hai,

Today is the last office day for Martha here in India for this trip. We were discussing  a few things about the betterment of our work. Tomorrow morning she is leaving to Chennai and from there, she is flying back to Germany. I believe this trip went successful for her. We enjoyed our company and i think its great working together.

Karamchedu new medical centre

Hai,

Today we visited Karamchedu, the new medical centre area. Karamchedu is a village 15kms away from Chirala. It is a village consisting of both very rich upper caste people and very poor communities too. All the upper caste people are towards the centre of the village and all the other backward people are on the outskirts of the village. Many times we passed this village going to Guntur and we saw the needy people on the outskirts so we ourselves wanted to support this needy area with medical help which seemed very much necessary.

The area where we are going to open the centre is a christian minority area which is called Ambethkar Colony surrounded by two more backward communities.The people here are mainly agricultural labourers and milk vendors since the entire village is surrounded by paddy fields . Almost every family in this area has their own cow. Government started building houses  for them and the area is mostly clean but still there are areas which needs immediate help from the Government which include tribal area which has people who are mainly rag pickers , sweepers and some are rearing  pigs  for meat. There are about 500 families here which come under backward castes.

We came in contact with some of the village elders and discussed our plan of arranging medical help in this area and they offered their village community hall for starting a medical centre. The nurse is also from this area. Her name is Prasanna. She had 5 years experience as a nurse in one of private hospitals in Guntur and Hyderabad. After her marriage she moved to Karamchedu to stay with her husband and he is working as a daily worker in a tobacco factory. She has a son who is 1year old and presently she is free, taking care of her son. She is willing to work at the medical centre since her in-laws are there to take care of her son at home and also she is living close to the medical centre.

Very soon we are going to open the medical centre here within a week's time. . The community hall needs painting and as soon as we finish that work, the centre will be ready for inuguration.

Office

Hai,

Today we are free since we finished all our project visits. Myself and Martha did some shopping and some accounting. Martha bought a new dress for herself but she was furious bcoz all the nice dresses are in small sizes.We were looking for a music player for Naveen but not sure if he needs a radio or real ipod.

Sampath nagar and Ramapuram medical projects

Hai,

Today is our last visit to projects. Two medical centres on the outskirts of Chirala.
One is Ramapuram medical centre which is located in the fishermen area 1km away from the beach.  The medical centre here started in 2005 after the Tsunami  effect.

Around 12 fishermen died and many nets and boats were lost in the Tsunami here in Ramapuram.  Shoshana helped many families here with nets and rice bags.Many N.G.O's and Government extended their help to this area which was only one time but Shoshana wanted to give regular help to the people here with a medical support which is very much needed here.

The nurse working here is Anandakumari. She is a divorcee and she has two boys who has genetic disorders by birth. Shoshana helped one of her sons(Naveen) to get operated on his intestines  in 2008. Lately two weeks back his health deteriorated and he was almost on death bed. Many people are praying for his recovery and by God's grace he is getting better. Ananda was on leave for two weeks and she joined her duties only three days back. We visited Naveen at his home and he is getting better but he seems lonely for staying alone at home all the time. He is so weak that he is unable to walk so we are planning a care taker for him until he gets better and be on his own.

Second project is also a medical centre in Sampath nagar, Chirala. This was mainly started to give  medical support to a tribal community. The nurse working here is Maheswari.. The centre here was stared in 2003. The area here was backward and away from the town when we started and now it is slowly developing. Martha gave suggestions to the nurse regarding the betterment of her work and also for the renovation of the centre for having a  better impression of the people who get help here.

Martur medical and Narasaraopet Sewing Project

Hai,

Today along with Martha i visited two projects. One is Martur medical centre which is in Prakasam Dt and Narasaraopet Sewing project which is in Guntur District.

Martur is famous for Granite Cutting factories.People all over the country come over here to work as daily workers and they have special colonies near the factories for their living. Dry and dusty areas with lots of pollution. Factory workers are facing breathing problems and they are constantly hurt lifting those heavy rocks. Men and women work here and even children who are drop outs are working. Majority are granite workers , some are rickshaw pullers and daily workers in fields.

