New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust

/in , /by

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust is located in Andhra Pradesh & Odisha, India. New Hope India was founded in 1985 by Eliazar T Rose, the son of two leprosy patients, who has dedicated his life to helping India`s poorest and most vulnerable people. Eliazar was featured in the National magazine India Today in 1996 as an an “Angel of Hope” and referred to as a “Helping hand”. Again in 2013 Eliazar and Ruth were awarded into “Hall of Fame” of the Civil Society India .

Since then New Hope India have consistently reached out with an “Open Door” policy to help anyone who comes to New Hope who has need. From orphaned beggars, to the many leprosy sufferers and HIV AIDS women and children who are outcast by society. New Hope has established Community Centre Schools and Leprosy colonies plus hospices for the increasing number of HIV AIDS victims in India and a surgical hospital in Orissa which specializes in cataract surgery for the Tribal areas..

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust

We provide health care and education working from the remote Community Centre at Muniguda, Orissa, to some of the most remote and disenfranchised people in India, including disabled people, children, and those living in abject poverty in Muniguda, Orissa.

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=43 type=1 style=1]

Raju was bought to New Hope India as an abandoned child, malnourished, and close to blindness. He survived with the love, care and attention of a widowed woman in the New Hope India Community. Now 5 years on, he goes to school and is determined to achieve even with his visual challenge. He is a great example of our “Open Door Policy”. You will see Raju as he is today in the photo above right. He now goes to school and works hard to overcome his visual disability. Anyone in need is welcome at New Hope India. It’s called our “Open Door Policy”.

Leprosy Patients are a very important Project that we protect and care for in their Leprosy Colonies. These are real people, who really benefit from the Love Bundle gift donation.

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=13 type=1 style=1]

Cataract surgery is an important part of our care for Tribal people who are impoverished and in need of care. It is impossible to describe the day to day poverty of the women in this photo. To be blind is a challenge in any environment, but in a rural village, where many are widowed, it is unimaginable. These women have had their vision restored thanks to the generosity of Australian donors.

Love Bundle Delivery Time

Love Bundle Delivery Time

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust Education, love and care of children from the homeless and orphans to HIV AIDS affected children, are a main priority of New Hope. Most of the children who are HIV+ are also orphans.

A District in India could be compared to 6 Shires in Australia and New Hope at Muniguda in Rayagada District is the only centre for Special Children with challenging needs. New Hope was a driving force, helped by funds from Australia, in eradicating Polio through door to door immunization.

New Hope India aims to be self sufficient and self sustainable and green.

How the money spent with New Hope India

Child-Sponsorship-India

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust

India Bike Ride Itinerary

/in , /by

Firstly the bike ride trip is EASY because we will supply you with an ultra modern geared HERO bicycle. You don’t have to bring your own which is an airline hassle and costly. Your first stay will be in New Hope Children’s Community Village and do 3 days volunteer work if you wish. Gardening, teaching english, carpentry, cooking. Go by train 58 tunnels and 84 bridges to see one of the worlds oldest known caves in the hills on the way back from Araku and see Tribal villages as you ride through the countryside. Limited to 14 people each tour..

India Bike Ride

India Bike Ride

New Hope is now responsible for the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation First Aid Centre in a small town called Chilakalapalli. And you are riding there from the starting point which is in Visakhapatnam New Hope Kothavalasa Community Centre.
Train to Bobbili and ride Bikes through rural country side to the Gandhi Memorial Centre for Leprosy patients. New Hope now has the management of this Centre that includes a 12 bed Ward. Ride through villages to highway and up to a stop at small Indian town. Travel to Muniguda and see the Community Centre with the Hospital where so many people have given to have poverty line women and aged leprosy patients receive cataract eye surgery. Meet Tribal women at the Centre and visit a rural market. Leave in afternoon for town of Bargarh nearest to Jhan Jhur Leprosy Colony. Ride to Jhan Jhur Leprosy Colony.
This will be a contrast to other centres of New Hope and shows a different village lifestyle. Train in the evening return to Kothavalasa. Children Community Centre.

Volunteer in Leprosy Colony

Volunteer in Leprosy Colony

We are limiting it to 14 persons. Its both Ride and Train. Those who just wish to enjoy the tour and not ride or not ride the full 20 kilometres a day can travel in the accompanying New Hope vehicle.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK A NEW HOPE BIKE RIDE

See approximate itinerary below for your 14 day adventure. May change slightly from year to year. Itinerary will be confirmed closer to adventure dates.

