The wall came tumbling down!

No one was hurt!

The Prem Nivas Primary School was made by converting and finishing off a semi-detached house which we bought in 2009. The house was directly opposite our existing Prem Nivas campus and we were able to incorporate it to provide a much needed school for our younger children. They had been refused admission by local schools for three years because of their HIV status. 

The building belonged to a man who had decided to become a monk and we were, therefore, able to buy it, with help from our sponsors, and a grant from the Canning Trust.  

The boundary wall has collapsed after heavy monsoon rains.  There has not been any building on adjacent plots so the land was full of weeds which like damp conditions, and pools of water, especially in the monsoon season . 

The main school building has been inspected and there is no sign of damage to its fabric.

Stone delivered to make a solid foundation for the new boundary wall of concrete blocks

The photo shows the stone with which a strong foundation is being made for a new boundary wall which also goes around the corner at the back of the class rooms, library and the guest room. 

Victor made sure that reconstruction began as quickly as possible so as  to keep out snakes, pigs, dogs and other undesirables, including creepy crawlies.

The back of the building's boundary wall came down too.

According to the senior mason the wall, when completed,  will have cost Brighter Future  82000 Indian Rupees - that is roughly £943 for labour and materials.

To the VTC students of Brighter Future

A Letter To the Students at the

 Betty Lawes Vocational Training Centre

 at Shanti Nivas

My dear Young People

 I would like to welcome you to this special training centre which has been set up for you.

The Betty Lawes Foundation in England were told of the need to provide employment opportunities for our HIV children who were not able to continue their studies at 10+2 level.  I told them that there were several boys who were, through no fault of their own, behind in their studies for various reasons.

Some students found learning difficult, some had not had the opportunity to go to school when they were young, because of their family circumstances, because they were too ill to attend school, or because there was no school that would accept them.  

 We want to give you a second chance to succeed. A second chance, to start again. We want to enable you to learn a trade like plumbing, electrical work, repairing electrical appliances and phones.

You are being given a great opportunity. Now you Young People have to prove to the world

that you can learn,

that you are not stupid,

and that you are not lazy.

It may take a long time to learn new things but if you try, try and try again you will succeed in the end. You will feel happy and pleased when you can do something new. When that new knowledge can let you work well, safely and honestly you will feel pleased with yourself and Brighter Future will be proud of you.

It will still be necessary to learn some Maths. Telugu, English and Computer Studies.as well as new subjects. You will be taught in a small group and individually. You will be given the chance to learn through doing tasks, competing with one another, and helping one another.

It is very important that you tell your teachers if you do not understand what you have been asked to do. If you do not understand something ask your teachers or fellow students to explain what you do not know. And then use your knowledge to solve the problems yourself.

The most dangerous thing you can do is to copy.

 Why is it dangerous to copy someone else’s work?  It is harmful to you because then your teacher does not know you don’t understand. He cannot know that you may need extra teaching, and extra practice, to help until you do know what you are doing.

You are now all nearly adult and you must take responsibility for you own behaviour in all things, in learning and in your everyday conduct.

The Betty Lawes Foundation very kindly agreed that they would like to give you the opportunity to have a vocation.

They are giving Brighter Future the finance for the building, equipment and the salaries of your teachers. They have put their trust in Brighter Future India and in YOU. to study well, to learn a trade. After several years of working for an employer and perhaps getting more qualifications, you may one day be able to start your own business.  

The Betty Lawes Foundation want you to do well and learn a trade that will enable you to support yourself and enable you to do well in your future life.

Please remember them in your prayers

 I wish you every success

 Ps  I used Google Translate to write this letter in Telugu and Victor printed it and gave each student a copy

Another First for Brighter Future

Report of Inauguration of the Betty Lawes Foundation Vocational Training Centre for Youth

(Empowering Youth)

at Shanti Nivas Campus on 25th June, 2016

Brighter Future Development Trust

After a long wait the great idea of Mrs Manya Norris was successfully completed. The project is to give a skill and training to our young people for their  future sustainability, especially to the non academic youth infected with HIV. With the idea of Manyaji and the help of The Betty Lawes Foundation UK the Vocational Training Centre was completed by Brighter Future Development Trust.

