24/10/2011  Latest news from Kati Richter, Head Teacher at the School of Life, India.

 

• We started a Nursery at school for the malnourished little sisters and brothers of our students. It’s organized as follows: Pushba, our former cook (who never really wanted to be a cook, but wanted to take care of kids) is now in charge of five to seven malnourished toddlers aged 1-3. Right now they stay in our small room on the ground floor although we try to find another arrangement. Since the toddlers are all malnourished they need smaller fillings more frequent. In addition to the provided breakfast and lunch they get extra fruits and a vegetable soup. A big issue will be hygiene, since many of them have frequent diarrhea or vomit.
• Sangeeta, the widowed mother of Bharat is going to replace Pushba as a cooking assistant. This will provide her with the means of sustaining a livelihood, and she’s quite adament on not going for begging.
• We discovered a new swimming pool, not even too far away from here! The old one for some reasons closed. The “new” one is not new at all, we just didn’t know about it. It’s quite expensive, though. So far, we’ve been there once with some girls (it was a special girls day). Sheelu will try to get us a huge discount so that we’ll be able to take all of our children. The great thing is that the swimmingpool has various kinds of slides and the water is so shallow that it’ll be great for the younger kids as well.
• Sadly, Paulina left us in September. It was a great pleasure and relief to have her here, with her ideas and her questioning mind. We’ll miss her a lot.
• Sundar, one of our more (or maybe most) difficult hostel kids threw some very violent tantrums that resulted in us thinking of setting up an “anger chamber”, where he would be able to be agressive without hurting someone, tearing apart paper or old cloths, and, finally, calm down. Right now we use the bathroom, but that’s a solution just for the time being. Because of his Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Sundar has no normal control over his affects, and, therefore, needs some special treatment that secures the safety of our kids (and me). Last time, he threw floor tiles and brick parts at me and the kids. Luckily, he’s quite clumsy as well and didn’t hit any of us. But we don’t want to push it...

The constructions at the hostel started – there’s going to be a third floor soon! On one side Sven and me will live (and my old room and the office are going to be another apartment for kids) and the other side is going to be used as a kitchen and community area. We’re so excited. The plan: When it’s completed, 10 children will stay in one apartment. There are four apartments now, so it means that we will have room to admit 4 more children! But we’ll wait, because our newer kids are still adapting. Once they’re completely fine with our way of living at the hostel, we’ll be happy to welcome some more kids.

Well, that’s all I can remember now, although, of course, there’s more. We had a little flood, lots of sick children, and some problems in families of our teachers to deal with. At least it’s never going to be boring here...

Lots of love

Kati,

18/08/2011  Latest News from Kati Richter, Head Teacher at the School of Life, India.

Dear all,

After two months of holidays everyone's back at the hostel. School started on July 8th, and there are many good news to report, as well as some rather sad ones. I'm writing this newsletter after taking off three hours that I spent reading and drinking coffee and juice - somewhere far away from the kids. Feels like an eternity since I found the time to do that. Thanks to the internet that decided not to work before now :-) There has hardly been time to reflect on what has happened the last weeks as we are still in the progress of arranging everything at school and hostel. Let me share what's new:
 

• From 4-6th July we had a joined teachers workshop at our school with D-Foundation from Sarnath. They run a rural school meant to bring "academic excellence" into the village, yet they struggle with the very low teaching quality. Most of their staff was motivated and very eager to improve, it was a pleasure to work with them. Our teachers will visit their school soon when we're going to conduct a one-day workshop at their place.
• The regular Saturday Teacher's Training has started as well. Teachers from another project of D-Foundation in Ramnagar take part in it as well as teachers from the NGO "Indra Danush" (Rainbow). I will be in charge of monitoring their improvement as assistant teachers in two governmental schools and they are obliged to continously attend the training until May 2012.
• Sheelu employed a computer teacher, Ravi, who surprises us all by not only knowing his subject, but being creative and enthusiastic about his job. By now he must be the most popular teacher at school, because he enables the children to finally learn what we've always promised them: how to work on a computer. In our case it's laptops, we have 8 of them by now. The Benares Schoolfund Foundation donated 2000 € to purchase four brandnew laptops and other equipment. Ravi teaches them quite progressively - no book, instead practical exercises, activities and games to help them master the use of the mouse and basic english vocabulary they will need for further studies. The older ones have already started using the internet, working on individual projects during Independent Work.
• During Summer holidays Sheelu has been busy surveying the building of our small Library and Science/Computer lab. These are going to be two interconnected rooms being daily used by children during the Independent Work time as well as during computer classes. While some kids are going to work on the laptops the other ones have their library time. Since most classes have two computer lessons per week, it should work out fine. The rooms are not ready, though, no door and window, no paint, no furniture and no electricity. Hopefully the next newsletter will say something else.
• Vishwas and Vishnu, our two malnourished twins, are improving and gaining weight! Vishnu, the weaker one, was only 4,2 kg at the age of 2,5 years. He's now about to cross the 5 kg. Both of them suffer a chronic bronchitis or pneumonia. In addition, they have a very low haemoglobin value. Through food and careful medication we try to help them. Their diarrhea has finally stopped! I have NEVER in their whole lives up to now seen them having solid stool. Amazing. All children have to take turns in taking care of VIshnu and Vishwas- an important lesson not only in childcare and responsibility. It's great when our kids are able to help others.
• We have a new small boy at the hostel: Bharat (means "India") who is the 4 year old brother of Seema, a girl that joined the hostel in February or March. Their father died through an electric shock some months ago. He has been smelling of pee every single day since he joined the hostel, until I made it a rule that he has to shower in my bathroom every afternoon (no time in the mornings). He loves that, and finally one feels like embracing him :-)
• We employed another cook, Pushba. She was employed as a teacher before, but we had to send her away because her performance was so low, although we felt really sorry for her. Joining Bharti might be a good idea, she obviously has a good influence on her in terms of hygiene. Also, suddenly Bharti stopped her habit of eating a little something throughout the day :-) She's adamant about joining the teacher training so that we might give her another chance as a teacher in one or two years.
• Paulina, a volunteer from Poland, currently stays with us and is a great help at the hostel. In addition to taking care of the kids in the afternoons, playing with them or thinking of creative activities, she runs a weekly class wherein the children "travel" through different countries and get stamps in their passbooks, while practising their English and increasing their knowledge about other cultures. Everyone calls her Podina Ma'am (means peppermint and sounds so much nicer :-)
• July and August are months with many fairs in and around Varanasi. All kids went in groups, provided with 30 Rs. pocketmoney. I attach a picture of Khanneya and Arjun on the Merry-go-round, maybe some 20 seconds before it was too much for 3-year old Khanneya and he started crying. We had great fun :-) My group went with Krystina (a nurse teacher who does Health Promotion and supports us a lot) and Paulina.
• Today every kid got a new school bag with basic stuff - pencil, sketchpens, crayons, ruler, erasener, sharpener, pencilboxes, plus geometry boxes for the bigger kids. These bags are of a real good quality, so we hope they'll last longer than the old ones. Since we got them on the wholesale market, we paid 165 Rs. for one instead of 300 or 350 in a normal shop. We'll have to go again though, to buy bags for the smaller kids in Nursery.
• Bhola and me spent a whole afternoon and evening looking for a science supply shop where we could find the chemicals needed for experiments of classes 6 and 7. We were successful in the end and excited like little kids when we tried the stuff the following day to prove if a food item contains starch or protein. This adds a totally new dimension to learning opportunities we are able to offer our kids. Who would have thought that our children would be able to work with copper sulfate or make an iodine solution?
• Smriti, one of our teachers, is about to finish her Bachelor of Education with a two weeks exam starting next week. She for sure will succeed - we are so proud that she was able to finish her studies while working and handling her two kids at home.
• The salary of all staff has been increased to 6000 Rs. per month. We find that the minimum a working person should earn here in Varanasi, and it's your donations and continous support that enabled us to finally take this big step.
• Somyang, a South Korean tourist, saw the school and wanted to do something useful within the few days she spent in Varanasi. She called some friends and together they painted the toilets at school and hostel...! How great and unexpected.

