We were told that this slum community had been given eviction
notices and their “homes”were due to be levelled to make way for a new freeway. The government do move them to alternative housing but it is a long way outside the City and there are few opportunities to get work in these areas. Consequently some families gravitate back to the City and become pavement dwellers but can at least access work as day labourers. The community had been on standby for about 3 weeks and the trucks actually arrived to move them about an hour after we left. Thankfully some of the football coaches and representatives of our local partners were still there and were able to say goodbye to the children and families but the boys were very upset that they would no longer be part of this amazing programme.
We visited two of the after school programmes later in the morning. The children had actually finished school until 4th January, but when they found out that visitors were coming many came in especially to meet us. We heard more about the support these clubs give them with their school work and the fun they have participating in art and crafts. Most of these clubs run in partnership with local Churches and are Church volunteers.
In SM Nagar the programme has been responsible for getting 35 children back in to school and we met Lakshman who was one of these children Lakshman (see picture) is now shining as a real star in his school and obtained top scores in his recent exams. He has also received a gold award from an art competition run by the local city council. He was very proud to show us his books and artwork.
After a few hours to freshen up we headed off to Annai Fathima Children’s Home for our Christmas celebration. We first visited this home for 160 orphans about a year ago and saw what a dreadful condition it was in. In particular the sewage pipes need repairing as they leak, and the land needs levelling as currently stagnant water sits around for many months creating real issues with the children’s health. We have been working since then to get local contractors to offer quotes and advise on the best way to tackle the problems and we hope that work will start early in the New Year. This will also include a rain water collection system to feed water in to their well which is currently dry for many months of the year.
As in many countries across the world, the big Christmas celebration here is on Christmas Eve. We had asked told Annai Fathima about our visit and asked what we could arrange for the children. Their big wish was to have a special Christmas meal including meat.
We had arranged for Chicken Biryani to prepared for them and then special celebration cakes. This was funded by the money raised by St Giles School at the Worldwide Charities Fair in Ashtead and we also delivered some Christmas messages and pictures of the children at St Giles.
The children of Annai Fathima put on a superb Cultural Show for us with fantastic dancing and we led them in singing Jingle Bells which is one Christmas carol which had broken through the language barrier. It was an amazing evening and even included a visit from their own little Father Christmas delivering a sweet for each child. Handing out the dishes of Chicken Biryani to the children was a very emotional experience, they were so thrilled to receive this Christmas gift and even the smallest of them ate everything given to them. We joined them cross legged and eating with our hands which caused a lot of tittering, I think probably because of the mess we made.
I cannot think of a more perfect way to celebrate Christmas!
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