Coming from a very poor tribal family, he was expected to help his parents and, like many children from such impoverished backgrounds, Koteswara Nayak and his sister did not attend school.

But when his parents found they could no longer afford to feed him, they reluctantly agreed to allow HEAL to place him at their Children’s Village in Guntur where he would receive not only shelter and health care, but an all-important education – the key to youngsters from such poor family backgrounds escaping India’s grim poverty trap.

Koteswara Nayak never looked back and when 13 HEAL children recently completed their Junior Inter Public Examinations, all passing with good marks, the former child labourer stood second in Guntur City with a stunning 98% pass mark.

HEAL Junior Inter students, including Koteswara Nayak, pictured centre alongside Mrs Marudwathi

Studying maths, physics and chemistry, the one-time shepherd boy achieved a remarkable 461 marks out of 470 and is being hailed as an inspiration for the other children under HEAL’s care.

“Mr Nayak’s success has become a great motivating factor for all the HEAL children,” said Children’s Village administrator Mrs Marudwathi. “When his parents were unable to feed him, HEAL took him under its wing and after that he gained a lot of confidence and did not look back for anything.

“This kind and timely support brought a wonderful change in his life and he has expressed his grateful thanks to HEAL and his generous sponsor from the UK. And it should not be forgotten that 13 more children from the Village appeared for Junior Inter and passed with good marks.”

In the case of Koteswara Nayak, and many others, it can be seen how the poorest children’s lives are being transformed by the teachers and carers of HEAL in India, and by the generosity of sponsors in the UK and elsewhere.

Economic deprivation and an inadequate education infrastructure mean sending a child out to work from a young as five or six is an all-too-acceptable option for rural families in particular. More than half the children in Andhra Pradesh drop out of school before finishing seventh grade.

Child labour in rural India

Many stay at home to help their parents make ends meet by performing manual labour, while others are often exploited, lured away with promises of good pay, only to find themselves trapped in big-city sweatshops working 12 to 16 hours a day and living in filthy, cramped conditions.

Laws to protect children and ban the use of young workers are largely ineffective, but HEAL continues to offer help to hundreds of needy children and a new safe haven called Paradise Village is currently under construction near Vijayawada. The school there will open this summer and is designed with the aim of helping up to 10,000 children escape the crippling Indian poverty trap by 2020.

Even simple HEAL initiatives such as free books, bags and equipment for primary age children, a free mid-day meal and the provision of shoes are found to pay huge dividends in improving school attendance in underprivileged rural areas such as Guntur, Kanuru and Bhadrachalam, where parents often cannot afford to send their children to school.

HEAL founder Dr Satya Prasad Koneru handing out school bags to schoolchildren in Andhra Pradesh

And it is hoped that success stories like those of Koteswara Nayak and his friends will continue to inspire more sponsors to come forward and give these children the chance to reach their true potential in life for the benfit of them, their families and their communities.

To find out how you can sponsor a child from as little as £11 a month, please visit our website at: www.heal.co.uk/sponsor-a-child.html

“I am satisfied with the rate things are taking shape,” says Dr Prasad. “I had two days of meetings with the architects and the rest of the team in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. I am more happy now and everybody is content with the new designs.

Building work progresses on the primary school

“There has been some redesign work, such as changing the main roof to a flat roof to allow us to install the panels for solar power. It is a big financial layout, but all part of our commitment to an eco-friendly environment at Paradise Village.”

HEAL hopes to attract support from a specialist solar power company interested in funding or part-funding the cost of installation, estimated to be in the region of 2.7crore (£325,000).

“Our vision for HEAL Paradise Village is that it will be fully self-sustaining and embrace green technology wherever possible,” says Dr Prasad.

“As for the construction work, we aim to complete the whole primary school building by the end of June 2013 and are hoping to start the academic year with 100 children.

“Dorms should be ready by the end of this year and until that time some of the classrooms will be used for accommodation and offices.

“We will have 16 classrooms, an arts room, a computer lab, staff room, library and a laboratory. In addition, there will be a lobby/gallery, head teachers office, as well as three outdoor classrooms. It is a very large building which will also house stores and laundry on the lower ground level.”

Site manager Mastan Ann reports that work on the dorms has been started and landscaping is going ahead with bougainvillea plants and 150 coconut trees providing a green-wall boundary.

“Each coconut tree will produce hundreds of fruit and each fruit contains a litre of coconut water which contains sugar & minerals, so the children will be able to have a healthy glass of coconut water every day,” says Mastan.

