Newsletter 12/5/2010
Eliazar T. Rose - WINTER TIME NEWSLETTER
THREE IN ONE - "a bargain"
“Aren’t you all lucky – you have a three in one bonus newsletter! – A letter from Eliazar at New Hope India, an incredible collection of photographs from Bernard Rumens and notes on his visit to India . My short visit to India and a great trip to Perth and the south west talking to groups and people about what is achieved” – Maggie sister.
| ELIAZAR working with Cobbler fitting sandals for an aged leprosy patient |
BERNARD with teachers to start a ‘virtues programme’ for the new school year in June 2010 |
MAGGIE SISTER – With some of the sponsored children |
 |
 |
 |
FROM ELIAZAR, Director New Hope - INDIA
Firstly, many many thanks you, to all that helped us with our emergency problem with the water and bore well at the children community centre in Kottavalsa.It was a big problem for us and is now fixed. Thank you.
 |
 |
For the Board of New Hope in India it has been an exciting 6 months because we have started to work again full time on Cataract Eye Surgery after a ‘red tape’ delay. The Hospital is not only recognized and having an up to date certification including proper waste disposal to meet environment rules here.. The funding that comes from Australia really makes the cataract eye surgery possible. More and more Muniguda is becoming the medical care centre and Kottavalsa the education place.
The sponsorship of the children. especially those in the HIV Rainbow House care has meant that we have been able to accept new children, all orphaned and some having traumatic backgrounds with the loss of parents. Sponsorship is a really great support. Maggie sister tells me that the Sponsorship Secretary in Australia, Anne – has retired and we are really thankful for the work and support she has given in keeping the records up to date.
Maggie sister came for a visit in January and as always it was a time of meetings to check the programmes that are supported, sharing ideas and discussing how to try and get more help for the aged in the leprosy colonies now that Help age has virtually stopped sponsoring and supporting aged leprosy patients in Orissa. The Bundles of Love are certainly one of the most meaningful gestures to give support.
We have had a donation towards the building of a new school. The funds will complete most of the building. A family has agreed to raise the funds for the toilet and washrooms. Then we had the first of two visits from Bernard Rumens The first thing he did was go out and buy cows that he raised funds for in Australia from loyal supporters of New Hope. With Bernard’s experience in teaching we have asked him to be a volunteer responsible for changing the level of education so that long term we can also admit paying students. This will made us more self sufficient. Bernard gave us many updates on education and the needs we should be looking at. The garden is ‘growing well’ and we are getting more and more self sufficient in vegetables. This is a major change for us.
WISH LIST – Everything on the WISH LIST is a real need. The Bundles of Love have become even more important since Help age International stopped funding ‘food for the aged’ across India. (Long story).
Many years ago I learnt ‘the urgent and the important’ – It is urgent that we keep asking people to sponsor children. Its urgent for those blind with cataract to have the simple operation that they cant afford. It is important for the long term benefit of the children to have the best education
. Thank you to everyone who gives in anyway to help care for those we help care for.
Eliazar T Rose
Director/Founder New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust India.
======================================================
Smells, bells, horns, buffalo on the road, traffic! Great curry, children that made it all over the moon – BERNARD SIR* at School in KOTTAVALASA.
(Its very typical ‘Indian custom” to call your peers ‘Sir’ or Madam. It took awhile to get used to being addressed this way. They even say ‘sir’ when its casual over a cuppa – and I had plenty of those.)
At the invitation of our New Hope India Director [Eliazar], I traveled to Andhra Pradesh and visited the New Hope Tutorial Centre (School) in Kottavalasa from Jan to March 2010 with the view of observing staff and students in action and upskilling of existing staff, resourcing the school with more appropriate texts and noting down the positives and negatives in a diplomatic and compassionate way . My daily visits revealed a teaching team of very compassionate and dedicated teacher's whose methods of teaching were rather reflective of our system in the West during the 1906's.[ chalk and talk.] The students themselves all had smiles on their faces, were just so polite and displayed to me that they were like "sponges" wanting to learn. As I am now a retired teacher and still wanting to impart my knowledge and experiences to others, I sorted out the issues and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges set before me. Changes in teaching happen very slowly in all systems and must be handled professionally.
The overall observations that became more evident as time passed were...
* lack of formalities and a good English knowledge both orally and in reading with all staff and many students. Most lessons were delivered in the local language of Telugu.
