Heal: Health & Education for all

TIRED, but elated by their achievements, a group of travel-weary cyclists arrived back in the UK late last night after raising thousands of pounds for disadvantaged children through their participation in the third biannual Cycle India event.

Led by Heal founder Dr Satya Prasad, 23 cyclists from England, Scotland, Wales, India and the USA pedalled 280kms in five days through the plains, hills and backwaters of Kerala, south of Mumbai, mostly in temperatures in the low 30s Centigrade.

During their 10-day trip the group also visited schools, a hospital and Heal projects, including the Children’s Village in Guntur and the ambitious new Paradise Village site in Andhra Pradesh.

Along the way they received welcome donations from local businesses, with most of the funds raised going towards new buildings at the Paradise project, which will become home to 1,000 orphaned, abandoned and needy children.

Heal’s head of fundraising in the UK, Matthew Glover, gave the event a big thumbs-up and said that organisers Kalypso Adventures had already been retained as partners for Cycle India 2014.

“Our first Cycle India in 2008 was a great success and we built upon that two years later, but 2012 was the best Cycle India yet and that was thanks in large part to Kalypso who did a great job,” he said.

It was also revealed by Dr Prasad during the trip that plans are afoot for a new biannual Cycle India event for Indian participants to run on alternative years, while plans are already in the pipeline for the UK to host its own Lands End to John O’Groats ride later this year.

The cyclists were warmly welcomed throughout the duration of the challenge from Kochi to Kumarakom and took every opportunity to interact with local children at towns, villages and schools along the way.

But nothing could prepare them for the tumultuous greeting they received at the Heal Children’s Village where hundreds waited in hot sun to celebrate their arrival before entertaining their guests with a spectacular stage show filled with song, dance and colour.

Some members of the group were even able to meet face-to-face with the youngsters they sponsor at the village, while others, such as Cycle India first-timers Emily Young and Stephen Garrett, were moved to sponsor children for the first time.

Upon leaving Guntur, Stephen and fiance Emily were heading straight to Mumbai for their own traditional Indian wedding.

A number of the cyclists have already put their names forward for Cycle India 2014, with a route provisionally planned to run down the western coastline from Mumbai to the popular tourist destination of Goa.

Please sign up to the Heal newsletter to receive more Cycle India reports and stories and the latest fundraising news, as well as regular updates of progress from the Paradise Village project.

HEAL founder Dr Koneru Prasad has been recognised for his work in providing education and healthcare for needy children in India by his inclusion in a new book for schools, The Scientists Behind Medical Advances.

“I believe that education is the best tool to get out of poverty,” says Dr Prasad in the book, where he is featured under the section entitled Doctors Who Make A Difference.
Fittingly, he now finds himself part of the school curriculum in the latest of a series of books aimed at budding young scientists, mentioned alongside some of the greatest names in the history of medical science such as Marie Curie, Paul Ehrlich, Christiaan Barnard, Joseph Lister, Alexander Fleming and Louis Pasteur.
The book, written by Eve Hartman and Wendy Meshbesher, looks at scientists who have made major advances and affected the way we live – men and women, historical and modern, and from a range of cultures.
As the book explains, some of those featured are household names, some deserve much greater recognition and credit than they currently receive, and others have discovered and invented ground-breaking medical treatments.

Dr Prasad is pictured with some of the children from the Heal Village in Guntur under a description of how, 20 years ago, the charity was formed when he donated his family’s house in India to be a home for orphaned children.
Published by Raintree, the 48-page book also focuses on many aspects of medical science, including new drugs, vaccines, surgery, public health, sports medicine and the future of medicine.

HEAL sponsors Chris and Tina Leach, from the global aircraft charter company Air Charter Service, had an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives when they paid a flying visit to the Children’s Village in Guntur.

ACS raised thousands of pounds for Heal last year after agreeing to sponsor new computer labs at the new Paradise Village project in Thotapally, Andhra Pradesh.

Chariman Chris Leach, who formed ACS in his basement in 1990 and has turned it into a global company spanning five continents with revenue in excess of US$450m, and Tina, company secretary and treasurer, were due to visit Mumbai where ACS were opening a new office.

While in India, they decided to take the opportunity to visit the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur to see how their donations would help – and were genuinely overwhelmed by what they found.