Well, there has been more going on, but I need to rush off to a meeting, and this letter again has probably become too long...


Lots of love,


Kati










 

20/05/11  Latest news from Head Teacher Kati Richter at the School of Life, India.

Teacher Training

The session 2010/2011 was the first one in which we provided a continuous in-service capacity building not only for our teaching staff, but also for other interested schools. Therefore, we opened our weekly teacher meeting to outsiders and conducted workshops each Saturday morning. Apart from our staff, teachers from three other schools took part in the training and developed skills in the following areas: English as second language, English for teachers, multi-sensory teaching methods, integrated Arts education, and special needs children. The approach was to offer practical, step-by-step yet pedagogical sound strategies to untrained teachers who are overwhelmed by the complexity of the teaching-learning process. We were able to welcome specialists like Patricia Wagner (“Theater of the Oppressed”) and Nadine Langhard (Early Childhood Development) who enriched the program with their insights. At the beginning and the end of the session we attended seminars held by Priya Iyer (Psychologist, working for Azim Premji Foundation), who was concerned with aspects quality teaching.

The teacher training program holds responsible for the progress that can be seen in the teaching at school. Teachers need time to study, gain from new experiences, and learn earn about new approaches. But they also need time to plan ahead, structure their days, weeks and months. With splitting up the Saturday in two parts (training & planning) we try to allow for both.

Vishwas & Vishnu

Those of you who have read the last newsletter might remember the tiny twins Vishwas and Vishnu, who are two years old, yet were so malnourished that they resembled 6 month old babies. They have been improving tremendously since they stayed from morning to night at the hostel (starting at the end of February). The greatest moment so far was when I saw Vishnu actually LAUGHING; the first time ever in his life! It's a pity I wasn't fast enough to get the camera. The child in the picture is Vishwas, the “bigger” brother of Vishnu who is considerably stronger than Vishnu. To compare: Vishnu has a chest circumference of 35 cm, Vishwas 37 cm. In both cases, this is way too little – normal would be 74 cm... To get a better impression, see the video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVtSp7wFNU).

Something rather sad: During the four days summer camp where we took Vishwas and Vishnu as well, I never heard their mother (whom we took in order to enable her having holidays as well as taking care of her sons) saying a single word to them.

Creativity Week

Our 2nd creativity week took place from 18th to 22nd of April, and all kids from Pre-Nursery up to class 6 participated enthusiastically. The youngest mixed paint with coconut oil and coloured chalk and engaged in body painting. Nursery was in charge of building a flower bed by colouring and placing bricks, which they loved to do even if it meant working in the blistering heat. Classes 1 to 6 signed up to different projects according to their interest: Mandalas as a wall painting, using geometry and thread to create a three dimensional space, puppet making, candle holder made from broken mirrors, fashion designing, displaying different ways of pollution, or making bamboo baskets. Nadine gave us a donation from her friends/family of 5000 Rs. that we used to purchase the materials needed. The only thing that went completely wrong was the fact that we forgot to take pictures.

Final Presentation

As last year, at the end of the creativity week the children displayed whatever they had worked on and presented songs and plays studied throughout the year. In addition, two multi-level groups of children showed dramas they had developed on their own. Therefore, we had much more plays in the program compared to last year. It was impressive and a pleasure to see that even so the audience was attentively listening the two hours of the program. It made us proud to see even our younger students perform with such self-confidence and joy. The presentation took place at the hostel, because of the spacious field that we have there, and after the program Sheelu with the help of Siou brought LOTS of cold drinks, water lemons and popcorn. A great success. Sadly the pictures are much less beautiful than the reality was.

Progress Reports

Last year we didn't have enough time to prepare our progress reports, because in addition to marks we use a verbal feedback as the main means of tracking the progress of a child. Writing good – in terms of quality - verbal progress reports takes a lot of time, and this year we took the time. We sat down for one week after the final presentation and talked about each child and its development. On 29th April we invited all parents and their children in order to talk to them. We were surprised and overwhelmed with the amount of parents that appeared, we had clearly thought not many parents would come. Maybe this increased interest of parents can be seen as a sign of how they more and more accept the importance of schooling. Of course, we had to explain the meaning of a progress report and the visualization we used was helpful in that. Clearly, the parents were proud of the achievements of their kids.

