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

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

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

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!

We have just found out that three of our children have received admissions into engineering colleges.

Mamatha and Salma with EEE in Mittapalli Engineering college which is less than 10 kilometers away from the Heal Childrens Village.

Triveni has been granted admission to RVR Engineering college to study Chemical Engineering.

Everybody at HEAL is very happy and excited. This will be an inspiration for the other children.

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.

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.

Well done to all the children who clearly worked so hard!

There are about 200 resident children, and a further 600 day students. The children study incredibly hard. As the exams approach, their day runs from 4:30am to 11:00pm, and it is common to see them sitting in groups round a single lamp outside, late at night, murmuring revision subjects to themselves. Fortunately, volunteers are not expected to keep up with this schedule! The official school day begins at 9:45am with assembly, and ends at 4:30pm.

The children have simple tastes and are easily pleased. They all want to greet their visitors at all times, whenever and wherever they are seen, with a “Good morning Uncle!” shouted from all directions as you walk around. They want to know if you know any magic tricks (it’s a good idea to have on ‘up your sleeve’!); if you’ll watch them launching their spinning-tops; if you’ll play a ball game or, more bizarrely, show them your biceps! And do you know Freddie Flintoff, seeing that you’re from England?

Days in school were filled with helping in English lessons, especially with pronunciation, and it was a help to ensure that a teacher stayed in the room, as the kids would get excited to have a visitor, and be less disciplined as a result. If you’re an experienced teacher, you’ll be able to deal with this yourself. I’m not, but found that lessons with a local teacher present were a delight. Don’t forget that you’re an expert in spoken English, and the children (and staff) need to speak in English with you as much as possible, to improve their clarity, grammar and pronunciation. You could take CDs or cassettes of a ‘talking book’ or stories for children, but DVDs from the UK (region 2) don’t work in India.

The younger children enjoy singing nursery rhymes (which is a means of learning English) but they aren’t particularly musical, and love it when you go along and sing something properly. Music is an area which needs to be developed. There are three small Casio keyboards, but no-one plays any instruments, and the children have little concept of melody or pitch. Take a CD of songs for children. If you’re a guitar player, it’s worth going to the trouble of taking it. The school might be able to find one locally, but it’s not likely to be in good condition.

The Indians have a principle of treating their guests as ‘gods’. There is endless food and kindness. Meals are brought to your room, but I found it better to eat with the children whenever possible, sitting on the floor in the HEAL dining room. The kids loved the attention, and the fact that I was becoming one of them. After supper, reading a bed-time story (there are some in the library, but take your own!) was really appreciated. A house-mother or senior pupil will help to translate the story into Telugu for the little ones.

There is one broadband connection in the school office, and it’s usually available for keeping in touch with friends and family after 4:30, or during the day for more official use.

While the children are uninhibitedly friendly, I found some of the staff to be a bit awe-struck with a visitor – especially one who is treated like a god! It would be a good idea to ask for a teacher-buddy to be appointed who can help to break through that barrier. The Indian custom is for the sexes to be kept separate in a very ‘proper’ way. The boys and girls sit on separate sides of the classroom, eat at separate ends of the dining room and don’t play together. A volunteer befriending staff of the opposite sex will not meet with approval, and the school have decided not to allow mixed groups of unmarried volunteers to stay. That aside, I can’t express how kind everyone is.