Meantime, while the construction is being carried out, HEAL India’s educational committee will be responsible for buying furniture and stationary and recruiting well-qualified teachers in the coming months.”

“That was a good day for us,” reported site manager Mastan Ann. “We were pleased also to show that the primary school building has been raising up and up, while locations have been marked up for the dorms ready for piling work to start.

“In addition to that, HEAL has been conducting activities to develop a good local relationship, including a free health camp and the distribution of school equipment to local children.”

Dr Prasad was pleased to report back to this month’s HEAL AGM on the progress being made with the Paradise project and announced his intention to return early in the new year.

He said that despite delays caused by a shortage of raw materials and poor weather conditions, Paradise remained on course to take in its first batch of students in the summer of 2013.

During his stay, Dr Prasad joined members of HEAL India and other guests in planting more than 40 fruit-bearing plants in the Paradise grounds. Plans are also in hand for the plantation of a banana garden.

Dr Prasad was also delighted to present equipment, including free books, bags and geometry sets, to impoverished government schoolchildren as HEAL continues to forge strong links with the local community.

He also dropped in at a free HEAL paradise health camp, held in association with Ayush Hospitals, Sankara Eye Care and Partha Dental Hospital, and utilized by around 200 patients from surroundng villages.

WORK on the HEAL Paradise Village may not be complete, but the good news is that the project
is already having a positive impact on the local community in Thotapalli.

Steve Sargent, a HEAL volunteer who has spent time at the Paradise site overseeing the early
stages of development, heard about the plight of a local schoolgirl with type-1 diabetes
whose family were unable to meet the cost of her medical treatment.

Eleven-year-old Sirisha attends the local government school, but did not qualify for a
disability allowance to cover the cost of regular check-ups, lab tests, insulin and
syringes.

With the help of HEAL India’s Dr K Jagan Mohan Rao at Nagarjuna Hospital, Steve was able to
establish the cost of meeting Sirisha’s medical needs and a sponsor from England was quickly
identified to assist.

As our pictures show, she is now able to draw insulin from a pharmacy thanks to the money donated every month by a family with a diabetic daughter of the same age.

HEAL have also assisted a five-year-old boy, Aravind, who attends the same school as
Sirisha.

Aravind has a mild form of cerebral palsy and has difficulty walking, so HEAL were happy to
help arrange for him to have a specially-made shoe after consulting with local medics.

Children attending the local school can also be seen carrying their smart, new HEAL bags as the charity does its best to forge strong links with the community.

Paradise itself, when complete, will not only provide vital schooling and a home for a thousand underprivileged children, but will offer much more to local people, including an institute for the blind, industrial training, a health centre and a junior college.

A SERIES of cycling events across Great Britain, India and the United States are being
planned to raise funds to help lift children out of the poverty trap in India and place them
into education.

The UK-based charity HEAL (Health and Education for All) recently held its third Cycle India
challenge over five days in Kerala, south of Mumbai, and it was such a success that
organisers are already discussing plans to expand their fund-raising efforts.

Cycle India, launched in 2008, is currently held every two years, with riders from India and
USA joining forces with cyclists from the British Isles.

But moves are afoot to introduce a new bike ride for Indian participants on alternate years,
which will turn Cycle India into an annual event, while planning is already in the pipeline
for a Land’s End to John o’Groats cycle challenge.

Talks are also taking place with HEAL USA members to try to get an Amercian version off the
ground in the near future.

Funds are urgently needed for HEAL’s latest, and most ambitious project to date, the
Paradise Village in Thotapally, Andhra Pradesh, which will become home to 1,000 orphaned and
disadvantaged children over the next two years.

HEAL founder Dr Satya Prasad visited the Paradise construction site with Cycle India 2012
particpants and was excited by the early progress on phase one of the building work.

“Planning for Cycle India 2014 is already well advanced, with a 450km coastal ride from Mumbai to Goa already agreed, and the cyclists will have the opportunity to visit with the children at the Paradise Village and the HEAL Children’s Village in Guntur afterwards,” said Dr Prasad.

“We already have a number of people from the UK signed up for 2014, but I’m pleased to say
that Indian participants will have their own Cycle India every other year from now on, which
means that it will now become an annual event.”

HEAL India’s Anita Rao will be part of the organising group for next year’s inaugural
India-based challenge and hopes to attract a large number of young riders.

“UK cyclists will also be welcome to take part,” says Anita, “but I think it will be
largely for the younger generation in India.

“Most young people are naturally fit, though not always through regular exercise, and I
think it will be amazing to see how they perform in our cycling challenge. I’m looking
forward to being actively invloved with this new event.”

