PROJEKT-INDIENHILFE e.V.

Oktober 2001

 

 

  Deutsche Übersetzung

 

CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER

KOLKATA 2001

 

Dear Friends,

 

Every year Christmas season reminds us very specially, of our friends and benefactors. So it is a great pleasure for me to write a few lines to send you the warmest greetings from our center. I would like to share with you also some news about the work here.

 

The rainy season

This year we had more rain than usual. The rain was very frequent and very heavy and many nearby areas got flooded. So the school had to be closed occasionally. We tried to provide umbrellas to many of the poor children in our school. It was not possible to buy umbrellas for all the children because we have 700 children who attend our school. In the slums many of the houses were damaged and we helped some of them with money for repairs and to others we provided plastics to cover the roof.

 

Awareness of children’s rights

This year the United Nations Organization (U.N.O.) had asked the whole world to spread the awareness of the rights of children. Here, on different days, we organized two programmes to make children and their parents be aware of the rights of children. The children’s rights to education and freedom from exploitation were specially stressed by us through skits, songs and dances. The street children also took part in a procession in public, shouting slogans that their rights as children should be respected. This year we conducted weekly classes on hygiene for our school children and on Saturdays for the street children to instruct them on the need to take care of their teeth and to clean them well. They were all given tooth powder and toothbrush. In India good tooth powder is also available and it is cheaper than the toothpaste.

 

There is hope

Earlier, I had written to you about a little girl called Pinki Murmu. She is paralyzed from the hip downwards and she has no tract for passing stool, except the urinary tract. Due to paralysis, the passing of stool and urine cannot be controlled by her. For several months we tried to arrange an operation for her. Friends from abroad came to our help and very soon we got the necessary funds. We had Pinki checked up in Calcutta and also in Vellore, a famous medical college in South India. In both the Hospitals, the doctors told us that Pinki would need three or four operations that would require about three months’ time. Finally we decided to have the operations done in Calcutta. The doctors told us that the neurological operation on the spinal cord, was the first and the most difficult operation. On September 22nd the doctors did the neurological operation on Pinki. But after waiting for a week it is not clear whether she is improving. The doctors have told us that more time is needed to find any progress in the child’s recovery. They say that more operations will be required for her recovery. So we need your earnest prayers.

 

I have also another patient called Baby Singha who was a teacher in our school until she got married and left Calcutta. She needs now a heart operation that will cost about 5000 U.S.D because two valves have to be imported from the U.S.A.  Since three months, she has been going from door to door asking for help for the operation. She has also a baby to look after. I am hopeful that help will come from our friends slowly. My efforts in helping people do not always meet with success. One or two people who got hospitalized late and whom I helped did not recover. But I am happy to say that Ashima, a mother of two children, who is receiving help from me since two years, seems to be recovering from cancer.

 

Our help for the flood-affected people is continuing. Soon we hope to start building 15 houses in the villages where every year floods occur. We are able to continue the work for the poor with the generous help of many of you. I would like to thank you all for your constant help to continue our work.

 

Christmas gives us a message of optimism and I wish you all God’s blessings, especially peace and joy for the coming year. A very Happy Christmas and bright New Year to all of you!

 

Sincerely,

  

Fr. Joseph Aymanathil, s.d.b

 

(October, 2001).  

Bank No.

S.B. A/C. No 3296 Nitika Don Bosco  

The Federal Bank, Tangra Branch

Kolkata 700 015