We left Mumbai on an early flight to Hyderabad, taking off over the huge slum area that sits alongside the runway of Mumbai Airport. After dropping our bags at the hotel we gave our driver the address of Rescue and Restore Home which is about one and a half hours outside Hyderabad. Whilst assuring us he knew where this was the head wobble was an indication that this was probably not the case and so our journey was broken by regular stops to ask directions from street sellers and rickshaw drivers.
We arrived at Rescue and Restore around 1130 and were greeted by the ever smiling Bhaskar who set up and runs the home for 47 street children from the Hyderabad area. Bhaskar was a street child himself, surviving for 13 years living rough on the streets. In 2005 he realised his dream and, supported by a Church in the Netherlands, he built and opened a children's home to offer help to children who were living in the same conditions he had endured. His own experience gave him a unique hindsight in to their problems and his wife and two adopted daughters live in a small room in the home. Rianna's Fund started supporting Rescue and Restore in 2008 after meeting Bhaskar and hearing about his funding problems. We have been happy to increase the level of funding each year since then.
When we arrived the children were still at Saturday morning school but were due back around lunchtime. We took the opportunity to get an update from Bhaskar and heard that four boys were taking their final exams for Batchelor of Social Work (degree level). Two of these boys,
Raju (pictured below right) and Basha (pictured below left), are hoping to continue
studying for another two years to achieve a Masters of Social Work. Having missed out on a formal education himself, Bhaskar's pride in these
boys is wonderful to see, especially as both boys were among the group of original street children that joined the home in 2005. Bhaskar told us about his dream that in 2016 he would be able to get support to start another home in a very troubled area of Andhra Pradesh and that Raju and Basha could run the new home. As well as studying Basha has taken over running the office for Bhaskar, looking after the accounts and all administration. This saves on staffing costs and at the moment there are two volunteers who have joined through the YWAM network.
The children started arriving back from school at 1300. This is exam season in India so many had spent the morning in exams, however, all the talk was of the World Cup Cricket due to
start at 1430. Bhaskar took the opportunity to show us his new income generation project. Having had concerns over funding for the past two years, he has rented 8 acres of land close to the home to grow crops that he hopes can generate some additional income. He is growing onions, corn and ladies fingers. There are also a number of Mango trees on the site which were heavy with fruit.
Back at the home and the TV had been plugged in ready for the start of the Cricket and everyone gathered around to watch including Terry wearing his India Cricket shirt. Sitting with the children you get suc
h a wonderful sense of being amongst one big happy family and it is easy to forget that each of these children has their own story of a very difficult start in life. As we watched the first hour of the match Bhaskar's youngest daughter Blessy (4 years old) was bossing the boys around as usual, calling them out one at a time to take their bath. Bhaskar positioned himself by the side of the TV to give it a frequent bash as the picture kept flickering.
At the end of of 2010 Bhaskar attended the wedding of one of the children from the home, a day of great pride for him. He was delighted to tell us that this boy and his wife were now expecting their first child. We were very tired from our early start and suffering from the heat, so we took one last group photo with a cry of "come on India" before they rushed back to the TV and we headed back to Hyderabad.
Back in Hyderabad we enjoyed dinner with Dr Sujay and Dr Lavanya who we met 2 years ago. This couple run a clinic for HIV / AIDS infected people from the community, including a research centre looking in to early detection of HIV. We talked about the big HIV problem in India which has the highest number of infected people of any country in the world. They were pleased to report that the increase of reported cases seems to have been stabilised thanks to many projects around HIV awareness. They also updated us on their community work around TB prevention in the 124 slums around Hyderabad and how they hope to do something in the future to support some of the large number of slum children who have dropped out of school. These two Doctors are the most amazing and dedicated couple and spending time with them is so inspiring. They headed off in the latter stages of the Cricket, hoping to get back home before the city erupted in celebrations (hopefully). Sure enough Dhoni hit a 6 to take India to a win, the fireworks started and this country of 1.2 billion began to party. We headed off to bed!
Back at the home and the TV had been plugged in ready for the start of the Cricket and everyone gathered around to watch including Terry wearing his India Cricket shirt. Sitting with the children you get suc
h a wonderful sense of being amongst one big happy family and it is easy to forget that each of these children has their own story of a very difficult start in life. As we watched the first hour of the match Bhaskar's youngest daughter Blessy (4 years old) was bossing the boys around as usual, calling them out one at a time to take their bath. Bhaskar positioned himself by the side of the TV to give it a frequent bash as the picture kept flickering.At the end of of 2010 Bhaskar attended the wedding of one of the children from the home, a day of great pride for him. He was delighted to tell us that this boy and his wife were now expecting their first child. We were very tired from our early start and suffering from the heat, so we took one last group photo with a cry of "come on India" before they rushed back to the TV and we headed back to Hyderabad.
Back in Hyderabad we enjoyed dinner with Dr Sujay and Dr Lavanya who we met 2 years ago. This couple run a clinic for HIV / AIDS infected people from the community, including a research centre looking in to early detection of HIV. We talked about the big HIV problem in India which has the highest number of infected people of any country in the world. They were pleased to report that the increase of reported cases seems to have been stabilised thanks to many projects around HIV awareness. They also updated us on their community work around TB prevention in the 124 slums around Hyderabad and how they hope to do something in the future to support some of the large number of slum children who have dropped out of school. These two Doctors are the most amazing and dedicated couple and spending time with them is so inspiring. They headed off in the latter stages of the Cricket, hoping to get back home before the city erupted in celebrations (hopefully). Sure enough Dhoni hit a 6 to take India to a win, the fireworks started and this country of 1.2 billion began to party. We headed off to bed!
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