Would you like to sponsor an individual room in Shammah House?

We're currently looking for families, individuals, businesses or community groups who'd like to sponsor the completion and fitout of an individual room in Shammah House.  The cost to sponsor an individual room is $5000AUD which is tax deductible in Australia, NZ and the US.  Dedication plaques with your family/business/group name will be made and hung in your sponsored room.  A great legacy to leave for future generations.  You can choose from one of our sleeping rooms, a guest room, the office, sickroom/counselling room or the playroom.  For more info please email hales@shalomhomeindia.org 

Shammah House quickly taking shape

Construction of Shammah House is now in full swing.  It's exciting to see the building starting to take shape, knowing that once its finished, we'll be able to take in our first girls.  With 30-50 workers on-site each day (plus our 20 well diggers) the place is a hive of activity.  Rocks and dirt excavated from the well have been used in the foundations saving us about $2,500AUD on fill.  With the speed of construction and the falling Australian dollar, we're seeking extra donors to come on board to sponsor the completion and fitout of individual rooms so we can keep the funds flowing as needed. To see more photos of the progress of Shammah House, please click here to go to our facebook page.

The foundations of Shammah House

Preparing pillars for concrete pour.

Well work almost finished

After 9 weeks of digging and blasting, the workers have almost finished re-digging our well.  This week they'll pull out the last of the loosened materials, then measure the excavated depth and let us know what the final payment will be.  Hopefully we'll be able to keep under our $7000AUD budget.  The work took longer than expected with up to 20 men a day manually digging  and lifting out the soil and rocks.The good news is that we unearthed springs at around 30ft, after only 10 feet of excavation.  Each morning the pump was turned on at 3.00am to drain the well before the workers arrived and then digging and pumping continued throughout the day.  By the end of May overnight inflows measured about 15ft, so daily inflows will be much higher.  This amount, during the peak of summer and following on from 2 failed monsoons, is very good, and will provide plenty of water to grow crops on the rest of our land.  Below are a before and after photo of the well, and a photo of the men at work..  To see more photos of the well work as it progressed click here to visit our facebook page.

Hot and dusty work in extreme temperatures

Before - 20ft deep and dry, After - 40-50ft deep and full of water

Our first boy is heading to university

Congratulations to Mani, our first boy to be accepted to study at university.  For the next 3 years he'll be studying for his Bachelor of Science in Botany and Planation at the American College in Madurai.   This is a wonderful achievement for Mani, who 5 years ago, used to spend his days playing by the village pond instead of going to school.  We're very proud of Mani, he's worked very hard to achieve these results.  The other fantastic news is that he's been given a scholarship, which pays for most of his university fees. Well done Mani.

Mani - our first boy to go on to study at university

Congratulations to all our grade 10 students

It was excitement all round when the grade 10 results came out today.  First we heard that our 3 boys Pandi, Abinesh and Rasu had successfully passed every subject.  Abinesh scored 399/500, a fantastic result, with 93/100 in science.  He'll be eligible to go to the first level class at Alanganular High School which is for top students.  Then the school rang Israel, very excited, they wanted to pass on their thanks for all our help with the tutoring programs and grade 10 classes.  Every single student in the class had passed all their subjects.  An amazing feat, the top scoring student got 447/500.  They were so excited and are planning a special celebration in the village.  What a fantastic result.

Congratulations Rasu, Abinesh and Pandi on passing your exams.

Special Visitors To Shalom

On the 12th of May, Shalom welcomed two special overnight visitors, Pastor Ric and Anne Benson from Kenmore Baptist Church (KBC) in Brisbane, Australia.  KBC families have been very supportive of the work of Shalom, with KBC Kid's Church holding annual fundraisers, and several KBC families sponsoring children.  Ric and Anne enjoyed meeting the boys and staff and touring the farm and buildings.  They also got to meet some families from the village whose children attend Shalom's village tutoring program which is funded by KBC families.

