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:
I’ve decided to share with you a few pictures and experiences I had during my recent visit to the Heal Childrens Village. I’m one of the Heal trustees and although I’ve visited the Heal Village and Bala Kuteer school a number of times, I had never stayed for more than 48 hours, so this was a chance to spend more time with the children, and see how things work.
Group Photo:
The above picture was an impromptu group photograph. You can just about see me at the back in the middle, and Steve (a Heal colleague) down near the front. In the background you can see some of the dormitories at the Heal Village. The children love spending time with visitors to the village, and having their photographs taken.
Heal also provides an education to children from neighbouring villages who have families (we call it our Poverty Trap project), but their parents wouldn’t normally be able to afford to send their children to school. I caught the school bus to see for myself the type of homes these children come from. Believe it or not, there are 120 children on this bus!
I took this picture which shows the typical type of home our Heal children go home to. They’re unlikely to have running water, an electricity supply and they’re unlikely to get good quality food when they’re at home. So, by offering a free education to these children, Heal also provides a good midday meal.
Heal children study at the neighbouring Chetana School. The school has recently been donated a number of second hand computers and a computer teacher has been hired, but I feel we need to put more focus on IT skills, and installing better hardware and software. Also the computer lab is not connected to the internet at present so definitely more work to do here.
Spending time with the children also included eating with them, although eating with my fingers is still a knack I struggle with! The Heal Children’s Village is strictly vegetarian and the children receive good portions of food every day.
Steve Sargent and I decided to do a few running repairs to the drainage from the dormitories (which was quite tough in 38 degree heat). Luckily the teenage boys at the village were keen to get involved so I ended up in more of a supervisory role.
Heal looks after children from around 3 years old and supports them right through their higher education. There’s currently 42 Heal children now in higher education, and in the summer a further 24 children will be joining them. We have now created a Higher Education Sponsorship Programme and we are actively looking for new sponsors.
You’ve got to admit, there’s some very cute kids at the village, and I must stress that these children are very lucky to looked after by the Heal India team.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to this Heal project and seeing the great work undertaken by the House Mothers, and the staff at Heal India.
But we must not rest on our laurels, and further improvements to the lives of the children need implementing, such as introducing more variety in their diet, and improving the teaching facilities at the school. I’m really glad I took the time to see how things work, and I’ll be reporting my findings to the Heal UK trustees in due course.
Matthew Glover
Head of Fundraising
Some more good news from the Heal Village which give an idea of the activities our children are involved with at school.
Firstly, a Heal Village team won the State Level karate tournament and demonstrates the hard work they have been putting in.
Also, two of our children were winners in a painting competition held on the occasion of World Water Day with the topic ‘Water For Life’.
Hamanth:
Venkata Rao:
Well done children!
Heal October 2009 Progress
The time of our departure to India on November 2nd rapidly approaches. What seemed a long time has shot past! Now there is excitement in the air as we contemplate meeting the five children we are sponsoring and the ten who are now supported by your JustGiving donations – Thank You!
Then on top of that we will be visiting the planned site of Heal’s biggest project to date, the new village and school at Vijayawada. A very generous sponsor has given this project a real kick start, Thank You!
All our fingers are now crossed for the land purchase to go ahead without a hitch. Visit Google Earth 16o 38’ 49.00” N and 80o 47’ 31.00” E.
The mollusc shape (below) is the main building of the Heal Village in Guntur, where we will be in November. Visit Google Earth 16 o 15’ 00.00” N and 80 o 19’ 24.00” E.
‘Sukhamu’ to you all!
John Broadhurst is one of the trustees of Heal UK and will be visiting our projects for the first time. We look forward to including more of John and Arlene’s progress reports.
The following message was written by Kirsty Erskine a volunteer from the UK who spent over four weeks at the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur during the summer of 2009. Having recently completed a Fine Art degree, she was able to put her art skills to good use with the very eager children.
