Recap
The day which made us to feel that we are with no problems and the problems we have are nothing. But the kids we met had the real problems of living a basic life. Yes, the kids whom we met at Hands of care. Thanks to Vidhya who helped us to know this organization.

From Vizhuthukal, 8 members were there around 10.45 AM on the Republic Day. The adjacent road from Valarasavaakam police station helped us to reach Hands of Care at Aalambakkam. The road was narrow and it was a kilometer from Arcot road.

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 The Story
When we tried to park our vehicle, there was not even a small place to park since the street was narrow and the house was small without free space. So we somehow managed to park our vehicles in the street in front of a nearby house. We were given a warm welcome by Mr.Sellamuthu & his wife, the founders of Hands of Care.

They narrated the whole story behind this Hands of Care. They have 2 sons. Sellamuthu is an ex-service man and his pension was not sufficient to pay his sons' college fees. Hence they need to discontinue their sons' college studies. Both of them could not study much due to lack of finance. Now both of his sons are working for a salary of Rs.5000 p.m., in a private concern. This made them to feel bad and wanted to help people who cannot study. But when they tried to find such people they came across many kids who are not cared by their parents. So they started to identify such kids, show them love, give them education and bring them up. There are 2 girls, whose father used to drink whole day and never care about them. They brought them here before 2.5 yrs and both of them are here now, doing very well. Their parents had never turned up to see their kids till now. And these kids are so happy now with these people. So from then, they used to get kids who are deprived of parents support. Now the strength has grown to 30. All of them are given food and they all go to near by government school. There is no proper education at school and these kids are so poor in studies. Now they have initiated to teach them in the evening, apart from their regular work of cooking and cleaning. Now these kids are so kind enough to the people they see. We loved it.

The house which they are in, was built 22 yrs back. The income for the orphanage is Mr.Sellamuthu's pension, and their sons' salaries. Yesterday they were explaining about a problem which made us to feel bad. The house is very old and the septic tank that was built when they had built the house, is full now. After several years, the roads have come up and the ground level of the house including the septic tank has gone few foot below the road level. Now due to increase in the number of kids, the septic tank is full and required some cleaning. When they tried to check, they found that, all those pipes should be removed and new ones have to be fixed. So they are all in a bad situation since there is not even a single toilet near by to use it. They have made temporary sanitation arrangements for the time being.

As far as finance is concerned, they are not familiar to people and haven't got any support from people. They are running with self income. Never asked people till now and trying to manage it still. All they wanted is to guide them to get some financial help from people to grow these children. Even if there is an emergency expense, they are empty. Approximate expense they say per month is Rs.40,000. After hearing all these, we looked at children and they were looking at all of us with a smiling face without knowing what we are talking about.

We had taken them some sweets and Senthil and his wife has brought some home made sweets to the kids. The kids were so brilliant and they got attached to us in a short time. They need the real love from us. They came to us and asked us our name and where we are working and were not able to answer their questions. With in few minutes, all were divided into small groups and started to tell us poems and wanted us to join for some games. When few of us said no for that they pulled us and said without you we will not be playing. It was so sweet of them. We loved to be with them.

his continued for 2 hours and at lunch time, we thought we can leave. When we said we are leaving, there was a deadly silence, and all of them saw us with a sad note which made us to feel for a minute forgetting all those happy moments. All of them asked us, when will you come again…and we replied, with in a month time.

 Action Items
We have planned to visit them again in February. We have planned to conduct some events for these kids during our next visit. We will also be identifying the various ways in which we can support them. We are looking forward for some dedicated volunteers from Valasaravakkam and near by areas, who can help us in providing the required support to them. We look forward for your support again.