Heal: Health & Education for all

HEAL children ready with Seedballs

They prepared around 2000 mud balls made out of soil and manure, imbedded seeds from local trees and rolled them around Chetana (HEAL village) and neighboring hillocks.

Flagging off the Seedball Project

Dr Manga Devi and Mrs Marudwathi, our extremely dedicated administrators of HEAL village organized the event by roping in the Assistant director of Horticulture Mr. D. Madhusudan Reddy who flagged off and started the rally towards the hills and also actively participated in rolling down the seed balls on the slopes.

Marching towards the hillocks near Chowdavaram village

Rolling the seedballs down the hillock

Our visiting youth HEAL volunteers, Koneru Anish and Lawrence from UK also made and rolled seed balls along with the children.

Natural farming & Seedball dispersal is truly a simple yet ingenious way of spreading green cover around our locality. The efforts of the HEAL children was picked up by the local news.

It truly warms my heart to see our children learning the importance of being environmentally friendly in such a fun way.

Here is a link to know more about how to make seed balls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-4U6zxUdew

Three cheers to our children at HEAL with the hope that their immeasurable enthusiasm rubs off us adults.

Reported by Priyanka Kadam

The little sun shines swaying aglow
In the pastures of HEAL’s meadow
Eager to grasp
Zealous to learn,
As they earn
Their place
As Gods own children!

The joyous love that ascends
As one descends
On the very earth
Shared by all
At the HEAL village
And the spillage
Of a love felt deep within
As we meet the kin
Of Gods own children!

The confluence of thinking minds
As we unite
And ignite
A hope
Which has lot’s of scope
To meet the divine…mid-way
In the hearts
Of Gods own children!

Written by Priyanka Kadam

Ann Garrett, Heal’s new Sponsorship Secretary, during her stay at the Heal Children’s Village taught the children a new dance:

If you would be interested in sponsoring a child or have considered volunteering in India then please contact Ann at healsec@hotmail.co.uk.

Details of the annual Heal India Night are as follows:

For more details or to book your tickets please contact Helen Rome as above.

Many thanks

Great news in our progress to setting up a Heal USA branch of the Heal family.

HEAL Inc nonprofit status has been approved effective from 05/29/2008. The best part is they approved from the date of incorporation of company.  All donations received in 2008 and 2009 are automatically approved for tax deduction purpose.

 HEAL Inc is a Non Profit organization under 501 (C) (3).

Many thanks to Hari Vadlamudi for all the hard work in getting this set up.

It has been hard for me to effectively write about my experience at Chetana and with HEAL for quite some time, as I almost feel like I am still there in a way.  I was only able to stay for a week, but I have been ardently planning my return to the point that feels like I am on vacation in America!  In any case, my experiences were absolutely incredible, and I am proud to be among the first American volunteers to ever work with Chetana. 

I was very excited to come to Guntur, as I study Carnatic music and my guru is from Vijayawada, and grew up in and around Guntur.  In this regard it was exciting for me to experience where he came from in a more tangible way, but it became even more exciting upon our arrival at Chetana.  Before coming to India, we are under the impression that all of the HEAL projects were in separate areas of Guntur, so one can imagine our surprise when we awoke to 500+ children at our door step!  It was so incredible to be able to work with so many kids, and to see how perfect everything and everyone works together to make the Chetana community flourish.  

Before arriving, we had hashed out several ideas of possible methods of teaching music to the children, and ultimately decided that the best approach would be to simply spend time with the children and see what happens.  At first this was a bit chaotic, as the kids were just getting used to us, and were really just interested in having fun and making noise, but over the course of the week, many of the children became more and more interested in learning music, and began coming to us demanding practice at all hours of the day.  This was perfect, as it was exactly what I had hoped to instill in the children; a curiousity and interest for music, and furthermore, a desire for personal expression. 

I find that this desire not only leads to artistic creativity, but greater sense of personal creativity in all aspects of life.  This is especially evident in the improvised ensemble situation which we created with a small group of the HEAL kids.  Even though many of them have never had any form of music training, they realized that if they worked together with what they had (in this case drums and percussion), they could create music that worked together rhythmically and melodically, and ultimately create coherent music.  I feel like this extends beyond music though, as this seems to be the way that the children approach all situations in life at Chetana, and I feel that music and arts training can only make this better than it already is.

Writing this right now is already getting me excited about coming back, and generating so many new ideas.  I am hoping to come back very soon, and already spreading the word as much as possible here in the States, so that more Americans have they chance to experience such an amazing community, and an even more amazing group of kids!  Next time I promise I will stay longer!