Summer Camp

This year we didn't go for a month-long outing, because of a lack of money and staff. Instead, we decided to visit Chunar, a small town 35 km East of Varanasi that is famous for its fort and pottery. A doctor Sheelu knows had offered us to stay at his place, free of cost. On 2nd of May we headed there with 68 kids and 6 adults. We slept on the ground outside (there were no mosquitoes, amazing) and under a bamboo construction and spent the days cooking, playing, eating – and sleeping. It was so hot already that at noon time there was nothing else to do. Each evening one team was in charge of performing a drama, and, of course, our longed-for water melon competition also took place...60 kg watermelons were eaten within less than an hour.
One goal of the summer camp, besides enabling children to enjoy themselves and be in a peaceful and hygienic environment, was to once more fight against their lice. My husband had brought me effective lice treatments that I used for kids with more than 50 living lice. All kids got combed, and out of those 7 kids had more than 150 lice. The queen of lice was Aarti, class 3: 216 living lice. I asked her: “Doesn't it itch?” She answered in the negative. Out of 68 kids, only 9 had no kids – but they were mostly from the hostel. That was a nice thing to see. In general the hostel kids had much less lice than the day scholars. At least our attempts to keep off the lice seem to show some results :-).

Duja

Duja (first from the right) is one of our hostel girls, a 9 year old girl with an abusive, heroine-addicted father and five brothers and sisters. She has been with us since 5 years now, and her improvement during the last year is worth talking about. Duja arrived as a drug-addicted unresponsive little girl, who had difficulties making friends besides other attachment related difficulties. At the hostel she has always been separate from other children, hardly interacting with them. Instead, she used to heavily rely on positive attention from volunteers or new staff. I observed in several cases that when a person was not “new” anymore, she seemed to lose her attachment to this person. As for the other kids at that point of time as well, Sheelu got her admitted at a private school, where she started in Pre-Nursery way below her age-level. Last August, when we took out all private school kids and admitted them in Jeevan-School, Duja was among these kids. This change of schooling seems to have greatly affected her:

After one month, I saw her walking hand in hand with a girl friend the first time and being as communicative and interactive as the other kids. In class she is now always on-task and attentively listening. Her reading and writing skills improved at a rapid pace and she is now ready to study in class two. She attends Kathak classes (traditional Indian dance) and shows a lot of talent - she dances gracefully and possesses an impressive understanding of rhythm. Duja is also frequently participating in performances during the assembly, where children show their self-made plays. In addition, she developed lots of self-discipline. While before we always had to remind her to do her chores, she now almost seems to enjoy them and loves helping others out.

To come

It's summer time, school is off and the heat fully arrived. Currently Sheelu prepares to appear in his P.H.D. Entrance exam, while Kati is in Germany taking holidays and getting time to work on the list below. Except five children, all kids have gone home to relatives to spend at least a part of the summer vacation there. Akshey (15 years), for example, went to his home village and is currently visiting his parents after three years of not seeing them. The teachers work in shifts in order to ensure holidays for everyone. School will open July 8th, and the week before all teachers are going to spend four days at a village school, where we will conduct a teacher training seminar. This will be a great motivational start but needs lots of preparation, in addition to everything else that needs to be ready before the session 2011/2012 starts: New diaries, a self-made handwriting series for all classes, new running records for Pre-school, material that is incomplete must be repaired and new materials added, school uniforms, customized etc. Furthermore, we want to build a new library that will be used as a classroom as well and Sheelu is hard working to get it done before July. Our bamboo shed news to be repaired, too, before the rains come. The list is endless :-)



Warm regards in the name of our team,



Kati

4/4/11  Celebrating Holi at the School of Life, Varanasi, India.

As many of you know Kati is a very busy woman, with teaching, training the teachers, caring for the kids at the hostel, doing her Master's and trying to visit with her husband. As I could not help her with her Master's and I am sure she wants to visit with her husband herself, I offered to "guest write" the newsletter. My name is Yodi and I am a friend of Jessica's. I met the kids in Almora last year and later again in Varanasi.I was so impressed with the work that was happening with the program and the incredable Indian children I had to come back for a visit.

Last Friday March 18 at the school there was a pre- Holi celebration. After getting together and singing some songs with all the children, they yelled "Happy Holi!" and we all threw coloured powder on each other in a mad frenzy. After everyone sufficiently resembled a rainbow, each class took turns going to the hostel. Kati had it set up like a shopping mall and all 120 kids got new Holi clothes. They were very interesting sequined dresses and embroidered shirts but the kids were so proud of them. Most of them quickly took them off as to not get them dirty.

On the actual Holi eve we went for a walk around the ghats on the Ganga with the hostel kids who had not gone home for the holiday. Later that night from the hostel we could see the fires burning and hear the firecrackers going all night. The girls were so excited that Nadine (the other volunteer) and myself were sleeping over. Despite the cement floor and dogs howling all night, I was really happy to be there in the morning.

First thing in the morning the boys were all putting silver on their faces and I wanted to as well (not knowing why, just because it looked funny) but they ran out. I discovered the function minutes later when Bola-Sir ran in and wipe green paint all over mine and Nadine's face and neck. Gone were the powders of Friday and the real stuff was not going to come off.

Soon after Sheelu filled buckets of water and he mixed pink, purple, blue and green dye. The music was brought outside and started to play as loud as possible. The kids were all given buckets and water guns and the mayhem ensued. It was so much fun and once the buckets of water were finished we started attacking people with the mud on the ground. While Sheelu continue to make more buckets of colour we would all dance or chase each other. It was sooo much fun! It was hard to tell who was having more fun Sheelu and Kati or the kids.

Afterward everyone attempted to clean off as much as possible and the kids put on there new Holi clothes. The kids looked relatively clean but the 4 blond foreigners playing were unable to get the dye off. Kati, Nadine and I still have pink streaks instead of blond streaks. But it was completely worth the amount of fun. The kids all helped and a special "Holi" lunch of chicken was made in the afternoon.

The next 2 days were holidays and no school so we went to a waterfall about an hour away and all the kids got to swim and bathe and really get all the "Holi" colours off. It felt great.

I know this is supposed to be a monthly update but I just wanted to add a few of the things that I have noticed in the last year. It has been wonderful to see how a child like Sundar, who was constantly misbehaving, is now able to listen and has learned so much English. The school itself looks beautiful with the new classrooms and I can see kids actually getting their educational needs met. As well I have noticed a big improvement in the teachers. Many of them were only teaching from books last year and are now doing much more organized and interactive activities with the children. I feel so fortunate that I get to come and visit with these amazing kids and be a very small part of the hard work that Sheelu and Kati do here everyday.

Attached are some pictures of Holi at the school and the hostel:

   


 

11/03/11 E-mail from SCOOP Volunteer Nadine Langhard from the School of Life, Varanasi, India.

 

Dear Andy,

It's been an amazing first month volunteering here at the Jeevan school (School of Life) in Varanasi. I'm really grateful that you made this experience possible for me without any hassle or fundraising requests.

