Week Ending January 27
Monday morning we visited Pathway Centre for Rehabilitation and Education of the Intellectually Disabled. in Chennai, an NGO founded by Adsn Prasad and now run by his widow Chandra. Check out their website http://pathway.org.in.
LDS Charities has donated resources to this organization so we wanted to find out more about it. The Centre educates, rehabilitates and employs the disabled.
This special boy has a talent for creating figures out of clay. He made this beautiful nativity and . . .
also these figures of us while we watched!
These beautiful children are special education students at the Pathway Centre fin Chennai. All the children we met there were so happy.
This sweet girl made a beautiful paper star for me during our visit.
In the afternoon we drove 60 miles south to the 70 acre Pamela Martinez-Pathway Agro Farm for Children which has a school and home for orphaned children. It currently serves 230 children, providing their housing, food, clothing, medical care and schooling. In addition there is housing and training for handicapped adults. We were met by two graduates of Pathway who have also finished undergraduate degrees and come back to work at the Farm. They are both LDS. Until the government came down on Pathway, there was a branch of the Church here.
The property also includes working farm with rice (pictured above), mangoes, watermelon, coconuts, peanuts, chilies, chiku (an Indian fruit) and other crops.
Our first stop was the school where we were greeted by another beautiful rongali and smiling children. They were excited to have foreign guests and each class give us a lovely handmade card.
Two of the missionaries currently serving in the New Delhi Mission are products of this Pathway school and speak of it very fondly. Here is Chandra with a class of children. Pathway provides a college education for children who can pass the entrance exams.
Disabled adults are boarded and employed at the farm. These men are shredding coconut husks to use as mulch.
This beautiful grandmother sat off to the side in her kitchen and just watched as we visited with the therapist and villagers. When we returned from our tour Chandra fixed us a lovely dinner and we spent a very comfortable night at the Farm. It was the first time we had seen stars since arriving in India.
The next morning we concluded our visit at Pathway. Dr. Susan Hilton picked us up and drove us to Rising Star Outreach India, another NGO devoted to helping leprosy colonies with medical care, colony support and education. She serves as the Managing Director, Medical Director, and CEO. Our first stop was a footwear manufacturing unit which supplies custom shoes to leprosy patients in 54 colonies. LDS Charities has donated the leather, micro cellular rubber and tools needed to make these special shoes.
We arrived at Rising Star at lunch time and joined the children in the dining hall.
We enjoyed a tour of the 15.5 acre campus which includes a school with an enrollment of 327 from 100 villages. About two thirds of these are residential students, children with family members who have leprosy. They come here to escape the stigma of leprosy, the negative social environment of the leper colonies and also to prevent infection.
We had dinner that evening with the students in the dining hall (eating on the floor is completely normal in India). Notice the difference between the boys' side of the hall and the girls' (below).
The campus also includes a medical clinic for the children and a guest hostel for volunteers.
On Wednesday morning Dr. Vijayaiakshmi, the Rising Star social worker, along with Kavitha and Priya, two nurses from the clinic and Thomas, a medical secretary, took us on a tour to two different leper colonies nearby. Our first stop was Bharathapuram Leper Colony where we met several beneficiaries of micro grants from Rising Star. These ladies make jewelry. Because of the social stigma surrounding leprosy, its hard for patients and their families to find jobs and these small businesses provide a much needed alternative source of income.
Sushela's husband is a leper patient. With the help of a micro grant she has established a business of making idli and sambar (south Indian breakfast staples) in her home and selling them at the local hospital. She had just returned with empty pots from her morning sales.
Rani used her grant to buy cows. She sells milk in the colony. Her husband is also a leprosy patient. Lepers face many legal restrictions. They cannot run for elected office, ride on trains, or get a driver's license. If a spouse contracts the disease, it is grounds for divorce.
Jeenath's husband is also a leprosy patient. She has set up this little shop in her home with grant money.
Jayamyary has a son who graduated from Rising Star and is now attending college. She works as a day laborer but supplements her income by selling clothes from her home with the help of a micro grant.
Kamala and her husband are both leprosy patients. They set up a business of selling lungis (long wrap-around skirts men wear in south India) from their home with the help of a micro grant. The husband has a tilak on his forehead which is supposed to generate devotion.
Our next stop was the Kalvary Nagar Leprosy Colony where we observed a Rising Star mobile medical clinic, set up in a little Christian church. It was pretty impressive. Patients move systematically around the chapel to consult with a doctor, physiotherapist, and dentist, receive eye care (eyes are very vulnerable to damage because of leprosy) and medications and then come to the station pictured above where their bandages are removed, affected areas are washed, exfoliated, oiled and massaged before new dressings are applied. LDS Charities has donated the medications used on the feet of the patients.
Here we are with the two social workers, one of the nurses and the medical records clerk who took us for the tour.
We ended our visit with a stop at the home of a leprosy patient, Mrs. Paapamma. The nurses and I made this rongali in front of her door.
After lunch and a visit with the Bharat scouts and guides and the student council we participated in the valedictory service for the class of 2019. Grant gave a great speech. Here we are with Dr. Susan Hilton. She is an impressive woman, capable, efficient and spiritual.
These twelfth graders, 16 boys and 22 girls, are preparing for exit exams in March. Last year all the twelfth graders passed. Rising Star will pay for college if they wish to continue their studies.
Thursday morning we flew to Rajahmundry and in the afternoon visited the Ekalavya Children's Home, a shelter for boys at risk who come from the street or from dysfunctional families. Some are child laborers. LDS Charities is donating a water purification plant and stainless-steel mosquito netting for the windows.
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