The Heal Village truly is a little bit of magic hidden in India. I have been so touched by the welcoming and caring nature of the children and adults and have never before felt such a huge energy of warmth and kindness emanate from a place.
I think that what all the members of the Heal organisation do is quite incredible, and the best bit about it is that it works. It is easy to see in the children’s faces and eyes how happy they are. It is difficult to imagine some of the circumstances they have been through due to their happy and positive attitudes.
One thing that struck me the most when I arrived was the way they play together, never any fighting or crying, and if one child falls over he or she merely laughs and continues playing. I can see it is a way of preparing them for the bumps and falls in life and I think it is unique and brilliant.
The children all enjoy their work and it is evident that they try their best at most things. They all have fantastic ambitions of becoming doctors or engineers and it is thanks to Heal that these dreams have been made possible. The nature, kindness and warmth of the children are a direct reflection of the amazing people who care for and support them.
I feel honoured to have been part of such a place and to have had the amazing opportunity to spend time with certainly the kindest and most generous people I have ever come across. Leaving the village was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It amazes me still the overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude that the children have. They accept people for who they are and are happy just for you to be there. They ask for nothing and instead try to give you any of the few things they own in the hope that it might make you happy.
I am already saving up for my next visit. Not a day goes by when their smiling faces don’t pop up in my mind, and I simply cannot wait to see them again.
Kirsty Erskine
Update for the cyclists taking part in Cycle India 2010:
During our recent trip to India, Dr Prasad and I visited the Coorg area to check out the route for Cycle India. We travelled with a group of people including Nitin, the organiser of Cycle India, and Dr Siva (one of the organisers of the 2008 event who is helping and taking part again).
There will be a number of amendments to the initial Cycle ride itinerary. I’ll ask Nitin to send me an update to add to the website, but in the meantime, the main alterations I will discuss below.
We didn’t visit Mysore which will be the place we spend our first night in India, so I can’t comment on the accommodation, but have been assured it is a decent hotel and Nitin has organised for sightseeing etc after our journey from Bangalore. We will also be introduced to our bikes, which Nitin is hoping will be ‘Firefox’ bikes, which crucially will have gears (and brakes).
For day one of the cycling, we’ll travel by coach to the starting point which will be around 1.5 hour journey. The following picture shows the starting point, which will be near a small school and on the edge of a village:
The beginning of the bike ride is pretty flat, and the road is very quiet which will help us all get used to the bikes.
I do need to stress that the overall event is a lot hillier than Cycle India 2008, and Day 1 will be the toughest day. We’ll be climbing to Madikeri which is around 3,500 ft above sea level, from a starting point of around 2000 ft above sea level. There are no steep climbs, but there are a few long gradual climbs we will need to overcome. Siva is going to revisit the Coorg in the next couple of months and cycle the first day just to make sure it is not too tough.
We’ll be staying in the Hotel Crystal Court at the end of Day 1 and day 2. The following webpage gives you an idea: http://www.nivalink.com/crystalcourt/index.html. It is quite basic, but clean and tidy and should OK for the two nights.
Madikeri is the main town in the Coorg, and is on the top of a hill, so the good news is that days 2-4 are mostly downhill, although it is undulating in parts. I must stress that everyone needs to make sure they are reasonably fit, and not just turn up without having done a bit of exercise (like I did last time 
). If anybody finds any of the hills a bit tricky, then there’s always the option of pushing the bikes for a bit, or if the going is really tough then the coach will be available.
The advantage of cycling through the Coorg is the fantastic scenery:
The roads are on the whole pretty good, although there will be a few pot holes to navigate in places:
During Day 2, we’ll visit Abbey Falls which we visited this time. With the monsoon weather, the scene was very dramatic, although I understand there will still be plenty of water in January:
At the end of Day 3, we’ll be staying near to the Dubbare Elephant sanctuary. With it being Monsoon season, much of the Coorg was flooded while we were there, and the area close to where we are staying at the end of Day 3 was no exception:
There’s around six cottages at this location, so each cottage may house around 4 people each. It may be that the guys may need to be in tents on this night, or in a dormitory style if there’s a large room.