Ric and Anne Benson with Shalom children, staff and people from Erampatti Village

Special Grade 10 exam classes at Shalom

Over the Easter weekend, a 3 day Hindu festival was celebrated in our village, which meant extremely loud music playing all day and into the night.  Unfortunately, the day after the festival was over, the grade 10's were due to sit for their main English exams, and the school was very concerned they wouldn't be able to study.  So a special request was made to relocate Friday classes and exam prep classes to Shalom over the Easter weekend.  A couple of the teachers even volunteered to sleep overnight and help coach the students.  So over Easter, we hosted all the grade 10 boys and girls and their teachers at Shalom.  They loved it so much that they decided to hold the final 2 weeks of classes at Shalom with many students sleeping overnight.  It was a great time of working together with the community.

Grade 10 boys and girls studying at Shalom during April.

Photos and news from Feb visit now uploaded

Wow so much is happening at Shalom at the moment.  It's hard to keep up with everything.  It sure is going to be an exciting year.  I've finally finished uploading photos and updates from our recent trip.  They won't all fit on one page, so to continue reading, please click on OLDER POSTS at the bottom of the screen or use the expandable BLOG ARCHIVE list in the right hand column to open previous posts.  I hope you enjoy catching up on all the news.

 













Remember ... Together we can change their future

You can now follow Shalom on facebook

Sometimes I think my brain is getting too old to learn new things.  I've just spent most of the day trying to work out how to set up a few things on facebook and my head is spinning.   The good news is we now have our new facebook page up and running.  So if you're a facebook user, please "like" us on facebook and "share" what we're doing with your friends.  To get to our Shalom Home India  facebook page click here.

Update on our girl's buildings

The final room layout of the new girl's buildings has been decided on. Last night, Israel had a meeting with our sustainable design advisor to decide locations of extra windows for cross ventilation and what size solar power system we'll need to put in.  Once these things are sorted, the designers will send me the final plans and elevations.  We've decided on the name Sharmah House which comes from the Hebrew word Shammah which means The Lord is present, while Sharma in the local language means, happiness, shelter, protection, joyous comforter.  The new buildings will include, sleeping rooms, office, infrimary, playroom, study area and bathrooms around a walled garden/courtyard plus a seperate new kitchen and open sided dining hall which will be shared with the boys.  The existing dining hall will be used to accomodate the cook and some widows.  The location of the new buildings have been marked out and excavation of the foundations will start next month.

Grade 10 exam study groups started

Grade 10 exams are due to start in India, at the end of this month.  This can be a very stressful time for students, because every subject must be passed, before they can advance to grade 11 and 12 or gain entry to a certified  technical course.  With rolling power cuts still in force, we decided to set up 2 venues, where grade 10 students from our village can study over the next 4 weeks and receive help from tutors.  The girls meet at the school, while the boys come to Shalom. We weren't sure how many children would come, but so far, every student from grade 10, has turned up for each session.  The teachers also want to lend a hand and have offered to sleep over and help tutor on the nights preceeding their particular subject exams.

The Grade 10 boys studying at Shalom

Well diggers look at our well

We finally tracked down some well diggers who are available to start work on deepening our well.  This is very exciting, because diggers can be hard to find, and only work at certain times of the year.  Presently the well is about 20 foot deep with a large build up of clay which is blocking the spring.  Their proposal is to remove the clay, and then dig down another 20 feet.  If they strike rock, explosive charges will be used.  These will have to be small because of the close proximity of our other buildings.  20 men will be involved in the work, which may take 4 weeks and cost up to $7000AUD.  An expensive project to add to our budget, but if we can regain access to our spring, we'll have enough water to irrigate the rest of our land.  We're praying the spring will be released once the clay is removed, and there'll be no need for deep excavation or explosives.

Climbing down into the well

Measuring the depth

New toilets for our village school

I'm not sure if this is a good thing to admit, but today I'm looking into toilets.  Not literally, but on the web. 

