Monday 24th August

A child at Bandra

The slum at Bandra

A man sleeping off drugs while his children are on the bus

The man's son

...and his daughter

Having purchased some more footballs (Hopefully these will last) I was hopeful about having a good football session with the street kids this morning, despite the fact it was pouring with rain when I left home. Unfortunately, it was not to be. They had chosen this morning to do maintenance work on the park and so it was closed. Instead, Ramesh and some of the other boys decided to try and teach me some more Hindi with one of the Vision Rescue staff as a translator. It is always good to know the meaning to the words they are trying to get you to say. I was again offered lots of food by the kids, especially banana, and if you don't accept it is considered rude. I also had to do some more repairs on Manor's foot which he keeps cutting on stones. I think it will be easier to buy him a pair of shoes as he is rapidly getting through the plasters. During the rest of the morning, I was able to watch Manoj and Neethi teaching English reading (Phonics!) to the children. They are slowly getting there with the teaching and the children are starting to pick up on the sounds. After lunch, I travelled with the bus to MMRDA where I was informed about on family's current situation. They live in a slum house right in front of where the bus stops and today there was a man asleep outside the house. He is the father of the family and his two children, who are about 6 and 4, come on the bus every morning. They are lovely children and were the first ones to give me friendship bands back on friendship day . The mother is also there in the house. You can see the two children and the father in the photos above and it won't surprise you to know that the reason the father is asleep is because he is on drugs. He does not work and takes all the money that the mother earns and spends it on drugs. If she refuses to give him the money then he causes huge problems and can get violent. For this reason she gives him what he wants. Unfortunately, these people can never see a way out of the situation and so they just put up with it. There are no signs of abuse to the children which is a good thing but this could happen in the future and there is a fear that the son goes down the same route as his father. There may be a way that Vision Rescue can help by offering support to the family and rehabilitation to the father. Unfortunately, not all men are willing to be rehabilitated. I will try and get an update on the family later this week. I ran another teacher training session today where we put together some bus rules and talked about how the phonics and reward system was going. All the teachers seem more confident and they interact much more in the sessions than they did when I started back in May. I only have to more sessions left so I have asked them to think about how I can be of most use to them during the next week. Tomorrow I will be in the office first thing discussing work books and Christmas card printing so not sure whether there will be much to report.

Friday 21st August

Today was Biju's birthday so there was a large gathering in the Vision Rescue office to wish him a Happy Birthday. There was the usually blowing out the candles and cutting of the cake, which was then shared out. It was very nice cake and went down well with a cup of Indian tea. Also, Ajesh had returned from holiday so there was lots to discuss in the way of printing books and cards. He has a great ability to multi-task and will make sure things get done. The rest of the morning was spent at the office and then I drove with Rajesh to Mahim for a teachers meeting. Today, we put together a reward system to use on the bus and discussed different skills that we could encourage the children to use in their learning. I think the concept was new to them so I will check during the teaching sessions next week to see if they understood. We took a while discussing Respect for each other as this is something I have seen a decline in at some of the locations. The teachers seemed very motivated to change this and were keen to learn ways to encourage respect. As I came out from the teachers meeting in Dharavi (Asia's largest slum), I noticed that some of the locals were putting up a big marquee structure. When I enquired about the reason for the structure I was told it was in preparation for the Hindu festival Ganesh Chaturthi which lasts for up to ten days. It will be interesting to see the celebrations going on arond Mumbai. I spent the rest of the evening at Rajesh's house where we spent some time planning Saturday's activities. On 13th Sept, Hillsong London, who financially support the Vision Rescue Project, are having their 10th Birthday Celebrations at the O2 Arena. Biju was keen to make a short video thanking them for their support over the last 5 years. To do this, we hired a video cameraman and on Saturday I travelled with him to the different locations shooting clips of the children saying 'Happy Birthday' and 'Thank You'. Most of them coped with 'Thank You' but 'Happy Birthday' was a bit of a tongue twister for some of them. We also had a drawing competition going on. Some of these children were quite confident with 'Happy Birthday' and were even able to sing it! The drawing competition was a great success and there were some fabulous drawings. It is amazing to see how gifted some of these street children are. The pictures will hopefully be turned into a 2010 calendar along with cards and wrapping paper. I am looking forward to seeing the end products. Above are some pictures of the children who took part in the competition. When we got back to the kitchen, we took the opportunity to film some of the staff which started to attract a bit of a crowd on the street but it was one of those rare moments where we managed to get most of the team together. We then travelled back to Goregaon to Biju's house to film his part of the Birthday message. He has made a few video clips in the past so he is getting used to being in front of the camera. I spent the rest of the evening with Biju and his family and around 10pm Biju and I, along with his brother-in-law Martin who I was in Goa with, went for a Chinese meal. It was delicious! Great service, excellent food and a nice refreshing pint of beer! Both Biju and Martin have great Visions for the work in Mumbai and in Goa and it was great to have the opportunity to discuss my thought with both of them.

