ENABLE (Working in India)
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IN THIS EDITION:
* REVISITING THE
INDIAN CENTRES
12 year old Anitha is one of the disabled children who has
recently been admitted to the Ongole Centre.
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* NEWS FROM THE KANIGIRI CENTRE
- by Alison Davis, Chair of Enable
In
January I returned to India with Colin Harte, Enable’s General
Secretary, to revisit the two centres we are supporting at Kanigiri and Ongole,
in Andhra Pradesh state. Exactly one
year before we had attended the opening of the Ongole Centre for girls – the
paint being barely dry as last minute work was completed for the inauguration –
and we looked forward to seeing all the “old” girls as well as the many “new”
girls we have been able to admit. I
wondered how things were getting on one year after the opening.
As always, the children gave a tumultuous welcome when we arrived. In order to celebrate the anniversary of the Ongole Centre and to welcome us, all the boys from the Kanigiri Centre had also come to Ongole to greet us. We were met by over 120 children. It was lovely to see the children we already knew from previous visits. The “new” children, like Anitha pictured above, were initially shy – but it didn’t take long before we got to know each other.
Meeting “old” and “new” children
It
gives me much joy to look back over the past seven years since Enable
was formed, and to be able to reflect on how so many of the children that I
have seen grow up over the years have been getting on. Children who had been rejected by their
families and society are developing into confident, educated adolescents and
young adults. Many children who had
seemed destined to a lifetime of crawling in the dust have had surgery and
physiotherapy and are now up on their feet.
This benefits not only their prospects in life but also their
self-esteem. Apart from seeing those
who are still at the centres I was pleased that twelve of our former students
who are now at college or working came to visit us and to let me know how they
are getting on. I am proud of them for
all their achievements.
In
this News Update, however, I thought that instead of dwelling on the successes
of those whose progress I have been following for some years, I would introduce
our supporters to some of the children whom I met for the first time on this
visit to India. Thanks to the ongoing
generosity of our supporters we are able to continue our existing projects and
to develop our work so that more children can be helped.
Meeting
12 year old Anitha, whose photo is above, was sufficient evidence (should I
have needed any) of the importance of Enable’s work. Like all of our children she comes from an extremely poor family. Anitha is disabled as a result of polio and
crawls, supporting her feet on her hands so that she can move. Her hands function as if they were also her
feet and when you touch them you can tell just how strong and rough they are as
a result of the way they have been used.
Anitha
joined the Ongole centre last year and this was the first time I had met
her. Before joining the centre she had
spent little time mixing with others and I was told she was initially very
anxious. This was markedly different from
the girl I now met who was outgoing and cheerful. In a programme that the children put on to celebrate our visit
Anitha took part in the dancing – sitting down, of course. Her talent for dancing with such grace and
natural rhythm – giving both herself and the audience much joy – had not been
known before she joined the centre.
Anitha
(left) with some of her new friends at the Centre
Staying
at the Ongole Centre is doing more than boost Anitha’s self-esteem. She is now going to school. Though she is in a class with girls younger
than her, she is eager to learn and is making very good progress. And this summer Anitha is to have the first
of a series of operations, to try to ensure that she won’t always have to crawl
in the dust.
Lakshmi and her pupils
Fortunately,
we have caring and hard-working staff at both the Kanigiri and Ongole
Centres. Amongst them is a new member,
Lakshmi, a 22 year old who, because she has brittle bones, is more disabled
than many of the children we are caring for.
Like the most severely disabled children she can move only by crawling
slowly.
Lakshmi
is trained in various skills of craftmaking and teaches them to the girls at
the Ongole centre. It is helpful for
all the girls to know these skills and it was a joy to see them eagerly
learning from Lakshmi. They happily
showed me what they had made. Lakshmi’s
gentle and caring manner particularly attracts many of the shyer new girls, like
Nagalakshmi and Anaradha, pictured below.
For those girls who attend the centres after years of neglect and other
difficulties in their villages, the presence of Lakshmi and the other caring
members of staff is a great help.
