HEAL founder, Dr Satya Prasad Koneru, has expressed his delight at the early progress being made with construction at the Paradise Village in Thotapally.
Dr Prasad and members of the Cycle India 2012 team were recently shown around the 20-acre site which will become home to 1,000 orphaned and destitute children in the near future.
The visitors saw building work going ahead on the first phase of construction and were introduced to the HEAL India committee responsible for seeing the project through.
“Everyone is very excited by what they have seen,” said Dr Prasad. “Hopefully it will not be too long now before children will be running around on this land.
Cyclists Lucy Petrie and Anita Rao with women workers
“All around we have beautiful, green, lush mountains and I couldn’t wish for a better place for my kids to grow up and study.
“I didn’t expect this kind of welcome and this sort of progress in such a short period and it is the icing on the cake for the cyclists who have paid their own way here and faced many uphill struggles during Cycle India 2012 to see where all their hard-earned money is going.
Cycle India team member Dave Blakeman meets workers at the Paradise site
“Hopefully, when we return for Cycle India 2014 this place will be full of children running around and the plan is for the cyclists to stay here and spend time with them after completing the course from Mumbai to Goa.
“Since my last visit here last year it really is beyond belief how much progress has been made and I am confident that the committee in charge of the Paradise project will complete the building on time and deliver our dream.”
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