Wednesday 10th June

Rahul (The middle boy wearing orange and grey)

Mukesh

It was a pretty standard day today! I got to Mahim at 10.00am to play football with the street kids. They are now getting the hang of passing the ball and are even practicing their goal celebrations. One lad, Mukesh (see picture), was showing off his hand spring today. Very impressive!! Another 12 year old lad, Manoor, school two great goals - one with his head and one with his backside (One of the funniest things I've seen!!). The rest of the morning I spent observing and feeding back to teachers. It is great to see them trying new things. The kids are picking up on the phonics and I know they will see great results by the end of the year! At Bandra, the teachers had to talk to a few children about begging as they had been seen out on the streets. When they come to the bus for food they are told that the begging stops because Vision Rescue is feeding them. If they continue to beg then they will not be fed. One 6 year old boy, Rahul (see picture), does not have any parents and lives with his aunt. When she was spoken to about his begging she did not seem interested. This is the attitude that Vision Rescue sometimes has to battle against. Other times thay will have to persuade the parents not to beat or hit their children for begging. Rahul has got a place in a christian boarding school so his aunt will not have to look after him from next week.

I had the afternoon / evening off and spent it with some of the Vision Rescue team at Biju and Secu's house. You will be glad to hear that we took the boy with the swollen eye into hospital today where they released the fluid from his eyelid. They put some lotion on it and patch his eye up. He has to go back next monday to have the patched removed.