THE CONTAINER - Bodhgaya India

Posted by Keith Clifton 
 

Has it really arrived?  YES!!

With Gratitude from Diane Kirwin KIRF India - Bodhgaya

 

 

Extracts from From KIRF India Newsletter March 2009

We are grateful that the long awaited container, generously dispatched from Hamilton Rotary Club, Bermuda, has arrived safely and now has free storage on our site.  Many problems still need to be unraveled before there can be any plans for distribution and Project Container will be ongoing for some time. The local villagers think that we are going to have cows, and use the container for a barn! 

We are continuing our attempts to make solid connections with a local Rotary Group in sincere hopes to enable an all important Matching Grant for a Rotary Water Initiative.  There has been one delay after another but the good news is that so far all contacts are interested and enthusiastic.  There is a dire need for water in the areas around our school so we do not have to look far for much needed water sources.

Yesterday was a day of celebration when we distributed caps to all the children.  KIRF INDIA's 'generous  Bermudian package mailers' sent an abundance of brightly coloured caps which we kept until just the right moment to distribute.

The day after we distributed caps, the children were given homeopathic powders for immunization against measles.  Naturally some students were absent for the cap distribution and naturally they came to school in hopes of a cap for themselves the very next day! Thus we had full attendance for the measles powders.  A good lesson learned.  Distribute something, even something tiny, the day prior to medical intervention!  Can you imagine the chaos of one hundred and twenty students, all having to have powder tipped into their mouths and all needing to drink water half an hour later!  Yet we did it!!

Progress has been made in the efforts for the three polio boys. We will take Viswenath to a dermatologist in Gaya.  It is easy for the innocent to 'fall through the cracks' when they do not have an advocate.  I have learned through bitter experience that I cannot assume anything even though the Root Mobile Clinic is at Savodaypuri twice a month. I am endeavouring to have regular physical therapy and other necessary treatments in line for these boys prior to my leaving.  Sometimes I feel like screaming at the sky "and no one really cares" when I see all the suffering and yet I know that health workers are stretched to the maximum and that suffering abounds everywhere.  Unfortunately there is a pattern of 'no follow up' with so many patients.  It is really difficult for the doctors who know that continued help is necessary. I honestly do not know how the doctors continue onwards with never ending hope, yet they do.  We will plan yet another system for the polio boys.

Thank you very much indeed for all that you give to our project, in so many varied ways.  Please always know that we all are grateful.