The Vocational Training Centre is providing skill training in three trades, Electrical, Plumbing & Mobile Phone repairing. All the equipment for the training centre was purchased and the training centre was all set for inauguration on 25th June, 2016. All  college age boys from Rainbow, Karuna Nivas, Prem Nivas and Shanti Nivas took part in the opening program.

In The function started at 4pm with a prayer by Pastor Elisha, in the presence of the Director, Mr. Srinu, Mr. Appalraju (trainers at VTC) all staff and children of Shanti Nivas Campus. Afterwards everybody at VTC and  all the children sang songs and hymns.  Pastor Elisha preached some  words from the  bible and linked those words to skill development and self sustainability of the youth.  He beautifully explained to the youth present in the gathering. Director addressed some good words to the boys those who are going to join the VTC namely that:-

• This is the idea conceived by Manya Aunty for you all. She always thinks about the children and their welfare she has done lot of hard work and research on this VTC project and convinced Liz Neville Aunty to recommend Brighter Future for this funding.
• This VTC was constructed with the help of Betty Lawes Foundation. Liz Aunty loves all children and she helps Keerthi and Yerrinaidu.
• This is for the HIV non academic boys because they are not admitted elsewhere so they can now learn skill in different trades.

The Director advised that don’t take it easy and don’t think that “director uncle built the VTC and asked us to learn. So we have to go attend the classes”. All the students should attend the classes regularly and learn the respected trades in which they are. This is a life changing opportunity to learn a trade and be able to look after yourself and your family in the future.

Every Sunday all  college boys from all homes will be coming to Shanti Nivas and learn a little about these trades (also on Saturdays in holiday time if they have no college lessons)

Director also mentioned  that if there is any skill development training centre for girls it would  be a great opportunity for them.

The Director also addressed some more words and advice to the upcoming youth and children in the campus.

After that boys from PN and SN inaugurated the Plaque of VTC in presence of Director and staff and cut the ribbon and entered into the training centre. After that second plaque was unveiled by Mr. Srinu all the children and staff entered the VTC classrooms. The Director instructed regarding the class timings with the teachers of the VTC.

Finally all the children had sweets and snacks and the meeting wound up with a Vote of Thanks by Pastor Elisha.

All the children and young boys are so thankful to Liz Neville Aunty and Manya Aunty for thinking of them and giving them a bright future through the VTC centre.

Many Thanks to Betty Lawes Foundation…..

Exam results, further education and how to find the fees!

The results of those 'national exams' that were taken by 10th year students in April are now published. Helping our young people to decide on whether to take the equivalent of our A levels, to follow alternative studies or take vocational training courses has begun. These post tenth year studies are known as '10+2' and are undertaken at an 'Intermediate College'.

The headache of finding the funding for the students, the various fees,(admission, tuition fees, exam fees and the inevitable extras), the text books, buying the college uniform, arranging transport (bikes or bus fares) all fall upon Victor  and Mary, Directors of Brighter Future India. The cost is now around £300 pounds a student for Inter College. Six students are qualified to enter first year Inter college and three more may decide that they want to enter an Intermediate College.

It is not only the new student who need funding those now entering their second year of Inter need fees again,There are 9 confirmed second year students already and we are expecting another 3 to qualify soon.

The degree students  need even more funding as they are now in their second years of study. Degree students have to pay £500 a year basic fees, with prestigious courses like Engineering costing more.

This year we have two young people who are embarking on a nursing career  where fees are similar to those for a degree.

Another new course this year is for some of our boys, who are not academically inclined, or who are behind in their studies, and hence are in classes below their chronological age, because were severely disadvantaged by being denied education as  HIV/AIDS orphans. This opportunity for a 'second chance' to get a vocational training in plumbing, electrical installation or mobile phone repairing has been given to some of our students through the generosity of an English family trust who have given Brighter Future a special grant. The trust have provided for the extension of an existing building at Shanti Nivas so that there are now three classroom/laboratories, equipped with all the necessary tools, and teachers, to accommodate up to 10 young people. There will be foundation courses in basic maths, Telugu, computer studies and English as well as the specialist subjects. The idea is to give the young people a basic level of a trade skill that will enable them to be employable despite their HIV status.

