Following the devastating tsunami of December 2004 along the Chennai coast, many children lost parents and breadwinners in their families, leaving them in very difficult circumstances and with little hope of making a way for themselves in the future.
One of the orphan groups cared for by Moses & Team
Our partner in Chennai, Moses Prem Kumar, took personal responsibility for over 200 children and placed them in 6 group centres inland from the coast with house parents to care for them. The living costs in these places are lower than in and around the city.
The plan is to eventually bring the children together into a purpose built centre in Yelambakkam about 50 miles north east of Chennai. Here they can be cared for, fed, clothed and educated in safe and secure surroundings.
Architects impression of the orphanage
The first stage of the project is now complete and two acres of land has been privately bought from the Indian government, who have endorsed the plans to help these children. The overall land price is £8000 of which £5000 has been paid already. The first 30 children with their carers have moved into the first building on site, which has just been completed at a cost of around £11000.
It was my privilege to meet the children, workers and helpers and house parents over three days and to see for myself the building work in progress and the dream becoming a reality. As a sign of my personal long term commitment, I planted a coconut tree and a lime tree and said that I would come back to eat the fruit in years to come at Yelambakkam.
I took with me a long standing friend, Russell Havlin, who took holiday from his work at my old company, to help and make his contribution to the children at the centre.
As money permits, we will build more accommodation and facilities at Yelambakkam, which is big and spacious. The plan is to move the children, carers and cooks over to the new orphanage in their family units.
The first children are now going to school. This has to be paid for in India at around £30 per child per term. There are no concessions for orphans. Longer term it would be our intention to build classrooms and employ our own teachers at a much reduced cost, but we would need the Yelambakkam facilities registered and inspected for educational purposes.
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Bruce with the first 30 children who have moved into the first building on site with Bruce
‘The children were great. They welcomed us warmly and lined up at the gate for our arrival.’ Bruce said. |
It wasn’t long before they overcame their shyness and moved in for some love and personal attention from Russell and I. It was great to feel that our small contribution was making a big difference to their small world. They sang us some Tamil songs and became more confident and cheeky as time went on ! We bought some rice and ate together with them all.
The first building has been installed with fresh running water pumped from a borehole on site, flushing toilets and showers, an office, store room, kitchen and upstairs dormitory. Its all very luxurious by Indian standards and compared to the local village where the 250 families live almost destitute. It is our plan that the local village will also benefit from the facilities, which is why we included the local children in the gift distribution. Mains electricity has also been plumbed in and part of the work was a gift to the localcommunity of their first street lights.