Tina takes up the story: “I head up the ACS charity committee and each year we ask staff to help us choose three charities to support – one international, one national and one local.

“However, last year, the committee decided to choose one charity themselves which would be more ‘hands-on’, something staff could get involved with personally if they wished.

“I found Heal after doing an initial internet search for ‘sponsor a child’. It seemed to tick all the boxes – for example, a sponsored cycle ride, the ability to volunteer and the chance to raise funds for an actual building in the new Paradise village. Thankfully, it captured everyone’s imagination.

“Chris and myself were then due to visit Mumbai as ACS are opening an office there. We decided to take the opportunity while we were in India to visit the Guntur Village to see what could be achieved and also see the new site for ourselves.

“I remember I was very concerned about bothering the people in charge there in order to show us around. We were therefore absolutely overwhelmed, astonished and extremely grateful for the reception we received.

“We were literally treated like royalty. We were initially very embarrassed, but once we realised what a special day it was for the children to receive visitors, that feeling soon subsided.

“We found the visit to the Guntur village and the school extremely interesting and moving. The basic layout for the Heal village was particularly inspiring with the housemother system.

“The children seemed genuinely loved and cared for and it was an absolute pleasure to talk to them and see their work and, more importantly, their smiling faces.

“Meeting the children had a real impact on both Chris and me and we will never forget the experience for the rest of our lives. Meeting children face to face who had experienced such hardship somehow brought the problem much much closer to home.

“The new site was very exciting also and the project manager there Steve, Doctor Prasad’s sister Lakshmi and another local benefactor, Dahna Prakash, described the vision for the new Heal Paradise Village.

“It truly was one which made sense, especially due to the plans for the children to learn vocational skills as well as academic subjects.

“We felt this would very much be needed to help build an infrastructure to support the rapidly expanding Indian economy. They explained that Dr Prasad also aimed for high standards of care and education, meaning that the project had exceptional goals.”

Last September ACS’s London staff took part in the Great River race which, thanks to ACS matching the monies raised, brought in over £6,000. Glorying in the name of ‘No Plane No Gain!’, the crew of 17 braved dreadful weather as they paddled a dragon boat 21 miles from Grenwich to Ham on the River Thames.

Not content with that, ACS’s European offices Christmas party, ‘The Aviator Ball’, raised an amazing £14,000.

“We decided, for the first time, to ask a few of our suppliers (airline operators) to sponsor a raffle prize at our staff Christmas party when we planned to hold a raffle for our three chosen charities,” said Tina.

“We did not expect very much, but they seemed to be so interested in Heal particularly and their support was very generous, enabling us to provide some magnificent prizes.”

But, inspired by what they saw in India, ACS, who employ more than 250 staff worldwide, have no intention of forgetting about the children they met in Andhra Pradesh.

“We very much hope that we can meet Dr Prasad one day soon to discuss further plans and will be continuing our support for Heal,” added Tina.

“We also look forward to visiting the site again to see the progress and bring back more photos for our staff to see.”

Celia Sastry and her husband Jag, who both took part in Cycle India 2010, recently returned to Andhra Pradesh with their family – and dropped in for a visit to the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur.

As ever, the children, who are always excited to have visitors, had prepared as special welcome for their guests.

The trip was a particularly emotional one for Jag, who was returning home to the place where he spent his childhood.

“We took our whole family, nine of them, for Christmas to India to see Jag’s family,” explained Celia, whose cycling skills are the stuff of legend to the 2010 Cycle India team.

“We went to see his school in Tenali and his Village, which is near Guntur. Our sons, both rising 40 years, had never been to India to see where Jag spent the first 27 years of his life.

“And we visited Heal Village where they gave us an overwhelming greeting. The children put on a Christmas nativity play which was marvellous and represented a lot of hard work by teachers and pupils.

“Our grandchildren were amazed at the children’s achievement.”

HEAL founder Dr Koneru Prasad has welcomed the generous support of a private jet charter firm, Air Charter Service, which has recently taken the charity under its wing.

The company, which has offices around the world, selected HEAL as its international cause for 2011 and has been in discussions about sponsoring new computer labs at the charity’s Paradise Village project in India.

Each year, ACS supports a selection of chosen charities, with a dedicated committee helping to organise an array of fund-raising events. All the money raised is matched by ACS, doubling the total amount.

