We're now in Chennai

We left Mumbai as the newspapers were reporting more drastic moves relating to the water shortage there. A lady was arrested after she had accessed the water mains to siphon off water to sell it and the local council are voting on Thursday whether they should cut off the water supply on one day in every seven.

We arrived in Chennai yesterday, formerly Madras. This buzzing City is on the East coast of South India, one of the many areas hit by the Tsunami. Today was a very long day. My son Luke arrived this morning landing at 0400 and after we met him Terry and I headed off to visit one of the morning football training camps that Rianna’s Fund is now supporting as part of the Sports Project in Chennai.

Football training is the carrot to get slum children back in to school. If parents allow children to attend school rather than working or begging, then they often drop out as they cannot keep up with the homework in slum homes without lighting. Depending on the time of year training starts at either 0530 or 0600 and the dedication is amazing, children walk miles to get to a rough piece of ground and then leave at 0715 to head back to school. The football training builds confidence and self esteem and the after school clubs run as part of this project ensures they keep up with homework and receive tuition in life skills.

We arrived at training in Vyasarpadi at 0630 and were amazed at how serious all the boys were. We met the three newest recruits, Naveen 9, Maurai 12 and Arunkumar 10 who had been coming for over a month now and were all back in school and attending the after school clubs run in this area. They told us how much they love coming and their favourite football player was Ronaldo. Rianna's Fund support has allowed them to include a morning snack of a banana and a bun for the children which is really important for these children.

Another great thing about this project is that the boys in the senior team now give their time voluntarily to help the younger children. Natraj pictured here is one of those young men, he is now 19 and in College but comes along each morning to help with the training.

We headed back to the hotel for breakfast before heading off to meetings with our project partners and then ended up visiting the after school club in Vyasarpadi.

Children here told us how the teachers helped them with homework and to catch up with any subjects they were struggling with. They also enjoy Fun Time here, time to just be children and take place in activities which they would not normally experience – art, crafts, story telling and games. Two hours in Chennai rush hour traffic delivered us back to our hotel.

I feel a bit of a fraud when we turn up to receive thanks for supporting children when it is really the many Rianna’s Fund supporters who make this a reality.

Another early start tomorrow as we visit another of the Sports Projects in a different area of Chennai. We thought we’d have a night off Curry but are rather disappointed that the club sandwich is rather bland!