Hopefully you're still enjoying this trek through my photos of India. This week I want to tell you about the orphanage we helped at. We didn't plan to help there: we didn't even know it existed till we found. But I doubt I'll ever forget it. Having seen Slumdog Millionaire, it has become clearer that there are places like this all over India. The help we gave was just a drop in the ocean, but having heard reports from people who have gone there since our trip, I know we have made a difference.
The first day we were staying in the new village, we walked down the the end of the main road, where we found a few kids, and then the orphanage they were living in. The helpers invited us in. We explained how we were in India studying the culture, and they asked if we would like to help at the orphanage. We agreed. We could have been anyone, with any agenda.
At this point, I'd just like to state that I'm glad these kids have somewhere to stay and call home, and a community around them. At least they weren't left to die in the gutter because of a slight bodily deformity when they were born - at least someone decided to take some sort of care for them. But that is just about all the good I can say about this place.
These were the good beds, though on closer inspection, you'll see there were not that good:
There would be four or five children to each of these beds.
These are what the younger kids would sleep in: the cloth was untied and dangled down like a small hammock. Then the kids were placed in one and swung to sleep.
This was one of the ceilings I cleaned. I guess they couldn't help but get spiders and ants and other creepy crawlies, but it wasn't fun getting rid of them and trying to make sure they didn't fall on me while doing so!
The court yard had some dogs in it, and a badminton net. The badminton was use more by the owner. He was very good at badminton. It would have been nice to have a casual knock-around, rather than just being thrashed.
Some of the donated books the children could read, if they managed to reach, which they wouldn't be able to. There were some surprises in the library: some books that would have been very good for the kids to see: if they'd been tall enough to get to them.
The medicine cabinet would not have met western safety standards. I know: it's easy to criticize now, but I'm not sure that they would actually accept good quality, in date, medicines.
This tube of Clobetasol Propionate was taken out of the hands of one of the boys in the orphanage, who was just walking around with it.
These jars of medicine were just left in some of the children's lockers, available for them to drink as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted.
One time, I spotted one of the girls having to pick up all this litter with their hands......
....but the kids tried to stop me taking the photos........
.....and took me round to the front of the orphanage, where they organised a photo for me to take, as if they'd been taught the exact publicity shot visitors were allowed to take.
This old metal shelf stack was used by the kids as a climbing frame.
There was urine on the floor a lot of the time. We couldn't tell if it was from the kids (who would run around with no trousers on (not uncommon for kids out of the orphanage though)) or from the dogs. Either way, it wasn't acceptable that the kids had to live in those conditions.
This very scary guard dog was kept on a lead most of the time, which I was please about! I wouldn't have liked to be around when it was allowed to roam free.
I think the orphanage was summed up in this picture though. This dog is checking out the stools from a child who had been left to sleep in the swing-cot having produced them. I don't know how long they'd been there before we came and helped, but the helpers didn't seem too bothered about the fact one of their children had been left in this state. It wasn't the only time we saw this either.
These children had two towels to go around about 40 of them. They had far from adequate facilities for all areas of their life, but yet, in a country far from interested in the exact time, they received a digital wall clock as a donation!
If you were to look at the orphanage's web site or leaflets, you would think it was a wonderful place, bringing hope to many children and bringing them up to be record breakers and hope-filled citizens. That isn't what I saw when I was there. That isn't the impression I got from helping there for several weeks.
Just before we left the orphanage for the last time, a couple from our group stayed behind for a couple more minutes, and reported that they'd seen something that explained pretty much everything that was happening at the orphanage:
They said they had seen main guy at the orphanage perform what he referred to as "Yoga-meditation", through which he would "receive power". The other helpers and the children would then bow down and worship the man, and receive power from him.
The couple who saw this asked the helpers about this, and they were quite open about it and explained the process.
I don't think you have to be a Christian to see there there is something wrong with that setup. The spiritual interactions in that place certainly affected the physical world. If you're playing with fire, you'll probably get burned.
As I said at the start, a few people from my team have returned there since our trip, and have reported some improvements, but it would take a complete change in leadership to turn that place around.
You can pray for it though, and remember those faithful ones who have gone out, and will continue to go out to orphanage all over India, and do their bit to bring true joy and hope to those children they find there.
