I have started to write this in India during my 65th (or is it 66th?) trip over 35 years and want to explain our future plans but also with great thanks explain how, with your help, the Trust got to this position, where we are now and our future plans. Several of our recent supporters have asked how it all started - the whole story is available in the book published 6 years ago “Touched by Untouchables”, out of print now but copies appear occasionally on Amazon. ( we have loan copies available). So this is very much a brief resume. However, I stress as always that what has been achieved would never have happened without incredible loyal support.
So how did it start?
A “one off” trip as part of a YMCA delegation was the entry point. I was extremely grateful to Norwich YMCA and john Drake the General Manager for the opportunity. I needed to raise £1000 for the proposed project and here St.Stephens Church (Norwich) where I served a long curacy agreed to start a small kitchen selling teas, coffees etc. helped me to do this. It still runs to this day providing not just an excellent coffee stop but also incredible help for vulnerable people locally.
So back to the story!
As my train reached the outskirts of Madurai we passed the site where I rented a hut in a local organisation Boys Home. This .was my base for the first 9 visits, way back in 1990/2, combined visits that totalled over 6 months. It was here that a lot of lessons were learnt, some very painful as ideas began to develop. I often say as well that it was my happiest time as I had the freedom to wander the streets to meet the ordinary people, street vendors, beggars, working children and to begin to understand the culture and complexities of this amazing city. It was also to be the time when the levels of corruption that are commonplace became more and more apparent, this is not the time to unravel that comment but the rose coloured glasses soon come off (if you want them too). It is very easy to be pulled in to the excitement - there is nothing nicer than the beautiful children here rushing at you shouting “aunty, aunty, uncle, uncle”, but it takes time to realise that your joy and desire to help them is open to exploitation. That is an extremely painful lesson to learn., sadly I have watched good intention being exploited again and again.
It can work the other way, during those first months I learnt that “foreigners” had visited, as an example a local slum, taken photos offering to fundraise but never being seen again, and worse of all exploiting children sexually and enticing poor families to sell a child’s kidney for transplant. I have met children who have sold kidneys and learnt of the desperation of the consenting parents.
In 1990 there were an estimated 30,000 or more street or working children in Madurai and many children would never attend school. This changed completely in 2011 when a government law was passed that made school attendance up to (then) the age of 14 compulsory. This had a major attraction for the children, the provision of a cooked meal every day. Corporal punishment continued until 2015 and classes were overcrowded, but this gradually improved and the rule to make physical punishment illegal came in to force. Now schooling is compulsory for every child until the age of 16. Attendance is strictly enforced.
Initial ideas I had for projects were dependant on working with an Indian ex YMCA worker as we developed a centre for street children in Madurai and along with a then colleague we also started to support an international organisation Boys Home in Trivandrum.
The initial Madurai trip led to an invitation to visit a Boys Home in Trivandrum run by an international organisation. They had apparently lost their funding source. Taking it on seemed a feasible option hence the repeat visits - leaving time for a return to Madurai . However, the organisation held control.These projects again were part of the learning curve. I don’t think they really liked the fact that I would be on site for weeks at a time, but by doing so I was able to discern real intention whilst being aware of different cultural behaviour. So my initial visits of 3/4 weeks were split between the two projects ( with an unbelievable 9 hour overnight train complete with cockroaches between them!). Over those first visits I began to see that all was not as often presented.
An example, visiting the centre in Madurai one day a lot earlier than they were expecting me and discovering a child aged about 8 lying at the side of the building used, covered in excrement, naked and crying in full sun. He was in full view of the centre leader but ignored until I picked him up. He had previously been raped and beaten on the streets and later was discovered to have Aids. I cared for him for several days, he was incoherent, incredibly thin and had obviously suffered in ways we cannot understand. After a week when it was time for my flight home I left money for his one to one nursing care. After my return home I asked to see a photo of him and was told that he had died in a poor hospital where I later learnt he had been placed within hours of me leaving. This and other issues, at a later date, some really serious, led to an unpleasant parting of the ways and in an attempt to stop me from blowing the whistle even involved sending letters to all of our then UK sponsors in an attempt to discredit me. I was severely verbally and physically threatened (people fall from rooftops) on my last days in Madurai. However, I had evidence including documentation to show the levels of corruption that were happening.. To be fair the initial work was good, intention seemed genuine but the realisation that there was a good funding source was too tempting ………the children involved on the project knew what was happening and have discussed it as did several of the staff. Many *rejoined” with me later and are working with us to this day.
