Tag Archive for: Child Sponsorship

New Hope India Newsletter Aug 2023

NEW HOPE INDIA SUPPORTER UPDATE

Greetings from many people who know that so many in Australia are connected to them and their community – New Hope India.

We are halfway through the year and it’s hard to believe how much has happened at New Hope. First, we are truly thankful to all who have given to different projects and to children through sponsorship.

New Hope has always worked ‘horizontally’ – covering needs and situations as they arise not just a single vertical project. This means we see staff doing such a cross section of work that it takes time to absorb it all. From small but meaningful acts by Ramu giving Mother’s Day gifts to street women in the city, to discovering a whole new leprosy colony previously unknown to us!

Thank you for taking the time to read this update.

Eliazar T Rose
Director, New Hope India

DISCOVERING A NEW LEPROSY COLONY IN 2023

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.

MUNIGUDA

There is no newsletter without Namaste House. The government says it is called the ‘Care Home for Persons with Disabilities’. It’s the only such care home in western Odisha and although we are recognised, no support is offered or available. It’s a sad situation at one level but on the other level we are their guardians – their only family.

Three of our Namaste residents went to a State-level Challenged Young People’s Sports Competition. Our challenged children move around as much as their disability allows and they are also supported to move around for exercise. It’s no wonder that our Namaste group got prizes!
Now in the last six months we see Namaste young people just going along and enjoying their routine. Made happy that Covid is over, they can wander over and talk to the senior Tribal women who are back for eye checkups and cataract eye surgery.
CATARACT EYE SURGERY

On eye surgery, one of our seniors is now qualified as a Technician and has employment with a new national chain of hospitals that specialises in cataract eye surgery. Another two Nurses have qualified and are working or doing practical time, two have started a Nursing course, and in a few months one or two senior girls will be applying for admissions (a long, difficult application process).

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

The State Government change of education policy has totally disrupted many lives and young people’s educational system and situation. However, our seniors always get back at every chance to Kothavalasa for a few days or weeks and summer holidays. I call it ‘the return of the circus’ as they are here and there! Their time here is social but at the same time they are engaged, especially the boys in doing work all through the community.

MICRO INDUSTRIES

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.

VASU AND THE COWS

We have just spent funds replanting four acres of grass seedlings for cow feed. Our previous Napier grass simply died of age! We now have a plant that needs less water and has quicker re-growth. We planted ‘extra grass’ because Pete Towns and a friend we call ‘The Walker’ keep supporting our ‘buy a cow appeal’. We now sell the surplus as income.The cows are ‘managed’ by a cross section of seniors. Gopi, who like others has helped, is still going to high school. In this photo is K. Vasu, now 6′ tall and smart (except that I have to continually remind him to ‘trim or shave!!!!’ – it’s my ‘thing’).

Vasu has a small speech impediment and finds it hard to pronounce some ‘dumb’ English words like ‘know’, ‘knot’ and then knowing the difference between ‘there’ and ‘their’. He calls Anil and spells the word and Anil patiently spends five minutes explaining and helping him to pronounce a word. Vasu laughs, Anil laughs, then Vasu explains it to others … who already know anyway. He is a character.

He has just successfully passed fifth-year high school as an Intermediate at an Agriculture College. From this he has now been given a ‘free’ two months hands-on and theory cow management course at a centre called Visaka Dairy. This course is recognised as an Indira Gandhi Open University course with accommodation and meals included. So he has been told to shave every day!!

MOTHERING SUNDAY

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).

KONDH DONGRIA TRIBAL COMMUNITY

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.

HIV CLINIC UPDATE

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.

FINAL WORDS

I wish to share a simple reality with so many who have supported our work. We increased the number of cows we have, with one man and his family making it happen, and a long-time friend ‘The Walker” adding to it.

The goat house was repaired, again made a reality by one man. Every child who is receiving education, from our youngest who is now getting taller and stronger (U. Sai to Sumanth who is about to have a university seat allocated to him for studies towards a doctor MBBS).

Sponsorship is a ‘magic key’. It is impossible to explain that a majority of senior girls now going in and out and staying in safe hostels are from poor backgrounds (I think you say in Australia, ‘the other side of the railway tracks’). You can find out how to become a child sponsor here.

