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1 day ago

Thanks for this post Chris, just one of the many achievements made by Venkat and his team over the many years of service to his community.

A great conversation with Venkatachalam last night. Brilliant to hear of all the fantastic work that is being done and we are supporting. Here’s Just one example , over the last 35 years that FOM has been going.
We have now made it possible for nearly 600 people in the local area of Mettupalayam to have Cataract operations including Venkat himself., saving their sight.
An operation we all have easy access to over here. ... See MoreSee Less

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6 days ago

Karen's latest post from Mettupalayam. As always, an amazing amount achieved and we are so grateful for her support.

Sorry about the delay in posting this - a bit hectic when I got home!
This is to be my last day. I had planned to stay another week but I have cut short my trip because of my Mum’s health problems at home. As always, I feel as though there is so much more I wanted to do but hopefully there will be a next time. I missed seeing a gentleman called Nagarajan and his wife Janaki – longstanding supporters of the project and lovely people from Bangalore. But with the new IV drip stand and having stocked up on test strips for glucose and Hb, plus a big box of sterile lancets, the dispensary is now back to full service (its amazing what you can get on Amazon!). At least we got Venkat’s cataract done, the teeth brushing session, and I spent at least 2 hours with every class. Most of Tuesday morning was spent with the 4th standard – the teacher was very keen to learn all the stitches before I left so she could carry on after I have left. She worked very hard – as did the children – and I am looking forward to seeing the work on display in the not too distant future. Venkat always likes to have a meeting with the whole school on the last day of any visitor's stay. The children are always keen to tell me what they have enjoyed the most – anything from butterfly spoons, through drawing, maths and new toothbrushes – oh and almost forgot – chocolate. I think I’m still known as Karen chocolate by some of the children! I was astounded by one of the children in 1st standard – the oldest he could have been would be five years old, He stood up and said “we did snake jigsaw and sea picture - happy games” – in excellent English – which was brilliant - definitely one to watch Venkat! The teachers also have the opportunity to say what was helpful and what they would like next time. Several of the teachers said they had been trying different ways of teaching their classes following the teacher's meeting we had yesterday. They are now asking the children questions about what they are learning and encouraging them to work together to find answers – so who knows, we may have a transformation!
Anand had very kindly driven home from Chennai to drive me to the Airport on Wednesday morning. He managed to get hold of a replacement Haemoglobinometer so we had a quick session on how to do thumb pricks after tea. After an early night we set off at 4:30 am which is probably the best time as the traffic and pollution are not as bad as they are later in the day – still, a very big thank you Anand, very much appreciated.
It was lovely to see Ramya this time too; my last visit was only a few months after her marriage and she was in Singapore. This time she was there to look after everyone and her cooking is still wonderful. I still miss the lessons we used to prepare and then do together in school. She had come back to the project to make sure her Dad was ok after his cataract op and together we badgered Venkat to organising his dental and hearing check-ups. As always, Venkat looks after everyone but himself. A big thank you to everyone at the project – it was lovely to see all the people I’ve made friends with and who came to see me when they heard I was visiting – Kanniyamal, Ragul Raj, Pushpa, Syvakumar and Lakshmi and their son Tirumali who is now doing well at secondary school and their daughter Yogalakshmi and Anjelachi (Divya’s Mum) and Anjelachi (Sellyamal’s sister). Look forward to seeing everyone soon. Karen xxx ... See MoreSee Less

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1 week ago

What a amazing day it's been. I accepted a late invitation to speak to the Holderness Inner Wheel ladies group, knowing that it would be a full day and 140 Mile round trip!
What a delightful and generous group you were ladies. Thanks to you all, I will be paying in £270 to our account tomorrow, enough to cover almost half of the cost of the Ullampakam project. Thank you and many blessings. ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

Our February newsletter.

A new year, a new challenge!
A New Year brings a new challenge! During a recent trustees visit by Hugo, Jean and myself 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 Kancheepuram, 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 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 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 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 coming in to our Crakehall Primary School in Mettupalayam and they are having a nutritious breakfast and lunch, as well as healthy snacks. We are supporting the older children going to the nearby Government school and Venkat is 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 are able. We are currently committed to running this programme for six months and will then assess its impact.. We also need to try to improve the tribe's income generation and have offered work on our farm. Additionally Venkat is paying a small daily wage to Selvi as coordinator. Venkat will make sure that all the adults are registered with the Government, for ration cards and any benefits that are available.
Funding for this extra commitment will initially be around £500. This is a big additional challenge to Venkat and his team but we know that, with our support, they will be successful in making a real difference for these very disadvantaged and needy tribal people.

Farming
Following a reasonable monsoon (Venkat estimates around 70% of normal) we have planted six acres of paddy, a quick growing variety that should be ready to harvest in 3 months. Although this is of lower quality than we would like, it would be too risky to have planted rice which took longer to grow as water scarcity may well be seen later in the growing season. This paddy will be followed by pulses, vegetables such as drumstick, and groundnuts. The farmers’ co-op is continuing to trade successfully and they have recently opened a shop on the main road near Mettupalayam. Government funds are still awaited to build the new oil processing unit but meantime they are very happy utilizing one of our storage buildings on the farm.