Taylor Burton

A group of Heal children and staff (lead by volunteer Steve Sargeant) recently took a trip to the seaside.  Despite temperatures of 45 degrees celsius everybody had a great time as you can see from the following pictures:

If you’re considering sponsoring one of our older Heal children then this is a typical update provided by one of our children, NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi including pictures:

Dearest Brother Ramanna Anna,

How are you? I am NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi from HEAL India. I remembered the happy day yourself and akka visited me in HEAL. Your visit gave me a lot of confidence.

Within 2 months I will be completing my 9th class. Tenth class is a turning point in life. I am studying hard and getting an aggregate of 80%. We have good Teachers. I like mathematics and Science. After Intermediate I want to do B.Pharmacy. With your support and blessings I hope I can fulfill my aspiration.

On 8th January we had a team of 30 people from England (Cycle India Team). They cycled around 200 miles in India to raise funds and to help the needy children of the HEAL. On that day the HEAL Children were so excited. On that day we celebrated Annual Day celebrations. I was there in Karate. You can see me in the pictures. I hope you like that.

Thank you very much for everything.

Love,
NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi

NagaLakshmi Gadiparthi taking part in a karate display as part of celebrations for Annual Day

Visitors from the UK and US visit the Heal Village as part of Cycle India 2010

The following is from an article written in the Hindu Newspaper in India about our recent Cycle India event in January 2010:

HYDERABAD: While motorists whizzed along the wide road abutting Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Park in Jubilee Hills, a motley group of bicyclists made their way along the road’s fringes on Saturday morning. Cycling for a cause, the group included members from the United Kingdom, United States of America, India and City Police Commissioner B. Prasada Rao, who joyfully pedalled with the cyclists.

Conducted by Heal, a U.K.-based charity organisation, funds raised from the cycle rally would go towards construction of a selfsustaining model village at a 25-acre site, 15 kilometres off Gannavaram, near Vijayawada.

‘Paradise’, as it would be known, will house a residential school for 1,000 orphan and destitute children and all facilities that come with it. “It would have classes right from nursery to junior college level,” said K. Satya Prasad, founder of Heal UK.

“Materials used for construction of the village will be generated from waste. We plan to make the village self- sustaining and we will
harness solar and wind energies. Apart from collecting rain water, we will treat waste water in sewerage treatment plant for recycling purposes,” Dr. Prasad said during the cycle rally.

“We want to demonstrate we can enjoy life without causing any damage to the environment.”

“Through this cycle rally we also want to create awareness about the benefits of cycling and pedestrian and cyclist rights,” he said.

“This is the second time I am participating in this rally by Heal. If they do it again, I will come back,” said John Goldie, a cyclist from
U.K. “People here are friendly and caring. I am taken in by the scenery in rural India.”

Project cost Rs. 15 cr.

The cycle rally was one way of raising funds for the project estimated to cost over Rs. 15 crore.

The bicyclists who came from all walks of life had to shell out Rs. 2 lakh towards participation charges. The team had been cycling in
different parts of the country from the beginning of the year and the rally concluded in the city.

You can view the original article at:

http://www.thehindu.com/2010/01/10/stories/2010011059560500.htm

Report by John Broadhurst, one of Heal UK’s trustees:

On the 10th November 2009 a party of us from Heal, Bhavani, Vijayalakshmi, Arlene, Prasada Rao and John had the pleasure of visiting this fine village Government school. You may wonder why we visited a Government school. The Government funding for the school is adequate and it is through the energy of the donors, the Headmaster and the teachers that progress has been and is being made and why Heal is engaged.

As we arrived at lunch time we saw the children eating their lunch on the porch right in front of their classrooms. This is the whole school taken from a central position on the porch:

Mr Anne Siva Nageswara Rao, (second from left – picture below), was our host and introduced us to his staff and to the exuberant children. It is clearly Siva’s calling to give these children a good education and lead them into further education once they leave the school. He started the school, hence it has his name.

He is justly proud of his children’s academic performance, despite the limited resources. These are the statistics that are displayed openly in all Indian schools. An 88% pass rate in the national examinations is no mean feat.

With Heal’s support these scores are bound to creep up and the further education scholarships will help the children take advantage of this beginning.

Heal is now funding school uniforms and shoes, school bags and books, for almost 400 children, as well as further education scholarships for some of the school leavers. As we know in the Heal Village at Guntur we cannot stop supporting a child when they are just beginning to engage successfully with the future. So Heal will be gradually increasing its funding for children leaving the school, and Siva too will be out hunting for support to ensure these children achieve their ambitions.

Everywhere we went we were met by the cheerfulness and enthusiasm of the children.

And it is wonderful to see girls also being able to take advantage of education.

After receiving funds from Heal for the basics and scholarships, Siva’s next ambition is to build a science laboratory to enhance the chances of his children achieving the standards needed in the national exams to compete successfully for places in higher education colleges to realise their ambitions.

Good luck to them with all their ambitions and their life adventures.

What a pleasure it has been to be engaged in this endeavour.

John Broadhurst