That expression was a truth for me – the Bethany Colony since my early days is still a hutment slum leprosy colony, literally on the other side of the railway line.

We still support women working in Bethany so they do not have to go begging. They make the bags many have seen and purchased.

For project information please email newhopeindia@live.com.

New Hope Newsletter Feb 2023

Read the latest update in our New Hope Newsletter 2023.

A LETTER FROM NEW HOPE INDIA – Eliazar, Director

Greetings and apologies that it is so long since we were able to write to you with this update New Hope India, people in leprosy colonies who we support and Tribal Kondh Dongria communities and all at New Hope have been affected by this pan endemic that has caused the world to ‘sigh in disbelief’ In India I have never felt such fear and sadness. For our culture not be be able to attend ‘last rites’ is – ‘shame’! It has challenged us with lockdowns and yet we had daring staff that for months got food supplies to Leprosy colonies. The irony that many leprosy patients go out to beg to survive and the lockdown kept them in their colonies. 5 major colonies literally survived by our ‘food support’ made possible by support was donors in the UK. It continues even today, We have an obligation still to support many and also aged Kondh Dongria women. We are but one piece of a jumbled up not fitting together jig saw puzzle of this time!

Jhan Jhur Leprosy Colony

Over the years many people we help have smiled and laughed when we have visited them to give a Love Bundle. This time it was different – they cried with joy that their actual survival was with us. The pressure on our staff and finances were stretched BUT faith overcomes such challenges – It’s like a ‘Bollywood movie’ that 6 times we used a boat to cross a river in Sambalpur to get food supplies to a leprosy colony during lockdown. At that time – no vaccinations – just masks and sanitizing. Not with nice scented lotions but old fashioned surgical spirit!

The situation of the Kondh Dongria 37 villages was simply horrendous. They are ‘animist (not Hindu) and believed that the Covid was an ‘evil spirit’ aroused by long gone anger ancestors. They simply isolated themselves because they heard that Kondh Dongria families who had shifted from tribal villages to live in town were infected – for this they saw evil. this isolation meant they would not come to weekly markets and sell forest products, their basic survival hand to mouth income. We drained our Emergency fund and had very complicated village by village come and sit socially spaced and collect essential food materials including for them one essential ‘salt’. The fact that we also gave them soap caused both joy and humour.

THE COVID AND IMMUNIZATION BATTLE

The second movies would be a story of frustration and at times angry discussions and heated debates as we went through the red tape of insisting on the Kondh Dongria people having a right to vaccination. Many ties we have said lightly “its a left over rule red tape from the British.” That’s true to some extent. BUT we Indians have painted it even more red or not ‘freed’ ourselves of it. Excuses have been fantastic “But they (the Tribal Community) dont have proper door numbers. I will leave it at that.

Director Eliazar

Sadly, the division of communities between groups who also live in the Tribal area has not helped. This has caused us to have to work around having different places than our own Community Centre for the Tribal’s and not associated with other communities. We came to a ‘working’ arrangement with the local health department which although hard and almost impractical e had to go along with to achieve the real goal. That staff spent days tracking up and down to different location with all that is needed to ensure safe immunization was not easy. We spent days planning how to start the Immunization that fitted in with the Government rules, the social disparity between communities and the sheer difficulty of getting aged in the hills at the far end of the Tribal hill forest area. So thankful to the Village Women Traditional midwives and our staff.

I say humbly that without New Hope and my own long association with the community and proudly I say with the support of a remarkable Tribal woman who started with New Hope and is now an elected woman District Councilor the immunization would not have happened. The fruit of many years of input

Working with Govt staff

with the Traditional Birth Attendants also paid off with their determination to ensure all people co-ordinated with the tight schedule needed to cover the maximum number of people. These are women who moved away from using unsterile knives to ‘cut the umbilical cord and a process that for generations was the root cause of Infant and Maternal Morbidity. The same women who helped us implement Iodized salt as opposed to traditional rock salt. It changed the high thyroid rate among women in particular.

The time required for this programme meant that visits often took place during peak times of the Monsoon season with work undertaken during incessant heavy rain. Workers exchanged stories at the end of each long day about tracking down patients who had gone hunting for food and spending time to reassure others who had last minute fears of ‘an injection’ or who had listened to vaccine horror stories!