Some people from Martur formed as a society and started social activities in some needy areas like locating the drop outs and bringing them to School, water facility and as a part of their work they approached us and explained us the need of medical help in this area and requested for a medical centre.

We surveyed the area and started giving medical help here from 2005. The nurse here is Mrs.Sujatha. She is a trained nurse and midwife. She is taking care of the people here and before she used to attend delivery cases on her own  but now she is not allowed to do so she is bringing the people to the near by Government hospital if there is any emergency case. The rest like giving out medicines and infusion , she is doing at the medical centre.

Second project is a Sewing centre in Narasaraopet. The instructor here is Mrs. Santamma.  She is an experienced tailor ,working for the last 20 years and besides that teaching a few needy women  stitching for free of cost. She came to know that with our support she could help more needy women for their self help. We started working from 2007 onwards. The sewing centre area is a mixed area with middle class and very poor people. Santamma besides stitching is good in teaching wool, plastic handicrafts which are useful in everyday life and she is giving chance for the students to share their knowledge with their fellow students if they have any new ideas and lately they started putting their products even for sale.

Guntur Sewing Projects

Hai,

Today our visit was to Guntur. One is a Sewing project with Anitha as Instructor. She is the youngest instructor among our projects. She is specially trained with handicrafts like embroidery, painting and producing art forms from waste materials. She came from a poor background and her parents couldn't afford to send her to school so she was working as domestic helper for a few years in Singapore. She suffered working as helper so came back to India and she started learning handicrafts.

We started working with her from 2008 onwards. She had only 5 students for the first two batches. The present batch i.e third batch has 10 students. She got used to teaching and started really getting into details and teaching the students exactly what is necessary. She has a son who is 3yrs old and her husband is a home guard. Her son was detected with intestinal problem which needs operation. She is worried and need your prayers for his speedy recovery.

Second project is also a Sewing Centre in Guntur recently changed to a beautician course for the present batch.The instructor here is Rajani . Besides tailoring she is also a beautician. She has been working with us teaching embroidery and stitching from 2005.

Being a beautician she wanted to teach beauty course for the present batch just for a change and which is also a good source of income in this present day's society. The students after finishing their course they could work in any parlour. People now are very beauty conscious and this opportunity of learning free beauty course would definitely be a help for the needy women to earn their living. I hope this small experiment from our regular work really would be a help for the women for their self help.

Lohiyapuram and Epurupalem Medical Centers

hai,

Yesterday we visited two medical centers around Chirala. One is at Lohiyapuram towards Ongole and one is at Epurupalem towards Bapatla. Two areas belong to weavers community.  Majority of the people here do their traditional occupation from several generations.
Some have their own weaving Equipment and some work for a company who pays them little amount for their work which is not sufficient for their living. Majority of the weavers said that they have no unions to fight for their rights and no proper support from the Government to start their own business so some are going for different work like coolies and some old generation people who are afraid of losing their skill to pass on for future generations are staying back.

Government is allotting special areas for them to build houses instead of staying in rented houses. The Government is building houses and they have to pay back a little amount each month but most of the colonies are on the outskirts of the town. So the people  living there are far away from the town and even away from all the basic facilities.Local Government recently started building roads and giving water supply but still they doesn't have proper medical help.. Some of the local people took initiative to come up to us asking for medical help.We surveyed the area and we felt it is really needy and it would be useful for the people to have a medical help to those who can't afford to buy medicines and to those like old and handicapped people who can't afford to go to the town for even first aid help.

We started our medical support in Epurupalem in 2006 and the nurse working there is Buela Rani. She is a trained nurse with good knowledge about medication and people around her area are very happy with her services.

The Medical centre at Lohiyapuram started in 2008 and the nurse is Mrs. Varadamma. She is a village health worker who goes around the village and gives out medicines and injections. She is very familiar with the area and people there and people don't hesitate to go to her to just talk to her about their problems besides getting medical help. We are very happy with what she is doing their in that area.