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RECOVERING FROM THE TSUNAMI
The Boxing Day tsunami, for those of us living outside the area affected, has faded to a memory -- but to victims and those unfortunate enough have worked or resided in the affected areas, its effects still colour our lives. The mobile hospital continues to work in the state of Tamil Nadu, the area hit hardest, and we have identified five villages heavily affected. In these a total of 27 children have been orphaned and there are 175 homeless women. The effort now is to organise vocational training and shelter for these people where they can live as a family. In due course, with training and rehabilitation, we hope they can lead normal lives independently. Some one hundred million pounds sterling has been raised by the larger charity organisations in the UK, including the Red Cross, but our pleas for funding to help continue our mobile hospital service have , so far, fallen on deaf ears. This may cause us to gradually withdraw these services, although we do not wish to do so as the job is not yet done. But our funds can only stretch so far. We enjoyed the services of psychiatrist Dr. Page Tench from Houston USA in March, including his workshops on 'How to Deal with Psychic Trauma and Grief' and 'Dynamics of Child Abuse'. We have also been fortunate to have a visiting UN volunteer, Ms Annalize Vitzoen working on a documentary film about our work. It will be used for publicity and to spread the news of our work, our needs and our ongoing efforts on behalf of the poor, the needy and sick of India.
Although the world's attention has moved elsewhere, the need in Tamil Nadu continues. Click here to link to our on-line donations site. If you prefer, you can print out a form to send with your donation by mail (a receipt will be sent) by clicking here.
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This is photograph of Gaurav (child as mentioned in another life saved in our Jan. news letter)  taken while waiting for operation for his cyanotic heart disease, which has already caused three times brain abscess and infections needing operations. He has undergone three brain operations in Gwalior Childrens Hospital so far to save his life. You should be happy to know that with our sponsorship for all expenses for his surgery (as parents being poor could not afford them) he has undergone heart surgery at PG centre in Lucknow on 21st Jan. and is recovering and progressing well, though still in hospital. We are obliged for major contribution of �1000 by our volunteer Mr. Alan Whybrew from Isle of Man towards part of his operation costs to make it happen. Alan and his daughter Rebecca have been our volunteers and supporters for last three
years and have worked with us at Gwalior twice.
The latest news is that Gaurav has been
discharged back to home. He is doing well and should be able to lead a normal life now without interruptions and complications. We are proud of Whybrew family to help us saving Gaurav from imminent death and giving him a normal life. We continue with our efforts as much we can to help children saving these lives like Radha, Jubita, Gaurav and many more.
OUR NEXT BIG DAY IS ON 11th JUNE AS WE CELEBRATE OUR 4th ANNUAL VOLUNTEERS DAY!
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