In the UK, volunteers are being sought to assist in developing a regional bike ride later
this year as a forerunner to the first full cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats next
year.

Matthew Glover, head of UK fundraising for HEAL, has been the driving force behind Cycle
India, which has raised over £200,000 to date.

“Cycle India has become Heal’s single biggest fundraising event,” said Matthew. “As well as
raising a large amount of money, the events have spread a lot of happiness to the
participants, children at the HEAL projects and the people of India.

“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.”

To find out more, or to register your interest in taking part in any of HEAL’s forthcoming
fundraising events, please go to the home page of our website at heal.co.uk.
Pictures courtesy of Kalypso Adventures

The school, visited by the entire Cycle India party last month, was extremely proud to have been asked to stage the event involving 32 schools.
The games are held at a different school each year and Kanuru were pleased to report the 2012 event a complete success.

No fewer than 600 boys and 100 girls took part over five days of sporting competition, following an opening ceremony in which members of the UK cycling team were invited to cut a ribbon to open proceedings.

The HEAL children, in particular, stood out in their smart new t-shirts, donated by HEAL India’s Mrs Bhavani, who also recently provided the school with colourful poster boards to assist in science classes.

Kanuru enjoyed success in several of the sports, with the boys winning the badminton and finishing runners-up in ‘kho kho’, while the girls came out on top in volleyball.

The school gave the cyclists a rapturous welcome and staged a show for their guests, including singing, dancing and even a comedy sketch which was enjoyed both by the visitors and the watching younger children.

HEAL originally provided school uniforms to the children of Kanuru School before the introduction of a new government scheme which brought in free uniforms. However, HEAL was happy to supplement this by providing each child with a free pair of shoes as many of them were still walking to school barefoot.

The Anne Siva Nageswara Rao, Aruna, Zilla, Parishad High School, to give it its full name, already receives limited government funding, but HEAL was keen to help after being greatly impressed by the energy and hard work of the headmaster and his staff.

Since the summer of 2009, HEAL India has worked alongside the existing benefactor Mr Anne Siva Nageswara Rao, who started the school, to help improve facilities and educational standards.

HEAL is looking forward to continuing that assistance for the benefit of the hundreds of children at this school. And further education scholarships will ensure that school-leavers can go on to achieve their ambitions.

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.

She developed her own interest in singing and dancing and has written her own songs and choreographed her own dance routines. She recently won an award from Andhra Pradesh’s MAA TV channel and the channel has also agreed to sponsor the next stage of her education, Intermediate College, which is similar to A-Level college in the UK.

Although a brilliant performer, Lakshmi would like eventually to become a doctor, and her teacher describes her as ‘very enthusiastic: a student who works hard to finish her tasks quickly’. Clearly she has great ability and HEAL is proud to be a part of her progress. She is an inspiration to many other children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Please follow us on @healvillage so that you have updates on our progress at your fingertips.

Among the latest ‘tweets’ is a picture posted from Kanuru School in Vijayawada, a Heal-funded school, showing the children in their smart new uniforms.

There will also be future updates from the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur and from the site of the new Paradise Village project where a ceremonial Puja ritual will be held during November prior to the long-awaited commencement of building work.

The Puja is performed to bless the building and the project and has importance in ensuring its success.
Amanda Smith is currently in India to keep an eye on progress before taking up her new role as vice-principal of the Heal Paradise Village in Thotapally and is also spending time visiting with the children in Guntur.

She will be tweeting updates direct from India, and her Indian adventure can also be followed through her personal blog online at amandainindia.edublogs.org.

Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year in Andhra Pradesh and is widely celebrated by families, who perform traditional activities together in their homes.

Celebrations include decorating homes with lights, sharing sweets and gifts, as well as worship and religious rituals, but undoubtedly setting off festive fireworks is what the Heal children look forward to most of all!

The story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region, but the essence is the same – to rejoice in the awareness of the ‘inner light’, the uplifting of spiritual darkness and the celebration of the victory of good over evil.

In Andhra Pradesh, festivities start out at the crack of dawn and carry on well into the night. Most people make a trip to the local temple along with their families to seek the blessings of their respective gods before the night sky is lit up with a dazzling array of noisy fireworks.

The children of the Heal Village in Guntur may not have family homes where they can enjoy these celebrations, but there is nevertheless the feeling of great joy and excitement as their faces are lit up by sparklers under the watchful eye of their teachers and house mothers, safe in the knowledge that they are all part of the Heal extended family.