Back in Mumbai

Apologies for the delay of this post but I have been experiencing internet difficulties. Hopefuuly all sorted now.
I have return to Mumbai after my week in Goa. I landed at 8.00am on Monday morning and was met at the airport by Rajesh. After a brief visit to the office, I travelled to Mahim where I noticed that a lot of children were not at school. I found out that nearly all the schools in Mumbai have been closed because of 'Swine Flu' and that children have got the whole week off. A bit drastic but then that's Indian people for you! Whilst I had been in Goa, most of the children and some of the adults had been calling me 'Uncle Andy'. This is a mark of respect towards an adult man and nothing to do with your mum or dad's brother. Now I am back in Mumbai, I have to get used to being called 'Andy, Sir!' again. In the afternoon, on Monday, I did a teacher training session and in the evening Biju invited me to join him and his children for a Chinese meal cooked by some friends. Unfortunately, Secu (who is expecting a baby!) was not feeling up to going out so I took her place. Biju's friends are from England and have been out in Mumbai for 2 years. Before Mumbai, they were working in the slums in China. They have devoted their lives to helping the poor. They have two Chinese men staying with them who cooked the meal and it was fantastic! Probably the best Chinese I have tasted, especially the sweet and sour chicken! We also had a lesson in how to use chop sticks correctly and our names were translated into Cantonese. It was a great evening. Tuesday morning started well as all the street children from Mahim have returned! It was good to see them again especially Ramesh, Vikram and Monor who always make me laugh. They were desperate to get back into the football so on Wednesday morning the football started. Unfortunately, the ball only lasted one game so I will now be going shopping for some Mitre footballs. At least they will stay in one piece. The street children all seemed to have come back with cuts and injuries so I decided to have a small first aid session where I cleaned and dressed some wounds. One boy I came across, had a bleeding leg. I noticed that his leg was slightly deformed. When asked if he had had an injury, he said that about three years ago he fell very awkwardly down a hole in the road. The injury has now healed but there is obviously leg tissue missing and I suspect he broke a bone as his foot is oddly shaped. I'm guessing that the injury was just left to heal by itself. Unfortunately, the parents don't always care for their children in the right way. If he had seen a doctor when it happened then his leg would have healed properly. Whilst treating some of the injuries, I decided that the first aid kits were out of date and very low on stock, so Jose and I went to the chemist that evening to buy some more first aid supplies. First aid kits in India are still way behind those in England and many of the common items like plasters, anti-septic wipes and plaster tape we had to buy separately. Tomorrow, I will spend some time sorting out the first aid kits so each bus has sufficient supplies. On Saturday, we are running a drawing competition for the children which will be great as there are some budding artists among the children. No daoubt you will be seeing some of the designs on merchandise in the near future. Tomorrow is Biju's birthday so I will be heading to the office first thing for an Indian rendition of 'Happy Birthday' and some bithday cake!