From the first day at the kids hostel, which was a big birthday party for half of the 30 kids living there, I've been made feel so welcome by the children and staff alike. It's been an easy adjustment and there hasn't been a day since my arrival where I regretted coming here to volunteer. Sheelu, the manager of the hostel and school is an incredible generous and loving human being and together with the wonderful Kati, head teacher and hostel 'mum', he has achieved to make a huge difference in the life of 120 children (approximately at current) by providing them love, education, food, healthcare and a place to feel secure and cared about.

The teachers and other staff in school are all young and motivated and eager to learn, which becomes apparent during everyday school life but also on Saturdays when they have a day of teachers training with Kati as part of their working week. During those training days, modern and researched methods are taught to the teachers that best help children learn and reach their full potential in school. There's another volunteer here, a girl from Germany called Juliane and it's great to have someone to share this experience with.

As you have already heard from Kati's latest email (featured below this blog entry), a lot of our time has been used to help those two little twins progress in their development and it seems that our (and everybody's) time and effort is really paying off. It's incredible to see how much they've grown (in every sense) in the past few weeks. I've been working with developmentally delayed children in Dublin for quite some time now but I truly have never seen anything like it. Which just shows that there is so much that can be done to change these children's life for the better. When I think of what would happen to all the kids here if the school and hostel wouldn't exist....it's the most heartbreaking thought imaginable.

I think it's important for people who support SCOOP to know that their money really makes a difference and goes straight to the people who need it most. That's what a like about a small charity like SCOOP! Apart from working with the twins, I have and will continue to contribute to the teachers training every week by teaching about child development and how to support the same in different areas and for different age groups. It would be great for me to know that I was able to give something that will outlast my stay here.

Just a little more about our everday life here, which is filled with school in the morning, where Juliane and I help out with the nursery and preschool kids, then lunch in school with everybody before we head over to the hostel with the twins, where we usually stay til the afternoon. The hostel is a great place, where the kids are nurtured in every way possible and it's a pleasure to arrive there and be part of the big family. At the moment there are about 30 kids living in the hostel and the difference between those kids and the ones still living on the streets is quite significant. They look much better cared for and seem to have much more fun in life. It would be great if this could be made possible for more of the street children!

[End of e-mail]

05/03/11 SCOOP Volunteer & Occupational Therapist, Nadine Langhard, works with two malnourished children at the School of Life in India

Kati Richter: "We started a nutritional and education support programme for Vishwas and Vishnu, two-year old twins at the developmental stages of 3 to 6 month old infants. They have been malnourished since their birth, been severely sick several times (pneumonia, intestine infections, worms, ear infections). Neither of them could walk, or even sit or stand.

With the help of Nadine and Juliane, our current volunteers, we are able to not only take care of them during school, but also bring them to the hostel every day. Until now, they have been used by their mother and sister for begging, and the mother only reluctantly and being forced by the father gave up this opportunity of increasing their income. You won´t believe how they´re thriving in the hostel now. Yesterday night Nadine and me sat down and assessed their developmental progress. Nadine is an occupational therapist working with children who are behind in their development, and, therefore, she´s a great help in professionally assisting the twins. I´m attaching the assessment file as well as a video of the two. For sure, they look really sweet, but you have to keep in mind that they are getting two years old at the end of march...!

It´s such a relief to finally be able to do something for them, we saw them suffering for so long, but were too under-staffed to really do something about it...still, we could gain better effects if both were permanently in the hostel, but the way it is right now they are in our charge for 12 hours the day, which seems to make an tremendous difference. When Vishnu started the programme, he could not raise his head more than 1 second while laying on the stomach. Now, after only 10 days, he can move forward 2 meters and raise his head and upper body while holding himself with his arms!

This are their routines at school & hostel, a quite holistic programme taking care of their nutritional, emotional, motor, and cognitive needs:


Routines for Vishwas and Vishnu


7.30 am: parents or teachers bring both to school (pre-nursery), fruit and 'Ensure' (gluten and lactose-free nutritional powder)


8.30 am: are part of the pre-school programme (songs and story, group activity)


9.50 am: 2nd fruit and water


10.10 am one-to-one exercises/games with Nadine and Juliane


11.10 am: are part of the games period (being hold by children or teachers), many times fall asleep during this time


12.30 pm: lunch


1.30 pm: bathing and snack time in the hostel, sometimes napping


2.30-5 pm: playing with Juliane, Nadine, children, puppy, balls


5 pm: cuddle time with teachers and children, snack and "Ensure"


Around 7 pm: father and sister come to pick them up and bring them home.



23.2.2011 - 1st day


Vishnu

• Weight: 3,5 kg, Age: 1 year 11 months, Height:
• Health & appearance: cleary malnourished, distained hair (vitamin deficit), very low muscle tone, 2 upper front teeth, one lower front tooth, diarrhea, breathing difficulties, maybe ear problems (sticks finger into the ear)
• Gross motorics: Laying on the stomach, Vishnu could raise his head not more than 1 second, can´t crawl, can´t sit, can´t pull to sit
• Fine motorics: can´t use palmer or pincer grasp, does not reach to grasp object or toy, still has grasp reflex, can hold objects in palmer grasp if given into his hand
• visual-motor integration/visual perception: has not been observed
• communication/social interaction: no sounds, no crying, no laughing, does not react to his name, does not interact at all
• general behaviour: continously short sleeping periods after „exercise“ (e.g. raising the head for a second), 1 h sleep before and after lunchtime, approximately 60 % of the day; mainly laying around when awake, barely reacting beyond watching
• independence & selfcare: can´t chew, attempts to reach for food, can´t control bowel and bladder movement


Vishwas


• Weight: 4 kg, Age: 1 year 11 months, Height:
• Health & appearance: clearly malnourished, distained hair, low muscle tone, 4 upper front teeth, 2 low front teeth, diarrhea, ear infection with pus
• Gross motor: Can roll himself from stomach to the back, attempts to shuffle and to pull to sit, can raise his head and upper body, could hold wait on arms, cannot crawl or move forward
• Fine motorics: can reach and grasp objects in palmer grasp, cannot use pincer grasp, cannot transfer objects from hand to hand
• Visual-motor integration/visual perception: has not been observed
• Communication/social interaction: „neigh“ as a sound of irritation in combination with gesture, no laughing, no eye-contact, does not seek interaction with carer
• General behaviour: Sleeping a lot, mostly before and after lunch (11 am to 1 pm and 2-3 pm), more alert than Vishnu
• Selfcare & independence: can chew soft foods like bananas / grapes, reaches for food and brings food to mouth successfully, can´t control or communicate bowel/bladder movement