Bike Ride India

Bike Ride India

Arrive in Visakhapatnam : Pick up from Airport and travel to New Hope Community Centre. Afternoon introduction with children.

  • DAY 1 : KOTHAVALASA – Orientation morning after breakfast. Discussion with Director on New Hope as an organization how it has evolved. Walk around New Hope Community Centre in groups with senior students or staff to explain how a day happens at the Centre. (Select an activity that you would like to spend time at.
  • DAY 2 : Monday – Cycle Alamanda. Specified day as it is a rural market day in this small rural town. You will see seasonal vegetables, cows, buffalo, oxen and goats
  • DAY 3 : Activity Day in Community. There are multitudes of activities – Painting a room, gardening including pruning, teaching an English class, Cooking pancakes and making a jam with senior girls – endless and the odd game of cricket/volley ball will creep in.
  • DAY 4 : Bicycle ride orientation, and in-depth discussion with Guide. Continue with Activity of choice.
  • DAY 5 : Train to Araku Valley ‘hill station’. Ride bicycles through rural area. Stay overnight.
  • DAY 6 : Travel downhill by bus through coffee plantations, incredible scenic valley views. Stop at Borra Caves – oldest in world. Return and stay at Community Centre, Kothavalasa.
  • DAY 7 : Train to Bobbili and ride Bikes through rural country side to the Gandhi Memorial Centre for Leprosy patients. New Hope now has the management of this Centre. Evening train to Muniguda.
  • DAY 8 : Muniguda Community Centre includes Eye Hospital supported by Friends of New Hope for free cataract eye ops to Leprosy patients and rural poverty line women Tribal women.
  • DAY 9 : The Community is also home to a group of Challenged Children in their Namaste House and Social Needs School. The aged in need of custodial care leprosy cured people also their home there. An integrated Community.
  • DAY 10 : You are free to spend time with everyone there and hopefully during your visit you will see people admitted for eye surgery; an interesting part of the work of New Hope. Visit a local Tribal Market and in the afternoon catch a train to Bargarh.
  • DAY 11 : Bargarh is the nearest town to Jhan Jhur Leprosy Colony. One of a number of such colonies that benefit from Love Bundle gifts, protective food wear and Care. Ride to Jhan Jhur Leprosy Colony – This will be a contrast to other centers of New Hope and shows a different village lifestyle Programmes. Night travel back to Kothavalasa Community Centre.
  • DAY 12 : Activities Day with children. Volunteer time in school or garden
  • DAY 13 : School holiday for children to play games. Present one of their cultural days. Volunteer time together doing arts and crafts.
  • DAY 14: Visit to Visakhapatnam city, sea and old Buddhist historical site, up coast to see where Dutch had settlement for export a special blue dyed cloth, or just go shopping.

Add On 3 Days

For those interested in birds at the ornithology level this bike ride and train journey to secluded places and forest area will be of great interest. For an Ornithologist it includes an addition 3 days side trip to Kondakarla Bird Sanctuary $150 AUD

Kondakarla Bird Sanctuary

Kondakarla Bird Sanctuary

Kondakarla Bird Sanctuary

Kondakarla Bird Sanctuary

India Bike Ride Itinerary

Tribes in India

/in /by

Odisha (previously simply called Orissa) is uniquely proud for the tinted spread of ethnic mosaic brought over by the 62 culturally vibrant tribes including 13 primitive tribe groups, who are found sprinkled all over the state. Tribes India.

Tribes India

Tribes India

Kondh Tribes  “One sub-group of Kondhas is the Dongria Kondhas. They inhabit the plateaus of Niyamgiri hill ranges which cover parts of Rayagada and Koraput and Kalahandi districts.

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=15 type=1 style=1]

Their major concentration is found in the blocks of Kalyansinghpur, Bissamcuttack and Muniguda. They are called Dongria or dweller of donger (“hill” in Oriya) and love to settle in higher altitudes due to their economic demands”.

Tribes India

Tribes India

The Kondhs, or the Kui as they call themselves are one of the well known tribes and the largest tribal community of Orissa. With a population of around 1 million, who were famous in history for their Merial Sacrifice (human sacrifice); practiced no more. The Kondhas are believed to be from the Proto-Australoid ethnic group. Their native language is Kui, a Dravidian language written with the Oriya script.

