Chris and Kris temporarily not in India 28

Well where to begin………………

As most of you know we came to India 2 years ago to serve God and help those who we could, either educationally or through improved health.

We have been working for an NGO as unpaid volunteers in Udaipur who through Micro Finance help many rural people improve their lives.

Although we were very impressed with the work they do it didn’t allow for much funding for our projects, so on the whole we funded them ourselves.

During our second year Chris decided to start his own collection of Malaria bugs, three in all. Those of you, who read this regularly will know the story so won’t repeat it again here, suffice it to say he very nearly died but £2000 later he is still with us.

At this time we started developing a plan to take health and education to the rural villages. This was prompted by the number of ‘clinics’ we had seen dotted about the state, set up and then abandoned for various reasons, lack of funds, expired visa’s etc. Our Idea was to equip a vehicle to go to the villages instead of the villagers going to a (miles away) clinic, that may have closed.We had decided to leave the NGO we were working for and try to find another NGO that would finance the plan we had.

We have volunteers to man it, a Doctor, Kris as a Breast Cancer self-examination trainer, we may have a gynaecologist, Chris teaching English and testing the wells for harmful pathogens. If the water is ‘foul’ we will then introduce ‘Sodis’ a cost free (to user) non chemical or electrical water purification method approved by the world health organisation as 100% effective to the families of that village. This is the system we use at home to purify all our drinking water from our well that is contaminated by human waste.

Based on the latest figures (2011) registered deaths (these figures do not include rural unregistered deaths) 4000 babies died from drinking infected water that year………..that’s probably about a third of the true figure as only deaths in the cities and more densely populated areas are recorded.

The shock is that this refers ONLY to Rajasthan, not India as a whole, one state where we live babies die in thousands every year from infected water supplies, and still the population and the death figures rise year on year.

Our friends and people around where we live were so appalled by these figures and so impressed by our plan that they got together and raised enough money to fully fund the project (including the cost of the vehicle) for the first year to give us a ‘breathing space’ to find more sponsors. We both ended up it tears when we heard this, aren’t ordinary people wonderful.

We presented the idea to our NGO verbally and they seemed enthusiastic about it, so we went home and wrote a project plan, fully costed and presented it for consideration. At this time any idea of leaving to find better funding was obviously unnecessary now, that in itself would save us thousands of pounds in air fares and visa's and all in all we were happy to continue with them working on this fresh project.

We received an e-mail from the managing director saying it sounded as good in writing as it did at the verbal presentation ‘a very handy# idea’ (# Indian for useful).

A few days later we received an e-mail stating that due to a policy change they would not be renewing our visa’s and did not want to take up our idea as they were now only employing Indian volunteers as core workers.

We were completely baffled by this change of attitude, and policy,  a fully funded plan had been refused!

We still don’t really understand the motives behind this decision, but if it was a Godly choice then of course we accept it.

So, we had no employer to stay in India and a group of very confused sponsors, doors seemed to be closing everywhere on us.

We of course spent a lot of time in prayer, we still believed that we were sent to India by God and that he would ‘make our path clear’, In Him we maintained our faith and went to work finding a solution.

We looked at several other NGO’s (non-governmental organisation, (basically charities)) and then at the suggestion of one of our sponsors we were invited to spend three days in Mada, Dungapur  talking to PEDO (Peoples Education and Development Organisation) the oldest and most respected NGO in India. (See ‘Visit to Pedo in this blog). We are amazed by the openness of their organisation and the work they are doing.

We were both offered jobs with them there and then but felt that it wasn’t for us as it would have meant moving from Udaipur and all our friends, so we returned home to continue the search.

Running concurrently with our search our friends had decided that if they were going to sponsor us, why didn’t we form our own NGO? (Skipping lots of work and frustration) this is what we have done, so as of Oct 2014 ‘The Health and Development Society’ (HDS) was officially approved as an NGO in Rajasthan. One snag however, to employ us with no track record would have been very difficult.

A few days after our return from PEDO we met with our senior Pastor who was in India for a visit. We explained our situation and that we were still following in faith God’s path for us.

We were going to pack only our most precious possessions and pray we didn’t have to ship them to the UK.

