Thanks to your support a new dimension to our activity in Chennai has been launched: Satkaarya’s wraparound care programme.

Wraparound care is provided for needy children whose home environment is chaotic, unstable and often even dangerous.

These children are impoverished and malnourished and also face the risk of being victims of all kinds of abuse, including substance abuse. Such children are identified by our social worker, Mr Peters, who has good experience in dealing with parents in difficult situations and convincing them to send their children to school.

How does it work?

The children attend local Little Lambs School in the day and are then dropped off at our wraparound care centre. The children spend four hours at the centre where they are washed and cleaned, fed nutritious snacks and meals and then given the necessary holistic educational support. The evening is organised in such a way so as to accommodate physical exercise, yoga, sports, recreational games, art activities, with some literacy and numeracy. The little boys and girls are also taught basic hygiene, proper eating habits and values while managing behaviour in a positive manner.

The outcome

Currently eight children are attending the wraparound programme. There is scope for more to join in. The success of the programme is that the children are eager to attend school regularly and want to come to the care centre every day. Another highlight of the programme is that the older girls at the Satkaarya home are able to participate in caring for these children. Thanks to the core team of staff who are very dedicated and have made this initiative possible, Batemans-Satkaarya will be able to expand the work to many more vulnerable children.

The picture above shows three of the children who are benefiting from the programme: Muthalagu and her brothers Surya and Pechumuthu.

Below are a few more pictures of children involved in the programme.

‘This year’s Batemans catering stall at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire was as crazy and brilliant as ever,’ writes trustee Alex Jacob.

‘With 45 wonderful volunteers enthusiastically helping to chop, cook, stir, open tins, wash up and serve about 2,000 portions of food and helping raise more than £17,000. And there was an additional £200 raised by the lovely porridge ladies who used our stall in the morning before people were ready for curries!

‘Trustee Marion Mills masterminded the purchasing so skilfully that we only ended up with a few spare tins at the end (having started with a hall-full of them!). Marion had even managed to procure lots of donated coconut milk after befriending someone on the bus to Oxford!’ (Ed’s note: proof that it’s always worth chatting about Batemans’ charity work to new faces.)

Alex continues: ‘Rachel and Ruth managed to juggle all the volunteers into a timetable of shifts and with a team who had nearly all done it before, we were pretty efficient… but the favourite job for many is still towing the ‘Truck Wagon’ up to the stall laden with steaming tubs of curry! Thank you everyone who made it possible!’

Marion adds: ‘One of the most rewarding elements is the number of return customers – not just during the event itself, but also year after year.’

Want to help a bit more? Then why not enter our autumn raffle. It’s open to all, so do please encourage your friends to join in. You and they could win a lovely prize and all the money raised goes to helping the children in our care. Tickets are £5 per ticket or five tickets for £20.

To buy tickets, click here.

Below are the three raffle prizes:

1st prize: Table set – six placemats and six serviettes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2nd prize: Two embroidered and mirrored cushion covers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3rd prize: Two patchwork cushion covers 

Trustee Paul Crosby is back in the UK after his amazing fundraising ride on a Royal Enfield Bullet, made in Chennai, across half the world from India to the UK.

After starting from the Batemans Trust/Satkaarya hostel for girls in Chennai he worked his way overland back to his home in Kendal, UK. New to this type of motor biking, it proved to be quite an epic adventure.

You can donate to his JustGiving fundraising page here.