4.3.2011 - 10th day


Vishnu

• Weight: , Age: 1 year 11 months, Height:
• Health & appearance: cleary malnourished, clearly improved muscle tone, 2 upper front teeth, one lower front tooth, diarrhea, maybe ear problems (sticks finger into the ear)
• Gross motorics: Can raise his head/upper body when laying on stomach and hold the wait, can move forward about 2m, can pull to sit, can sit briefly without support
• Fine motorics: can seperate index finger, can reach and hold objects, drops objects when not wanted (food)
• Visual-motor integration/visual perception: Can bring object to mouth, can follow objects with eyes
• Communication/social interaction: laughing, babbling (preferred sound „bbbrrr“), eye contact with carer, cries when irritated, appears to understand the meaning of „no“
• General behaviour: sleeping obviously less than before (mostly before and after lunch, but does not keep on waking up and falling asleep throughout the day), quite passive,
• Independence & selfcare: requests drink with sounds and gestures, can grasp and bring food to mouth: holds food in his hand with palmer grasp, and while holding on to it, uses his index finger to take, for example, 1 rice corn and put it into his mouth; does not voluntarily release food from his hands


Vishwas


• Weight: 4 kg, Age: 1 year 11 months, Height:
• Health & appearance: clearly malnourished, 4 upper front teeth, 2 low front teeth, quite good muscle tone, diarrhea continues, ear infection with pus
• Gross motor: Walks while holding to hands, stands alone when holding on to furniture, can sit unsupported while manipulating toys, can reach forward to get toy while sitting, can crawl very briefly, can pull forward on his stomach, can pull to stand
• Fine motorics: can reach and grasp objects in palmer grasp, cannot use pincer grasp, can transfer objects from hand to hand, copies simple handmovements while in classroom, manipulates objects with both hands at the same time, releases objects into carers hands, makes raking movements when trying to push an object away while laying on stomach, can hold pen and attempts to scribble
• Visual-motor integration/visual perception: can follow an object (ball) with eyes, quite visually alert, follows what´s going on around him, points (with whole hand) to objects of interest
• Communication/social interaction: „neigh“ as a sound of irritation in combination with gesture, laughing, social routines (pee-ka-boo), can express wishes with gestures, vocalisations, and facial expressions; eye-contact and recognizes familiar people, starts playing with carer
• General behaviour: Sleeps much less (one nap per day), very alert, highly interested in what´s going on around him (puppy)
• Selfcare & independence: uses hands to hold glass while drinking

11/02/11 Latest news from Kati Richter, Head Teacher at the School of Life, Varanasi, India.

"January started with really cold weather. For about two weeks we had temperatures that went down to 3 degree at night. Without heaters and holes in every room we were freezing a lot. We all squeezed into one room and sat close to each other to keep us warm. The children bought and collected firewood and lit small fires almost every night. One day we also made an oven and baked two delicious chicken. Sadly, one stone plate broke and we had to deconstruct it. We´ll try it again with some layers of clay to protect the stone.

On the 9th it was Sheelu´s [the overall manager of the school and hostel] birthday. We surprised him with a cake and some fireworks that we had saved from New Years Eve. The love the children feel for Sheelu and his wife Lalita always makes me so happy, and they really do deserve it:



I started working on the office - arranging a teacher´s library with pedagogical [the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching] books and aids for planning classes, setting up a system for better maintaining our materials, rearranging the money saving system for our kids, and so on. This work is still going on, but hopefully it´ll be finished until Sven (my husband) arrives at the end of February. I also got some time to make new materials, I´m attaching one photo of an English material that I made from incomplete jigsaw puzzles:




Our youngest child in the hostel is now Khanneja, three years old, who came with his sister Parvati. He has problems to see, it seems the daylight is too bright for him, and he´s also a street kid. I have hardly seen him talking on the street and never laughing or walking - not to talk about running. The changes after one week in the hostel are tremendous and a source of great joy: He´s the sweetest toddler you could imagine, almost never crying, learning to use the toilet at a great pace, laughing all the time, enjoying all activities around him. The children are in love with him and were very sad when his father took Rahul, Parvati and Khanneja back to the village at the end of January. He needs to get them registered for ration cards from the government. That´s his version. Another girl told me that he wants to find a wife for Rahul. Rahul is THIRTEEN. They are supposed to come back on the 15th of February. If they don´t show up, we´ll definitely go and get them, they have been so happy in the hostel and improving so well.

On 15th of January we celebrated Kitcheri, the kite flying day. Tharu bought 200 kites and the children were busy flying them and getting them cut while trying to cut other kites. A great fun and everyone was enjoying the warmth of the day. Around Kitcheri usually the weather changes and gets warmer - a relief, to say the least:



Since December we have had wood-working classes going on at the house of Ramlal, who teaches the children basics in carpentry. Right now they learn to use hand tools in order to enable them to work with as little power tools as possible. Later on they will learn how to use power tools, of course, but they will get a deeper knowledge on properties of wood if they´ll slowly get to know it with their hands. Classes are frequented by both girls and boys, and all of them are very enthusiastic about it. They built two benches, a stool, a table, and a workbench that will be used to furniture their own workshop. Being able to use one´s own hand, what a great way of empowering our children. We are very obliged to EUMABOIS who sponsor the whole woodworking project. Don´t worry, this is no hidden advertisement, they don´t sell anything :-)

On 26th we celebrated Republic Day, which usually is a show of "My India is the greatest" songs, dramas and speeches. Sheelu and me decided to take a different approach: There were dances, songs, performances and a speech, but they were aimed a little differently. Sheelu worked out a drama with classes 1 and 2 on the over-usage of pesticides in Indian agriculture. Neelu taught the children two dances that emphazised the abundance of different beliefs and customs in India. With the help of Smriti, some children formed a choir that sang songs reinforcing the need of peace and tolerance:

 



A very special and enriching experience we were happy to have Patricia Wagner over from Costa Rica. She is a theatre teacher who uses "Theatre of the oppressed" to help young people to address situations where they feel helpless and overpowered. Guided by her some children developed a performance that talked about the influence of alcohol consumption on poverty, the clash between poor and rich, educated and uneducated - and the helplessness of victims who are facing all kinds of repression caused by those issues. After the performance Patricia called the audience to step in and try to change the behaviour of the victims in order to show potential changes of behaviour that might result in changing the situation. Needless to say that it was a great experience. Patricia also did a workshop with the teachers during the Saturday´s training to enable them to learn about techniques and the theoretical background of "Theatre of the oppressed".

