Rae’s Third Week

I’m sorry this has taken me a while to write. I had such a great and worthwhile experience that it has taken time for me to be able to put some of it into words. Here goes…

During my third week in India I was fortunate enough to spend extra time with Raj, Michael John and Danny doing a little bit of extra tuition on editing. I am looking forward to seeing the movie that they will produce in the next few months especially now that we have seen some of the areas that they work in.

By far the best experience I had during my third week was the time I spent with Sangita Charitable Trust. This is run by Paul and Grace Moses. I am grateful for the time they let me spend at the orphanage and also with their widows programme. The widows program provides food to widows so that they can take back to their families. For many widows the only value they have to their family is this little amount of food that they provide each month. The widows programme reaches out to 6 villages and about 150 widows attend.

The children at the orphanage are from very tormented, traumatic backgrounds. They are either orphaned, destitute or abandoned due to many of the prevailing social evils and they become victims through no fault of their own. Most of the children are from very poor backgrounds, children of leprosy patients, beggars, criminals and destitute women.
On Monday morning I arrived at the orphanage and met all the children. There are 65 boys and girls all between the age of 2 and 5. The first thing I learned is that when you take a photo you don’t say ‘cheese’ you say ‘chipatteeee’. The children love getting their photo taken and are constantly wanting to see themselves on camera and saying ‘chipattee’. I brought over some craft things for the children to make so we got straight into making bracelets and monster faces. I think they had more enjoyment sticking bits of stuff to themselves.

After they spent some time doing craft it was time for lunch. The children are very well behaved and all have their position to sit in for meal times. They all sit in rows on the floor and then the orphanage staff serve them their meals. Everyone eats with their right hand even the children. Meals basically consist of rice, Dal and meat. The children get a couple of nutritious drinks throughout the day. Grace says that it takes about 3 months to build up a child to a healthy level, this is the reason for the nutritious drinks and they also get vitamin tablets each day. They have medical check ups routinely to make sure they are in good health.

After lunch the children have a little nap. The boys go into one room and the girls another. They lie head to head on the floor, snuggle up to the person next to them and fall asleep. Some of the girls take a bit longer to fall asleep as they like to chat. ☺

In the evening we all ventured across the busy road to a field where the children can run about freely. We played with bubbles, balls, and a frisbee. I was dizzy from constantly burling round lots of children. We spent a couple of hours there and then headed back for dinner. After dinner the children sat out on the porch and sang songs. They love to sing and even sang some English language songs, the Tamil songs sounded great though. It gets dark really fast in India and soon it was pitch black. The children go to bed at about 9 pm and get up at 6:30 / 7 am. They have their drink and then brush their teeth. The children live in the ground floor of a rented house. The trust also rents out the lower floor of the house directly across from it and they use this as the washing facility. A couple of times each day the children cross the busy road to the other building to get washed. The road is busy with lorries, motor bikes, cars, animals, bikes and people. The staff wait for a gap in the traffic before allowing the children to cross. In the morning the children strip out of their clothes from the previous day, a lady is employed to bath the children and then they get a fresh set of clothes on.

The children are all so happy and have adapted to life in the orphanage quickly. I consider myself very fortunate to have experienced the short time I had with them. If it wasn’t for this place the children would be on the street. Paul and Grace have land that they are planning to build a purpose built orphanage on, along with a home for widows and elderly. This will be a great benefit for all and the children will have more space, better facilities and an area to play freely and safely. If you’d like to read more about the work of Sangita Trust and/or donate money please go to Sangita Charitable Trust