Savugampatti Boarding
May 2017 - we know very little about this project; the building is under construction and the first intake of 50 children are temporarily living nearby. I am waiting to hear who will be in charge (hopefully one of my friends!) and I am VERY excited about this project, as it is in, or very near to Batlagundu - my home in India.
This project is going to be supported by Boughton School and the children there have already collected over £120.00 in pennies! The children are also collecting stamps.
UPDATE! September 2017 Such good news! My friend Igna is in charge of the children in the Boarding. She is lovely - very smiley! She sent just a short message to say that there are 50 children in the initial intake and that "They are all from very poor background. We have to meet all their needs". Plus she sent some photos! So . . . . . . they already have school uniforms, school bags and books.
The youngest children look to be about 4 or 5 and the oldest look about 12 or 13.
Yoga is one of their school lessons! They do look healthy as well which is very good news. I can't wait to meet them all in October!
October 2017 - So. . . . . . . first of all, I found out that the new Boarding is not on the Batlagundu campus, but it is only a short distance away (the buildings in the background are in Batlagundu.) As you can see, it is still being built. They expect to finish it in March 2018.
We went to have a closer look. There was a big digger, moving the soil, but all of the other tools being used were very basic. The ladies were carrying the bricks on their heads and mixing the concrete by hand. When finished, they will have 200 children there; 50 boys from year 1 to year 5 and 150 girls from year 1 through to 'A' level students.
The children did a little performance for us - singing and dancing. It was very good. I learnt a little about some of the children; some have had quite difficult lives. The little girl in pink on the left was found alone in a nearby town. She had been abandoned. However, she is very happy here and has made lots of friends. She is very clever and a very good artist. She drew a beautiful picture of a peacock, which will be on the poster the children have made for you, Boughton School. The tall girl in the middle in blue, I met five years ago when she was at Karisalpatti. She is also doing very well. As well as Sr. Igna, the children have a warden and a lady who cooks for them.
The children at Boughton School had made a huge poster for me to take plus they gave me a left over piece of the mural they have in their hall. The piece of mural will be kept safely until the Boarding is finished and it will then be put up in their hall.
Everyone thought that the poster you had made was 'Super!'
So they have made one for you! I had taken some paper and crayons and so we tore the paper up into rectangles and all of the children drew a picture and signed their names (both in Tamil and English, if they were able to.) When I get back, I will stick them all to a big piece of paper with a photo of the Boarding in the centre for you. Here it is!
June 2018 - message from Igna. "Our building construction is almost over. Coming Saturday 23 June we are going to bless the building and next day we will take the children there. Now we have got 110 children. From first standard (year 1) to twelfth."
She also sent some photos! First of all, of what she spent our 2017 money on. It is a very modern steam cooking system and it is HUGE - but as they will eventually have 250 children to feed, it needs to be big. These vats will have pressurised lids on and the pipes will bring in the steam to cook the food, from the machine outside. Thank you Becket Rotary!!!
She also sent photos of the new building - hardly recognisable from the photo of the building site from last year! First, the outside. The white tanks on the roof will be for water, so the bathrooms will be under them. Can you see a long grey 'thing' against the back wall?
Not quite finished, but it will be the longest sink you have ever seen! The children will use it to wash their hands before and after their meals and to wash their plates.
The bathrooms - how modern and lovely do these look? These are for the girls. None of our other Children's Homes look like this!
This is the main hall. I'm really looking forward to seeing Boughton School's mural and poster hanging there!
The centre of the building has this really nice feature - it's open to the sky. So the children can be 'outside inside'?
Igna is going to send me some photos of the blessing on Saturday and I have asked her for a 'group photo' so that we can see all of the children who will be living there. Here it is! These are the actual children you are helping!
Below, you can see the Parish Priest blessing the main hall, by sprinkling it with Holy water. He blessed every room and even went up onto the roof! You can see Sr. Igna cutting the ribbon to officially open the new Boarding. Lots of other Sisters came to the Blessing. Afterwards they all had tea and cake. Quite right!
2018 - £1400.00 sent out. Thanks to Boughton School, Boughton Church and Boughton Ladies Group - yes, we seem to have a lot of the village involved now! Plus Becket Rotary Group and Shire Glass. We received some photographs of the Christmas celebrations and a good 'group photo'. Plus this photo of the 'library' - a metal shelving unit. It contains the few books I left for them and four dictionaries.
So these are the actual children we are helping. There's a LOT of them!
Update June 2019 - Thank you SO much Boughton School for your amazing penny collection! £252.25!
The total sent out in 2019 was £1312.88, thanks also to SHIRE GLASS. We also gave the money raised by the sale of our stamps collections to this project.
October 2020 - "How about the children and the staff who are helping us. are they all safe. Their safety is very important. What about you and your friends be safe. First priority is your Good health and safety..keep Our needs secondary ok.dont worry everything will go on . don't get in to trouble. We pray for all of you. Let god's will be done. Thank you. With regards Sr.igna.
2020 photos. Some of the food bought -
Some more books - "See our library books are increasing. We bought motivational stories and speech books which is very useful for the students. And our children are reading."
Cake as a Christmas treat!
Children eating their evening meal - January 2020
2020/1 - £1800.00 sent out and we have received lots of photos, showing how the money was spent.
October 2021 - "Good morning Happy Sunday to you. I have attached some photos. idly boiler and refrigerator and some more vessels from your money during lockdown. Now we are making use of them. We can cook 125 idlys at a time in the idly boiler. Every Sunday we prepare idly ;sambar;. Chudny. Our children enjoy it. Refrigirator is very safe to preserve and use the vegetables according to our need. The present money what you have sent I am using only for food. If you have whatsapp number please sent me .it will easy for me to update you with photos.thank you .we are all praying for you.convey our wishes to our doners. Be safe. With love Sr.Igna
Sr. Igna is obviously quite up to date with modern technology and we 'chat' via Whatsapp. Hence lots of photos from her! Now this makes me sound absolutely ancient, but when I first started going out to India (in the 1990's) my mother used to start writing to me by airmail letter, six weeks before I left, so I would have some letters whilst there!
The children planted lots of trees in the campus. The new fridge.
The new idli steam cooker. Idli is a steamed rice 'cake' - it is spongy, but has little or no taste. So it is served with a curry sauce (sambal) and/or chutney. When they have 250 children here, all the huge pieces of kitchen equipment will really be needed!
The cooker. Making the trays of idli. Sunday breakfast!
The first lot of money we sent out in 2021 was for 're-start' essentials, as the schools and other projects were allowed to reopen. Savugampatti (although they have now started to call themselves Sevugampatti?) not unsurprisingly spent their money on food.
"Hai good morning. I am attaching some photos of fund we use for food only .we buy groceries, milk, biscuits, ragi porage, children get nutrition. now we have 111 children in the hostel. Thank you for your continued support and love. god bless you."
Here is some of it -
Having just finished updating the Savugampatti page, I have to say that this project is unlike any other that we help with. It looks so luxurious and posh! However, the children do come from the poorest families or are orphans or abandoned or 'rescued'. The building has been built with the intention that it will be used for many, many decades to come. By our paying for the bathrooms to be tiled instead of just painted for example, the future running / repairs costs will be greatly reduced.
So, what would we like to do to help in the future? Food obviously. The cost of feeding the present 111 (250 in the future!) children, three times a day must be colossal! More books. Sports and games equipment. Posters to go onto the walls, to brighten up the rooms and to teach the younger children their letters, times tables etc. They will ask for anything else they need.
Photos received in October 2022:-
2022 - £500.00 given to buy essential food staples.