Outcome...a new school administrator was employed full time to assist with these challenges.
* Resources, text books and other teaching aids were archaic compared to Western standards and did not encourage lateral thinking for staff and students. [Very 1960's in presentation and content.]
Outcome....many new and up to date texts were purchased. Much more is still needed.
* The electric current to the site was most inconsistent and caused many subject areas to not exist..[.e.g. Computing classes] and made the lives of us all challenging given that summer was on the way, the site is far inland and all buildings are concrete....HOT! HOT! HOT!
Outcome....hopefully with the installation of a transformer, power to the site will be more regular.
*the class sizes are very small but with HIV students, learning disabilities, disabled students etc.....this made the challenges more demanding on all participants.
Outcome...class sizes will always be set at a low limit.
* the school days are six days a week from 8.30 am to 4 .30 pm and our teaching staff are working with salaries one third of those in Government schools. (As is common for teachers working in social organizations) ..How is that for dedication to the job!
Outcome.....improved staff morale set by myself. With the Director discussed and agreed that the teachers need encouragement and a small salary increase)
The construction of the new school building was well under way during my visit and is very exciting for us all.
Outcome.....WE NEED YOUR FUNDS TO RESOURCE IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE!
OVERALL GOAL. Loved the whole challenge, it was filled with tiredness, energy, sadness, joy, surprise, annoyance...typically Indian. .high.... high's and low...low's
I intend to self fund my visits as a volunteer educational consultant for a minimum of 6 weeks, three times a year until my finances run out or I feel that I have transformed the school as a whole so that the "outside world and villagers" are lining up (Queuing) to enroll their children at the school. By taking in outside students in another year self sustainability will start to happen.
The students themselves all had smiles on their faces, were just so polite and displayed to me that they were like "sponges" wanting to learn. As I am now a retired teacher and still wanting to impart my knowledge and experiences to others, I sorted out the issues and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges set before me. Changes in teaching happen very slowly in all systems and must be handled professionally.
(“I discussed all of this with Eliazar and the teaching staff and the appeal is realistic to move the children onto a better level of education and very important for the Mothers (Widows – HIV+ mostly with children to also move to a more caring location in the centre now that the Hospice is functioning so well)
FOR THE SCHOOL – WE ARE STARTING OUR APPEAL NOW – BECAUSE TIME FLIES AND THE NEXT THING WE WILL KNOW IS THAT IT IS READY TO OPEN!.
FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE NOT SPONSORED
BOOKS - Text and Notebooks for one child for one year.
$20 for the year.
| SCHOOL - BOOKS - |
 |
Please choose from the adjacent drop down menu for New Hope Australia SCHOOL BOOKS sponsorship etc, you gift will be greatly appreciated. |
|
DESKS FOR THE SCHOOL
"Off the floor" - Its very economical for the children to just sit on the floor, but we need them to have desks in the new school. Not just for better study, handwriting but also for posture. There are well designed ergonomic style desks now available.
| STUDENT - DESKS - |
|
Please choose from the adjacent drop down menu for New Hope Australia STUDENT DESKS sponsorship etc, you gift will be greatly appreciated. |
|
Next to the new school is a Mother and Child Home. We would like to relocate it to a quieter part of the Community Centre with more medical facilities. This would allow us to use the building as a Multi purpose Special Needs Education Centre - special needs are (for remediation and enrichment in areas of Music, Cultural activities, Literacy, and Numeracy.
MEMORIAL GIFTS
The total cost is $12,000
OR you could consider giving a room and having it dedicated to someone - $1000
New Hope calls this 'A Memorial Gift'
| SCHOOL ROOM MEMORIAL GIFT |
|
Please choose from the adjacent drop down menu for New Hope Australia MEMORIAL ROOM GIFT sponsorship etc, you gift will be greatly appreciated. |
|
Bernard Rubens...
=======================================================
“If we don’t give them a good education . . . . . “Maggie sister.
“Not needed and really needed” – That’s sounds a bit Indian English I know. My trip to India was short and I thought that with all of the work achieved and the way New Hope functions now, there wasn’t much need for me as a volunteer. I ran this by Eliazar and we talked about. It’s important that Board member make short visits to New Hope, but as volunteers doing work, there is limited scope. It kind of fulfills the original concept of Indians working for Indians. What Eliazar appreciated is that we are able as Board members to be frank about how we see things. I think that Bernard found the same thing.
