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News
Extensive
holidays for
the children
The new year starts off with a lot of celebrations,
especially here in Andhra Pradesh. The children from the
leprosy colonies celebrate the New Year with communal dinners
for all colony residents, inviting relations to make it
a grand affair. The orphan children from DMC House and the
Senior boys’ Home who have no relatives to go to for
either Christmas or New Year, come up to Prem Nivas for
their holiday in the ‘country’. Although on
the edge of a small town we are, at Prem Nivas, adjacent
to a housing estate and have the railway line at the bottom
of our garden! Anyway it is a change of scene and the patch
of scrubby ground next to Prem Nivas is great for playing
cricket and riding bikes on.
Director Victor uncle and Mary aunty come
to the New Year celebrations at Prem Nivas which always
include a bonfire and staying up to see the New Year in,
if they can manage to stay awake! Now that we have a nice
smooth concreted space in front of the school, just inside
the gates, the children and staff enjoy making the typical
south Indian designs that are called rangoli on the floor.
The Andhra rangolis are often coloured and this activity
is enjoyed by the children and staff alike. Next year we
might make it into a competition giving each child their
own space to decorate!
A few days later the festival of
Pongal arrives. A religious festival lasting four days but
it seems to vary in length, anything up to a fortnight,
as people go off to visit relations and some villages have
their own special celebrations.
Extensive
holidays for the children
The new year starts off with a lot of celebrations,
especially here in Andhra Pradesh. The children from the
leprosy colonies celebrate the New Year with communal dinners
for all colony residents, inviting relations to make it
a grand affair. The orphan children from DMC House and the
Senior boys’ Home who have no relatives to go to for
either Christmas or New Year, come up to Prem Nivas for
their holiday in the ‘country’. Although on
the edge of a small town we are, at Prem Nivas, adjacent
to a housing estate and have the railway line at the bottom
of our garden! Anyway it is a change of scene and the patch
of scrubby ground next to Prem Nivas is great for playing
cricket and riding bikes on.
Director Victor uncle and Mary aunty come
to the New Year celebrations at Prem Nivas which always
include a bonfire and staying up to see the New Year in,
if they can manage to stay awake! Now that we have a nice
smooth concreted space in front of the school, just inside
the gates, the children and staff enjoy making the typical
south Indian designs that are called rangoli on the floor.
The Andhra rangolis are often coloured and this activity
is enjoyed by the children and staff alike. Next year we
might make it into a competition giving each child their
own space to decorate!
A few days later the festival of
Pongal arrives. A religious festival lasting four days but
it seems to vary in length, anything up to a fortnight,
as people go off to visit relations and some villages have
their own special celebrations.
The Rainbow
Children’s Picnic
For our children, the Picnic happens after
Pongal so this year we took the children in two groups on
21st and 24th January.
We have had a lot of new little children
at DMC house since the last time the zoo was included a
part of the tri,p so this year all the Rainbow children
went to the zoo again. The Indian zoo staff keep the same
hours as office and shop workers and start at 10am. Consequently
most of the animals were still in their quarters having
breakfast when we arrived. Only the white tigers were clearly
visible as they have a new open enclosure instead of the
old cage. New twins have been born and they were sunning
themselves in full view of the children.
The Rainbow children didn’t stay
very long at the zoo as it involved a lot of walking and
the children were anxious to get to the park for their lunch
because the main attraction – the beach, would be
next on the itinerary. The lunch was biryani rice, chicken
curry, aubergines, specially made chutney, a sweet pastry
and a couple of bananas. There was extra plain rice for
those who wanted it.
We took the children to the part of the beach that we always
visit as it has lots of sand and interesting rock pools
too. The children enjoyed the water, they don’t know
how to swim but throw themselves into the waves, splash
about and try to get all the staff soaking wet in the water
with them. Victor, Prakash, Murti and I keep watch over
the children from inside the sea.
The Prem
Nivas Picnic
The children were up at the crack of dawn
because Victor had sent the message they should be ready
for 7am. Bearing in mind that it takes only an hour to the
zoo there was no altering their minds and when I ventured
out of my room at 7am the children had all showered and
dressed in their “Danny uncle uniform”. (We
encourage certain visitors to donate material for clothes).
Breakfast and medicine time followed and we had an hour
to wait for the bus to arrive.
Three ‘scouts’ went to the
main road to await it and the children sang songs while
I did running repairs to shirts and dresses. Bangaru and
pedda Raju mended trousers and Hari was the chief needle
threader! You can tell that I believe in teaching boys to
be self sufficient!
We and the luggage, change of clothes,
containers of filtered water, first aid, sick bags, cricket
set and kites piled into the bus at 8.30am. Luckily the
food was being made by the staff of DMC house so we picked
up those containers when we collected Director Uncle and
Mary aunty in Vizianagaram.
We had intended to go to the zoo but when
we got there we discovered that it was a Monday and most
government institutions close on Mondays. We substituted
Kailashgiri Hill Park which had swings and fancy slides
as well as somewhere to play cricket and eat lunch. The
children at all special meals are always served by the staff
and when the staff eat afterwards they are served by children.
The High school boys discovered the cable
car and Victor was able to negotiate a reduced price but
it would not be open until 2.30 pm so agreed to go back
on the bus and find our beach.
The sea was much higher up the beach and
the waves much stronger. We had our work cut out stopping
the children from going too far from the edge and to keep
standing up when the waves came.
The rock pools provided a good diversion
and soon everyone was hunting for, fish and starfish, shells
crabs and urchins. Small pools made warm shallow places
for the little ones to splash about in.
Children flew kites and generally enjoyed
themselves. The tea of yellow rice and boiled eggs plus
a couple of bananas was taken on the rocks.
Out at sea the small triangular sailed
fishing boats were going north and some big ships from the
port of Visakhapatnam were to be seen on the horizon.
Forty four very tired children piled into
the bus and jeep for the journey home just to be woken up
for medicine and warm milk before bedding down for the night.
Read
previous newsletters
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How
did we do in
January 2011?
Children sponsored 1
Donations
and events
Willesborough Baptist
Church £3750
A
Nice Surprise for the New Year
We are very grateful to the Willesborough Baptist church
for their donation of £3750 as their Thanks offering.
Our trustee Charles Pickford introduced Brighter Future
to the church. This princely fund will be earmarked for
providing a permanent home for the Karuna Nivas HIV+ orphans
in Srikakulam District. At present they occupy temporary
premises on the leprosy colony.
The new Karuna Nivas will be a home and hospice on the lines
of Prem Nivas. We are actively seeking a building or a plot
of land
Birthdays
February
& March birthdays
Prem
Nivas
Gowrie
- 16 February
Satya - 25 February
Rainbow
homes
Kalyani - 10
February,
Joseph J - 12 February
Sahadev - 19 February
Timothy - 22 February
Laya - 17 February
Laxmi U
- 4 March
Joseph S - 5 March
Sandeep - 9 March
Vimla - 10 March
Cards take about ten days
to reach India.
Please send birthday cards
and presents to
Brighter Future
Development Trust
PO Box 18
Plot 705 Vuda Layout Vizianagaram
Andhra Pradesh
India 535003
Donations
may be made to Brighter Future via internet, cheque or bank!
Brighter Future International
Trust
Sort code 30-90-28
Ac no. 3085385
or by Paypal and CAF on
our web site
www.brighterfuturetrust.com
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