As well as supporting Cancer Research and the Shooting Star Children’s Hospice this year, ACS has set itself a goal of funding an IT block within the new self-sustaining village in Thotapally, Andhra Pradesh.

To make this happen, the company set an ambitious target of £12,300, but were confident of achieving this thanks to the dedication and success of their charity committee.

“I believe that Air Charter Service are going to be a great asset for us at HEAL,” says Dr Prasad. “They have looked into sponsoring computer labs at the new Paradise Village and I know they are excited by the project and want to be involved.”

Tina Leach, ACS company secretary and treasurer, recently visited the Paradise site and the HEAL Children’s Village in Guntur and described what she saw as “absolutely inspiring”.

ACS, founded in 1990 by Chris Leach as a small specialised aviation company, now employs over 200 staff around the globe and counts Middle Eastern royalty, the British government, major multi-national corporations and non-profit organisations among its customers.

Their reputation was enhanced when they helped in recovery operations following the tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean.

In a testimonial, Government Department of Transport official Alistair Darling wrote at the time: “The Prime Minister has asked me to pass on his thanks to you for your organization’s part in the response to the recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

“The industry’s role in the aid and recovery operations further underlines its importance in the world, as by far the quickest means of bringing survivors home and transporting vital equipment and expertise to the disaster scene.

“I, too, am grateful for your swift response, and would like to send my sincere thanks to all those involved in the relief effort.”

In September, an 18-strong ACS dragonboat team – named ‘No Plane No Gain!’ – took part in this year’s Great River Race down the Thames, completing the gruelling 21-mile course in a respectable time of just under three hours and raising almost £6,000 for HEAL along the way.

Among a host of different charity functions, a raffle was also held at the Air Charter Service staff Christmas party in support of HEAL and their other chosen charities.

ANOTHER small step towards Paradise was taken this week with the pouring of the first concrete at the site of the new Heal Village project in Thotapally.

A significant milestone was reached last month when a successful ‘puja’ ceremony was held at the Paradise Village site and the construction of a temporary bridge will now allow work on Phase One of the project to move forward.

Heal’s Steve Sargent is in Andhra Pradesh overseeing the early progress and was elated to witness the beginning of what he described as “the road to Paradise”.

“The pouring of the first concrete was an historic moment for Heal,” said Steve.

“The concrete was laid over 15 tons of rocks which are compressed into the river bed as a foundation for the culvert bridge.

“Then another layer of concrete, and a row of large pipes are bedded in to form the bridge which will become the ‘road to paradise’!

“The road will be laid across the top of the pipes and although officially a ‘temporary’ bridge, I expect it to withstand monsoon conditions and it may never need to be replaced.”

In the true spirit of local co-operation, the digger driver who placed the pipes so precisely in the wet concrete was lent to Heal free of charge (along with his JCB) by the neighbouring ‘Care and Share‘ children’s home.

It will be of key importance that the banks of the river bed are remade and carefully concreted to prevent erosion during the summer monsoon season.

Other ongoing work includes the construction of a shed to keep stocks of cement dry, while Steve was also delighted to welcome a surveyor to the site, ready to mark out the first piles to be drilled for the foundations of the school block.

Watch this space for more construction updates from the Paradise Village.

TRAINING in rain, hail and snow may not seem ideal for the challenge ahead, but for 20 or so intrepid cyclists preparations are in hotting up for Heal’s biggest fundraising event – Cycle India 2012.

In January, pedal-power will be the order of the day as our latest group of cyclists fly out from chilly London to the tropical Malabar coast in south-west India where they will team up with others from India and the United States for a five-day bike ride through the state of Kerala.

Some are veterans of previous Cycle India events in 2008 and 2010, while others will be taking part for the first time in a bid to raise much-needed money to fund Heal’s efforts in providing shelter, healthcare and education for destitute children.

“Cycle India has become Heal’s single biggest fundraising event, raising £180,000 from the two previous events and, crucially, spreading a lot of happiness to the participants, children at the Heal Village and the people of India,” says Matthew Glover, Heal’s head of fundraising.

“Cycle India is an opportunity for people to get fit, take part in a life-changing experience in a beautiful part of the world while doing something very worthwhile for orphaned and underprivileged children in India.”

All participants will be paying their own way to India, which means that every penny raised through donations, sponsorship and fundraising events will go directly to where it is needed most.

