Chennai: Thiruvallur

We were up bright and early today, meeting our bus at 6:45 AM. Our hotel generously opened an hour earlier to accommodate our breakfast needs, and off we set for Thiruvallur, a small town located northwest of Chennai. This marks the third time I have been there making a distribution.

We arrived at a school that is sponsored by a Family Trust set up by the great grandfather of one of the Rotarians from the Ambattur Rotary Club. This generous family sponsors some five schools in the Chennai District. They support all the activities of this and their other schools, educating some 10,000 children. The school follows the State Educational Programs, but is dependent on the Family Trust for funding. This type of arrangement is not uncommon in India and accounts for a large portion of the schools. Those students who attend these schools are very fortunate indeed as the education and care is better than in the regular public system.

In Thiruvallur, we were going out some 548 bedkits to the needy. This distribution is much like the others, so I want to point out a few things of interest to you.

Today we interviewed three sets of parents along with their child receiving the bedkit. These interviews allow an exchange of ideas and opinions between the parent and child and SCAW, evaluating the bedkit as well as giving us some backgrounds about the status of things in the area where the bedkits are going. We found out:

1. All three children do not have any mosquito nets.
2. All three children slept on a woven mat on the clay floor of their home.
3. All expect to improve their grades using the items in the bedkit.
4. All will be sleeping under their mosquito nets tonight.

We spoke to one father who, in answer to what season of the year he dreaded the most, said it was the winter season when the weather was wetter. I had expected to hear that he dreaded the winter because of the cold -- but no, it was the wetness.

"Why?" I asked.

Because he would lose work. You see, he was a farm labourer who couldn't work in the fields during rainy times. Most of the people here live a "hand-to-mouth" existence and don't have savings or Employment Insurance to tide them over between work stoppages. The very existence of their family depends on steady work. No work = no food. And besides, this family has a young girl who lost her left leg when she was two years old through an accident. They need the support. Needless to say, the gift of a bedkit was very much in need and appreciated.

During the interviews, I was able to explain to the parents and child just how these bedkits came to be. They were donated by people who care. These donors know that they are donating a bedkit to someone who doesn't have a bed to sleep in. They consciously wanted your child to have a bedkit. Schools are a very important group that support the SCAW program. Children in these schools hold fund raisers; sales of toys; car washes; bake sales; used-book sales; doing chores around their homes; etc. This was very much about "children helping other children who need bedkits."

While the parent and child were listening to what I was saying, I could see they were visibly moved when they learned of the involvement of "children helping other children." They heard that the pictures taken of them earlier, would go to the donor to be hung up in schools, hung up in homes, in bedrooms, fastened to fridge doors by magnets, and otherwise displayed prominently in homes and offices, with pride. It was the donor's connection to your child and the bedkit they had paid for.

Thank you, donors, for making all this possible. Another 548 young minds and bodies are sleeping more comfortably tonight.

Respectfully submitted by
Tom Belton, Team Leader
for Team Chennai 2010

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