Independence Day in India

The 'Rising Star' School

Beena

Saturday was Independence Day in India so it was a public holiday. Normally the children would have lessons in the morning but instead there was a short celebration during which the children sang some songs including the National Anthem. Beena, spoke to the whole school and then I was invited to say a few words to the children. I managed to capture some footage of them singing and we had a whole school photo at the end. As the week has gone on I have grown very close to the school, its staff and the kids. Even though these are the children who have been rescued from their family situations, there is still need. The staff here are great but as there are so many children many of them still seek individual love and attention. Some of the children do not know much about their past life and some of them find it difficult talk about it. Some children do still have parents but are in the home due to AIDS being in the family or parents not able to cope. They do have the opportunity to see them in the summer as some of the children return home. After the celebration, I then ran a final teachers training session where we recapped over all we'd looked at and went through some visual aids to help teach English.
I left them with copies of all the materials I had and I hope to see them being used to the full when I am in Goa next. A few years ago, Biju set up a Bible College in Goa and he asked me if I would go and visit the students and help them with their English. So on Saturday afternoon I was picked up and taken to the College. It was about a 45 min drive and it is situated in the middle of a very quiet wooded area. I was shown around by Manoj who is the Principal and spoke to the students for about 30 mins telling them about the work I been doing with Biju in Mumbai and giving them some help with their English. There are currently about 25 students at the college and they come from all different areas of India. Most were from Kerla which is in the south of India. After the tour around and the talk, I stayed for a chat and a cup of tea and then was taken back to my accommodation. Tomorrow will be my last day in Goa so I will be spending the day at the beach and then saying bye to the kids. It will be sad leaving here but it will be great to return back to Mumbai to be with the Vision Rescue team and the street children.

Me with Abi and Bharti

I was treated to a fantastic breakfast this morning at a lovely restaurant in Panjim. I went there with Martin and Beena and had fried eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, breakfast tea and a bowl of fruit. It was great! It also gave me a good opportunity to chat to them about the future of the school and what their vision is. They are really keen to get the standard of the school above that of the government school to ensure good funding. After breakfast they dropped me off at the school where I was able to watch the children rehearsing for their Independence Day celebration, and view a couple of the lessons going on. I managed to find Abi and Bharti and took some photos of them for the father back in Mumbai. Unfortunately I did not have a photo to show them. At 11.30am, I took another teacher session, this time talking about lesson structure, Brain Gym and (yes you've guessed it) PHONICS! Once you start telling them about it they don't want to stop learning more. Tomorrow will be the last session as I will be going back to Mumbai on Monday morning. In the afternoon, I visited the boys homes and got to sample fresh coconut which the boys expertly broke open. I am getting better at Carrom and managed to pocket a few counters today - I was partnering with 13 year old Raj who is a bit of an expert!!
I noticed at the younger boys home that they have very little to do and there seems to be no real decent equipment for them to play with. I have ask one of the wardens, Lucki, to write a list of some equipment the boys would like and see if I can get my hands on anything. If anyone has any fairly new equipment or toys that they don't need or would like to donate money towards some toys and games then please let me know. They would really appreciate some help in this department. At 6.30pm I was picked up by Jinil (The Indian version of The Stig!) and he took me to a Chinese restaurant where I pick up a take away - and very nice it was. Tomorrow we have the Independence Day celebration at 9.00am so it is another early start.

Thursday 13th August

'Carrom'