In Trivandrum along with others on that initial trip we started to fund that established Boys Home. This worked well for some time, however the then Manager often raised concerns, which the management said were unfounded. This concern after about 2 years came to a head when the general manager alerted me to the fact that there was some sexual exploitation and physical abuse of a particularly vulnerable boy, this led to a “riot” by the other children who were instantly expelled from the home - that is taken out and left on the streets. I went to India to meet the manager who resigned from his work out of concern for the boys and we were able to find the 20+ expelled boys and as most had no homes to return to we rented a small house for them. The organisation replaced them in the original home with other boys. All of our rescued boys stayed with us until adulthood. My UK partners however, decided to continue to support the original regime. It was at this point that I realised that the only way to work independently was to form a registered Trust in India as well as the UK. This would not be possible today but was the turning point. Therefore from 1994 were were able to develop our own projects.
Registering a Trust in India is not difficult if you are Indian, but there were a lot of hoops for me as a British National to jump through to get our registration without which we would have needed to continue with other organisations or Trusts, with limited control. I doubt that we would have continued without that registration.
Here again there are really important issues. If an Indian national forms a Trust he appoints his own trustees, there is no accountability. Accounts have to be produced and shown to government and donors to secure Foreign Exchange Permission but as with everything here they can be and often are “brought”. Bribery is common and foreign donors need to be really alert to these facts when donating. If, for example donations are made to an Indian Trust and used for buildings and/or land, ownership stays with that local Trust. After a few years there will be a substantial increase in value of those assets so when the project or overseas funding stops ownership of the land or buildings brought by genuine foreign donors remains with the Indian Trust complete with obvious considerable financial benefits.
We negated this by putting the newly formed Trust under the name of the UK Registered Trust with me (or UK trustees my absence) as Settlor. Therefore we have dual registration in UK and India controlled by the UK Trust. (Hence an Indian as well as UK name) This means land and buildings we have purchased in India remain the property of the UK Trust. This is extremely important as we look to the future and sustainability as we have assets that can be used as funding in the longer term. - more of this later.
There was further work in that area. By now I had made a lot of contacts! With my Hospital Chaplaincy background I was invited to run a couple of study days at the main Regional Cancer Centre. This led to a realisation that for many of the poorer patients who became too sick to reach hospital there was no palliative or nursing care. We were able to buy 2 small ambulances and with voluntary and some paid help it was possible to take nursing care to poor rural areas. Over the next 16 years, eventually with replacement ambulances, we were able to document over 50,000 home visits to the terminally ill, plus running monthly pain relief clinics in isolated rural villages.To access need we worked with a local cancer charity linked to the hospital so that we could receive referrals. Eventually, after the Pandemic, the hospital took on this task, but it laid the foundation for our work in Madurai with children with cancer which we continue to this day, now with our 5th and sixth ambulances.
The work in Trivandrum was to continue for over 20 years with development of our own buildings because of increasing numbers so that at one stage we had over 30 residential boys, some 20+ girls and ran a flourishing daily tuition centre. The Pandemic eventually closing the project as the children had to return to homes and government criteria for continuing by re-opening was too rigid financially - but we still owned the land and buildings.
A long rather amazing story led to us eventually “gifting that site to the Marthoma Church, who continued with projects and the assurance that the site and assets would always be used for charitable work under control of the church.
So a chance to move on! It was to be over 2 years before it was considered “safe” for me to return to Madurai, this was possible by reuniting with Muthukumar who had been working as a volunteer on the original project.
