India is a busy place. Everyone you see on the street seems to be going some where. Boys and girls dressed in their cotton school uniforms rushing to school. Workers, men and women, carrying great bundles on their heads and backs. Motorcycles moving in and out of cars. Engines reving, horns being blown, it all sounds a bit like a great orchestral piece of music.

In the midst of all this movement of people we too make our way out of the city of Chennai to drive for about four hours to  the State of Kerala, we are heading  for  the village of Marriyoor.

This is where we will meet up with the Sisters of Nazareth. Both of these women have quite outstanding stories to tell of the wonderful way God has called them to be servants among the people who live in this region.

They have been working here for over 15 years. They seek to be champions of the poor with a special remit to serve and support the tribal people who live high up in the mountains. This group of tribal people are known as “MUDHUWANS”. They have very little contact with civilisation. They are a primitive group of people and it is estimated that there could be up to 400 settlements spread out across the mountain range.  Jansi in forms me that some anthropologists have suggested that these tribes are linked in some way with the tribes of Indians found in South America.( I must look into this the next time I’m over in South America.)

The only way into their villages is to go on trek into the hills and climb high up tpo around 7,000 feet. This journey will take you at least five hours if your fit or perhaps your life if your not.

Freeda speaks with great passion for her work.She tells me how the Mudhuwan’s live. “They live in huts of bamboo covered with clay,” she explains. ” when we first went there all the people ran away from us they were terrified. Finally we met the chief and we managed to ccommunicate using  a language mix of Tamil and Malayalam. Today, some 15 years later, they run a school for the children in their complex which is just outside the village of Marriyoor. About sixty boys and girls from the tribal villages in the mountains attend the school and it is becoming a source of great pride to all parents who live in this area. The children come and live with the sisters and are educated up to secondary school age. There are many opportunities that come Freeda and Jansi’s way.  We need to help them maximise these offers.

This project has great potential if we can find so group out their who would be willing to lend a hand. I can see us doing a similar thing that Vine Trust do in Peru sending out work parties to help establish buildings and infra structure for this kind of work to continue.

It is from these distant mountains  communities that the  above children have come to study and be educated. On their returnm these children become the community educators in all sorts of subjects.one of the most important is in the area of health education.