Boys from the homes

Me with Abi

More activities in the school

The last couple of days have been amazing. I have had the chance to spend a good couple of hour each day with the teacher staff at the school in Goa. We have put together a behaviour system and decided on 6 main school rules. I have been designing posters for the rules and badges to use as rewards. The staff seem to be responding very well to the sessions and they seem very passionate about changing the school for the better. We have also been talking about the structure of the school day and maximise the time in lessons. India is not well known for it's time keeping but I explained to the teachers that keeping the pace of lessons and the school day going can often reduce behavioural problems. It is so good being able to have an impact on a school in it's very early stages. They have a lot of respect for the educational system in England and so they are so willing to learn the strategies we use. In the afternoons, I have been spending time with the children in the homes. It has been great getting to know them and improving my abilities in playing 'Carrom'. They don't have a huge amount of entertainment at the home and most of the time is taken up sleeping, doing chores, playing carrom or learning to play musical instruments. They have specific times when they do their homework, eat and pray. One of the staff members at Vision Rescue has two children in the homes and he asked me if I could get some photos of them. Today I met with his son Abi and tomorrow I will meet with his daughter Bharti. They were put into the home as their was an alcoholic. He has gradually been rehabilitated by Vision Rescue and is now helping with the teaching on the buses. Tomorrow will probably be the last training session I will have with the teachers in Goa, and I have been ask to spend a few minutes in each class talking to them about the importance of their learning.

Tuesday 11th August

Dinner at the home

Raj (top) and his friend

Boys from the home


Lessons at the school


Assembly time

Another morning at the school in Goa and today I arrived in time to see the assembly. I was very impressed with the way that the children behaved. The all sat neatly in lines and there was very little fidgeting. They sang a couple of songs very well and after about 20 mins they then went to their first lessons. I then took the time to print out information to give the teachers on behaviour management and reward systems. I managed to catch the end of some of the lessons and then at 12.00 I got together with the teachers to talk through behaviour strategies and get some feedback from them about how they think school is doing and what are its current strengths and weakness. It was obvious that behaviour was their main concern. Tomorrow we are going to decide on some school rules and plan out a behaviour system that they can start using in the school. I really feel this school has great potential and that eventually, with good systems in place, the students will make excellent progress. In the afternoon I got the chance to spend some time with the kids at the homes. One of the kids I met was 8 year old Raj, who some of you may have seen on the Vision Rescue You tube video I told you about back on 12th May. Raj was born in Mumbai but when he was just a baby, his father killed his mother. He was living on the streets when his father then died from drugs. Raj was then alone on the streets until Biju and Vision Rescue got him to the rescue home in Goa. He is now living a safe and happy life at the home and is doing well in his studies. Later on at the older boys home, I was invited to play the local board game, Carrom. This is like Subbuteo, pool and draughts all rolled into one. I am still not entirely sure of the rules but you have to flick the draughts counters in holes at the corners of the board. Here is a web address for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrom. The boys are so good. Their flicking technique is brilliant and their aim is excellent. I, in comparison, was poor. I could not rekindle those quality moments of playing subbuteo as a child. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time for another guitar lesson but maybe Wednesday or Thursday.
Tomorrow I am having breakfast at Matin and Beena's house and will then run the teacher session in the afternoon. I have uploaded some pictures of the school and kids. Hope you like them.

Monday 10th August

I am now in Goa and it is definately different to Mumbai. It is much quieter, less crowded and much cleaner. Amazingly, a group from Woking have been out here working in the school and the children's homes - small world! They leave tomorrow. Today I spent the morning at the school which is run by Beena (Biju's sister) and her husband Martin. The school was only started 3 months ago and they are very keen for me to advise them on really getting it up and running. I watched most of the teachers this morning and made some notes on the good points and things that could be improved. Tomorrow, I will have the chance to sit down with the teachers and talk through what I have observed. There is no behaviour strategy in place or rules and I know that is something the teacher really want to talk about so we will try and work on that. The content of the lessons I saw was generally ok but the English is still heavily waited towards capital letters and they are just starting to look into phonics.