Muthukumar has been with us for 25+ years now and is the rock on which we have been able to build our work. We also supported 2 of the original children (who I first met when they were 7 and 9 years old on that first Madiurai project) to complete their education. On graduation they were employed by us. They too have remained with us for approaching 20 years and make up our core team in Madurai.
We have also been extremely careful to use external auditors who are not connected with the Trust and also have sought and received government registration for all of our work.
Madurai
We’re-started our work in Madurai in an area near rubbish tips identified by Muthukumar where there were numerous street elders who scavenged for their daily food. Most slept on the streets and were sick, to help them we rented a small house. It was totally inadequate having steep stairs but it was a beginning. We had 30 plus ladies living with us within days and eventually we were able to move to a more suitable building. This building was close to the slum that was to become the centre for all of our work in Madurai. In that slum were other extremely poor elders, many almost abandoned by their families. Concern for them led to the establishment of a daily lunch centre. For the past 18 years we have provided a daily lunch for at least 50 destitute elders. We needed a kitchen and a house became available for rent that enabled us to expand our work with a local slum.
I am often asked about health. I was surprised to find that typhoid was almost accepted as we would flu, certainly contaminated water is a major issue. Dysentery is common ( I’ve experienced that a couple of times!) Malaria was a big problem but rare now as drought has increased in the area ( mosquitoes need stagnant water to breed), this has now been replaced by dengue fever.
Lack of medical care and equipment leads to unnecessary deaths, I did experience malaria and became conscious to find myself being connected by drip to a coconut as they had no saline!
Snake an scorpion bites lead to many deaths in rural areas.
The slum ( our base) has no water, electricity or sanitation (toilets) and is home to some 600 people. For children there were difficulties with schooling - as it became dark at 6pm each night they were unable to do their homework, so we started an evening tuition centre, following the example of our still running Kerala project. This attracts over 100 children daily, we have rooftop generator and employ part time teachers and provide supplementary food. Because of that help and our staff working tirelessly to help the children we have established a centre that not only provides academic help but has also set up series of vocational apprenticeships. However, the majority of our children now move to higher education. Boasting not intended but many of our children have gained degrees, several have managed MBA’S, have become masons, mechanics, nurses.. IT workers The majority continue to act as volunteers on the project after graduation.
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, give him a net, you feed him for life.
Also in our building we have developed a sewing project to offer training for some of the mothers in the slum. With a 6 month course and the gift of a sewing machine on completion they are able to have a source of income to help the whole family. Well over 100 ladies have completed the course.
Shelter Home
The numbers of elders on the streets continued to be an issue, plus several of our lunch ladies were at best living outside family shacks. As such we decided to set up a home for such elders and over a period of two years were able to purchase land and then to build a unit that had 2 bedded rooms , toilets and care facilities. Several of our slum elders moved to the home plus others sent to us from the police and other charities. This worked well until the pandemic when we took an opportunity to move most of our elders to an isolated rural area for safety. In the meantime we sublet the shelter home to another charity who also took care of some of our elders who were reluctant to move away from their families still living in the slum. After period of living in this isolated area the elders did not want to return to the city suburbs and so the sublet group carried on with the understanding that if we found a street elder in need of care we could place them there. This has worked well, the advantage being that we had a source of income, which led us to the possibility of working with children with cancer. The building remains registered to us.. we are recognised and respected by the police and authorities……..
Children with cancer
In a sense this work found us! A combination of continuing contact with the Regional Cancer Centre in Kerala and our links with other charities led us to the small paediatric oncology unit of a government hospital in Madurai. Most children with cancer would be directed to the 2 main Regional Cancer Centres (in Trivandrum and Chennai), each being a 9 plus hour train journey from Madurai.
For the patients we deal with even finding the bus fare to the hospital is impossible. A, child having to endure a bus ride of several hours home in intense heat after chemotherapy speaks for itself. Thanks to our ambulances we can usually help.