We are still in the process of slowly finishing to paint all rooms, especially the details. One photo attached, with Damini and Juhi helping to put primer on our window frames:



Well, that´s what I remember from January right now, although there was lots more going on. For those who forgot it: We couldn´t have done anything without the generous help of so many of you. I hope you feel kind of paid back by seeing what we did with your money. Thank you for your trust.




Warm regards,




Kati

1/2/11 The SCOOP embraces social media

You can now follow the SCOOP on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date on al our latest developments, updates, events, pics, vids, insights, rants (ok maybe not the rants) and all other things SCOOP related!
 

11/1/11  The SCOOP teams up with Action Por Les Enfants in Cambodia.

The SCOOP are proud to announce that we will be working with Action Pour Les Enfants, an NGO based in Cambodia that monitor sex offenders, gathering enough evidence in order to arrest them and drag them properly through the Cambodian courts and ensure proper prison sentences are delivered.

You only have to read one of Phnom Penh's daily newspapers to come across the successes of APLE as you read about pedophiles being extradited or child 'traffickers' receiving heavy prison sentences. They also have an education programme aimed at Cambodians so they are aware of the laws in place against selling their children to sex offenders. This is basically an off-shoot from the lack of education that is in Cambodia and children are sold daily to Western men and women who take advantage of Cambodia's poverty striken classes.


Here's PR Chief Jorge Langelotz explaining in detail the vital work APLE carry out in Cambodia.

05/1/11 Andy returns from Cambodia!

"I took a trip after 2 years of SCOOPing around to see how the SCAO School and Home in Cambodia had developed, to meet all children two years on and to see how they were getting on and also to see how the new school being built was coming along also. Like the trip I took there 2 years ago, that lead to my involvement with the SCOOP, I have completely fallen in love with Cambodia and it's people all over again, and have realised that the work the SCOOP does over there is more than worthwhile, it's essential.

The facts speak for themselves really- Cambodia is a country of children, figures estimate around 4 million, that's 33% of the population are under the age of 15. Add to that the fact that education, vocational training and most social services were abolished (as they were seen as tools of the rich and privileged and not favouring the poor) by the Khmer Rouge (pronounced 'Ke-maii Roo') in the 1980's. The legacy of modern Cambodia is that it is a nation of children, who are the next generation of the country, whose families cannot afford for them to go to school, let alone train them in a certain skill. Coupled with the facts that the Cambodian government is one of the more corrupt on our planet, plus the fact that the upper class in Cambodia see the poor as lazy and deserved of their situation, the poor children of Cambodia need our help and they need it now.

So what we are building is a brand new 4 story, concrete built English School and Vocational Training centre. The centre is situated in a beautiful area a half hour outside of Phnom Penh, the capital city, and is surrounded by temples, idyllic rice fields and some of the nicest people you could meet. Each home has between 4-9 children, all of whom we want to go through our learning centre and the Cambodian public schools. (It costs around 12 cents per day for a child to go to school, where they also get a meal.)

What we really love about the new school is that on the 3rd and 4th floors there consists apartments for volunteers to live in, with Western toilets and showers and a kitchen. We really want to encourage as many Irish people, especially those coming out of studying or training for the last 4-6 years without the possibility of work, to go and live in the real Cambodia and to really get involved with the lives of the children who attend the school and become a part of the community there.

On top of alot of the problems Cambodia possess, a new one has emerged: the trend that is 'Orphanage Tourism', where back-packers in search of cheap accommodation and some free grub actually end up costing the NGOs money and then bugger off after a week with their photos on Facebook with all their friends commenting how amazing they are for changing the world. Where what really happens is that the children suffer as a) they don't learn anything concrete and b) they get attached quickly to the volunteers who leave abruptly.

Thus we want to a) develop a year long curriculum, plan and monitoring system and b) we want to find long term volunteers (ie 1 month to a year) who are dedicated to the children and dedicated to Cambodia and its own development. If you think you may want to become involved in the new school please do get in touch. It really is the opportunity of a life time, not to mention you'll be living and working smack bang in the middle of South East Asia with almost endless travel opportunities."

Andy

 

22/11/10 School of Life (India) Head Teacher Kati marries in traditional Indian style!
 

One of our great heroes here at the SCOOP, Head Teacher of the School of Life in Varanasi, India, Kati Richter recently married over in the School. She sent us some photos of her wonderful day. They offer a great insight into the traditions and way of life over in Varanasi.

You can see the pics here and here!

17/11/10 News on building the new school in Cambodia.

As you may well be aware, we are funding the building of a brand new school in Cambodia that will not only be the place where 250 local Cambodian children will receive an education, but it will also be an amazing place for Irish volunteers to go to and change a child's life for the better.

The school is about 1/4 ways finished and you can see the pics of the progression here.

Here's a breakdown of what is needed to complete it. If you feel you would like to help us raise funds for this project ie throw a party, organise a table quiz etc, please get in touch today.

 

ITEM	COST	NOTES
Bricks	$270= 10,000	Not sure on how many are still required
Cement	$5= 50kg bag	42 tonnes will be required
Iron	$680= 1 tonne	14 tonnes will be required
Sand	$65= 1 truck
Big rocks (for foundation)	$65=- 1 truck
Small rocks (for foundation)	$90= 1 truck
Timber	$2200
Doors	$140 each	14 will be required
Windows	$50 each	18 wil be required
Paint	$25-35= 18kg bucket	Depending if exterior or interior paints
Connection to Electricity	$240
Lights	$4 each	Could need up to 50
Connection to Water	$120
Labour	$14,600	Rough estimate of the cost of labour to completion

This is a clear indication of the challenge we have set ourselves and it is one we are working hard to see through, but your help is always needed and appreciated.

Please note that at the SCOOP we believe in using local builders to work on any buildings as a) this creates employment for the local builders and b) it creates a sense of community around it.

 

26/10/10 The SCOOP's Feel Good Friday Fundraiser


 

For more info please see our events page.

 

 

20/10/10 The SCOOP Gallery Official Launch Party!

We are officially launching the SCOOP Gallery @ The Ormond Wine Bar on the 10th of November from 7pm.