The reason why is because OUR VILLAGE SCHOOL DOESN'T HAVE ANY USABLE TOILETS.  So every day, more than 400 students and their teachers go to the toilet in the school grounds, or the empty fields next door.  I've seen it, I've smelt it, and it sure isn't the most pleasant place to study.  You can see in the attached photos the broken toilets and open sewer that runs through the playground.  Not only is it a huge health risk, but research shows teenage girl's in India who attend a school with no working toilets, skip school up to 5 days a month when menstruating.  

Rather than just thinking that's terrible, this year we're going to do something about it.  We're going to build the school some new toilets.  Which is why I'm looking into toilets, to work out how many toilets we need, most water efficient designs, best septic tanks for different soil types, and plans for incinerators to dispose of sanitary items.  Rivetting stuff... but if we do it right, it will have a huge pay off for the children in our village in terms of health and education.  The good news is we already have one school in Brisbane who've offered to help raise funds for the construction of the new toilets.

Heavy rains call for quick action

After the rice is harvested, the cut straw, still with the rice husks attached, must be left out in the sun for a few days to dry.  On the 2nd day, everyone woke to find heavy clouds threatening to unleash a torrent of rain that would have ruined the whole crop.  A message was quickly sent to the village to round up workers and then everyone scurried about picking up piles of straw to put under cover.  Just as they brought in the last of the piles the heavens opened and heavy rain fell for the next hour.  The rice was saved, and the rain meant the fields would be ready for ploughing again in a few days which is great news.

Carrying the rice to safety

Bagging the rice

Our Third Rice Harvest Is Underway

It's been a busy week as far as farming activities go.  Fields have been ploughed, 1/2 an acre of cow grass has been planted (the 6ft variety) and harvesting of the rice has began.  The rice is being harvested by hand this year, because no harvesting machine is available in our area.  It's hot and itchy work, being done by people from the village assisted by Prabhu, Radha, Subhu, Sitra, Pastor Daniel and the boys.  Preparations have also been done for planting a field with pawpaw, banana and drumstick plants.

Cutting the rice by hand

A field ready for banana, pawpaw and drumstick plants

Meet the Newest Addition To Our Family

We'd like to introduce Evangeline, the newest member of our Shalom family.  Isn't she beautiful? She's the daughter of Priya and Prakash our tutors.  The plans for our new girl's building - Sharmah House are almost finalised, we're just deciding on how the front elevation will look.   The next stage will be lodging the plans with the local Panchayat office for approval.  Next week we plan to mark out the foundations.  It's very exciting and if all goes to plan, Evangeline will have some other little girls to keep her company by the end of the year. 

Would you like to be one of our Faithful 40?

If you share our heart to help orphans and widows, we're currently looking for more Faithful 40 partners to help provide a regular inflow of funds as we build additional accomodation and facilities for widows, and orphaned and abandoned girls.  Our Faithful 40 partners commit to faithfully give $40 a month for a period of 2 years. If you'd like to find out more about how to become one of our Faithful 40 please email us at hales@shalomhomeindia.org or use the email link in the right side column.  

Our Project is an approved Australian aid and development project, run in partnership with Global Development Group Australia www.globaldevelopment.org.au.  Donations made towards Global Development Group project J514 Shalom Community Development Project (AKA Shalom Home and Shalom Sustainability Farms) are tax deductible.  

Unexpected Rains Allow Replanting

Quite unexpectedly we were blessed with some unseasonal heavy falls of rain in February, enough to allow us to plant some new cow fodder and okra.  The fruit trees all have new leaves shooting on them and we've started harvesting our tomatoes and selling them in the village.  The rice is also ready for harvesting.  It's all very exciting. 

The rice fields, vegie gardens as seen from the roof.

Preparing the newly ploughed fields for sowing the cow grass.

One of the guava trees.

Prabhu with some of the tomatoes

Looking across the brinjal and rice towards the buildings

New Shalom video available on Youtube

Our son Simon has uploaded a short video from our recent visit on his youtube channel.  It features comments from Simon and our friends Kerrie and Peter (sponsors of two of the boys) about their experience visiting Shalom.  This and other videos will be added to our Shalom youtube channel over the next few weeks.  To watch the video now click this link. 

