I know something of Australia, the South West and I ask you to imagine this! You have lived there for 25 years and someone says; “Do you know there is an incredible waterfall just an hour from where you live?” You are amazed and say, “no”. Well, after 20-plus years in Muniguda and having been to some of the remotest areas (including a place called Raghubari where people were scared when they saw a tall white-skinned woman – Maggie Sister – walking uphill to a plateau!) this is kind of what recently happened to us.

For years we have had a severely deformed young leprosy-affected person coming and going but never really telling us where he came from or went to. After a serious food and care situation he told us that he and a group of leprosy-affected people have been living reasonably near to us, down a road that we never travel on because it takes too long to go anywhere. A new leprosy colony in 2023! It bewildered the staff. They decided to stay ‘isolated’ because of social family connection reasons.

All of the people were from nearby villages and they were near to their villages, but in a forest area that is mostly thorn bushes so dense that even a goat won’t go down. A totally established mini village made from scraps of everything. We now care for this ‘new’ leprosy colony and twice a week give a ‘deluxe’ – as they call it – meal. There are children born in the colony and for me and one of our trustees, it reminded us of our lives 60 years ago.

Do you know what ‘paper marbling’ is? It’s fairly easy to do and the results get examined by each of those in the small groups that get together. It’s been a long-time hobby and social activity at New Hope but is now rarely done by anyone. Our students paste the envelope-sized pieces on their school notebook. Now they are asked by other students for prints – it’s become an ‘in thing’!

Jeevan Jyothi and Kusuma (below) making extra pocket money decorating plain bangles which nearby village women buy as quickly as they make. We are sure that they would sell at stalls in Australia but the reality today is that postage makes 75 per cent of all products that people would like to buy simply not economical or viable.

There was a newspaper piece about Mother’s Day, which became a discussion and then Ramu asked, “why don’t we give street women a Mother’s Day gift?” When Ramu asks, all I do is nod as I know he’s going to do it anyway! We took the front pieces of Christmas cards from friends in the UK (Soroptimist, Manchester) and made a card which went with a sari and of course a banana. We are now committed to giving one woman, who is not far from where Ramu has his micro-size pigeonhole office, a meal every day. She has been in the same place for three years because of Covid. We offered her a place at New Hope, but with her mental situation she believes she can’t shift as her daughter will come back and pick her up (unfortunately not realising that her daughter left her there).

We remain committed to working with and supporting the Tribal Communities that surround our area. By New Hope India selling the handmade traditional shawls it gives many women work while they sit in huts on stilts, watching that the birds don’t eat their crop close to harvest time. After many arguments and red tape these shawls have been given a ‘G’ mark which means they can only be made now by this Tribal group of women.

We also continue to give out Safe Delivery kits to the whole tribal community.

We have been designated as one of only four Non-Government Organisations in the State to be able to distribute anti retro viral drugs for HIV+ persons. This saves many women and young people hours of bus travel, often having to change buses and stand in a long line when they got to the central Government pharmacy. This is changing the quality of life of many, especially widows on a micro pension, who were spending part of that on bus fares to get their medications – an irony.