Education Grants, the Jeevan Jyothi School has become a Community School with rural children from surrounding small towns and villages coming to an English medium school. The fees are very moderate . £Because of the rural situation we have funded 3 school buses to bring children in for the day. This knits our Children Community Centre with other children socially and the adjoining Sports Ground supported by a couple in Japan means children from these surrounding towns has a play area and competition with our children.
Education Grants, we need support for 5th Class children text books starting in the new Indian School year June 2017. The cost for the Class of 8 New Hope children is £1,025. If you would like to support one of the children you can see the cost next to the child name. We are including a short bio-data of four children.
THE STORY OF FOUR CHILDREN IN CLASS 5
We have seen through experience when a girl is educated, grows up, marries – she ensures that her own children are educated and that the son and daughter are treated equal. This is a major change in an age old pattern New Hope works for change though education.
We appreciate your education grant support of a child. This is Renuka, a girl who is 11 years old and now studies in 5th class starting in the new school year in June, 2017 Last week she has just completed year end exams and did well. Her name is Renuka and its a very ‘sweet’ name in this part of our State.Her father died and that caused terrible money problems for her mother who looked for work as a house cleaner. Renuka and her younger brother Karith missed a lot of schooling for 2 years. She stayed a lot of the time with her aged grandmother because where her mother worked there was no place for children to live.
We are planning for her to visit her grandmother in the different holidays in the hills nearby. The grandmother lives in a small hut and sells firewood in the town. We will send a food pack for her and Renuka so they can have food and time together. (Her brother opts to stay in the Community as the boys have sports – mainly cricket and have small projects as hobbies Renuka likes drawing and has joined in the Saturday afternoon art hobby.
It is a sad situation across the world, that many children are the affected victims of infected parents. Sad too that many mothers have no idea they are HIV+ until the husband takes ill. Reality is that many women who have lost their husband to AIDS suffer socially and economically and are ostracised and ignore by families.
Kusuma has a complicated background and I suppose its one of the reasons Ruth keeps her occupied with ‘do this’ when she sees her unhappy – rarely but sometimes a mood strikes her. Her father passed away years ago with AIDS and her mother is HIV+ and Kusuma who is not infected came to stay with us. Suddenly her mother left saying that she had found employment as a cleaner (house work) in the city. There is a contact network between most of the widows as they all meet at different times at the Government Medical Clinic in Vizianagaram. Her mother comes to visit every two months.Kusuma has seen where her mother works and stays and her mother feels it is safer for her daughter to spend her time with us.
Kusuma enjoys a great friendship with all the girls. She is in the arts and crafts hobby group on Saturday afternoon. An education grant will ensure she will grow up and have both knowkedge and the opportunity later to skill training.
It is a sad situation across the world, that many children are the affected victims of infected parents. Sad too that many mothers have no idea they are HIV+ until the husband takes ill. Reality is that many women who have lost their husband to AIDS suffer socially and economically and are ostracised and ignore by families. Karkith has a sad background. Too many of the children come to us traumatised and lonely having lost family and parents.He did not know that his father was HIV+ . He knew he was ill and went to a ‘place’ sometimes for medicine and rest. His father stopped working and his mother took on housekeeping. Cleaning apartments. His father went away for weeks and actually died in a AIDS Care Hospice. When neighbours knew all this they reported that the boy could be ‘AIDS too” and he was restricted from school until tested and found negative. His mother became mentally unstable and lost her work. She was found several times times wandering late at night near the beach and unable to talk. She had a ration card in her ‘bag’. Taken home they saw that Karkith was not cared for and had been going house to house begging food and skipping school. The Child % Mother Committee found him and they requested us to care for him. He took several months to settle with us but is now family. He is doing very well in school, plays games and in a cricket team. The photograph was taken by me as he came back from the dining room after breakfast. I asked why he was sitting. He had lost his ‘best marble’. Education is his future and skill training will set him for life. He will be in 5 th class in the Indian new school year in 2017.
HARI BABU
It is a sad situation across the world, that many children are simply born positive. Sad too that many mothers have no idea they are HIV+. Reality is that many women who have lost their husband to AIDS suffer socially and economically and are ostracised and ignore by families. Somehow the woman is blamed! Hari Babu – lived ‘wild’ for some time! He was a street child. We dont ask too much but eventually through a social worker found where he had been living and his background. They lived in the city in what we could say is ‘a room’. In the room is everything. In a corner a cooker area. Many through Government intervention now have access to subsidized gas. There is usually a bathroom toilet of very small size. Nearby will be a public water tap that comes on for a few hours a day and there are long lines of women with ‘buckets’ You may have seen pictures of how women balance pots on their head – most are water pots.His father died of an AIDS opportunistic infection and then life got very difficult for his widow. There was not family support and while she could she did casual labor. Eventually going to a Government Hospice where she passed away. Hari Babu ‘disappeared as the ‘room landlord’ emptied the place and he just wandered here and there in the neighborhood.Hari Babu has more than settled down! – He acts like he has been here for ages and knows his way around the whole community and the trees to climb. We will assess his school level and adjust in June. You can see he is already into the arts hobby class.
This photograph was taken on the day he arrived, post a hair cut!
Well dressed in new school uniform, packed breakfast. Going to his room to study That is what he told me when I asked why he had a meal box with him coming from the dining room. I think it might have been a mid-morning snack!
