary and Victor over to my house in Bury St Edmunds on the evening of the bank holiday.

Photo taken for Sanyasi of his sponsor's grandchild.

Victor and Mary were able to meet some of the sponsors of children and student-fee sponsors who live in Suffolk, including his former physiotherapy teacher, Margaret,who now lives near Ipswich. It was a very informal gathering. They were pleased to meet individual sponsors as well as  Members of St Edmund's R C. Church's Ladies Club who have a joint sponsorship of one boy,  Many of the original sponsors of Prem Nivas children, the first HIV+ children's home which opened in October 2006, are my personal friends and relations, hence the Bury St Edmunds connection. Indeed Sonia and her husband, Richard, started by buying bricks and cement for the construction of the building months before we took any children!Some of these original sponsors are now sponsoring their second child!. Mary sold some copies of her cookery recipe book and Victor handed round recent photos and drawings done by their children.

The next day had been reserved for a visit to Cambridge. Rain was forecast for most of the day but Victor wanted to go rather than wait for the next days' forecast sun. A planned walk took in the usual colleges, the river. the backs, bridges, punts and churches.Victor chose a book in the Oxfam shop of 'Cambridge in Old Photosgraphs', as my gift for his new DMC House Library.
The next morning was sunny and they visited the Abbey Gardens, the Cathedral and did some shopping to buy warm jackets for wearing in the UK and gifts for family and friends in India.

The next stop was Peterborough and points north, including overnight stays and more talks as well as office days at The Leprosy Mission. They go west to Hereford, Somerset and Devon too.

Sadly Victor and Mary are not able to visit all  the sponsors and donors this time. They are, however, all remembered with grateful thanks for their support and loyalty to Brighter Future India.

Correction about Bourne and Hereford opportunities to meet Victor

Sorry my mistake !the Bourne meeting is at the Methodist Church Hall in Bourne
Abbey Road, PE10 9EF 10am to 4pm

The Hereford meeting is for TLM supporters only!

The New Building at DMC House

 A Happy Hundred Children and Young People 

The new building at DMC House is nearly completed. The building is the much needed new kitchen and dining room, with a second floor that provides space for studying and a computer room. 

The dining area is open plan but there is a large overhang from the rooms above.

Just before I left in March 2017 Victor asked me to mark out the new dimensions for him so that he could see what they would look like on the ground. Like many people he finds plans difficult to read. My training as a map maker came in handy as I found a length of wood and a piece of chalk to draw the kitchen and dining room sizes on the ground. This practical exercise reminded me of laying the rooms of the Thompson House buildings and the hospice on the ground with pieces of thin tree trunks and leading Victor through them saying 'this is the store room, this is the boys dormitory'  as we stepped from one space to the other.

The kitchen area waits for its ceramic floor tiles.

 The kitchen equipment has to be installed and the painting finished. The tiling is very colourful and courtesy of a friend of Victor's who has end of lines he is pleased to get rid of! 

Original tiling

Now all the children will have a roof over their heads at dinner time, with bonus of electric light and fans to sit under.

There are racks for the children's plates and utensils next to the entrance to the big kitchen.

Access to the upper room

A large open plan space on the upper floor

Upstairs the large open space is ideal for studying and doing homework, what ever the weather.

Victor had talked of a computer room and it has been built on top of the existing shops that front  DMC House.

The computer room above the shops

 Ready for tiling

 A very big thank you to the kind people who raised the funds for this much needed extension at DMC House. The children and the cooks will be delighted with their new found space.

College and degree students photos 2017

 The inter college students  and degree college students of 2017 are grouped according to their homes of residence.

All of this years Inter-college students and Degree students were invited to Vizianagaram 

Thompson House, Prem Nivas and Karuna Nivas ctudents

DMC and Rainbow students
boys:
N Ramesh, Ch Samson, D Sateesh, R Sandeep, M Sanyasi Naidu, V Shanker, B Timothy and G Basker
girls:
A Sujata, D Snehà, K Vasavi, D Uma, Y Kalyani, J Venkatalaxmi, S Rani, Mounika, D Kumari, G Hemalatha, K Rani and A Priyanka

Thompson House and Karuna Nivas students

Prem Nivas Inter students and degree student Sravani
Sampath ( 1st yr) ashok (2nd yr) Satyavarthi (1st yr) Sravani (degree student)

Jhansi celebrated her birthday with her friends at Prem Nivas.

Off to BIG school!

These  lovely children  are starting at the Government High School in this new Academic Year. 

Why is that such a momentous event?

Because they are children from Prem Nivas - the first of Brighter Future's homes for infected HIV/AIDS children. They are not the first children to go to High School but looking at them today I can remember how each one of them has blossomed during their years at Prem Nivas and we thank God that they are still alive and relatively healthy. 

Some of them hve an aunty or a grandparent still living. Others were brought to us by a dying sibling or parent and have no living relations. with clean water, clean nutritious food, anti-retroviral medication and a huge dose of love, they have survived. They are treated as 'normal' children and encouraged to be kind and helpful, to study well and value education so that they may lead independent lives in the future.

We wish them well on this first step into the outside world.