PROJEKT-INDIENHILFE e.V.

Dezember 2002

  Deutsche Übersetzung

Christmas 2002

Dear Friends,

 As Christmas approaches, I feel that another year has passed very fast, since I wrote my last Christmas letter. It’s with joy and gratitude that I write this letter because I have much reason to thank you all for the great support you have given me for my work this year. So I am very happy to share some news about what has happened here in the recent months.

Teacher’s Day

 On September 5^th, we celebrated the teacher’s day in our school. This custom is very meaningful because teaching is a sacred profession in India. In our school there are 18 teachers who all come from the poor slums nearby and they work very hard for the poor children of our school. So all the children tried their best and prepared a good entertainment to honour the teachers. With the contribution given by the children I added some more money and provided a very good gift to each teacher and at the end we all had a good tea party.

Self-help projects

 Sewing machines: For some years I had been seeing the sufferings of the poor women here and I was sorry that I could not do much for them. Only if they can earn some money, they have some voice in their own house. In most cases the men do not look after the women and children well. One day, a girl Aysha by name, asked me help her to do a course in sewing and knitting. I helped her to complete the course, and later I asked her if she could find enough work if I bought for her a sewing machine. She was overjoyed at my proposal and immediately told me that she would get sufficient money at least for her food and clothes if she had a machine. Soon I found other girls and women who were in a similar situation. After making detailed inquiries about their condition, I bought 13 sewing machines with the help of friends in Germany and distributed them to the 13 selected girls and women. I also arranged three special classes from expert tailors and gave them some additional training to what they already knew. Now they are all happy to work and earn some money and they feel a great sense of satisfaction and dignity. The young girls who got the sewing machines have now a better chance of getting a marriage proposal. I am now helping a group of girls and women to get trained so that next year they get a sewing machine each.

 Doing business: One day I met Dilip Mondol a young boy whom I had helped to do some training as a driver. But even after the training he could not get a job. So I suggested to him to become a hawker and sell the things I would give him. He was very happy with the idea and I supplied him with bags and clothes, which I had bought at a cheap rate from businessmen. Then one day a friendly businessman brought me a lot of cosmetics, soap and toothbrushes, which a company was disposing of at a very low price. I organized the sale of these items with Dilip and some of my teachers and now they are all making some small income every day. They have also learned how to do business and from now on they themselves will be able to continue buying and selling without my help. We have also encouraged and promoted other private initiatives like bag making, statue moulding and card painting. Monalisa is a poor girl who paints and sells cards to me because she wants to get money to complete her studies.

Sponsorship of children

 We have now about 450 children who are helped to study through sponsorship help given by our friends. Every year about five or six drop out of school due to neglect on the part of their parents or due to early marriages. This happens more in the case of girls. By following each child personally, I find that the success rate is much higher than what normally is achieved in the case of slum children. We also send some young boys and girls for job training when they cannot continue their studies. At times, we are not able to give more information to the sponsor about the child and also make sure that each child writes the Christmas or Easter letter very personally. Often children copy letters from one another, because they do not know how to write very personal letters. So please do have patience even if everything does not go according to your expectations. But the children are cared for, personally, closely and generously. It is difficult to foresee what can happen in the life of children from the slums and we do get some surprises now and then. I do appreciate very much the understanding and patience shown by all of you, and above all the constant support you all give us for the work we do here for the poor.   

I would like to conclude this letter, wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and assuring you all of my prayers.

Sincerely,

Fr. Joseph Aymanathil, s.d.b   (Dezember, 2002).   S.B. A/C. No 3296 Nitika Don Bosco   The Federal Bank, Tangra Branch Kolkata 700 015