The Opening Ceremony of the Boys Hostel
Dec 3rd, 2005
We arrived at Guntur train station at 7am. We were driven to a hotel in Guntur, unpacked etc. and then taken to the Children’s village, which is about 15 miles outside Guntur.
Guntur is a small town with a lot of visible poverty. Many people were sleeping rough on the streets. There were numerous mud huts etc. Beggars at the train stations etc. Not pleasant at all.
However, the Children’s Village was something else! I had no idea about the welcome we would receive.
We initially arrived at roughly 9am, and were introduced to all the children. They were organised into two lines, girls and boys. The children were so keen to meet us. They clambered to shake our hands, ask our names, introduce themselves in English etc. All the children seemed so happy, well fed and clearly keen to meet us.
We were then quickly shown around the Children’s Village, which is made up of 10 single story cottages. The cottages are attached and form a horse shoe shape (if you looked at the layout from above). Each cottage has roughly 10 children of varying ages, looked after by a House Mother. The cottages were all clean and tidy, as was the Children’s Village as a whole.
We were then quickly whisked to the nearby school, which is all part of the same campus. All the HEAL children are given free education, alongside fee paying local children. We were to attend the opening ceremony for the Boys Dormitory, the building of which was funded by the Charity Ball we had last year. The hostel is actually built on top of some classrooms, and will house up to 50 of the older HEAL boys from the village.
The opening ceremony was overwhelming – they really pushed the boat out. We were initially greeted by some of the children in cadet-style outfits performing a guard of honour as we walked down the red carpet towards the Boys Dormitory. A band played in the background, and a gathering of local and national press snapped our every movements.
The Boy’s Hostel is split into two rooms, Mrs Kathleen Bardell was invited to officially open the 1st. Room by cutting the Ribbon, Matthew Glover was then invited to officially opened the 2nd. Room by cutting the Ribbon.
We were then directed towards the gardens for the school, which were all beautifully well manicured, and towards the large stage. I had no idea, but the whole school, the press and many local dignatories were awaiting our arrival on the stage, and myself, Andrew and the other directors were expected to make speeches! After that, we were then entertained by the children with a display of traditional and modern Indian dancing and a demonstration of their “Tae Kwon Do” skills a form of Karate.
We really had been treated to a well orchestrated ceremony which was totally unexpected. Afterwards, we met more of the children and took many photographs – the children were particularly keen to see their pictures on the digital camera.
We met the directors of HEAL India. Dr Manga Devi is the Head of HEAL India, and she seems to run things very efficiently. She is assisted by a good team of other ladies such as Vijaya.
I would really like to thank both the directors of Heal India and more importantly, the children for a truly memorable day. Thank You.
Matthew Glover, Director of Heal