I sat down with a few of the older children and work with them on som maths and I notice that many of them have poor mental maths skills. They struggle to work out very simple additions in their head but if you write it down they can do it. The children are split into age groups for lessons and each class has about 12 pupils in it. The school is set up just for the children in the homes however there are a few of the children that go to the local governement school. In the afternoon I got to spend some time in one of the boys homes. They children in this home range from 11 - 16. Many of children have parents who are HIV + or drug addicts, some have no parents, some have been rescued from the streets and some have suffered abuse and neglect. They are such great kids. They are very welcoming and friendly and some of them speak good English. I stayed and played some games with them during their free time and one of the boys even gave me guitar lessons. He taught me three chords so we will continue the lesson next time I visit them. I am hoping over the next few day to get the life stories of some of the children to give you an idea of the life they have been rescued from. I did not take many photos today and I want to just settle and meet the staff and children. I've included a couple of photos from the boys home I visited. One is a group photo with the team from Woking.

Friday 7th August

Today, I got to see an area of Vision Rescue that I have not yet seen, in fact they do not normally take white people to see it. They have rented out a room in the middle of the Red Light District which is used as a day care centre for children who mothers work as prostitutes. Some of the children themselves have been abused by clients who have paid additional money for the child. One boy, aged 9, was allowed to be abused for payment of 20 rupees (thats 25p!!). That just shows you how desperate some of these mothers are. Once they are caught up in prostitution, it is very difficult to get out of because it is largely run by mafia. The day care centre runs from 10am - 4pm and the children range from 2 - 10yr old. They are fed and taught in the centre and also have time to sleep and play. Ideally, they would like to keep the centre going during the night as that can often be the time when the children are most vunerable to abuse. At present there are no staff who are able to make an all night commitment but hopefully soon they will be able to put this in place. The centre has lots of potential educationally as the same kids are there each day and they have wall space and space for resources. Some of the children are too small for more structured teaching and it would be good to have a member of staff to work specifically with the toddlers. The children there are very friendly and like all the other children, they are fascinated by the camera. It saddens you when you know that only meters away, these children's mothers are selling themselves. Through this facility, Vision Rescue is giving these children hope for the future so that they do not end up going down the same road!

Wed 5th August

Today was a public holiday in India because of the Hidu festival Raksha Bandhan, which celebrates the sacred bond between brothers and sisters. The tradition on this day is for the sister to give her brother a decorative wristband. I knew nothing about this festival until I reach Reay Road on the evening bus. I was suddenly approach by lots of the girls who wanted to give me one of their decorative wristbands, some even went back to their homes just to get me a wristband. To cut a long story short I ended up with about 20 sisters to go with the 5 best friends I acquired the other day. It made a very decorative collection of wristbands on my arm as you can see from the photos. I think I will be removing them before I go out in the morning but will certainly keep them as souvenirs. This was my second experience of a Hindu ritual as earlier on in the day I saw a Hindu funeral procession. It was for a 13 year old girl who had died from ill health. The body is carried with the face uncovered to the place of cremation. Interestingly, it is only men who are allowed to walk in the procession.
In the afternoon, I ran another teacher training session where I continue with the phonics training and also did a self evaluation form with the teachers. This is a new experience for some of them and it was very interesting to see how they answered the questions. The day before one of the teachers, Ishwa had to step down from his teaching post due to other commitments. This was a slight concern as there were no other teachers available, so Rajech ask Punkage to cover for the time being. Punkage is about 19 and was rescue from the streets as a kid. He is very keen to learn English and for the last year he has been working at the teaching place in Juhu. He has been paying close attention in the teacher training sessions and tonight he decided to try teaching a phonics lessons. I decided to go on the bus to see how he got on and I was amazed to see how good he was. He worked so hard with the children in their pronouncing of the letters and they picked it up very quickly. There were a couple of errors that I correct but he was very close to being spot on with his delivery. He got the children to copy the letters onto their boards and practice sounding them out. This is when I got the chance to help the children. They were so enthusiastic and kept trying the sounds until they got it correct. I even gave some of the children some words to sound out which they did and we actually had some of the children reading - A major breakthrough!!!!! There is still a long way to go but I was so encouraged by what I had seen. The hard work is starting to show through. Today has been such a great day and I am now even more excited about seeing the next English lesson but you will have to wait till I return from Goa before that happens!

Tuesday 4th August

Mahim street children

Pukka finishing off his food!

Kids at MMRDA playing on a mini ferris wheel

I was picked up this morning by Manoj who drove me to Mahim! It was good to see that some of the street children have returned from being away during the rainy season. There were 10 on the bus this morning and they seemed happy to be back. One of the boys, who is about 13, was new and it was clear that he was very uneducated. Manoj did some very simple writing of letters with them. Some struggled to remember the letter names and their sounds but it was great to see them trying hard and concentrating on their work. One off the boys there was Pukka who designed the orange man on the cards I sold whilst back in England (Still have lots more if you want some when I return - all money goes to help these kids!). There are not yet enough older children to get the football going but hopefully more will start arriving. Next week I am visiting the Rescue homes in Goa so I will have to start the football the week after next.
After Mahim, we travelled to Bandra and on the way I gave Manoj some feedback on his teaching to help him improve next time. The great thing about Manoj is he is very keen to learn and will always try new things.
Bandra ran as usual and I spent time with some of the children practicing their letter shapes. It is good to see that most of the children are arriving on the bus with clean faces, teeth and hair combed. As the bus was about to leave Bandra, it started raining and some of the children decided they had too far to walk in the rain with their food so asked Manoj if they could stay on the bus and get dropped off on the way. It was funny watching them try and keep their plates of food level whilst riding on a bumpy bus. Luckily there was no need for any sudden braking so most of the food remained on their plates. I am still amazed by the great big smiles that beam across their faces when you help them and make them feel valued. The smiles themselves are worth all the effort!!
Lunch as usual at the kitchen and then off to MMRDA and more English writing. I am not sure how many of you know that Sunday was 'Friendship Day' which is quite big in India especially among the children. The tradition is that they give a friendship wristband to a special friend. These wristbands are made of ribbon which you tie around the wrist and some of them have words written on them like ' Best Friend!' and ' Be my special Friend'. Once the lesson had finished, five children came and gave me friendship bands which was very unexpected and very touching! Some of them needed several attempts to tie them as they only just fitted. A couple of them are pink, which is not really my colour, but the red and blue ones tend to stand out more. I am not quite sure how long I have to keep them on for but I will ask someone tomorrow. The rest of the day I spent in the office preparing for the teachers training session tomorrow. I am going to try and get them to evaluate and assess their own teaching ability, a concept that they don't understand that well. I booked my flight to Goa for Sunday morning and will book my return journey in a couple of days as I want to return by train. I have been told that the train journey is a good experience. I am really looking forward to the trip to Goa as it will give me the opportunity to meet the children who have been rescued and saved by Vision Rescue many of which were abandoned or abused or have lost their parents. It will be emotional listening to their stories.

Monday 3rd August

This morning, I was still feeling full up from the wonderful Spaghetti Bolognaise that I had at Simon's house last night. Simon is the chef that cooks all the food for the children. I got a rickshaw over to the office for 10.00am. My first task was to print out my paperwork for the teachers training session this afternoon. The office was having a few technical problems and Ajesh's computer (which I was using) decided to die!! Evetually, I was able to use another computer and get the printouts I needed. I then joined Biju and Rajesh who were having a meeting with Vision Rescue's newest employee, Jidesh. He will be Vision Rescue's CEO. After the meeting, I travelled with Rajesh and Jidesh to Mahim, where we had lunch and then went on to the teacher training session. Today, I discussed the teachers about the good things I had seen on the bus since I had been back in India and talk to them about the sessions we would be having over the next four weeks. The main focus is going to be on the teaching of English as this is the area that the teachers are less confident in and do not teach correctly. This is where I will be using the phonics scheme. I am also keen for them to start evaluating there own lessons and having targets to improve their teaching. They all seem very keen to learn more and I am confident that we will have better teachers and learners by the time I leave. Tomorrow, Manoj is picking me up at 8.00am so I can see the first teaching session. I noticed that some of the street families are starting to return to Mahim so it maybe only a few more days before we can get the football going again.