Thursday December 2010
As a member of the Carlisle U3A I was invited to give a talk to its members at their Christmas meeting. on Thursday 17th December 2009, on my work with Heal, how I became involved and my trip to India in December 2005.
Anne, my daughter, very kindly set up an extremely interesting Power Point presentation on how I first became involved from day one in the Charity Heal…
As a founder member and Director it has been a tremendous experience to be part of a very exciting project.
Heal was founded and registered as a charity in 1992.- the remaining founder members are Dr K S Prasad, Mr Carl I Brodie and myself. From day one it was decided that we should all work as volunteers. We have no office expenses and very few overheads; this I believe is the foundation of our success…
I did not require notes, as speaking from the heart, it was easy to talk about our struggles and the fun we had in raising funds, our first project was building the Heal Children’s Village in Guntur A.P. India. The interesting people I have met on my journey.
In 2005 Matthew Glover joined the team, The Heal Boys Hostel was completed in December, the opening of which we were invited to attend.
I was able to tell everyone of my first impressions of India, the Village the exceptional welcome and the introduction to the children. This I shall I never forget.
Prasad invited me to stay on for a further four weeks following the opening Ceremony at the Village, travelling 18,085 miles visiting Bangalore, Guntur, Hyderabad, Delhi and Calcutta. Seeing these wonderful cities was an education in itself saddened by the extent of the poverty which was visible everywhere.
I have numerous photograph albums which I took along with me together with the delightful Sari I now possess plus other items all made in India, which everyone found interesting.
At the end of the talk there was quite a long session of answering questions which I enjoyed immensely.
Heal UK Sponsorship Secretary
Kath Bardell
The letter below is from David the Speaker secretary of the U3A:
Hello Kath,
I haven’t formally thanked you for giving the U3A ‘Third Thursday’ talk in December and it would be remiss of me, indeed, not to thank you in the appropriate calendar year! Many thanks. Everybody seemed to enjoy it and, since I always think the question and answer session best reflects people’s interest in the topic yours was clearly one of the most stimulating we had in 2009. So, once again, congratulations and many thanks.
Fran and I currently have our two sons and their respective familie staying with us over the New Year. But I wanted to take time out to thank you and, also, to wish you a happy New Year in 2010. I hope things go well.
David