 

29/09/10 Artist Alain Tang becomes 8th artist for October's SCOOP Gallery @ The Ormond Wine Bar
 

We have just added French artists Alain Tang and Laurent Antunes for our first exhibition and sale in The Ormond Wine Bar. Alain's work is known internationally for it's pain-stakingly detailed layers of colour, themes and text, they really have to bee seen to be believed.

28/09/10 Art Auction success plus The SCOOP Gallery @ The Ormond Wine Bar
 

Following the success of this year's Art Auction, the guys at the Ormond Wine Bar have offered the SCOOP full time use of their beautiful gallery space to raise funds for our projects.

So starting in October we are going to feature between 5 and 10 artists selling their respective work. 30% of sales are going to go towards the school's we support. We are extremely delighted about this, as it not only is a new and innovative source of income for us and our projects, but it also allows to replay the favour to the numerous artists that have donated pieces outright for our 3 Art Auctions. So keep an eye on our events page to see which artists are featured and whether you think you may want to purchace some wonderful art whilst making a donation to the SCOOP!

October sees artists John Nolan, Mark Baker, Lucía Cullinane García, Olivier Longuet, Anthony Chapman, Niki Purcell and Louise O'Neill all showing their respective work.

Hope to see y'all down for a glass or two? :)

24/09/10 Nadine and Jenny preping for their trips to India and Cambodia in January 2011
 

We are extremely excited about two volunteers that are going to be heading off over the coming months to the school in India and the school in Cambodia.

Occupational Therapist Nadine Langhard is going to spend a few months working with Kati, the head teacher at the School of Life and work with kids in the area that have some learning or interactional difficulties.

Artist Jenny Watkins is having a show/sale, 'An Unintentional Beauty Borne Out Of Interruption’, to raise funds for her trip to Cambodia. Once over there she's going to teach the kids how to draw and paint.

We are very proud and happy about both these volunteering trips!

23/9/10 Latest e mail from Kati Richter, Head Teacher @ The School of Life (Jeevan-School), India
 

dear andy,

i haven`t written you for quite some time, and i don`t even remember if i thanked you for the 3200 euro - who already have been put to good use. if i missed that, i`m very sorry...

we are now quite settled in the new hostel. there are still some constructions to be done, like the reiling, windows, some pipes, etc. and we want to build a big kitchen in front of the hostel in order to have enough cooking and eating space. until now me and the 15 girls share two rooms that include also the office. when the kitchen will be built, i`ll have my own room and the girls have two rooms for themselves. but already it`s great to have something that looks like a real home. i especially enjoy the hour after ten, when the kids are sleeping, i sit on the balcony and it feels safe, beautiful and silent :-) there`s obviously less fighting, because the children have enough space to play, to run around and i just have to look out of my window to see them. it`s really wonderful, would be great if you could see it. we even have tiles in the bathrooms!

the constructions in our new (old) six rooms have started on monday. i would love to help breaking walls and making windows and doors, but i`m too busy, so i let the mason do his work. hopefully next week we can start painting. the plan is to have four classroom thus connected that we can either use them as one huge classroom or four seperate ones. after a lot of negotiations and some rather rough discussions, the landlord agreed to the original agreement, which was: we get four rooms on the first floor and two rooms for our library on the second floor. he had stepped back from that after we started the constructions, even wanted to have one of the four rooms. i made it clear that in this case we are going to leave the school for good, even if would mean closing the walls and windows again and having to wait for some months. that was rather a bluff on my side, because we know that there is no suitable building in our area that we can afford. luckily it worked. then he wanted to raise the rent again and i said that this will also result in us leaving. so now we get what we want and the deal is fixed. only orally, but that`s how it works here, and since there were three of us, it`ll be fine now.


with the 3200 i did the following: we paid the outstanding salary for july that would have had to be paid in august (an amount of ca. 1000 euro), and paid the rent for the hostel from september to november (600 euro). the landlord wanted this advance in order to finish the constructions, he basically ran out of money. i also bought additional racks and a cupboard for school, we paid some outstanding bills and i also bought school books for our hostel kids who are going to leave their private schools in order to join the jeevan-school.

when i came two years again, 27 out of 30 kids of the hostel were in three different schools (banaras public school, golden india public school, and holy children public school). then we took out one child with severe behavioural difficulties last year, put him in our school and found incredible improvements. after repeated questions of other children, we took out all banaras public school children at the beginning of the year - they are still very happy in our school.

since then the other children have been begging. because of repeated beating and the poor teaching quality we have discussed to take out the children of the other schools as well, the plan was to do so next may. but now there are new teachers in these schools who even beat more than before. some weeks ago, while i was in germany, krishna (12) came home with a bleeding nose, because the teacher hit so hard. whenever i called them on the phone they were talking about never wanting to go to this school again and asked me to talk to their teachers. i did so on saturday and was shocked by the fear all the students in this school have. the director was even beating a child in front of me. talking to him i realized that there is no will of improving the situation, the opposite was the case: he sent somebody out to find out which of our children had complained. kareem was so scared that he named pawan - and pawan got a good beating on monday. i promised him that if he would get beaten because of this, he would never have to attend school again. today therefore was his first day in jeevan-school. although he has to study in class two (he`s not fit four our class three, but hopefully he`ll make up and can shift there after half a year) he was smiling so much when i asked him how his day was... same with krishna, who also got beaten the same day and is in class three now in samneghat.

i would love to send you pictures, but i first have to find the camera, hopefully tomorrow, when all the schools are closed. there`s a big trial related to terrorism and in varanasi the police expects riots from either hindus or moslems. since there were some bomblast in the last years in varanasi, everybody`s quite tensed and prejudices are widespread here. since we have two muslim boys in the hostel, there`s no chance of these prejudices taking over at hour home, though.

can`t think of more at the moment, although so much is happening right now that i probably could keep on writing for hours. so many small successes, so many great experiences with so many kids. arjun for example, maybe 6 years old, class one, a child from the street, who couldn`t hold a pencil properly two years ago. just now he sits next to me and draws something from a book - not tracing it, but looking and copying. looks like the work of a 8-10 year old, seriously. he is highly gifted as so many of our kids and the thought of their uncertain future worries me. or sundar, a real aggressive kid who today for a change didn`t voice any verbal abuses. at the moment he`s half laying on me while i`m writing. oh, now he`s gone - wrestling with one of the girls :-)

well, this has been quite long, i`ll stop it now. take care,


kati

20/9/10 Art Auction success!

