Caution: This document may contain minor traces of humor.
The homecoming was complete with my frequent visits to the Seva Chakkara orphanage which I had visited a year back and whose ups and downs I had followed for the last year through my mother. I was able to visit the orphanage over seven times, my longest visit lasting for about 8hrs.
Unlike my previous visit last January, I didn't have the advantage of visiting with a fellow asha volunteer (or so I thought) who could talk to the people running the place, while I enjoyed myself teaching and spending time with the kids. This time it was business.
The funds that had been sent by Asha NYC/NJ had recently been realized and the first month pay had been given using it. Till recently we had a system of sending the money at the end of the year, which only after the visit I realized was not a good mechanism.
My primary goals of spending time at the orphanage were the following:
The first trip to the orphanage was on the second day after I arrived in Chennai. They had moved to a new location from my previous visit and my mom took me to the place in auto.
The new location was on the first floor of a house, much like the old one. We entered into a hall on the first floor which was like an office there was two tables on one side and another between the hallway of two other tiny rooms. The other side had another room that was closed and there was a dim lit hallway that seemed to have another room which happened to be the kitchen.
There was a staircase and after quickly greeting Velayudham I went off upstairs to see the kids. Upstairs there was a veranda, part of the veranda was covered with some sort of plastic (it was green) so it could be used as an extended classroom. Next to it was a hall which was being used as a classroom for the children. The hall was larger than the classroom that I had seen them earlier in. The classes were being conducted much like the earlier time with children sitting as groups in different areas of the rooms. No, I didn't recognize the children and they didn't remember me either. Selvi the only child I had got close to in my last visit was the daughter of the cook who had left for Ambattur and had taken her along. There number of teachers was far less than I had expected for five classes. On looking closer it became clear that the teacher was trying to teach two different classes and this wasn't working very well for either class. I stated talking to the teachers and a few children.
By this time it was time for lunch. All the children at the school have lunch together at the hall. One of the children in V class (Nagaraj) was helping organize the elder kids in cleaning up the place to lunch could be served. This is when I met a couple of the donors who were donating for the lunch that day. I also briefly met Radhakrishnan (S.B.I manager, hony. deputy sec) had come in to serve the food to the children, he seems to try to make it as often as possible to serve children..This was followed by the most uncomfortable experience I had during the entire trip. A little function had been arranged for me in which Velayudham welcomed me and thanked me and Asha for Education for helping them out in the time of need. He thanked Asha for helping with the salaries of that month and said that he had wanted me to give it myself, but I had firmly and softly denied saying that I would be later in the month by the time I get there. He then thanked the donor for donating for the food and prayed for both of our souls. This was followed by Radhakrishnan garlanding both of us...Radhakrishnan then spoke after that on how he considers himself part of the orphanage and talks about the orphanage whenever he gets a chance. Nice man, it's good that the orphanage is finally getting in touch with someone who knows anyone. After we finally settled into Hindi which was the most comfortable language for both me and the donors they told me that they were businessmen nearby, one of them was donating lunch for his fathers thithi. Sweet man.
By now needless to say any misconceptions I had of thinking that I was part of the orphanage had left me. I saw myself as what I guess I was a donor...
By the end of the fiasco the elder kids were also there and I salvaged the rest of the day spending time with them, playing around with my digital camera and taking pics for them and talking to them about news their classes, etc.
The next few trips were well, less than fruitful, except that I had graduated to public transportation for part of the journey and they had stopped having demos for me as then never knew when I would turn up. But, there was still the distance and for some reason I couldn't get through to them at all. Any question I asked was taken as an important audit that they had to scramble to get documents for and well I ask a lot of questions and this didn't make things any easier.
In the mean time I was starting to accumulate information about the orphanage irrespective and my best source of the same were the kids. I also got to know the kids better they are quite talented and extremely mature for their age. The notes I had made about the orphanage include a regular day in the life of a child studying in the primary school of the orphanage and profiles of a couple of kids.
I also did not realize that the orphanage did not have a copy of the proposal I had and although the numbers for the salaries of the employees added up. The split between the teachers and the working staff did not. There were far more working staff as compared to the teacher. Part of the reason was when they moved into the new place they started paying through their noses and a couple of their teachers had left as they could not pay them regularly at the beginning of the month.
Eventually in my third or fourth visit I finally managed to get Velayudham angry and snap at me. It was hilarious :). Both of us stared at each other and broke into a laughter. This was when we finally broke ice and actually started talking and listening to each other as two people who wanted the best for the children.
He also made it a point that I was aware of the admin and in the day to day activities of the orphanage which is when I realized how dynamic the state of finances were. I also got an estimate of the costs involved in running the orphanage. A major expenditure is just food. Apart from the 38 children at the school and 34 elder children who study in local schools, there are also some inmates which includes a few old and on temporary basis some women who had been abused by their husbands and had run away from them. In all there were some 95 people who need to be fed everyday. On days with donors the cost comes out to about Rs.(5+10+10) a person or around Rs.75,000 a month (~$18k/year).
One such woman joined the orphanage during one of my visits, she had come all the way from Kerela with no other place to go. She had no skills that could be useful for the orphanage she couldn't teach, had no outstanding vocational skills and allowing her to stay at the orphanage could mean that they need to take care of her for quite some time to come. The place is already quite crowded and it meant that they would have to feed one more person. It is good that there are both sides, in the end she stayed at the orphanage.
I had also spent my time talking to all the employees and volunteers of the orphanage. I had decided that the one thing I wanted to know was where they felt the key areas of improvements were required at the orphanage/orphanage school. These are also archived on the website. I had told them that I knew that space was a constraint and could do nothing about it at the moment.
Many of the suggestions by the teachers are for teaching aids which is very doable and a teacher training will also help them easily create activities and tools that would be interesting and educational for the children. I hope to work on that soon.
I am going to gloss over the rest of the trip, the info I sent to the group about the changes and challenges faced by the orphanage should give a good idea of the present state of the orphanage. I have also prepared a budget for the orphanage of the costs that I am aware of.
My mother also started visiting the orphanage with me, especially once I was able to use the public transportation which cost 1/5 that we pay by auto. She felt that she could just donate that money rather than visit them frequently. I would like to think I created an Asha India volunteer.
The visits were certainly an eye opener for me to understand the complexities, which I know I have failed to explain here :), and the effort involved in running this place. It has also made me feel that I am part of the orphanage now.
I wasn't sure how much people there considered me part of the orphanage till I got back to the US when Velayudham wrote an email to me. It started 'beloved brother'.