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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 days ago

Pongal celebrations in Mettupalayam. We have been very fortunate to have been invited to join in on several occasions during trustees visits, and very much appreciate the Tamil villagers' connections with the land. We would compare the ceremonies to our harvest festivals which are, in many respects, similar. Venkat always remembers the elderly poor and provides new clothes as well as sharing the pongal rice. ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

1 week ago

Huge thanks to Jue Chadwick who has raised £150 in lieu of birthday presents, and donated all to Friends of Mettupalayam.
Every penny of this will be sent out to Venkat and IRDT, and it will be spent helping provide education, healthcare and poverty relief to vulnerable and needy people. ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 weeks ago

More pictures of the paddy planting. In only four months we should have a great harvest of good quality rice. ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 weeks ago

Alongside all the other responsibilities that Venkat has, our 35 acre farm still needs to be cultivated!
After an excellent monsoon, there is plenty of water for rice paddy planting. We now hire a specialist planting machine, as local farm labour is now increasingly difficult to find.
We will sell some of the rice and keep some for our school meals programme. ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

3 weeks ago

A New Year brings a new challenge! During our recent trustees visit to Mettupalayam, we went to a small Irula tribal settlement, about 1/4 Mile from our farm. There we found 21 families, many of whom were originally linked to the debt slaves that we freed some 15 years ago. They had previously moved on to Kanchipuram, to work at a rock breaking quarry works. However, this work proved to be both unhealthy and little better paid than the debt slaves work that they had been freed from. On the promise of free houses given by the Government, they have moved back into our project area. Some infrastructure has been put in place, for example, a piped water supply and a paved road, but housing is still awaited, meantime, the families are living in mud walled, palm leaf roofed huts, little better than animal shelters. As quarry work isn't available, some of the men are doing wood cutting, supplemented by agricultural labouring.

With little work available during the monsoon season, income has been minimal and most of the families have been existing on rice only!

Having identified that all the children were both anaemic and obviously grossly underweight, I managed to complete a survey to calculate their BMI. Incredibly, these were all so low that they didn't even reach the lowest levels on the graphs! Similarly, their upper arm measurements also were off the scale
It was distressing to see the affects of such abject poverty still existing, despite all the excellent work that Venkat and his team have done over the last 35 years.

We immediately agreed to start a nutrition programme to address these problems and are now providing a range of fresh vegetables to each family, every week. We have also provided the appropriate cooking vessels and drinking tumblers to every family. We are also encouraging them to use our free weekly health clinic.

The four youngest, school age children are now coming in to our Crakehall Primary School and they are having a nutritious breakfast and lunch, as well as snacks. We are also supporting the older children going to the nearby Government school. Venkat is also providing a cooked lunchtime meal to the two oldest people in the village. Very sadly, our support was too late for one other elderly man who passed away shortly after our visit. All the 68 villagers will be assisted and helped in whatever way we feel necessary.

We are currently committed to running this programme for six months and will then reassess it's effectiveness. We also need to try to improve the tribe's income generation and have offered work on our farm.

We are discussing the funding for this extra commitment and will keep our Friends and supporters informed of progress. This is a big additional challenge to Venkat but we know that, with our support, he will be successful in making a real difference for these very disadvantaged and needy people. ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

1 month ago

The start of the new moon month, leading up to the celebration of Pongal. It is traditional for the village children to parade around with a god statue, ring handbells and sing. They then hope to be given a small gift, a few rupees for them to spend.
A lovely tradition, Pongal marriadi! ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

1 month ago

The children at the Crakehall Primary School, Mettupalayam were so excited to receive the letters from the children at Ravensworth Primary School. They enjoyed writing their replies and decorated them with the Indian and UK flags.
Christmas and New Year greetings exchanged! ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 months ago

A huge thank you to FOM trustees, Hugo and Jean for instigating and organising a full reworking of the Crakehall Primary School's resources room during their recent visit. After emptying out and cleaning the room, the furniture and storage units were replaced to provide storage for all the school's resources, and shelving for all the many books which have been bought or donated over the years. Teachers will now have the ability to access this library, to borrow books and to use all the resources to aid in their lessons.
I should also give many thanks to all the teachers who came in on their Sunday off, to help. One almost immediate benefit, the play parachute came out and was being used the following week! ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 months ago

Fantastic news- we have long wanted to see a Kuruvi (Gypsy) tribal girl go on to further education, and here is Kottaswary! She is from the Kuruvi village of New Pudunagar, just 1/2 mile from Mettupalayam, and she is, of course, a former Crakehall Primary School student. She is now in her second year at college, studying nursing.

Many of the young girls want to stay on in higher education, but cultural mores mean that most are removed following puberty, and have to sell beads to help with the family's living costs. Many are then married in their early teens to boys from the village- their engagement having been arranged when they were toddlers!

Hopefully, where one goes, more will follow and Venkat and his staff work incredibly hard to facilitate progress in equality and against gender stereotyping.

Who knows, once qualified, perhaps Kottaswary will return to work at our IRDT project as a full time health worker and nurse at our weekly free surgery ... See MoreSee Less

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Friends of Mettupalayam Trust

2 months ago

Ravensworth Primary School have donated lots of uniforms which have now been handed out to pupils at our Crakehall Primary School, Mettupalayam.
The timing couldn't have been better, as it coincided with a visit by UK trustees.
Seeing the reaction of the children was amazing, it was as if all their christmasses had come at once! The girls couldn't wait to try on their dresses, and they all rushed up onto the roof of our school building to change.
Thank you, parents, teachers and pupils at Ravensworth- your generosity has made a real difference. ... See MoreSee Less

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