On the way home we both felt so guilty……….how can we be trusting in God and have a plan ‘B’? Needless to say we e-mailed Alan and explained….no plan B! No packing!

When Peter got out of the boat with Jesus did he have a life vest on……………no plan B.

That same evening a friend who is part of our (now) NGO called around to let us know that an Architectural college in Udaipur were looking for teachers in, among other subjects, Art and Design and spoken English! We went for the interview, a two day affair that included teaching and a workshop session with different levels of students. At the end of the process they offered us both jobs. They want to support our NGO by ‘lending’ us students as part of their sociology studies so they can experience other ways people live in their country.

PEDO have also been in touch and offered to ‘take us under their wing’ helping us find sponsors and avoid the early pitfalls a new NGO faces. To be associated with such a group is a fantastic bonus. We have also been offered a web site by a company that designs them and wants to support us.

So here we sit in the UK waiting for Visa’s to be approved. If you can’t see the hand of God in all this…look harder!

Our NGO
                                   H.D.S.

(The Health and Development Society)

An NGO registered in Rajasthan India

Mission Statement

·        To provide free health care and training to rural communities.

·        To provide safe clean water where needed to communities at no cost to the user.

·        To develop any method or scheme that will improve the standard of living and education of all communities of whatever race, creed, colour, caste or religious belief.

·        To whenever possible empower women in the community to take a leading role in projects.

…………………………..

UPDATE....are you sitting down...............our Visa applications went to the Indian High Commissioner Tuesday AM on the 28th, back in our hands Friday 31st 10AM approved, 4 DAYS!!! Unheard of, isn't God great.

Visit To PEDO.

Our room in the home of Pedo's CEO.

Their main facility

Hospitality second to none.

A massive water conservation project being developed, one of many they have undertaken.

Still lots to do but the scale is huge, when finished it will be more like a series of small lakes than ponds!

Land reclamation, re forestation,
even after the monsoon this land is all but barren.

25 years ago work to reclaim the land began, this is the result.

Today the work is continued by the local people who now tend this valuable resource.

 Planting still continues

A changed world, from desert to lush green, Pedo began it and local people took it on and continue to this day to reclaim their lost land.

Micro Finance

Pedo also set up micro finance groups controlled and run by the village women. Once set up Pedo withdraws to an advisory role only. All decisions about loans, payments etc are made by the women themselves, defaulters are unheard of.

Groups in action

One lady bought this for her husband, he now hires himself out to other
farmers to cultivate in an hour what used to take a day.

The women run everything the guy (a son) is
there to make notes and record decisions made.

Pride on every face we saw

Top quality livestock giving high yields

They have their own dairy where the milk quality
is tested and they are paid for it.

This is just a glimpse of the work they do, it really is the model to aim for, they started with nothing and through sheer hard work have become the largest, most respected and most transparent NGO in India supported not only by companies like Coca Cola but by the Indian Government. The projects they undertake all have one thing in common, Pedo starts it, gets it running then hands it to the local people who continue it and gain all the benefits for themselves ............no middle men, no outside control, now thats empowerment! 

Home

We were asked the other day 'is it good to be home?'  well frankly this for us isn't home anymore, we love this country but our home is in India, our work is in India. 
It's great to be able to visit old friends again, see faces we thought we might not get to see again, attend our Church here in the UK but despite all that we long for home.

I have had a chest infection, Kris now have a cold, coughing and sneezing with a sore throat, I guess we have lost our immunity to UK bugs!

Driving is weird...............nobody comes the wrong way, everyone signals, no horns, dipped lights at night, and weirdest of all, no wandering cows or water buffalo, it worries me. I am too used to the Udaipur dance!
One thing we have noticed here is the driving is far more aggressive, nobody helps anybody, all push and shove, Indian drivers are far more polite and cooperative with each other, it seems although there are FAR more rules here the drivers need them to control the road rage and general selfishness. This of course does not apply to all, there are caring considerate drivers here but I have to be honest and say we have found them to be in a minority.

Comments from Kris.

We arrived as Chris said to a cold foggy Heathrow to be met by my brother Ian then travelled a further hour by car South to Tunbridge Wells, Kent to his home. By this time both Chris and I were very tired and jetlagged and my derriere was very sore from sitting so long. 