As we near the end we have had what we call 7 rounds of villages. We have now covered age range 18 and upwards. A few oldies just shrugged in a ‘no’ that we accept. They represent 6% approximately. The population is those above 16 or mature girls (say 14 years range). More females than males and that is good as its women who go to markets more than men. Population target 2860 of this population in the 2,755 have 1st vaccination and 2,127 second vaccination. In the first round 489 had vaccine injections and they were mainly women who came down to the Immunization Centre we had set up in an adjoining village to our Tribal Community Centre. This ensured we had no ‘cross mixing. Then in round 2 and 3 – 799 across all villages 820 persons. In the 3rd round we also started 422 for 2nd Vaccination. This was not easy but helped that more women came down to the Centre and although they didn’t like being ‘touched’ by non Tribals as our mainly Tribal staff were there – it was accepted.

I can say that my own and the presence of long time ‘worker’ Sakuntala was a PR for those who came. We always see ‘people, but in percentage 96% covered 1 vaccination and 2nd vaccination 66% and ongoing. November 15th. This picture show how we worked in co-operation with the District Medical Government staff to ensure the Immunization was ‘fair’ to all communities and candidly the standards was as we have always insisted on.

EYE CARE PROJECT

Delivering eye care

This is one of the oldest original Cataract Eye Project – and it still goes on and due to expand to a new tribal area – wholly supported by donations of £20 an operation. It will take another 4 years to eradicate in this new adjoin area. Time is is time and we must keep doing this needed support – to mainly aged who suffer socially when ‘blind’ and unable to be part of the whole family work pattern in villages We have also been able to re start our Eye Care Project.

Pre Covid 19 times, New Hope would provide cataract surgery to over 470 patients a year, and we are indebted to our UK supporters for making this possible. During the pandemic our project halted as neither patients nor surgeons could move from their locked down areas, but with gradual easing of restrictions we are already planning our first safe socially distanced ‘cataract camp’. Thanks to the vaccination programme, many younger women came to ask about eye check-ups at the same time as they attended for their immunization.

NAMASTE HOUSE – CHALLENGED YOUNG PEOPLES HOME

Namaste games

Cannot have a newsletter without them. Last winter prior to Covid, the Namaste House group all

received ‘beabie’ caps. This was a gift plus for them at the start of Covid. They had long talks with myself and seniors whose words they ‘trust’. They stuck to masks and distancing whenever ‘others’ came near. They missed their walks to see ‘grans who came for their eyes to be fixed.’

Namaste House masks March 2020

ROELLIS GARDEN

Bee keeping

Childrens Community Centre – Kothavalasa – Chickens, Goats and Cows with Bees too; it changes to suit the ‘green situation’. Part Beehives, Hens goats live in the area.. Cows next door but get Roellis Garden grass. It has Passion fruit (lost in last storm like all the vegetable garden. Wind blew down vine trellis and vine growing frames, washed away drip irrigation – still recovering. The bee keeping and expansion has started to give a good yield and priority use is for the children and then to sell the rest.

BEE HIVE PROJECT

Bee honey extraction Pintu

We did not expect a high yield in the monsoon season, but we were surprised how good it was. However there is a still a sad cloud over the Bee project. The two main persons who have maintained it – Sreenu and Ramu. We made many jokes about and to Srinu having so many ‘girls friends’ – He started by jokingly saying one day ‘I’m king of the bees’. It rebounded of course. He ‘crafted’ the project and taught a younger senior oo manage ‘ordinary work’ on Hives. Its not as easy as one thinks.

Ramu travels twice a week to support the checking that needs to be done. Both were trained in Beekeeping. Srinu passed away. No signs of Covid but he had travelled that was a little upsetting. On return he was ‘well’ Then within five days passed away. Its similar to many senior born HIV+ to pass like this. Conscious talking in coherently to within an hour of passing. A sad and great loss as he was also our intrepid garden planner.

The hives are about to expand in number with change of season and we aim for 34 hives! In all though its one of the most well used land areas. The major borewell collapsed and through a generous donor in U.K, was ‘re-drilled’ and working again. It was a drama! New Hope Schools Situation Our schools situation has been a great concern for Ruth and I; due to the Covid lockdown, households were not allowed out of their area. Families who could afford to pay for education unable to send their children, resulting in a huge financial loss for our school.