Simon with some of the boys at Shalom

Around The Farm

Despite the drought conditions, farming activities have increased dramatically in the last couple of months.  Putting in the new dripper system has made a huge difference to how much we can grow.  The tomato plants are covered in ripening fruit, the brinjal also doing well.  Unfortunately the chillies haven't thrived and some lady finger (okra) plants will be planted in their place.  At the start of our 2 week visit the rice was still a vibrant green, but by the time we left, it was drying off in preperation for the harvest.  We were given 100 trees by the forestry department and planting of these has been started around the perimeters of the fields.  These will provide income through sales of teak wood in about 10 years.  After struggling with getting our farming activities up and running over the last four years we feel like we've turned a corner.  Our next step is to get quotes to deepen our well or dig a new one so we can keep increasing our output.

Gathering corn stalks to feed the cows

Breaking up urea to use as fertiliser in the drip lines

The rice fields just starting to turn yellow

Ladies from the village weeding the vegetable gardens

One of our calves

Off to sell milk to a tea stall in the village

Tomatoes from our gardens

Visiting Erampatti Village School

What a reception we got at the village primary school when we visited the boys' classes.  The children rushed out and surrounded us.  We were well and truly mobbed, everyone was keen to shake hands and introduce themselves.  A tour of each classroom followed and it was good to see the new desks and cupboards that Payne Road State School gave them in October being put to good use.  The work we'd organised to repair the front gate had also been done and it was looking sturdy again with no danger of falling down and hurting any children.  This year we hope to make repairs to the school toilets including construction of  new toilets for the girls, and installation of a septic system and water tanks.  First we have to find out what approvals we need from the government and then we'll raise additional funds to complete the work.

Inside the Grade 9 classroom

Repairs to the front gate

Visiting the Grade 1 classroom

The abandoned toilets and open sewer in the playground

Having Fun At Shalom

Our visit to Shalom was a great excuse to give the boys some new sporting and games equipment.  We gave them a carrom board table, some footballs, a volleyball and net, badminton racquets, quoits, snakes and ladders, dominos and 2 chess sets.  This meant our afternoons were filled with sports and games of every kind.  We taught them touch footy which they picked up very quickly and and really enjoyed playing.  The widows even joined in some of the games along with a few of the boys' friends from the village.  We've since heard that the children in the village are very interested in learning this new game.

The new badminton court

Geoff and Simon explaining the rules of touch footy

Running races

Playing carrom board

Visit To The Water Park

One of our visits to Shalom wouldn't be the same without taking the boys and staff out on a day trip somewhere.  So this time we decided to visit Athisayam Water Park at Madurai for a day of fun on the waterslides and amusement rides.  Despite being their winter, it was still really hot, so jumping in and out of the pools was a lovely treat for everyone. 

Group photo at Athisayam Water Park Madurai

Boarding the rollercoaster

Heading down into the pool

Enjoying the rides in the dry games area

All aboard

The wave pool and waterfall sections

Letters And Visitors From Sponsors

It was really great to take letters over from every one of our sponsors this time.  In the past we've only had one or two, so you can imagine the big smiles when the boys realised everyone had a letter individually addressed to them.  The room was a buzz with excited voices as everyone opened their letters and showed each other the photos of their families.  We thought we'd have to get Israel and Prabhu to translate what was written, but we were pleasantly surprised to see many of the boys were reading their letters by themselves without translation, they just needed help understanding a few words.  This is a clear sign of how much their English has improved.  They wrote some lovely letters back and decorated them with lots of drawings and stickers. I hope to post these out to their sponsor families soon.

We also had another surprise in store for them. Two days after our arrival, we were joined by our friends, Kerrie and Peter who sponsor two of the boys.  How wonderful for Perumal and Kalimuthu to meet their Aussie sponsors and visa versa.  No longer just a name or face in a photo.  They played and chatted and shared many special times together.  We look forward to welcoming other sponsors over for a visit in the future.

Showing Babu his letter and photos

Kerrie and Peter with Kalimuthu and Perumal