It was great to spend time with my brother Ian, his wife Marti, and the children. Marti is a very good cook and made a special effort to give us all the foods we had missed over the last 2 years. She even cooked us a curry to remind us of home in Udaipur. Their hospitality was superb and I can't believe how grown up the children are now Sylvie is 8yrs, Alex (Alexander) is 6yrs and shy little Emma is 4 yrs old. We would have liked to have spent more time with them but we had to get up to Durham to get on with our visa applications. 

All together playing happily well at least for now!

Sylvie 

Alex

Emma

Marti together with Sylvie and Alex just returned from school

My brother Ian kindly drove us up to Durham via South Wigston, Leicester so we could visit my mothers sister my Aunt Jenny and my cousins Sue and Natalie and their families. My Aunt Jenny is very frail now and not in good health so this was probably my last chance of seeing her as we are returning to India soon. We spent a very happy couple of hours catching up before finally heading North to Durham. By the way my Aunt Jenny and Chris had an arrangement at our wedding, which was if I didn't turn up for the wedding they were going to run off together with Aunt Jenny on the back of Chris's motorcycle. Aunt Jenny still has a cracking sense of humour and here are a few photos of her.

Aunt Jenny at rest

Aunt Jenny and Kris

Aunt Jenny with her granddaughter Natalie and my brother Ian with my cousin Sue in the background

Chris, Aunt Jenny and I just before we left.

Chris with Aunt Jenny she'd still run away with him if she could catch up with him hee hee

Aunt Jenny laughing at one of Chris's jokes wonder how much he paid her? hee hee
We arrived at our friend Eileens home who kindly looked after us and even put me on her car insurance so I could borrow her car from time to time which was very good of her. The surreal thing is I sold the car to her just over 2 years ago before we left for India and it felt just like yesterday getting into it and driving. Someone at church even commented that they had seen my car in the car park, Eileen was stood next to me at the time and I said no its actually Eileens car now, and I was just borrowing it.  

This is Eileen in her bungalow still smiling mind you that was before she got in the car with me hee hee hee

Being back at Emmanuel Church was a great experience so many people to catch up with and so little time to do so.

It is very odd that now I'm back in the UK I can see how aggressively people drive compared to India where although I admit it looks like bedlam is quite organised and polite. On the plus side in England people do tend to drive on the correct side of the road, obey traffic lights and signs and go around roundabouts the correct way. It has been nice to have the use of a car from time to time as otherwise it would have been difficult and expensive to get to see people. So a large thank you to Eileen for loaning me her car and to my brother Ian for loaning his car to me whilst we were in Kent. Andy and Isla kindly offered us a roof over our heads and took the worry of where we would stay from us by letting us use one of their student lets, so thank you both for your kindness and generous spirits.

Thursday night Chris, I, Les, Les's son John and Eileen spent a very enjoyable night at Evenwood Club playing pool and snooker. The snooker match was a doubles with Chris and I against Les and John and Eileen was the referee, this was the longest snooker game I have ever played two and a half hours and still not completed. In the end despite Chris and I being ahead we decided to call it a draw. It was a good laugh especially when I missed shots. My excuse and I am sticking to it was due to the shakes from the Salbutamol inhaler I was taking as I was very wheezy from a virus I have. I blame Chris for giving it to me. I am still losing my voice which Chris says is a blessing ....Cheeky boy! I will be glad when I get rid of it and the chesty tickly cough that is making me feel mega tired. It seems our resistance to UK bugs is very low at the moment.

I am still blown away by how quickly our visa applications came through, God's so amazing if you put your trust in him. As Chris and I have said when we try to take control all goes wrong but when we allow him to steer and we just paddle our boat all goes according to God's plan.

God willing we will be back in Udaipur in November which is terrific. I need to try and get my family organised here so we can visit before we leave and time is running out.

We have started shopping for our wish list of things to take back to India which are not available there. Just a few things now left to get so we are pretty organised. 

Our next step is to arrange flights to India after 9th November as we will be giving a small presentation about Panawar so people can see the changes that have occurred in the last 2 years. 

Finally a big thank you to family and friends who welcomed us back to the UK for our holiday.

Our next blog will be from sunny Udaipur, Rajasthan India.

God Bless

Kris and Chris