As the pandemic wore on, those same families were themselves heavily impacted with many losing their jobs and livelihoods. We have sadly had to take the decision to suspend our school programme for a year in order for the economy to pick up again and for a return of children from families able to pay. It is the fees paid by these families which help to fund the education of our orphaned children.

New Hope looks forward to 2023 when we are able to open our school. Ruth and I have arranged for children from those families who would have lost out to be able to attend a government school so that they do not lose out on their education. It is with relief that we can let you know that our Rainbow School, for vulnerable children with highly compromised immune systems due to HIV, is continuing to run. Orphan children even though Ruth and I are their Guardians were told to return to their last address! This was one of those red tape rules that put children at risk.

So for example a ‘uncle’ came and left the child with us because both parents had died. Mother came as husband deserted and she begged to survive went back to the very situation that was the reason for them to be with us! No child from a economically sustainable situation comes to New Hope. It meant we supported aged Grandmothers to care for a child who they may in real life hardly seen the child. It was a stressful situation . These are children who were in a safe environment put out in areas where Covid was rampant. The children had clear instructions on safety. Most ‘persons who took a child’ also understood the risk that that they would somehow be held ‘responsible if the child became infected by their neglect. Six months and slowly we simply ‘manipulated the system! Its hard to express stress at this time.

Nurses supervised training 2021

One of the most in need girls has been returned to us In the midst of all that we have struggled to ensure senior girls were cared for in skill training The senior girl in the photo has a Grant to cover a major part of her Auxiliary Midwife Nursing course – Thank you Soroptimist – Manchester.

This is not appeal letter – but to share with you – after a long silence that we have all experienced in many different ways during the last 2 years of Covid. We are thankful to those who give through www.newhopeuk.org – Virtual gifts – More hens, a Beehive as a birthday gift, sandals for protective footwear for leprosy affected and Love Bundles. All appreciated – all needed.

May 2022 be a ‘safe’ and healthy year for all of us as individuals, families, communities and nations Eliazar T. Rose, Director New Hope India newhope@live.com.

Thanks to the New Hope UK Trustees who all give time, effort and more as real volunteers.

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust

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.

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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.

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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

A Cow in Four Parts

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

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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.

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A Cow in Four Parts

Bike Ride Tours India

The Indian off the tourist track 12 day adventure.

WHEN January 2019

FUNDS RAISED are all for direct benefit of leprosy affected persons and disabled children, homeless women,  talk with children whose backgrounds are mostly simply ‘sad’ but what they have achieved is incredible.

ARRIVE INDIA January 24th to 4th February, 2019 – holiday time and the most pleasant weather time in this part of India. (Option to stay on another week if you wish to do volunteer work)

THE COST for the whole time with us is $1500 AUD –we have new easy to ride 3 gear bikes with carrier. A vehicle follows you with food and equipment where needed. You will travel off the usual tourist track 90% of the time and see places most never get a chance to and at a seasonal time when in rural India there are many activities. Its in northern Andhra Pradesh and into western Odisha (Orissa). (Visakhaptnam, Araku, Vizianagaram, Bobbili, Rayagada, Muniguda, Sambalpur are all marked on most maps

SENIOR CITIZENS who would simply like to, come and not ‘ride’ can travel in the backup vehicle. (With me Eliazar, Director – I’m not a bike rider!!!) ($120 SAVING ON Cycle). All medical facilities are available in Visakhapatnam and Sambalpur where we travel)

YOUR FIRST STAY will be in New Hope Children’s Community Village – and do 2 days volunteer work if you wish – gardening, teaching English, carpentry, cooking. Go by train to a ‘hill station with incredible views of land and rural villages as its winds it way up. to Araku and see Tribal Kondh villages as you ride through the countryside.

