Letter from Vijaya to Abbott Hall School

Hello!

Greetings from HEAL India!

I am Vijaya, sponsorship Secretary of HEAL in India. I write to the sponsors sending them reports about the children they are sponsoring.

Last Saturday I went to HEAL Village and took some photos of the boys learning to play on the keyboard instruments. I am sending them to you. You donated the amount with which we bought the instruments! The boys are enjoying themselves learning the notes. Thank you very much.
We went through a severe summer this year. The temperature rose to 49 celsius! Can you imagine it? The children in HEAL were able to have cool water to drink thanks to the water cooler which we bought with the money donated by you!

The children in HEAL come from families which are very poor. Most of them have no parents. Some of the circumstances in which they come to Heal are very tragic. Recently three girls, the eldest one is hardly ten years old joined Heal. Their father, a farm hand died after eating food contaminated by some pesticide which he was spraying in a field an hour earlier. The mother also died last year while working in the fields due to snakebite. The girls were left orphaned and some of the villagers took pity on them and brought them to HEAL.

Now the girls are secure and go to school. There are many such tragic stories in HEAL but I don’t want you to feel sad. Heal children are proof of the fact that there is always hope – even in the worst circumstances.

You children are doing wonderful work. Thank you once again.

Have a wonderful Harvest Festival!

Vijaya

Preparation

Having visited India in 2001 I was so impressed with such a vibrant and culturally varied country that I was keen to do some voluntary work there. Most of the projects that were available were either politically/ religiously affiliated or charged huge administration expenses, where the money would never reach those who need it most. I heard about HEAL through some friends at Oxford (Manu and Hiten).

The project appealed to me straight away because it was a completely voluntary project which genuinely seemed to have the childrens’ interests at heart. We immediately started getting a group together including my sister, and friends of Manu and Hiten. We had a few meetings before our trip to brainstorm ideas, what each of us would need to bring etc. Although most of us didn’t know most of the others in the group, by the time we had left for India, we had all spoken to each other. I can honestly say that the 6 of us got along very well and worked well together, since we all had the same objective-to spend quality time with the children at HEAL (not forgetting to have some fun too!)
Arrival in India

A few initial visits to the orphanage helped us to decide what equipment would be needed, how much time we would have with the children and hence what activities would be most appropriate. It also gave us an idea as to where we would be staying for the next 6 weeks. I was really not sure what to expect but I, for one, was pleasantly surprised. The Village is set in very idyllic surroundings. It is well looked after (covered with Mange Devi auntie’s wonderful plants) and is surrounded by mountains, which makes the whole environment very calm and relaxing. It is like a sanctuary!!

A few early morning jogs gave us some beautiful views of the area too! The first thing that struck me was how well the children were looked after-the housemothers and other staff were very caring and treated everyone with the same love and respect. The children were very friendly and had a lot respect for everything and everyone around them. They were always smiling which made the whole experience so much more pleasant. Everyone was so welcoming, refusing to let us do any chores and constantly feeding us with delicious food. We could not have asked for a better welcome!
Working at the HEAL Village

We were able to spend time with the children between school and dinner time, as well as on weekends. We split activities up into music & drama, literacy games and sports. We also thought it would be easier to split up the children according to age. This made the task a bit more manageable because all the children seemed to have an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm! Deepti and I took charge of the music and drama.

The children absolutely loved musical chairs. During these activities was when the children came out of their shell and were at their most confident. They would always ask lots of questions about England, as we would about Hyderabad. The elder girls learned a Justin Timberlake routine and Steps was another favourite too! At the same time, we also managed to learn some Telegu dancing, which the girls were very eager to teach us. The sports also proved popular, including rounders and badminton.

It was good to see so many of them getting the hang of frisby too! It became obvious to us that each child had a special talent in something or other. Therefore, we planned a Cultural show for the last week of our visit in order to end on a memorable note and to give the children the chance to display their talent. The actual day was excellent and for me, could not have turned out better. There were initial worries about the weather but the sun came out just as we started the show.

All the children were very excited and all had big smiles on their faces as they finished performing! Performances included Telegu dancing and singing, the Justin Timberlake routine, a ‘comedy’ version of Cyclops, a dance from Lagaan which we choreographed (till the early hours of the morning!) and a hit from one of the summer’s biggest Tollywood film-Johnny. They had worked very hard for this show and were very dedicated. No show would be complete without some dancing and we ended with a disco, making the most of the Village’s new sound system. Everyone, from the teachers and the children, to the house mums, danced to all sorts including Lagaan, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake.
Leaving the HEAL Village / Afterthoughts

The few weeks we spent at the HEAL Village were absolutely amazing. It went so quickly and towards the end I had started realising how much I would miss everyone. The children were so friendly and warm (they had started calling us aka and ana – sister and brother). I felt I had so much to learn from them, the way they enjoyed life, whatever it threw at them. They always had a smile on their face.

They are very brave children, considering what some of them had been through. I was glad that we were able to spend time with the children in such a way that they were able to open up and just be themselves around us. They joked around, played pranks on us-it felt like we were all the same age! Parting was very emotional and the few days after leaving the Village were very sad. I came away thinking how great it is to see so many people working to make HEAL such a caring and inviting place.
Recommendations

Is there anything I would change for next time? Exercises that help to improve the children’s self confidence are very useful-encouraging them to have an opinion and to think about how they feel, how they act. Planning the free time you have with the children is important because otherwise the kids have so much energy that you will find that the whole 2 hours you had with them was spent running around the field playing chase! As fun as that is, games that make them think and improve their language skills will also help to improve self-confidence.

But the most important thing is to just get to know them and have fun with them. That will be easy, by just spending time with them.

The new Heal India team will be lead by our new Heal India President – Mr Ramavtar Yadav .

Ram has recently retired from his position as Director General of Police for the Andhra Pradesh region, and is now dedicated to use his time for Heal’s cause – looking after orphaned and destitute children. He is focussed upon building a strong future for Heal, and has helped create a strong Heal India team.

The new structure of Heal India is as follows:
Mr Ramavtar Yadav – President
Dr K Jagan Mohan Rao – Vice President
Mr GDV Prasada Rao – Treasurer
Dr N Manga Devi – General Secretary
Mrs O Vijayalaxmi – Sponsorship Secretary
Mr Nitin Kumar – Head of Public Relations
Mrs Anita Rao – Member

Heal India Youth
Mr Kushal Kashyap – Member
Mr Ajay Suri

With this new structure in place Heal is now in a position to further expand its projects with the goal of helping to remove as many children as possible from the cycle of poverty.

Already, Heal has agreed to support a school in Kanuru in Vijayawada. The existing team of staff and teachers have been doing an excellent job with limited finances and resources. Heal will adopt this school under the poverty trap looking after 355 children. We will invest in more teachers, science laboratory, computer lab, new books etc.

We are keen to continue to support and invest in all our current projects, including our flagship project – the Heal Childrens Village in Guntur.