 

Last night we were celebrating raising €20,000 from this year's Art Auction. The money raised from the auction is going straight towards building the primary school in Cambodia. A thousand thank yous go out towards each artist, buyer, sponsor and everyone else who helped us out along the way. Such a success cannot happen without the participation of such people and with everyone pulling in the same direction, all with the same desire to see the school built!

07/08/10 What we got goin' on!
 

There are two fundraisers in the mix at the minute. On the 20th of August we are collaborating with the wonderful Love Music Hate Racism, an orgainsation that share our views on treating everyone equal, acting positively and having a good time. We're taking over the 3 floors of Sweeney's Mongrel on Dame Lane (was Le Cirk), Also launching on the 14th of September we are running our 2nd annual Art Auction & Exhibition, taking place in the Ormond Wine Bar in Dublin. The exhibition runs for 5 days and culminates with an exciting auction on the Sunday the 19th of Septmeber. All details of both events can be found on our events page.

 

5/7/10 CHY Number 18767

As of the start July 2010, the SCOOP Foundation is a registered charity in Ireland (CHY 18767).

 

31/6/10 The SCOOP Art Auction & Exhibition 2010
 

The wheels for this years art auction are truely in motion and it's setting up to be an incredible event.

It's going be held in the beautiful Ormond Wine Bar & Restaurant on Ormond Quay in the heart of Dublin. It's going to launch on the 14th of September with all pieces remaining on show until the Sunday the 19th of September when every piece will go under the hammer.

Again we are honoured to have the professionalism and experience of Mealy's Fine Art Auctioneers on board and really look forward to this years event. We are blown away by the caliber of the submissions that have come in and forsee the event being memorable and successful.

All proceeds from the auction are specifically for the building of the school in Cambodia All details on the project can be found here.

11/05/10  E-mail from Kati Richter, Head Teacher at the School of Life (Jeevan School), Varanasi, India.

"It has been quite some time but i finally have some moments to write you. i wanted to wait until i could send you the newest pictures, but that sadly will not be possible because my slow connection still doesn't allow me to attach anything to my mails.

we had a great end of the school year. since the temperatures rose beyond 47 degrees we decided to stop the "proper" teaching and conducted a creativity week from 19th to 23rd of april. these were the projects:

- pre-nursery and nursery: papp-machè masks from balloons, modelling our school with salt dough and colouring it
- classes 1 & 2: modelling & colouring animals made by clay mixed with cow dung, making natural oil paints (with plant oil, chalk and different spices), creating a phantasy palace with mount board and water paint
- class 4: painting a big oil painting after pictures of raja ravi verma (a very famous artist of the beginning 20th century)

i would love to show you the pictures, we were more than surprised by the sheer energy and love the children put in their work. although we know that working with their hands, their minds, and all different kinds of materials is so necessary for their development, the actual doing-so always comes as a pleasant surprise. the children loved this week, and so did all teachers.

from april 26th to the 29th we took oral examinations of some children were we needed further tests, but we didn't hold general exams. i cannot see the advantages of exams in this early age of study, and we usually know very well what our children have achieved and what they need for their further studies. in those cases that we didn't, we had a small oral test. the main part of the week was meant for revising certain songs and dramas the children had learned throughout the year.

on 30th of april the kids had their final presentation where each class performed three items, and class four did the anchoring. we also had a very funny drama done solely by class four about the pollution of the ganga. since this was partly in bojhpuri (the local language) there was a lot to laugh and although the pollution is so great it became clear that it is not so easy for the individual to change anything because most normal people are very limited in their choice - if you don't have a handpump at home, how could you possibly start washing your clothes somewhere else? well, all these dilemmas became very clear and it was nice to voice them.

the decoration took us more than two days and the school looked so beautiful - all the projects of the children were displayed, so there were art and beauty everywhere. we also had some softboards showing what the children did in school throughout the year. some kids bought lots of flower garlands that they used to decorate the whole school and we spent hours preparing the stage background.

the first time we rented a generator and loudspeakers for an event, because we were sure that it would be both full and the electricity would go off. both things became true and the children worked so professionally with the microphones on the stage that it didn't seem this to be the first time in their life. the parents were really surprised by what their children had risen up to. once we'll have the right software we'll be able to cut a small video (our hd-video-camera doesn't match with the media player and the convertion doesn't work as well...long story, a lot of confusion and still no solution) and send it to you. but we are facing so many troubles with computers and the like that this doesn't seem to happen soon, i fear.

this week we have been writing mainly progress reports and winding up the session. the next year should be much better in terms of preparation and we really need more space. this problem is yet not fully solved, but Sheelu (the school's manager) is working on it, we'll get at least two new rooms in front of the school, so we'll start renovating them as soon as we'll come back from almorah.

we saw another hostel that would be perfect for our children, but again, as usual, the talks just get delayed and delayed and we are not sure what will come out of it in the end, there is nothing like a professional real estate here, and this is really frustrating sometimes.

the children ask everyday about when we can get out of our hostel here, the landlady is just behaving very rudely. i'm very happy that we are going away for one month to the mountains next week. i'll leave on monday with 5 bigger girls, and the rest will come on the 13th (and arrive the 15th). it'll be a great experience, we have our own house in a forest...nature, a river, and 60 (!) children...

when i saw your last fundraising announcment, i was very happy and a little relieved. since the school is growing we have more and more responsibilities and we fear that some day we might not be able to keep the level up just because of a lack of money. and when i read that you are also raising money for us again, i felt so grateful to know that there are people far away who do care. thanks so much.

here are some areas that we could use the money for:

* a friend gave me about 325 euro to raise the salary of our non-teaching staff. this will last for four months for 5 staff members and afterwards we would have to consider to go back to the old salary if we don't have the money to pay them. we are very hard at the budget these days.
* we want to buy some more school uniforms to enable each child to have two shirts and also give a set of uniform to those kids who will be new admitted in july.
* we need money for school books for the new session, as well as stationery. i calculated expenses of about 400 euro for books and 150 euro for stationery. this means a yearly supply of books and stationery for 97 children (included new admissions).

well, i hope it doesn't sound greedy to boast with how urgently we need money, because we keep on growing and therefore naturally are always on the limit when it comes to money. but so much has been achieved already and the money is just the background. we could do with much less, but less well...

i hope you'll have a lot of fun tonight, it sounds great. how i'd love to visit a club, it has been three years now, i think...


take care,


kati"

 

[end of e-mail]

 

---