A Bit More About Ashirvad

Hi Everyone,

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all the dad’s back home!!

Just want to say thanks to everyone for reading the blog – it’s been really great to get your comments and feedback and to know that there are people thinking of us – thanks!!

Thought it might be good to give a bit more of an update on what we have been up to and the children’s home – I’ve put up a whole lot of photos, so check those out and hopefully here I can give a bit of an explanation.

Construction continues on the Ashirvad Kanti children’s home and facility. The building is now at a point where it is liveable and workable, so the children and the staff have moved in. However, you’ll see from the photos that there is still a lot of work to do, including painting of the walls, installing fixtures like lights and fans, installing the lift, completing electrical cabling, furnishing and clearing of the site / landscaping on the outside. Having been here for these three short weeks and setting up our flat, we have a very small insight into how difficult it is to get things done here, and how long it takes. We are in awe of what Ashirvad have achieved – this building itself is a huge testimony!!

The facility is four stories. Ground Floor will be the Administration Block. The Director’s office is here, as well as offices for other staff. There is a large hall which can be used for training programs – this will also be rented out to various groups. Space like this is hard to come by, so this will be a good for the community and also generate income for Ashirvad with the hiring fees. Last week, an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was held in this hall – alcoholism is a big problem here, and this meeting was done in partnership between Ashirvad and AA. Men from the local slums came, along with their wives and children who also need support. Marty and I were privileged to be able to attend this. We didn’t stay the whole time, as it was all in Hindi so we got a bit lost! But it was amazing to see the men from the AA group standing up and testifying to how their lives have been changed.

Other income generating projects will also be on the Ground Floor, including book binding (the old-school way!) and tailoring. Finally, there are two guest rooms on this floor, which will be available for people like you, should you ever have the opportunity to come and visit Ashrivad for yourselves!

First Floor will be dedicated to Medical and Health – HIV / AIDs awareness programs and training and nutrition projects. There is also a dispensary on this floor and a sick bay if any of the children become ill. Next Tuesday, Ashirvad are running a nutrition program in the Gorewada Slum, in conjunction with the government. This will be facilitating education of families on health, and particularly helping HIV / AIDs infected women to know what foods are best to eat so they can stay healthy for their families. Ashirvad will be providing nutrition packs. This is really exciting, and really shows the heart of what Ashirvad is about – going out to the local people and assisting them with their needs.

Second Floor is the Child Development Project – the children’s home. At the moment, there are 21 children living here, including two children from Melghat, a very poor tribal community where Ashirvad is also working. All of these children come from distressed backgrounds – many have lost fathers and siblings due to HIV / AIDs and their mothers are now sick. They are provided with a loving environment, food, shelter, education and their families are given support. Twice a year during school holidays, the children return home to their families and communities to spend time with them.

Finally, the Third Floor will form the Education Centre. The goal is to start a primary school here for the children in the home and the local community.

Above the final floor there is a terrace which gives an amazing view of the surrounding area. There is capacity to extend additional floors later on, should this be required.

It’s really exciting to see how far this project has come. More exciting is seeing the kids flourishing and seeing the surrounding community being impacted.

Most days Marty and I spend some time at the home with the children. After school, they have recreation, so we have been loving just hanging out with them and playing games. Some of the kids from the surrounding area come and join in too, which is really fun. They love cricket (of course!) and soccer. This presents somewhat of a challenge for Marty and I, neither of us being particularly sporty, but at least I am still better than some of the little kids!

When we go to the home, we also chat with the staff, getting to know them and trying to encourage them in their work. Most speak English, but at varying levels, so it is fun for them practicing their English with us, and for us testing out our Hindi. We are picking up more words every day (mainly me because I’m actually studying, unlike Marty!) and you can see that people really enjoy it when we make an effort with the language.

We have also been assisting Pushpa with organising some of the furnishings for the building. You will have already seen the post about the light bulbs – we have also organised wall fans for the ground floor hall, and ceiling fans for the rest of the building. This too has come from the Australian donations – it’s so hot and humid here, the fans are really essential, so it’s been great to help with this. Marty is so good with organising this kind of thing, so we can see that this is probably an area he will be involved with, assisting Pushpa to get all these final things done.

Our flat has also taken lots of time – we all laugh together about ‘Indian Standard Time’ but it is a serious thing! Quite difficult to work with and it really has been tough to get things done. But we should be moving in tomorrow which will be great! From there we hope to establish a bit more of a routine and start to sort out with a bit more clarity what we will be involved in.

Last Saturday, Ashirvad had their Annual General Meeting and Board Meeting, which we were invited to be a part of. This gave us a better insight into the activities and working of the ministry and some ideas of areas where we can be of help. We are receiving lots of invitations to visit people in their homes and visit the various churches of the staff, so we are enjoying meeting people and absorbing Indian culture.

There’s so much more I could say – so much we are seeing and experiencing. Yesterday we went to Nagpur railway station – a whole blog in itself! Hard to share it with you all, but will keep trying to give you as much of a glimpse as we can. I think this post is long enough for now! Enjoy the photos, our love and thoughts to all of you!