And with the major undertaking that is Paradise Village – a self-sustaining community offering homes and education to a thousand needy children – already in its first phase of building, there has never been a more urgent need for funds.

While in India, the travelling party will not only visit the children at the existing Heal village in Guntur – a life-changing experience for many of our former cyclists – but will be able to see for themselves the progress being made at the Paradise site at Thotapally.

Heal founder Dr Koneru Prasad also told members of the charity at its recent AGM that an extra fundraising event is being organised at Vijayawada during Cycle India which it is hoped could bring in donations of more than £30k.

In addition to Dr Prasad, the cycling group will include Amanda Smith, who has just spent six weeks in India preparing for her new role as vice-principal of the school at the Heal Paradise Village.

After shivering their way through training rides in wintery Britain, the cyclists will no doubt appreciate the change of environment for their challenge in India. Kerala is located along the coast of south-western India, a region popular amongst tourists for its tropical greenery.

Indeed, National Geographic’s Traveller magazine names Kerala as one of the “10 paradises of the world” and “50 must-see destinations of a lifetime”, so spectacular scenery is assured.

Cyclists will be eased into their five days in the saddle as they make their way through the lush surroundings between Kochi and Thattekad, covering 65kms on day one.

Next, Thattekad to Kulamavu, taking the riders from jungle terrain through to hill country during a rise in altitude to approximately 800m as they cover the next 74kms.

Day three promises more stunning scenery on an undulating course from Kulamavu to Periyar, with the possibility of spotting elephants, buffalo and wild boar grazing nearby, while another 107kms is clocked up.

Then Periyar to Vagamon, which should prove a highlight for the flagging cyclists as they travel 52kms through spectacular tea gardens interspersed with pristine forests up to a maximum height of 1185m.

And finally back down to the plains, downhill all the way from Vagamon to Marari as the last 80kms are completed.

And no doubt the aches, pains and blisters will all be forgotten when, after visiting the construction of our new Paradise Village, the group will move on to the Children’s Village at Guntur where they will be met by a sea of smiling faces and see first-hand the work done by Heal.

MEMBERS, directors and trustees of HEAL were delighted to hear at the charity’s Annual General
Meeting this week that Phase One of the Paradise Village project is going ahead with a view to
accepting its first intake of children by the middle of 2012.

The Village in Andhra Pradesh, designed to accommodate as many as one thousand disadvantaged
Indian children in a self-sustaining environment, could take as long as five years to complete,
but work is already moving forward following the ceremonial laying of a foundation-stone in mid-
November.

In his report to the AGM, HEAL chairman Carl Brodie said that the charity faced a year-on-year
battle for funding, but remained determined to press ahead with its most ambitious project to
date.

He said many thousands of poverty-striken children in India needed HEAL’s support and fund-raising
for the Paradise Village would be a key part of the charity’s work in the coming years.

“We need to raise substantial amounts of money to support the Paradise building programme, but
remain hopeful that part of it can be open by the middle of next year,” said Mr Brodie.

Addressing the meeting, HEAL founder Dr Koneru Prasad confirmed that the building of a temporary
bridge at the Thotapally site would allow for work on Phase One of the estimated £3million project
to press ahead.

Early construction, he said, would focus on an elementary school building, a vocational training
centre and accommodation for the children.

As well as fund-raising in the UK, it was hoped that a new sponsorship scheme in India could raise
a significant amount towards future running costs of the Village and the aim also was to increase
financial support from HEAL’s presence in the United States.

Dr Prasad said that “negative thoughts” regarding the charity’s ability to raise funding on such a
large scale should be dismissed. “It is eminently achievable. I am fairly confident that we will
reach our target,” he added.

“India has the largest number of malnourished and poverty-trap children of anywhere in the world -
even more than in Africa. A lot of people are in desperate need and have the need of our new
project.”

He was encouraged and grateful for the promise of backing from HEAL supporters such as the Chundury family from Birmingham to cover the cost of building an institute for the blind, Drs Arun and Rita Agarwal, who are contributing towards a classroom, and London-based company Air Charter Service who have raised money for a much-needed computer lab within the Village. The nearby Nagarjuna hospital is also offering funding for a health centre.

Dr Prasad will accompany a group of cyclists from the UK, United States and India to Kerala for a
five-day cycle challenge early in the new year, an event which is hoped will raise around £35k for HEAL.