I really love going back to New Hope and seeing all the kids that are sponsored in Australia. We have an afternoon of photos being taken and I have a talk with each child.
They got ‘wind’ of it that I was going to be doing the photos on Sunday afternoon. They all rushed about finding their best outfits, and making sure the little ones were spruced up as well. Then out comes the bucket of water and cloths and powder and combs…what for you may ask? For grooming! The older girls take charge of this and each kid, has a cloth dragged over their face, hair combed and then a good handful of ‘Ponds Powder’
 They want the Ponds powder because it makes them look whiter!! Trouble is they just look like they have had their heads in a flour bag! So then I ask them to wipe most of it off. In photo’s Indians do not smile, so getting the kids to smile and look happy is my goal. It’s a great afternoon as I can see how much they have grown, and talk to them and hear what they love to do and what they want to do after school. They are all serious about their future and have very firm ideas. Nurses or doctors or motor mechanic are the three favorites.
Nothing is impossible for our children to dream of and it becoming a reality. We have 4 girls doing nursing. All grew up at New Hope. The girl’s background can be: parents live in a Leprosy colony, or they have been found homeless or orphaned. Look at them now.
When the new school is finished, our children will leave us with a good education which enables them to fulfill their dreams and make them a reality. Education is the most important gift we can give our children because India is changing so fast. If we don’t give them a good education and opportunities for further studies, then we have failed in our duty.
 |
The three girls with Ruth were all at Nursing School when the picture was taken. Monika sitting in the front is now completed her training and has started to work in the Eye Care wing of the Hospital that Friends of New Hope in Australia really make possible with their support.
These are all girls from such varied backgrounds that it’s even too hard for me to explain it all – three incredible stories. One of them was a small girl on a railway station platform when we first came into caring for her. |
Rainbow House Hospice was a little short of Nurses while I was there, so I was happy to help out and get my hands dirty. I don’t do much practical work at New Hope now, it’s not necessary as we have Indian staff in place to do the work. It’s wonderful to see and keeps to their philosophy of “Indians helping Indians.
Time ran out on me so I spent very little time with our aged. They really do depend on New Hope for all the ‘extras’ that come into their lives with your gifts of LOVE BUNDLES It was disappointing for me not to sit and listen to them tell me ‘their news’. I love them and they love me too and there are cuddles and laughs and wisdom from them that I cherish.
| XMAS LOVE BUNDLE APPEAL |
|
Please choose from the adjacent drop down menu for New Hope Australia LOVE BUNDLE sponsorship, you gift will be greatly appreciated. |
|
CHANGE: In the past 4 years Anne Jensen has been our diligent Sponsorship secretary. Anne has now retired and a young woman Jenette Schoch has recently taken on the job. It’s not as easy as it sounds to be the sponsorship secretary and my thanks to Anne for her dedication, her company and her help with other projects when I needed her. Thanks Anne and all the best from us all.
We are fortunate that in Perth we have a strong Board who are fundraising and enthusiastic. I am often asked if I will retire. As if!! But I will do a little less and be confident that Board members and others are having fun having functions and raising funds. I still love to come and talk to clubs and groups about the work of New Hope and my journey with New Hope warts and all! I recently was in Perth and the South West for 10 days speaking at various functions and made to feel very welcome by all.
I know that Eliazar has thanked you all for all that you do for us, and I too thank you, it is so exciting and also humbling when you give to us in both money, prayer and spirit.
Maggie Sister....
Foot note from the Webmaster,
Supporting New Hope India and Australia in functional web site design for free has been my pleasure for many years.
continued support...
Please find a link below to our web hosting services and commercial web site. New Hope can be supported by it's mail list members simply by referring new clients to our commercial sevices at Kanga Hosting Australia or Broome Web Design.
If you or anyone of your contacts are considering some sort of web site hosting, web site design, domain name purchase, please use our services, all referrals from New Hope Australia to Kanga Hosting Australia incurr a 15% return to New Hope on all invoices for the life of that new client.
Michael...
P.S. A beautiful quote from Mother Teresa.
“I see God in every human being. When I wash the Leper’s wounds, I feel as if I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”
======================================
'
'Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people,
can change a small part of the world.'
Maggie Sister, New Hope Australia.
Secure online Donations via PayPal
| 