Victor is approaching all the educational institutions to ask them for a 10% discount for our children but this June the

total fees will be over £7551 !

Another dilemma is fitting the students to the college. The best colleges fill up quickly. Courses vary and the young people have to decide which subjects they want to study.

Please keep  all our students in your mind, not only those who have passed but also those who have failed, and those taking re-takes next week. It is a very traumatic and stressful time for them and they need your love and support.




  

A Visit to Visakhapnam for Senior Boys

Hemant, Brighter Future's DirectorVictor's PA, sent me an account of a post exam time picnic/outing enjoyed by senior boys from Shanti Nivas, Prem Nivas and the Rainbow Boys' Home.

Outing of College Boys 

to

Visakhapatnam, City of Destiny

Date: 06.04.2016

View of Visakhapatnam from Kailashgiri

     It is the end of  the academic year for our children with the completion of the
 Intermediate College and University level exams. All the boys revised well and 

appeared in  their respective exams. 

They could now relax so the Director decided to send all the boys for an outing.

 He discussed with the college boys and finally the plan was agreed. They decided that they would like to go to Visakhapatnam.

On 6th April all boys were ready to go for their outing. Boys from Shanti Nivas and the Rainbow Boy's Home,a total of 13 boys. The Director personally arranged a cab for them. All the boys, along with House Father, Mr Apalnaidu, started at 7.00 in the morning after breakfast. 
They planned to visit Kailashgiri first, It is a wonderful spot on the top of a hill. The view below them, of the Bay of Bengal and the entire city of Visakhapatnam,. is amazing, like wow....

The boys roamed around the hill parkland, having snacks and buying drinks, up to midday. 

Boys at Kailashgiri

They had their lunch which they had carried with them from their respective homes.

Preparing for lunch

All enjoyed the small feast of Pilihora ( typical south Indian flavoured rice with tamarind and peanuts), potato curry, boiled egg and bananas.

After lunch they left Kailashgiri to go to Vuda Park. Vuda Park is situated at sea level on the edge of the Bay of Bengal. There are lots of slides, climbing frames and  scrambling nets plus a small boating lake where pedal boats may be hired. The boys played cricket and had ice-creams to beat the scorching heat. 

On the climbing frame

Enjoying cool bites in the heat by having chocobars!!

From Vuda Park they went to Rishkonda beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Visakhapatnam district. They changed into old clothes and started to jump in the water, under the supervision of the House Father. 

After a time in the sea they played a chasing game called Kabadi. All their energy was drained so to regain energy they all had drinks and snacks  and started to play again.

Recharging their batteries!

At around 6pm they started to return home via the wonderful scenic marine drive of 35 km from Visag to Bheemali. They reached home at 7.30pm. All had enjoyed their outing after the weeks of revision for their exams.

They showed some photos of their trip to the Director and thanked him for a nice outing. 

        

                                                      

              

The New Home for Mothers at Shanti Nivas

Brighter Future addresses another need.

Since 2006,  when Brighter Future started working for children and mothers with HIV/AIDS, we realised that the virus impacted on  many facets of their lives. Brighter Future developed a strategy to address the problems that we encountered. In those days there was no medicine to slow down the disease. We could not help all the children who were infected. Most of the under two year old children died. Brighter Future decided that we would take 12 children who had no one willing, or able, to care for them. We had three beds for very sick children  who were literally dying. As demand increased for places at our first home, Prem Nivas, we appealed for funds to build more homes, Karuna Nivas in 2009 and Thompson House in 2012. We  decided that we must find these children before they were beyond our help and this led to the Finding and Feeding project at Narasannapeta in Srikakulam District. From 2009 we actively searched villages for people who were sick with HIV/AIDS and helped them to survive by enabling them to get anti-retrovial treatment. Many HIVpositive people were dying of starvation as the drugs do not work on people with malnutrition ( protein and vitamin deficiency) so Brighter Future started  providing emergency food rations to them so that they did not die of starvation. Some of our ladies have to live entierely on this monthlyparcel of rice, soya, wheat flour, peanuts, lentils and oil.