THE long wait is finally over and the dream of a self-contained, self-sustaining village catering for many hundreds of underprivileged children of all ages is about to become a reality for HEAL and its visionary founder Dr Koneru Satya Prasad. Admittedly, there is still a long way to go before Paradise Village opens its doors and becomes home to as many as 1,000 orphaned and needy children from Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India. Large amounts of funding are still required to allow HEAL to complete by far its most ambitious project to date, but a significant milestone was reached this week with a successful ‘puja’ ceremony at the site of the village in Thotapally, near the city of Vijayawada.

Final drawings have been submitted to the local authorities and among the VIPs who attended the laying of the Ceremonial Foundation Stone on November 16 were Dr Manga Devi, who runs the school next to HEAL Children’s Village at Guntur, and Dr Bala Vardhana Rao, Member of the Legislative Authority for nearby Gannavaram.

One hundred people were invited to the puja ritual ceremony – performed to bless the building and the project as a whole, regarded as an important stepping stone to ensuring its success.

The ritual for the Paradise Village was performed at 9.54am local time – an auspicious moment, or ‘suba muhurtha’, calculated for a particular geographic position within the frame of a specially chosen day and using the time of sunrise for that particular position as the starting point. Among the many HEAL representatives from India and the UK in attendance was Amanda Smith, who has been visiting Andhra Pradesh to check on progress prior to taking up her new role as vice- principal of the HEAL Paradise Village.

“HEAL Paradise is a kernel of hope and from the 16th of November we can begin building a school and a future for underprivileged children to have the best education we can provide,” said Amanda.

“The school I am here in India to set up ready for admission in June 2012 may not yet have been built, I am assured that once building work commences, it will happen very quickly.”

In addition to providing vital schooling and a home for many, many children, Paradise will offer so much more to the local community, including an institute for the blind, industrial training, a health centre and a junior college. Much detailed planning has gone into ensuring that the village operates in a self-sustaining and eco-friendly manner, taking care of the children in a holistic environment that will help them to develop to their potential. To achieve this the Paradise Village aims to make use of the latest technologies in energy generation and conservation.

The site itself is nestled amidst beautiful surroundings, its borders demarcated by the expanse of Lake Brahmalingam to the south-east and canals to the north-east and south-west, which provide irrigation for the local farming communities. Entirely self-contained and secluded from the busy highway that connects the village to the city of Vijayawada, the site provides the perfect setting for the harmonious growth and development of the children who will come to call it home.

An array of sustainable techniques and systems like solar and wind power, hydroponic vegetable gardens and solar cooking are incorporated within the site’s design proposals, including the recycling of waste materials to create energy. The village will have extensive green cover and the planting of fruit-bearing and shady trees will increase the scope for self-sustainability. HEAL’s vision is for this centre to be a model of excellence in design, sustainability and management, which will care for the most needy children and prepare them for adult life with education, skills, an awareness of their responsibility to protect valuable resources, and a caring attitude to the less fortunate people in society.

Plans are in place not only for the construction of a school, family-style dormitories and a range of recreational facilities, but a visitors’ centre, auditorium, artistic and manual workshops, which will combine to maintain the traditional Indian ‘gurukul’ system, whereby residential students are provided with education, values and life-skills. HEAL is appealing to individuals and businesses to help us to speed this project along by sponsoring a classroom, a dormitory, a workshop or arts building, or by providing funds for tree planting, or eventually by sponsoring individual children.

Sponsors can even have rooms and buildings named after themselves, a business or a loved one, and trees can be planted in memory of a loved one, and a named plaque attached. If you would like to support the project, and help to improve the lives of thousands of Indian children in the future, please contact us at healsec@hotmail.co.uk.

Previously, HEAL has been providing school uniforms to the children of Kanuru School, but this year the school has been able to take advantage of a new government scheme which provides free uniforms. Instead, HEAL has provided each child with a free pair of shoes.

Until now, most of the children have been going to school barefoot because they do not own any shoes. Now, thanks to HEAL, they can walk to school along the rough roads more comfortably. 426 pairs were given out and the cost was £1600 so for a donation of less than £3 it can really make a massive difference.

HEAL is committed to removing all obstacles to a good education, and giving the children shoes is just another success along the way.