Sunday, September 30, 2012

Goat Day Erampatti Village - Karen's Visit

On 30 September, we gave out the 20 goats to families from our village school.  This is our fourth goat group, which means we've now helped 40 families, widows and disabled people gain an additonal source of income.  Priya and Pragash worked with the school teachers to draw up a list of widows with children and children with disabilities who needed help.  Its wonderful to be able to do something practical to help ease their burdens.  To see a short video of our goat day click here
 
Mothers and their children gather at Shalom for the goat ceremony

Our boys with pairs of goats ready to be given to each family.

A widow and her daughter with their new goats

This boy, who is deaf and mute, received two goats to help his family


Israel shares some encouraging words with the goat recipients

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Visiting The Russ Foundation - Karen's Visit

Several of our boys came to us through the Russ Foundation, an organisation that works with families affected by HIV.  Israel and I visited their children's and sex worker's programs and I was so impressed by the wonderful work they are doing and the respect and compassion they show to HIV sufferers.  They've offered to give us ongoing support and advice and invited our staff to attend some of their staff training days.  During my visit we participated in their TB (tuberculosis) training day.  It was quite eye opening to learn how widespread TB is in our part of India.

The children's program included drama, a magic show and some teaching


Street workers were given advise on how to reduce the risk of HIV

Israel, Hannah and Priya at the TB training day

Welcome To Our New Calf - Karen's Visit

Our latest calf, another female, arrived safely at the end of September.  Mother and calf are doing well.  This brings our cow population to 2 adult females, 3 heifers (one almost ready for insemination), 1 boy calf born in June and the new female calf.  We're still trying to find someone to manage the farming activities so we can buy more cows and increase our milk production.

The new female calf 
The male calf born is now a few months old


After milking, the cows wait to be taken out to where they will graze

Monday, September 24, 2012

Update On Girl's Building Designs - Karen's Visit

Our plans to take in abandoned baby girls may be a more involved process than we first thought.  Only 2 centres in our district currently have Govt. approval to take in abandoned babies under the State Government's Cradle Baby Scheme.   As part of this scheme, cradles are placed at certain hospitals and clinics so unwanted children can be left and given up for adoption.  We're make enquiries about how to be part of the cradle baby scheme, but at this stage we may only be able to take in girls aged over two years.  Our design engineer is preparing three design options for the new buildings which will include facilitiies to care for babies through to teens.  We're planning to incorporate mud bricks and solar power to create cooler and more environmental friendly buildings. To build with mud bricks, means we'll have to train the local villagers in new construction methods and there'll be a higher per meter construction cost.  However we feel it's important to show people how to construct buildings that are better suited to the climate using materials and technologies that don't cause as much damage to the environment.  Below are some photos of local mud brick buildings we looked at. 

This sit-out constructed from mud bricks provides a cool place to sit

The arches & curved roof beams eliminate the need for costly iron and concrete

Lots of cross ventilation is important

Friday, September 21, 2012

Shopping for Goats - Karen's Visit

My visits to India always include a few memorable experiences, like going shopping for goats.  We woke before dawn and drove for more than an hour to reach the large livestock markets near Dindigal, where we'd been told we could get goats at cheaper prices.  Our goal was to buy the rest of the goats we needed for our new goat group in the village.  Farmers travelled in from surrounding villagers and soon packed out the area. Men with big moustaches, sipped on tea, puffed on cigarettes and haggled over prices.  With 5 adults, 3 children and 11 goats crammed into the car, the trip home was quite hilarious, especially when all the goats started bleating.

Farmers with their goats hoping to make a sale
Hannah with a six day old goat
Many different breeds were available


Some magnificent moustaches were also on dispaly
Getting ready to go home with our new goats

There are actually 11 goats tucked into that space

Sunday, September 16, 2012

KBC Kid's Church 2012 Fundraiser


This year KBC Kid's Church decided to use their annual fundraiser to support our village tutoring program.  The children decorated wooden dolls to symbolise the children in our village school.  People were given the opportunity to sponsor the tuition of a child for one year or six months and as a thank you, they were able to choose a doll to take home.  They were also given a smiley sticker face to add to our Tree of Hope painting to represent their part in bringing hope to our village.  It was very exciting to see everyone rush out after the services to sponsor a child, select their doll and add their sticker to the tree.  Thanks to the hard work of kid's church kids and leaders and the generousity of KBC families, more than $3000 was raised through the sponsorship, cake stall and sausage sizzle which was fantastic.   A big thankyou to everyone who took part.

Getting ready for everyone to come out after the second service
A selection of some of the decorated dolls
The Tree of Hope soon bloomed with lots of smiling faces
People queuing to choose their decorated doll
The children had lots of fun decorating their dolls

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The boy's bunk beds have arrived

The boy's are very excited, their new beds have finally arrived.  The beds were donated by the children from Kenmore Baptist Church Kid's church, who sold cakes and sausages and lots of craft to raise the money.  Sleeping on bunk beds will certainly be a new experience for the boys.  Once we get their mattresses and bed sheets I'll add another photo.  A big thanks to the children and leaders from kid's church for your generous gift.

The boys standing next to their new beds in the new upstairs sleeping area.