At the end of Day 4, we’ll be staying in an old Coorg house with real rustic charm courtesy of a retired army general. There are a few rooms in the main house, but most of the group will be housed in a dormitory area in the following building:
Originally, we were planning having a Day 5 of cycling, but we’ve decided to cut this out of the programme so the bike ride will be shorter than 190 miles. The main reason for cutting Day 5 is it will create time to visit the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur.
We’ll travel back to Bangalore and spend the night at the Green Valley Resort (see http://www.travelguru.com/india-hotels/bangalore-hotel-green-valley-resorts.html) instead. Then, the next day, we’ll fly to Vijayawada so that we can visit the village. During Cycle India 2008, we cycled to the village, and it was the highlight of the event for most people. We feel it is important for all the cyclists taking part to meet the kids, and see where all the fundraising is being spent.
We may also visit the location of some land Heal is trying to purchase near Vijayawada where we hope to build our biggest ever project – a new model residential school for 1000 orphaned and underprivileged children. If everything goes to plan, then we may have a ceremony at the land to formally lay the foundation stone, before building starts.
The money we raise from Cycle India will be used to help build the school, so the more we raise, the better facilities for the children. The location is very picturesque at the side of a hill and bordering a lake (although it is dried up on this picture):
After spending the afternoon with the children, we’ll take an overnight sleeper train to Hyderabad for our final day in India.
Initially, the idea was for this day to be an opportunity to hold a press conference with the local and national media (there will be a lot of interest in India for our bike ride) and the chance for a bit of shopping.
However, we are looking into the idea of spending an hour or two cycling around the Hussain Sagar Lake (visit http://happyhyderabad.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/hussainsagar.jpg) which will create a lot of publicity for Heal. If we do organise this, then it will be an opportunity for a few VIPs from Hyderabad to join us cycling.
Conclusion
Hopefully, I haven’t frightened anyone when I mentioned the hilly terrain. During Cycle India 2008 we cycled around 250 miles, whereas this time we’ll be cycling around 160 miles over 4 days. Also, we’ll have better bikes this time, so I’m confident we’ll all be OK.
There will be quite a bit of travelling also, so everyone needs to be prepared for a busy schedule. Once Nitin has fully amended the itinerary then I’ll update everyone.
Matthew Glover
Head of Fundraising
For more information about Cycle India please email:
matthew@conservatoryoutlet.co.uk
Great news from the Heal Children’s Village, and Poverty Trap project in Guntur.
Our Heal children achieved very good grades in the SSC public examinations, with 43 children out of 46 achieving first classes and the remaining three children achieving second classes.
Mr P.Srinivasulu of our Nandana Rural School who is under Poverty Trap Scheme scored the top – 566 marks out of 600. This is 94.33% and 21 of our children achieved at least 500 marks.
These excellent results have been achieved through the hard work of the children and teachers – well done to you all.
Many of these children would never have had the opportunity to receive such an education without the financial support of Heal. For just £7.50 per month you can sponsor one of our children under the Poverty Trap scheme at Guntur to receive an education.
Greetings.
Easter tells the resurrection of Lord Jesus giving new hope and strength to his believers and followers. Easter comes in spring season bringing new life to the nature. As Easter symbolizes new hope and life – you people, with great love, affection, concern and kindness to the needy are giving a ray of hope, confidence and courage to surpass the difficulties traveling towards a new world.
How can we thank you except wishing you and your families a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful long life!
With lots of love,
Your children at HEAL.
We are delighted to announce that our Heal children have been working hard with their karate practice and it has been rewarded by the team winning the championship at the recent State level tournament.
Well done to all the children who clearly worked so hard!
