A blind lady was brought to the Hospice.

The lady in the red sari is called Gouri. She is completely blind, with cataracts in both eyes. The lady who is standing with her  very kindly brought her to Brighter Future at the suggestion of our Prem Nivas Nurse. They got talking on the bus when Nurse Laxmi was taking some of the Prem Nivas children to the government centre to get their HIV treatment. Gouri is HIV+ so Nurse Laxmi  had probably seen her at  the Government ART centre.

The two ladies live in Gajapathinagaram,  the nearest large village to Prem Nivas. Victor said that Gouri lives in a ‘toy’ hut, for which she pays 100 rupees a month to the lady who is in the photo with her. I think it must be a very small hut or even an outhouse as room rents normally cost more than 1000 rupees. Victor didn’t ask Gouri whether she  gets a pension of 200rp a month or whether she begs for her living.

Victor has spoken to the surgeon who does cataract operations for us on our leprosy patients. He has agreed to operate privately on Gouri in ten day’s time. As Gouri  is HIV+ he will perform only her operation on that day and the operating theatre will be closed for the rest of the day.

A new boy arrives at the hospice.

Abraham

 Abraham is from Bapuji Leprosy Colony.
The early members of the Brighter Future's Family of Sponsors and Donors may remember that in February 2005 we adopted a very neglected leprosy colony.   Brighter Future was able to bring some help to the elderly, and mostly very deformed, residents.
 Brighter Future immediately set to work on the essentials - water, food and medical care. We made the open well safe to use. We installed a new, deeper, bore well so that there could be clean water at all seasons. We supplied basic food grains to supplement their routine begging. Brighter Future provided a man to dress the patient's open sores and teach them how to care for, and avoid, these wounds.

The next big step was to provide safe and hygienic housing to replace the dilapidated, snake infested and broken rooms they were living in. The money to build new houses was raise by supporters of Brighter Future in the UK. This was Brighter Future's first foray into building houses for leprosy patients. It attracted the attention of the local government and The Leprosy Mission and they both now co-operate in building homes on other leprosy colonies in our area. Brighter Future liaises and supervises this housebuilding.

You are probably wondering what this has to do with Abraham!  
 His parents lived in Bapuji colony and were very grateful to the couple who donated the money to build their house. The couple also remembered Prasad and his wife at Christmas. They were overwhelmed to receive the first card - they had never been sent a letter from anyone before. Prasad and his wife have now died, Abraham is their son.

Our dear little Sanyasi is surviving against all the odds.

He has been so very ill with a lung infection.This on top of his TB and HIV, asthma and skin infections. The government hospital in Visakhapatnam, the only place that severely ill HIV/AIDS patients can be admitted to, sent him to a TB hospital. There he was treated for a few weeks before being returned to the main hospital. 

Sanyasi's mother stayed with him whenever possible.  Brighter Future staff took it in turns to visit Sanyasi and stay with him. The hospital then told Sanyasi's mother to take him home and prepare for his death.

After a few days at home Sanyasi came back to our hospice. His mother has to go out to work and there is no one to look after Sanyasi.At our hospice we have full time staff, Sanyasi's younger brother, Chakravarthi, can come and keep him company when he is not in school. Sanyasi's mother is welcome to stay with him for as long as she likes.

We are so thankful that he is still alive, despite being so painfully thin now. We give him whatever he fancies to eat. His favourite requests are, oranges, mango drink, tea, biscuits and chapatis!

From Bees to Support for Six

One of  our new sponsors wrote to me to say that as she had a bad back, she had given up bee keeping. She sold some of her equipment and wanted to give Brighter Future the £250 raised. It was about the time when our young people were qualifying to get into college. 

Victor told me that Brighter Future was going to find it difficult to find the £250 to £275 a year per student that going  college entailed.

 That was when I had the idea of asking our 'bee' lady if we could use her gift to finance the fees of one of our students. She is going to support Swathi during her Computer and English studies. 