It was also why we embarked on building The Pickford Memorial Hospice for HIV mothers and children. Somewhere they could both get nursing, respite or palliative care as circumstances dictated. These days we find that men are surviving longer with HIV treatment so we offer them hospice places too when they become very ill.

In the Indian traditional joint family system a wife moves into the husband's family home. Grandparents, parents, sons and their wives share a house. When the husband has died of HIV and its often of its co-infection TB, the widow is  blamed for his death as the method of transmission is often not understood. She is evicted, with her children ifshe has them, from the joint home. She becomes homeless.  The women who are widowed find that they may no longer be able pay landlords for accommodation as they have no income, or insufficient income from jobs like washing dishes, or agricultural labouring, and that  on days when they are not too sick to be able or be chosen  to work. Some widows are already pregnant with a potentially HIV+ child when their husband dies.  Such women need a roof over their heads, and treatment for themselves and their baby, before it is born, to try and lessen the passing of the virus to the baby in the very process of giving birth.This need was the reason for the new Sunshine Mother's home at Shanti Nivas.

Faye and her mother, Lyn, came to open the new building on 11th March.

(It was 90% completed as there was still some electrical work to finish and a few things to make the home ready for the first residents.)

 Faye has written this account of the day.

"The house opening ceremony was amazing! As always we received the warmest of welcomes: Mary made us shalwar suits to wear for the occasion and we were met with garlands of flowers. When we drove into Shanti Nivas there was a welcome banner awaiting us a sea of smiling faces saluting us with "Hello Sister and Aunty"!
We were so amazed at the difference at Shanti Nivas. It is slowly turning into the children's village that Victor envisaged and it's so inspiring to see the effect that Brighter Future is having on so many children's lives.
Sunshine House was easily recognisable as it is painted bright yellow!
It already has a lovely, welcoming feel to it. The house will house 10 women at a time. All of the women are HIV positive. Some have been ostracised from their village because of the virus, some widowed and some sexually abused, so this home will provide a safe place for them to spend their pregnancy and the early months with their newborn. Thanks to the medical facilities on hand, the women here will be provided with the appropriate medication to ensure that their baby is HIV free ,which will change the lives of future generations dramatically.

There was a beautiful opening ceremony which saw 125 guests enjoy a prayer led by by the local pastor, the cutting of the ribbon and a delicious lunch.

Mum and I moved in our first house guests, and as tradition dictates, enjoyed a tasty meal with them in the new building!

We admired the plaques dedicated to our top fundraisers who have swum in open water. run 10K races, completed tough mudders and even stripped naked for cheeky calendars to help raise money for this project.

It was such a special day which we will always remember and the highlight was, without doubt meeting and moving in our first HIV free baby, Rebecca.

Isn't she just precious!

Faye with baby Rebecca

We look forward to working alongside Brighter Future to ensure this home changes as may lives as possible."

Our next appeal is to raise funds to furnish the house and make it a home with the simple things that we take for granted.

This is the link for furnishing fundraiser

https:/mydonate.btcom/events/mumshome/295115

More photos of the picnic from Mary's camera

 The older girls did not go in the sea they wandered around looking beautiful in their best dresses.
The younger High School girls could not resist the lure of the sea and joined the little children and the staff in the water.They also posed with their friends for photographs.

The little children played in the waves and practiced 'swimming'. made sandcastles and were under constant supervision 

.

 An enterprising  ice-cream man came along the beach on a motorbike

Artistic!

Ponds and sandcastles

They took turns flying the kite and went exploring for sea shells and fish

We left the beach to look for a suitably shady spot to have lunch.

 I had a seat on the upturned banana crate!

 Our splendid lunch of curried chicken, yellow tamarind rice, white rice, boiled eggs, chutney, banana and curd.

 Thank you Bronwen and Mick for making this picnic day possible for the Prem Nivas and Shanti Nivas Children.
The Karuna Nivas children had their own picnic nearer to their home and the DMC Rainbow children are waiting for thier outing until after the exams finish.