Autumn 2015

Former Pupils

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is, what happens to students when they leave school? The truth is like here, lots of things! Some get married, others go back home, many continue their studies and even enter further education. On a recent trip I was really excited to meet three former pupils, Bosu, Shalini and Chitti who all studied for a number of years at Emmanuel school in Kethenakonda.

I could still be working in the fields…Shalini and Bosu continued to further education, studied accountancy and have developed professional careers. Shalini works for GMR, a very large Indian company. At first she worked at the new Hyderabad airport, which was built and managed by GMR and more recently she is working in the financial department of a food processing company also owned by GMR.

Bosu worked for 7 years for a company based in Chennai and recently set up his own accountancy practice in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. With 7 employees he’s on the way to developing his own accounting and tax consultancy. Bosu has been giving back to UCCI, helping them with all sorts of bureaucratic procedures and project development.

Chitti also completed further studies and then worked in a bank in Vijayawada; from there he has moved to Hyderabad to work for HSBC providing support services for commercial banking in the USA.

All three of them came from very simple rural homes, Bosu told me everytime he passes the school he feels so grateful to his sponsor. Without education he is sure he would be working as an agricultural labourer like his parents before him. Now he is supporting his wider family, his mother lives in his home and he is creating opportunities for others. Bosu maintains a network of former students and we hope to meet a number of them during the next visit to India.

Somebodies faithful monthly gift changed their lives - what an investment, what a generous gift.

Changing lives through creative partnerships….. www.frontlinedevelopment.org.uk

Hyderabad School

A little goes a long way…

Some things in life are pretty mundane but absolutely essential e.g. toilets! We recently had the drainage and toilet facilities in Hyderabad school improved. About £1200 refurbished a toilet block, replaced a septic tank and recycled the old one. All of this means the children have much improved, hygienic toilet facilities and new showers. For another £500 we bought a buffalo to join an existing one. Now there’s buttermilk for everyone!

Technical training

In November we hope to take the first steps at Hyderabad to start a technical training school. This will offer practical skills for less academic pupils. In time for boys there will be courses in building work, electrical installation, welding and more. For girls garment making and sewing. This is an exciting new development - if you have such skills and would like to get involved get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

FRONTLINE

Autumn 2015

Changing lives through creative partnerships….. www.frontlinedevelopment.org.uk

Churches

M e e t S o y a n R a j a a n o t h e r graduate from Kethenakonda school. He’s 34 now but loves to tell us about the teams he saw coming and going and especially the many Pastor’s training events we held in the past with John Winston. He loved it all, so much so that he has become a Pastor and with his team has started a

dozen churches.

It is so refreshing having the opportunity to visit remote rural villages and take time to share and pray with them. Recently we had a training event for his leadership team which was a tremendous success.There’s lots more we can do - if you are interested in leadership training for churches this is a great opportunity to get involved!

Walk the Camino for

Frontline - May 2016 Many of you will have heard of the Camino de Santiago, it’s likely you know someone who has walked part of the route and raved about it!

The Camino is an ancient pilgrim’s way travelling across the north of Spain from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. It’s a challenging but deeply rewarding journey as you join with many others on the path to Santiago.

We hope this will be a major fund raising event and an amazing experience…..We are planning a sponsored walk of the whole route - it’s a sort of a relay but definitely not a race!

We would love to have six groups of 4/5 people who will will walk for 5/6 days covering in total about 70/80 miles. The groups will walk on consecutive weeks to cover the whole journey. We will offer lots of support to make this as rewarding as possible before and during the walk. It will demand a certain level of fitness and preparation but most people will be fine!

We are planning to complete this in May and early June 2016 to avoid the summer heat and crowds.

We are asking people to raise some sponsorship for the walk to support our work in India. We will help you with ideas to do that.

You will also have to budget for the walk itself and travel to Spain.

We already have two team leaders and some walkers but we need more. It’s an amazing experience and an opportunity to resource our work in India.

Why not get involved, think - could I lead a team? Who could be in your team? Or could I join a team or maybe consider coming as part of the support team!

For more information contact Alan George

tel 07411 268 088 or email alangeorgeonline@mac.com

As always we thank you for your ongoing interest in and support of Frontline’s partners in India and Sri Lanka. There’s so much need everywhere these days we never take your generosity for granted.

Contact us at; email info@frontlinedevelopment.org.uk telephone 028 9048 9660

6 Lambert Avenue Dundonald BT16 1LE Co Down