Lakshmi (centre) teaching craft skills to Nagalakshmi (left) and
Anaradha
The
centres at Kanigiri and Ongole are transforming the children’s lives. While in
India I was conscious of the debt of gratitude owed to Enable’s
supporters. All the children call me
“Mummy Alison” and I sincerely thank you for all your love, concern and support
for “my” children. Fr Arulraj’s letter
(below) mentions ways to help even more disabled children, and I hope we can
achieve this with your generous support.
With
sincere thanks and best wishes,
Alison
Davis
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Fr Gali Arulraj has been caring for disabled children since the 1980s. He is the founder of Enable’s work in India,
and director of the centres at Kanigiri and Ongole.
Fr Arulraj with Yerraiah who was admitted to the Kanigiri Centre
in January 2002 when Alison Davis (right) visited the centres.
Dear Friends of the
disabled children at Kanigiri and Ongole,
Loving greetings from Fr Gali
Arulraj, writing from the Kanigiri Centre in India.
When Alison Davis and
Colin Harte visited us earlier this year I asked if they would leave space in
the newsletter for me to write and express my sincere thanks to you for all
that you are doing to help our disabled children. I wanted you to know how much difference you are making to the
lives of the children. Also, I
discussed with Alison and Colin ways to help more children and I wanted to
explain what plans we have in mind.
Now we are supporting 134
children at our two centres. We are
also supporting 12 more children who are at college or university. I hope we
will have enough funds during the next few months to enable us to have both
centres full with children (a total of 175) and also continue to help the
college students.
For me, one of the
hardest things is to face parents who want us to admit their disabled child
when we have not the funds (or the room) to do so. This troubles me greatly. The disabled children – and their
families – have such big problems that it grieves me not to be able to help a
needy child. For this reason we have
set up an “outreach programme” so that any disabled child who needs help will
receive at least some support – even if we cannot admit them to one of the
centres.
Through the outreach
programme we will make sure we are in touch with disabled children in their
villages. These children do not go to
school, so we will arrange to bring teachers or tutors to their villages to give
them at least some basic education and skills.
We will also help to
provide some medical care. We have
already identified about 1,000 disabled children in our region who lack all
support. We know too that there are
many more. The “outreach
programme” will be able to give only a
little help, but it will at least be a start.
And we hope that maybe one day we can help some of these children at the
Kanigiri or Ongole centres or other small centres if we get the funds to build
them.
I was recently very
moved by the visit of a blind man,
called Thirupal. He came to me not on
his own account but because he wanted us to help his small son Nagaraju, who is
also blind. In addition to Nagaraju
there are many blind children who need help.
So, after discussing with Alison and Colin, we have decided we must do
something. We shall arrange temporary
accommodation for about 30 blind children in the coming months. And God willing we will get the funds to
develop our work in this area in the future.
3 year old Nagaraju with his father
Thirupal
I sincerely thank you for
your love and concern for all the children.
Fr Gali Arulraj
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Unlike
many charities we have always avoided heavy-handed requests for funds. Our News Update is produced twice a year,
and we hope that by providing details of Enable’s existing and new projects our
supporters will be aware of our ongoing need for funds and support us if they
can.
Some
of our supporters sponsor children at the Kanigiri and Ongole Centres. It would help too to have sponsors for the
blind children we are soon to be supporting, like Nagaraju, mentioned above in
Fr Arulraj’s letter. It costs £13.50 to
provide ordinary care (not including operation costs) for one child for a
month, but there is no set amount for sponsorship. Sponsors are free to contribute as little or as much as they can.
To fund the project for blind children, and to continue our work at
the Kanigiri and Ongole Centres, we rely on your generous support. Thank you so
much
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The
News Update is produced twice a year, in June and December. If you would like to be notified by e-mail
when the next Update is on-line please let us know, by sending a short note to mail@enable-india.org.uk. To receive a paper version (black and white
only) send an e-mail or contact:
Colin Harte
General
Secretary
Enable
(Working in India)
35 Stileham Bank
Milborne
St Andrew
Blandford
Forum
Dorset
DT11 0LE
Tel/Fax: (01258) 837546