Tribes India

Tribes India

The Kondha are adept land dwellers exhibiting greater adaptability to the forest environment. Dense sal forests were their playground: they hunt with the ease of all primitive races with bows and axes. The Niyamgiri Hills where the Dongria Kondh dwell are covered by superb natural forests and home to many rare species like the Golden Gecko and the Giant Squirrel. The Dongria Kondh call themselves Jharnia meaning those who live by the Jharana (streams). Hundreds of perennial streams flow from Niyamgiri hill, and there are hundreds of Dongria villages by the streams. The Dongria are the protectors of these streams, hills and jungles and are revered by people in the nearby plains.

Tribes India

Tribes India

The majority of the Dongria Kondha live in 55 villages that are all assisted in different ways through various projects initiated by New Hope India. We are now the long time serving Non Government Organisations working without real interruption with this small community.

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=34 type=1 style=1]

They still carry out some strange to us ceremonies. Many are now kept in secret simply because they don’t like outside publicity. New Hope India makes no attempt to change the cultural ways. What we have tried and succeeded in is a co-operation that has allowed them to adapt some traditions for their benefit. Iodine deficiency across the whole area showed up in the medical term imbecile. Across India there has been a successful promotion of use of Iodized Salt. However to implement this among traditional people who believed in the ‘power’ of rock salt was not easy. We explained the situation and offered rock salt with 25% newly Iodized non rock salt mixture. It slowly rose to 75% and in most places today is accepted by all women. In the same area as tribal Dongaria there are also other non tribal communities. This is a change that occurred post British and with the opening up of area where people labeled as Schedule Caste came and interacted trade wise with the Tribes. Rarely to the Tribes advantage. A barter system existed for year. One change that came through New Hope was the idea to sell forest Tribal collected goods and materials by weight and not by ‘head load’.

Tribes India

Tribes India

The saddest part of our working together has been a decline, again, in child survival. There are many reasons for this but one can not ignore the complicated situation between group s of anarchist and the anti mining campaign. Its very political. The bottom line is that children are being born under weight which is due to malnourished mothers. Less food availability in the villages of Tribes India.

Tribes India

Tribes India

THE SHORT TERM ANSWER – We have been supplying pregnant women in 34 villages who use the same path and track down from the hills towards town and the market to stop both ways for a food supplement. Usually at least one egg and germinated legumes, with an iron supplement. Its has started to show positive signs. The longer term is to make the villages self sufficient again. To supply poultry to women as a starting point.

Tribes in India

A Cow in Four Parts

/in , /by

The cost of a high yielding cow in India where we work has gone to Rs 31,000. It’s a lot of money – but it also means a lot of milk. Building up our cow herd is a major and important self sustainability project for New Hope. It has many aspects. The prime is milk for children. The ‘cow dung’ as it’s still called in Indian English goes to the Biogas Plant *– another Indian expression that we know as a digester. Into this goes every scrap, not always directly. Vegetable waste peelings go to the hens and the hen houses floor sweepings all go to the plant.

Buying a cow in FOUR PARTS (or 1/8th or 1/16th) A $ 150 for a Quarter

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=36 type=1 style=1]

A COW IN FOUR PARTS ?
All the children in New Hope Community Centre know just how expensive a cow is. They know that it means a teachers salary for 6 months. It cost more than a computer. The children have 3 learning computers – it has greatly improved their writing skills and expanded their knowledge and interest in maths and geography. For the disabled the ‘drawing’ tool has made them feel confident that they are able to ‘do computer’.

In a senior class open discussion the students were asked their preferences – “A cow or a Computer’ – Out of 18 votes 16 opted for the cow. The other two said that ‘cows are so big and make such a big noise that they frighten them’ – not too hard to understand when you have grown up in a city slum as a street child.

WE NEED MORE COWs – if 4 or 8 or 16 people could give over the next 4 months – we could meet the target.

Anaerobic digestion is widely used as a source of renewable energy. The process produces a biogas, consisting of methane, carbon dioxide and traces of other ‘contaminant’ gases.[1] This biogas can be used directly as cooking fuel, in combined heat and power gas engines[5] or upgraded to natural gas-quality biomethane. The use of biogas as a fuel helps to replace fossil fuels. The nutrient-rich digestate also produced can be used as fertilizer.

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=27 type=1 style=1]

A Cow in Four Parts