UK Support
We are often moved by the support that we receive, both from individuals, and from schools. Before our last visit, Ravensworth Primary School invited us in and presented us with several large bags of good quality school uniforms, including dresses, T shirts and shorts. We have taken most of these out to our project and after sizing by Venkat, these were handed out to children at the school. The excitement had to be seen to be believed! Some of the girls were so thrilled that they rushed onto the school roof, changed into their new dresses and came down with huge grins on their faces. We so often forget how little these children have and how much they appreciate everything that Venkat and the IRDT team do for them.
On our return, we were very happy to be invited back and give an assembly talk with photographs to all the pupils at Ravensworth, and to add our thanks for their support and generosity.

Fundraising

Recent events, including Christmas fairs and coffee mornings have been very successful, raising much needed funds. In particular, Crakehall School, near Bedale, has been amazing with their Cookie challenge and Christmas cards raising almost £500. Material brought back by visitors has again been sold this last year through Artison Workshops in Masham, and we thank them hugely for their continuing support. We have another coffee morning planned for Sunday the 23rd February at the Muncasters and we are pleased to invite anyone locally to come. We are also appealing for further financial help with the Ullampakkam project, and any additional donations will be gratefully received.

Our newsletter has been mainly relating to this new project, but please be assured that all our other work is proceeding well, with Venkat and team as always, very busy! Some of you may know that he has just had a cataract operation and he is making a good recovery and will soon be driving again! Meantime our neighbour Karen, and Venkat’s daughter, Ramya, are at the project and trying their best to make him take rest whilst recuperating!

Once again, many, many thanks for all your support and interest. ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

A huge thank you to the Exelby Dragons ladies group for inviting Rosie and I to give a talk about our charity. Some really perceptive questions and a very warm response to the presentation. With a speakers fee, sales of goods and some very generous donations, I will be paying in over £130 tomorrow. Every penny will be received by Venkat in Mettupalayam, to help with his rural development work.
PS that isn't Francis' teapot stance, I just caught him making an observation! ... See MoreSee Less

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2 weeks ago

Another of Karen's amazing posts from the Crakehall School Mettupalayam.

Back to the routine and it was some more butterfly spoons with the third standard this time. I always make a note of which activities have been done with which class so that there are no repeats but quite often as the children go through the school they ask if they can do one of activities again. So we have another beautifully colourful and sparkly flock/cloud (?) – don’t know what the collective noun for butterflies is!
I gave some fabric world maps to the 4th and 5th standard teacher which I hope are going to be quite useful – they are easily moved and more robust then the paper or cardboard ones. The 4th standard did a bit more embroidery while I took Venkat to the bank to get the teachers wages. Unfortunately the bank was closed as there has been a bank worker’s strike until Monday. Fortunately Venkat had enough cash to pay something to last the staff over the weekend and we will try again on Monday.
The 5th standard had asked their teacher if I could teach them to draw animals so we had a session after lunch talking about observing the shapes of various animals and how this shape reflected the life of that animal such as whether they graze or hunt for their food. The children listened very intently and after a bit of practice drawing, they set about their final drawing. Their teacher said their drawings were a great improvement and the children were certainly very pleased with their results.
I was looking forward to a rest in a cooler room after school had finished but unfortunately the power is off again so we all had to make do with a quiet sit in a fairly dark room trying to move as little as possible as it was 29 degrees in the shade today..........and it is forecast to be 30 degrees tomorrow. The electricity came back on at 8:15 so we should be able to put the fans on to sleep tonight. ... See MoreSee Less

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3 weeks ago

Today's update from Karen, visiting our project again for the umpteenth time.

It’s the turn of the Minus and 1st Standard classes today – 3 – 5 year olds. I always have to gird my loins for this one! Twenty children tugging at your churidar and calling “Miss, Miss” for two hours is always a challenge for me. I take my hat off to teachers – especially those who teach very small children – I don’t know how they do it!
Anyway, we had large jigsaws, wiggly snake jigsaws matching cards with the number of items on them, beads to make necklaces and bracelets, a large bucket of Duplo and numbered elephant and tiger jigsaws. The children did the activities in groups of two or three, then moved on to the next. Towards the end they all decided they wanted necklaces and as many bracelets as they could make so it was a bit of a scrum around the pots of beads but good fun and they were all very pleased with their creations. Its wonderful to see children learning through play – something they have very little opportunity to do because of the way the Indian syllabus is designed.
After lunch the 4th standard did some of their embroidery which is coming along nicely and the 5th standard set about writing a story around some stickers. The stickers were themed – transport, see life, jungle animals, flowers and butterflies. This activity takes some time to get going as the children have few opportunities to use their imagination. I tell them their stories can be as unusual as they want them to be but they do find it hard to make up a story. Once they get going they are fine but it can take a while for them. Its an exercise they all say they enjoy though. ... See MoreSee Less

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4 weeks ago

Congratulations India on your 71st India Republic Day.
It's always a great honour as a visitor, to be asked to unfurl the Indian flag and celebrate with the pupils and staff at our Crakehall School, Mettupalayam.
Karen doing a much better job than I did, the last time! ... See MoreSee Less

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4 weeks ago

Our Ullampakkam nutrition programme continues, with fresh vegetables being supplied each week. It is lovely to see Selvi's beautiful smile, despite the hardships that her family and the rest of her Irula tribal community face.
Currently, the weekly cost of the vegetables is around £30 and we are also paying Selvi a small daily wage for her organising work.
Thank you Venkat, for showing compassion and understanding of the difficulties that this disadvantaged community experience every day. ... See MoreSee Less

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1 month 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