At that time I was also able to make contact with a friend whose email address I had lost. Sheer coincidence! I sent her the July Newsletter and as an Open University student herself, she very generously  sponsored two students - Vasavi and Sandeep.

Another lady read of our dilemma  and has offered to sponsor Anil in his  '10+ 2'  (like A level) studies.

A local Bury St Edmunds resident friend regularly holds sales in his tiny front garden. He had a larger one the other week, for Brighter Future. Sometimes he grows plants to sell, at other times he sells things people give him. The £259 he has raised will support another student, Jyothi, in her 12th year. 

A friend, from many years ago, was willing to sponsor Swathi's degree course. Swathi wanted to be a nurse but as she is HIV+ this is not possible. Swathi is, therefore, spending one year learning computer studies and written English.  My friend will instead support Sanyasi, another of our young students.

We are so thankful to these good people who are giving these marginalised young people, from leprosy colonies and station platforms and HIV/AIDS orphans, the chance of further education.

Our Little Patient Appalnaidu

He is now happy and bouncing around after having treatment on his neck for an infected gland. It became very enlarged as part of his TB. Instead of getting TB in his lungs his lymph glands get infected and they have to be, aspirated, or drained, by syringe.  

Meanwhile at our HIV Finding and Feeding project .. 
..we gave medicines and

food parcels to 47 women in July. Five new cases were found, 3 women and two men.

Six months ago we helped 17 women to apply for extra rice  - a ration of 35kg a month instead of the usual 4kg for below poverty line ration book holders. Sadly only 4 people were granted this 35kg. Although they all qualify, (widowed, below poverty line, low caste, and low income) the process of granting anything is now in abeyance because the whole of the coastal region's government workers are now on strike because of the division of the state into two new states. Victor says there are no buses, trains, or government departments working!   

Four children from The Rainbow Boy's Home and D M C House go to College

If these  Children had not been given a loving home, with educational and medical care, they may well have been begging on the streets  . Brighter Future gave them a home.

They have finished High School and have qualified to study what is known as 10+2.

These exams are the equivalent of our 'A levels at a Sixth Form College. Sanyasi, Anil, and Vasavi  have started their studies as the academic year begins in June.  Praneetha's parents have moved to a leprosy colony near Visakhapatnam so Praneetha may go to a college near them. We send them to private colleges to make sure that they have the best teachers. They have to pass year 11 exams before they can continue into the 12 th year.

They still live at DMC House and the Rainbow Home, going to college on cycles if not too far away. Sanyasi is studying Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Vasavi and Anil have chosen Commerce, Economics and Civics.

Sandeep sailed through his exams and is now in the final year 12 studying Maths, Physics and Chemistry. Jyothi and Manohar had to retake a subject but are now also in the 12th. Manohar has enrolled in a college near his parent's leprosy colony, as he wants to keep an eye on his family. Brighter Future will continue to support him in his studies.

Sandhya failed her subjects so we will find some less academic course for her.

Congratulations to our students !

Swathi is our very first student to pass her  final exams after two years at a college in the village where Prem Nivas home is situated. Swathi now has the equivalent of A levels in Biology, Physics and Maths. Swathi has had to work really hard because when she was 8 she was asked to leave her village school because her parents had died of AIDS. In those days there was no treatment available to slow down the progress of HIV to AIDS. Swathi was often sick and her grandmother asked Brighter Future to admit her to Prem Nivas, our first home for HIV infected children, in October 2006. At first we taught the children ourselves because the local schools would not take them and no teacher would work for us.
I remember going to give a talk, translated by Victor, to several hundred High School children, and their teachers, gathered in the school playground. My message was that you can't catch HIV/AIDS by sitting next to one of our children, sharing their books, playing with them or eating with them. Swathi was admitted to the High school and now all our children go there when they pass class 5.
Swathi has long wanted to be a nurse but because she is HIV+ this is not possible.