For the poorest children reaching the main cancer hospitals is impossible. in fact many would not even start treatment without our ambulance to get them to the hospital. (And home again after treatment). The unit was in a very poor state when we started so we deep cleaned, decorated and set up a water purification system. We began and still continue providing food essentials.If a parent could not work to provide food because they needed to be with a sick child….but we soon realised that as a small subsidiary unit essential drugs ( for chemotherapy) were often not available. We have been able to develop a network of contacts with Wholesale Pharmacies and on several occasions have managed to provide life saving medications. Although treatment is free for children some essential tests are not - for example bone marrow transplant compatibility, thanks to our links in Kerala we have been able to fund several of these and other essential tests, plus funding trips to the Regional Centres. The children and families we support come from the poorest communities, isolated rural villages or city slum areas.
It is important to mention that we are registered with local hospital authorities to work (as is our shelter unit).
Apart from improving the living conditions we have provided a large screen tv and numerous toys. We have also installed more water purifying units and some essential equipment - but our emphasis is on the children.
The good news is that during my visit it was announced that the city is to have a new Cancer Hospital with a dedicated Paediatric Oncology section. Building should be completed in 5 years. This is excellent news and fits in with the final part of this report.
Leprosy unit
Those who know me well will know that it was a strong desire from childhood to work with leprosy that fuelled my early career moves. Ill health prevented me from taking a place with an overseas aid agency, but several years ago we “ found” our colony. It is a story in itself and our. 12 years of helping them for quite a modest sum has completed a circle. This work will continue.
Future Plans
So where do we go from here? It is a question we must address , I am 78 now but have no fears for the future because of the wonderful team we have established and most important of all because of registering our assets - buildings, vehicles in the name of the Trust. Those assets will underpin our future funding and will ensure the continuation of our work for several years to come.
This whole story would not exist without the incredible support we have received over so many years. We have tried so hard not to waste money, we are as sure as we can be that at least 99% of donated funds reach source. Thank you seems an inadequate word, but we give it with love and hope that you will imagine the lives and suffering your generosity has provided.
We hope and pray that we can continue our current level of work for a further 5years - when the opening of the large and we hope much improved cancer centre will mean that our work will be much less. There will always be poor children ( probably older people too) who will not have the financial ability to access the new facilities and we will continue to fulfil that need. Our slum work will lessen as the improvement in infrastructure continues and there is no doubt that the education system has improved considerably.
I feel that in a sense we have bridged a gap - undoubtably improving and saving thousands of lives in the meantime. Our work will continue but will after that 5 years period be self funding as we realise our assets.
Thank you for reading this, for your trust and many prayers.
Our Farm the Future
To top this up we have the final project not yet mentioned. That sounds very grand! In fact it is just under an acre of land on the outskirts of Madurai where we have access to some water, mango and coconut trees. This land was originally donated by Rotary Clubs and we have developed the area. We did try cows, ckickens, goats, but really struggled in a drought area to grow the grass needed and to care for the animals. It did leave us though with a big barn. However, we have added a kitchen area and some toilet facilities. Our children and elders have spent many happyhours there. The plan now is to develop this further, to build a girls dormitory, upgrade the kitchen, provide better toilets. Thanks to some very generous legacies we can do this.. Our slum children and elders will then be able to use it regularly staying overnight or for weekends but it also will be rentable to other groups for camps, and or retreats which will help to provide funding for our city work and continuing work with cancer patients.
This plus our releasing of funds by selling the shelter home should provide the financial stability for Muthukumar and his team to continue our work after we cease UK funding in the next 5 years.
As a dedicated charity we feel that this is exactly the right thing to do. WE have a committed and dedicated team of workers, an excellent reputation in the city with authorities and police and the knowledge that thanks to our donors and sponsors we have “run the race”. Its not quite over yet but the finishing line is in sight.
As always Matthew 25.40 remains our motivation.
We will keep you fully informed as we travers the next stage.