New Hope is now responsible for the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation First Aid Centre in a small town called Chilakalapalli. It has a 20 bed Ward. To get there we will ride to Vizianagaram from the starting point which is in Visakhapatnam* New Hope Kottavalsa Community Centre. Take a train to Bobbili and ride Bikes through rural country side to the Centre. From there ride through villages to highway and up to a stop at small Indian town. Ride around and stay overnight at Bobbili in a clean Indian Lodge (Hotel without license) Travel to Muniguda and see the New Hope Community Centre with the Hospital where so many people have given to have poverty line women and aged leprosy patients being prepared for cataract eye surgery. Meet the challenged young people of Namaste House and stay in the Centre for 2 days, meeting Tribal women who will come down from the hills on the way to market. Then travel by train to Sambalpur nearest to the leprosy colony where we spend a day interacting with the community. The leprosy colony visit shows a different village lifestyle. There is a side trip to visit Hiracaud Dam. In Sambalpur see a unique pattern and method of tie dye cloth unique only to this small area of India. Train in in evening return to Kothavalasa. Children Community Centre.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK A NEW HOPE BIKE RIDE

The cost of your trip in India is based on a group of 12 people. Any fund raising done before the trip for New Hope would be appreciated. Are you ready for twelve of enthralling mind boggling adventure? Experience of a life time.

The Track

The Track

Accommodation

Accommodation

Visiting Villiages

Visiting Villiages

 

Premala's Shop

Premala’s Shop

Premala whose shop you see is part of the New Hope story. A small girl with Polio – Corrective surgery through Namaste House (Home for Challenged Children. Educated and rehabilitated. Namaste House is still the only recognised care home for older young people with challenges.

Giving Love Bundles to aged Tribal women, aged leprosy patients in the colonies we visit on the bike ride is part of the story of care and concern for truly poverty line people.

Tribal Women

Tribal Women

Bike Ride Tours India

Christmas News 2012

Christmas Love Bundles are given out to aged Leprosy patients and you receive a card to pass on as a gift to others, for every Christmas Love Bundle purchased. Maybe you will buy a Love Bundle card on behalf of your family or to give as a gift to a friend or family member who you know would rather see that you have, on their behalf given a gift that will change a life, than be given another $20 gift voucher for yet another CD!

$20 dollars is all it takes to give something so treasured to people in much need of items so simple. Their excitement in receiving a Love Bundle is amazing to be there to witness.
When the bundles are given out there is also a special lunch held. It is very humbling to sit down with 80 or more aged patients and see the joy in their eyes and faces for what the day, through you, has brought to them.

We HOPE that you can find it in your heart to purchase a Love Bundle on behalf of someone you love. It brings JOY, LOVE & HOPE.
Thank you again, for your support. Without it New Hope would not be and the people in need would not have a joyous Christmas.

To you & your families….Christmas joy and blessings.

Maggie Sister.

========================

This is what the Love Bundle Card looks like

The card has a photo on the front that shows an aged persons and what they are receiving.

To _________________________________

For_________________________________

From_______________________________

To those who give and those who receive a Bundle of Love card, all have been part of a chain of events that has changes the quality of life of one or more of some of the poorest isolated elderly Leprosy patients in india. All we can say as the people who received tyre funds and make it possible to happen is –

THANK YOU

Eliazar T. Rose
Chairman, New Hope India

Maggie sister, Founder Member
New Hope India Relief Australia

This is what you gave with ever $20 Gift Bundle of Love. Each Love Bundle gives elderly Leprosy Patient, a new comb, sandal, sari, bath towel, soap, coconut oil, scented powder, hair clips and sweets. Bundles of Love are really more than just presents or a gift. They contain practical needed items.
A comb with a long and wide handle, that is easy to hold as many of the aged leprosy patients have deformed hands.
A pair of sandals, Velcro tape straps, inserts made from soft flexible rubber. The soles are tough recycled car tyre rubber. . Each is made to fit the foot as almost all the aged have a serious foot deformity. The sandal prevents ulcers caused through the now curable disease.
For the women, a bright Indian sari, which they swap with other women to get the colour that ‘suits’ them. The men are just as enthusiastic to get a new ‘western’ shirt and the traditional loongi. A cotton bath towel is must too.
It`s a great time to be here when the Bundles are distributed. For the aged who receive these Bundles, hair oil, scented powder, hair clips for the women-are all luxuries.
New Hope Australia is an incorporated registered charity, with DGR Status
– The donations made are tax deductible.

The Love Bundle and whats inside

New Hope Love Bundle

New Hope Love Bundle

Christmas News 2012