Reaching the Unreached G. Kallupatti, Near Batlagundu, Theni Dt
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Reaching The Unreached G. Kallupatti, Near Batlagundu, Theni Dt. 625203 Happenings of July 2020 Dear Well-wishers, Greetings from RTU. I am sorry to have to tell you that coronavirus has now reached our village and many of the rural villages where we work. RTU people affected by coronavirus One of our former children who now works in Bodi tested positive for the virus at the end of July and was admitted for treatment in a special facility at the Government Engineering College there. On his release, the owner of the house where he was living along with another of our alumni, were asked to leave for a month so they are both staying with us under quarantine during this time. We are sad to share the death of Mr Rangaraj who died of coronavirus in the Government Hospital in Theni. He is the father of one of our teachers. And the son of one of our headteachers is now in hospital in our local town of Batlagundu. In our village, we have had 15 cases of coronavirus now, and our district of Theni has 6,261 cases and 71 deaths. We are also sad to share that one of the girls in our care who is just ten year’s old, who we had to send home as per the Government lockdown orders, suffered severe burns in a fire accident caused by her mother. She was admitted to the Government hospital in Theni but once we heard the news, we transferred her to a private hospital in Madurai which has a special burns unit where she was admitted to the ICU. There she tested positive for Covid-19. Luckily, she has now been transferred out of ICU and is beginning to eat. One of our alumni students who works in this hospital has been caring for her like her own sister and another of our students who works in another private hospital nearby has also been visiting her. She is getting a lot of comfort and love from our alumni students in the absence of her mother. The doctors are planning skin grafting surgery in a week. Our staff are unable to visit due to the ban on travel between districts. We are continuing to do all we can to support the poorest people in our area and are very grateful for your faithful support which is allowing us to reach so many. Case study Arrival of new children to our Children’s Village This month three children aged 6, 7 and 8 from the same family came to RTU as their father was admitted to the Theni Government hospital. Due to diabetes, his right leg was amputated and their mother, with a 6-month old baby in her arms, has to stay in the hospital to take care of her husband. They do not have a house and were living on the pavement with no food when they came to the notice of the outreach staff from Jeevan Jyothi Hospice. As per the formal procedures, they were referred to the Child Welfare Committee who referred them to RTU. We admitted them in our Nirmala Children’s Village where they are getting the loving care and support of one of our foster mothers. This year they will begin their 1st, 2nd and 3rd standard in our Nirmala Middle School, in Bodi. If any of our supporters would like to sponsor these children, this would be most welcome. Children’s Villages We remain in contact with our children who have been sent to their relatives during the lockdown to find out about their health and family circumstances. We make sure that relatives buy food and our children are well fed even when they are away from us. To help families who are struggling, this month we transferred Rs. 2000 to 184 children’s family bank accounts. Seven children have returned to us as their relatives are unable to take care of them. During one of our regular contact calls with family members, we found out that their health was suffering and immediately brought them back to RTU. Now they are under quarantine in a separate house in our Sirumalar Children’s Village under a foster mother’s care. Professional students – great organisers To break the monotony of staying at home during this pandemic, our professional students organised a 3-day Fun Games Festival for the children which they named ‘Devil Thrashers’. The coronavirus is the devil. Our Engineering students, Nithya and Lavanya headed the team which organised 50 different fun games like treasure hunts, a balloon train and floating brinjals. All the children enthusiastically participated in these games and received 172 prizes. In the same way, a sports day programme was organised for our children Nirmala Children’s Village over at our Bodi site. After watching these events closely, we wondered where on earth they picked up these fantastic organisation, meticulous planning and impeccable executing skills. Unbelievable!! We are proud that they are our children. Success in the Board Exams The 12th standard Government Board exam results were recently published and all 59 of our students passed, thus continuing our 100% record. We are very proud of them for all the hard work they put in to achieve such excellent results. The teachers deserve special applause from all of us too. Boomika recorded 491/600, Inipriya scored 487/600 and Saravanapriya 477/600. They are the toppers for this year. In total, 15 students crossed that coveted 400 mark level. The 87 11th standard students also achieved excellent results in the Board Exams with 100% pass marks. Nagasathya with 471/600, Praveena with 463/600 and Vijayan with 457/600 topped the school rank list. 20 students spanned that 400-mark range in this exam. As the 10th standard Board Exams were unable to take place, our headteacher submitted the students’ attendance records, quarterly and half-yearly exam papers along with the mark list to the District Education Office in Periyakulam. The Exam Board will award the marks based on our submission. As well as giving children an education in our schools, we also support those from the most disadvantaged families further afield in our Home Support Programme. These students are from poor family backgrounds as their parents are HIV+, widowed, chronically ill or have a disability. This year, all the children who we have been supporting for the past 7 years to complete their Higher Secondary education have passed the 12th standard Board Exams. We congratulate them for their success in their studies and their future careers. We are currently arranging the college places for all the 12th standard students as they move on to further education and this new stage of their lives. Our schools have remained closed since March when the lockdown was first announced and are unlikely to open again until October. Our teachers have been preparing and delivering learning materials to help children continue their studies and we will share more information about this next month. However, one of our greatest challenges is reaching rural children during the lockdown who have no internet, no TV and no access to a smart phone as face to face contact and travel is strictly limited. It is these children who will be most disadvantaged in future. Case study Boomika, aged 17 comes from G.Kallupatti village in Theni District and is a day scholar with us. Her father works as a tailor for daily wages in a dressmaking shop. His income is not sufficient to manage the family. In 2000, we built a house for them as they were living in a small hut and, at the age of 3, Boomika started attending one of our balwadies. Boomika’s family moved to a city looking for greener pastures for her father and she studied up to 10th standard in the local Government high school. In 2018, the family returned to G.Kallupatti and so Boomika joined 11th standard in our St Peter’s Higher Secondary School. Now she has successfully completed her 12th standard public exams and scored the highest mark of 491/600. She is always active and is a role model to other students. She wants to study a Bachelor of Commerce degree in a private college in Dindigul. RTU is so proud of Boomika and all our students. New pulse oximeters for our children This month we purchased five pulse oximeters for our health clinic which are helpful to monitor oxygen saturation and offer peace of mind to people with chronic respiratory or cardiovascular conditions as well as assessing the need for supplemental oxygen. We provided one to each of our Children’s Villages and instructed them on how to use them for our children. We have purchased a disinfection spraying machine and we are using it to disinfect our main campus, school areas, Children’s Villages and hostels. We have also donated 20 kg of sodium hypochlorite and 20 litres of lysol to the Alagarnayakkanpatti village Panchayat authorities (one of our target villages) to use in spraying against coronavirus in the village surroundings. They have been spraying it in all the streets and public places daily. During this time of great uncertainty, we have been comforted, encouraged, and humbled by the outpouring of generosity and support from generous people like you. With your generous heart you all have stepped up to support the affected people at this time. We feel that as human beings, it's our responsibility to help the most vulnerable amongst us in their time of need. Thank you for helping us meet the challenges of this moment, so we can continue to provide the highest order of care with inclusion, integrity, compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence.