Christmas Gift Giving!

Give A Chrismas Gift to a Needy Person.
Here are some gift ideas:
1. Father Tony has identified 16 exceptionally poor elderly people in the villages where we are working. He would like to gift the women (13) with a sari, which we can get for Rs.150 per sari, (about £3.00) and the men with a lungi, costing about Rs.125 per piece. Also, we can get them some warm bed covers for the cooler winter evenings for Rs.100 per cover ($2.00.)
2. Educational Items for Little Darlings, Creches or future school: We have a list of suggestions here along with Indian internet stores where these items can be purchased.

Volunteers

We've been blessed with some wonderful volunteers from Australia recently. Many thanks to Judith, Shioban, Kim and Leanne, for your wonderful help and love for the babies and children.

Progress in Reading

Suleka and the other older 'Little Darlings' are making excellent progress in their reading skills.

Construction begins on the RPI centre for health and education.

The first priority was a gate and boundary to safe-guard building supplies. This is almost finished, and then we will start on the main building.

Celebrating Elder's Day at the Mercy Home

Elder's Day provided an opportunity to have a grand celebration--not only for the elderly residents, but also to inaugurate the new quarters for the sick elderly, and to celebrate the birthdays of Danny (turning 4) and Darshana (turning 3.) We hope you enjoy these video clips and photos of the happy celebration.

Dany and Darshana perform for the elderly:



The Little Darlings performance:



Suleka and Rani sing 'Happy Birthday' to Dany and Darshana



The carers of the babies and 'Lil Darlings' do a cultural performance for the elderly.



The elderly also gave a performance, and then were handed little gifts.

Bathroom renovation for Lil' Darlings

New child's size "Indian" toilet and new shower area. We have also put in a Western-style toilet for the physically challenged children who cannot use the Indian style one.

Bathroom time at a village creche. Sponsorship needed for toilets.

Here you see the village children at a creche going to the front yard for their bathroom time, as there are no toilets. Read how you can sponsor toilets here.

Starting work in one more creche and new supplies.

Thank you to Susee Group, Madurai for donating these supplies for a creche. We have been able to start working in one more creche, in Edyapatti, thanks to these supplies.

BEFORE: The creche only had the following items for 30 children before.

AFTER: Some of the lovely educational items donated by Susee.

A cheery 'hello' from some tuition students.

These are some of the tuition students from the new group we have started at Ediyapatti, near Usilampatti.

Creche Program Launched

With the start of the new school year here, we decided to start working right away in two villages creches. We still don't have all the needed sponsorship for renovations and educational items, but we decided to start with what we have, since the creche had no educational items or teaching at all. Here are a few photos of the children enjoying some action rhymes, construction blocks and colouring!

Clipo Received

We received this lovely box of Clipo for the Little Darlings from an internet store. The name of the sender was not provided, but we send many thanks to our anonymous donor. The children will love this toy.

Excursion for summer students

SHE staff took the students who faithfully attended the summer English classes on a fun excursion to Vagai Dam. As you can see, they all enjoyed themselves.

Summer English classes

Summer school holidays take place in May in India. So SHE staff organised some English language classes for the tuition students. Emphasis was placed on learning through games and fun activities--after all, the children were taking their holiday time to attend these classes. The attendees all made lots of progress in their English-speaking skills.

Some Little Darlings Activities

Enjoying musical chairs. We repeated the last rounds a few times so everyone could have a chance to win!
Below, Danny proudly shows his writing.

Packages

We have received two new packages: www.reliefprojects.org/Packages_recd

Prime Minister asks for national campaign to fight infanticide and feticide.

The provisional Census figures, released last month, show that the child sex ratio in India has declined to 914 females per 1,000 males — the lowest since Independence. "Terming practice of female feticide and infanticide in many parts of the country a 'national shame', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday expressed the need to have a national campaign to counter this bias ...Referring to the figure, the PM said improving this ratio is not merely a question of stricter compliance with the existing laws. 'What's more important is how we view and value the girl child in our society,' he said. " Courtesy Times of India 


Follow this link to read about RPI's SHE program which was launched last year to fight infanticide and feticide, raise the status of females, and improve the health and well-being of mothers and disadvantaged children.
The SHE Program

Latest arrival at the Mercy Home.

It is very very unlikely this little boy will be adopted because of his missing hand, so he may well join the Little Darlings in a year or so.

Gift from Antti and packages from Leena Gustafson

Thank you to Antti and children for the playdough we received for the Little Darlings. They will have lots of fun with it. Please thank your children for their kind greeting also.

And many thanks Leena Gustafson for the fives packages of baby textiles we received, I think on behalf of Vaaka and Lutheran Congregation of Myanamaki mission group.

Volunteers

Karen from Australia is currently volunteering at the Mercy Home and being a super big help with the babies. Last month, Heidi, also from Australia, was a great help in the nursery. (The baby she was holding has since been adopted by a lovely family!)

Finger-painting fun with 'Lil Darlings.'

Lots of fun for all but decidedly messy!

Self-help group meeting

Here are some photos of one of the meetings of our local self-help group set up by SHE. Each woman pays a small amount into a common account each month. When they reach about $200 they then become eligble for an interest free loan from a local bank. The women can then take a loan to be invested. One lady wants to buy 2 goats to start a flock; another one wants to take advantage of a free tailoring course being offered and then take a loan to buy a sewing machine. We hope this initiative will improve the income of these desperately poor families.

Bottle Contact

Yesterday we went to visit a local manufacturer of a well-known brand of baby bottles and he agreed to sell us baby bottles at cost price, which represents a big saving. Thank you to 'Princy India' for their willingness to help and to Samir for your donation which covered the first purchase.

Pretty flowers

Here are some of the pretty artificial flowers that the senior citizens are making.

Activities for the elderly

The elderly residents of the Mercy Home have now started some craft activities to keep them occupied. (For those of you who don't know this, the Home also rescues abandoned old folk and currently houses 31 old people.)The women are making lovely artificial flowers and the men are making little bags from old newspapers which are used here by the medical shops.

More packages received

The 'packages received' page on the website has been updated.

Smiles from the Lil' Darlings

Enjoying a new toy.

A review 2010 accomplishments in Little Darlings toddler group and SHE programme

We have compiled a list of our progress with the Little Darlings and SHE programme during 2010. We hope you will enjoy reading. Many thanks to all who have assisted in sponsoring these programmes.
RPI Year-End Review

New toddler bedroom

Here are some pictures of the toddler bedroom. The toddlers used to sleep on mats on the floor, but inevitably rolled off the mats onto the bare tiles, and then caught cold. Susanna brought some cuddle toys back from England and gave each toddler one as a present which they keep on their bed. Bottom right → Afternoon naptime.

Toy Drive for these needy children.

We are starting a new programme to help village nursery schools, such as the one below. Please follow this link to read all about it: Nursery School Renewal Programme

New Packages Received

The packages received page has been updated with packages received since the New Year. Many thanks to all!

New supplies

A few of the many supplies that Jesse and Susanna were able to bring back from England, where they spent Chrismas and New Year with their family. These are for the Mercy Home and future schools. Thanks to family and charity shops!

One of the evening tuition groups

These tuitions provide a place for these very poor children to do their homework, with supervised help.

Latest packages received

Here are the latest received packages: December packages

Photos from the Childrens Day activities.

These are our tuition students who participated in games, competitions and fun activities for Children's Day. Each group had prepared a special presentation also--dance, song or poem.