Day 8 January 26th 2023

Today was Republic day, a public holiday to celebrate the establishment of democracy in India. So no Happy Valley with its happy children.

We’ve been seeing some people that you are helping with regular contributions to the cost of medicine, and others who would like our help. Pappan is one of the latter. His heart medicines cost £12 a week, more than his and his wife’s pensions, their sole income, combined, and as a result he has been without these for the last three weeks. He also needs a scan which he cannot pay for. I gave him the cost of the scan and a contribution to his medicines, and have promised him a monthly contribution in future. Just £10 a month makes a huge difference to people like this.

Pappan and his wife

We also saw one of our new tuition groups. This one is in Mundela, and it has been going since last May. When we visited unannounced there were 14 children present, all getting help with their studies in maths, Malayalam and general studies. Their ages ranged from 4 to 12 – plus a free range toddler.

Mundela Tuition Group

In the evening it was an opportunity to discuss the future with Philip – how to spend our money as effectively as possible, how we plan for Philip’s eventual retirement, and how we might make a start on getting land and a basic building of their own for Happy Valley. Exciting times lie ahead!

Surudas’s home.  Surudas has kidney failure, and we help him regularly.