The Chuch

The Goodwill Village

We are committed to raise 170 pounds each year for the Goodwill Village we support in India. This is usually raised by the children of our Sunday School with the pennies they collect and the Harvest but this year the Sunday School have raised all of the money to support the village plus some extra too.

It is through the support of lots of groups, schools, churches, individuals in other counties that the money is raised to care for them. The pennies which the people of Carey collect thro the Junior Church and the profits from the Harvest Festivals all go towards our support.

What is the Goodwill Village?

http://www.goodwillhomes.org.uk/

Photos courtesy of Peter Davis

Goodwill started as one home at a place called Thandigudi, which is where Zhetland House is. There are about 240 children on that site. There are also 240 children on a site in the next state, Andrepadesh, at a place at Babatla. There are 5 other smaller homes. 800 children altogether being cared for by Goodwill. The criteria is poverty - you have so many people who would like to be helped by Goodwill but you have to make the choice somewhere. So if a child has no parents and is brought by the tribal people the tribal chief perhaps then they would get first choice to take that child. Then it would be a child with only one parent or perhaps with two parents but one parent ill so that parent is using up a lot of the family income. We take the child for the parents. It is a little bit like a boarding school because they come to us during the term times. But then if it is possible the children go back to their own families or village at the holiday times or festival times because it is most important that they stay in contact with their own families. The children would be lost in India without those connections.

Goodwill Children's Village was created over 20 years ago by a school teacher from Northampton. The village is situated near the settlement called Thandigudi, high in the Palni hills of South India though today their are other Goodwill homes in other poor areas of India. Goodwill helps boys and girls aged 7 and over, some orphans, others with one impoverished parent. All the children are looked after while they are educated at local schools, a privilege they would not otherwise have been able to afford. They are well fed, clothed and given the support young children of that age need. In the holidays many of the children return to their villages so that family and community links are maintained. Carey has been associated to with the Goodwill Village over 20 years supporting the girls in Zhetland House. Poverty comes into the news quite often and so you have pictures on the TV and in papers with a famine here and an earthquake there etc. 2 or 3 weeks later the news moves on but what happens to those people in those places which you have read about. There are charities dealing with emergency aid and there are other charities dealing with a longer term basis with other people who donate hit the headlines but even so have a desperate need. And so he travelled extensively in South India and you cannot help but notice the poverty there.

Many families still live in great poverty in Southern India. The only work for them is as bonded labourers. This girl has probably walked a mile to bring clean water to the family home .... a rough shelter of mud with a grass roof.

This girl who has carried a water jar back from the well back to her house which is just a bundle of sticks. The poverty of course hits people in all sorts of ways. The people in the hills in South India most of them are still bonded labourers on the coffee estates. You might pay a lot for your jar of coffee over here but for them a hard days labour reaps about 30p if they are lucky. If there is a draught or floods there is no pay because there is no work to be done. If they are ill or injured again poverty comes because there is nothing to keep the family.

This house will be one room for an extended family. They can survive just by all working long hours, but should there be a drought or a family member become ill / injured, then there is no income and the temptation is to move to the city where conditions are even worse.

A mother and two boys sitting on the step to their house, perhaps they are able to survive when there is work. But when difficulties come the temptation is to move to the city and the conditions in the cities are even worse. So Goodwill was started to help these very families at a time of difficulty; a time of illness; a time of real hardship; when the children or families would be tempted to go the city and the children would not go to school. The reality is if we change the life of a child, it changes it for the whole of their family as well. In Goodwill there are about 800 children in residential homes cared for by an Indian staff who provide for their every need. There is medical attention, good food and of course, most important, education.

At Thandigudi, the first home, these girls have a very cosy home which they keep spotlessly clean. The older girls help the younger ones, there is a lovely family atmosphere. At holiday and festival times most of the children go home to their villages.

But here are the children which Carey particularly helps to sponsor - the girls in Zhetland House. There they are all bright smiling faces and you can see how happy they are. For these people education (as for everywhere in the world really) is the way out of poverty. So Goodwill started its own schools.

Because the local school is so crowded and with no facilities Goodwill started it's own primary school. The children study very hard and many gain excellent exam results to start their secondary education.

They used to use the local village school but it was very, very crowded and conditions were not very good so our children learn in our own little schools. You can see here some of the concentration on these children's faces. They are learning to read and write. When they get older, its no good just educating children and then sending them out into the world.

Children able to go on to higher education are encouraged to do so, and are sponsored. Others are best to do the Trade Training offered by Goodwill ... motor cycle repair, garment making, electrical wiring, radio/TV repair. All gain experience on computers and have business training so that they con start up small family businesses.

hey need a job and so for the children we provide trade training as well. The boys and girls learn how to repair motorcycles, electrical wiring, to use sewing machines and computers, etc. For the children able to do it, we send them to college as well and we have several children training to be nurses, doctors, accountants, etc. So from absolutely desperately poor backgrounds of these children living in mud huts they are now able to earn a good living and help to support their family.

This is a new initiative by Goodwill to help the tribal people in remote villages. Help is given to get a clean water supply, improve the school, make sure the doctor and nurse visit etc.

This year has seen something new, the TORP scheme "Tribal Out Reach Programme" has been in the planning for years now is This is where Goodwill is now changing its emphasis a little bit and working with families actually in their own village. Identifying the desperate needs of the families, helping perhaps with the little local school to clean it up and provide equipment. Making sure the well is clean, the doctor visits when he should, and the district nurse also makes regular visits so working with the people in their own communities.

This girl is using a sewing machine given to the TORP project. A tutor gives instruction to the girl who would otherwise be picking coffee beans.

Those communities also need work when the children grow up and so we are starting little outreach trade training programmes in 10 villages as well. Here is one of the girls working on a sewing machine which has been donated and she is learning to make garments.

Poverty what does it mean? To reach the remote villages you need a Land Rover which must negotiate rough territory to reach the end of the road and then from there you would have to walk further into virtually the jungle to get to some villages.

This tribal father brought his child to ask for help. She is more than two years old but is not putting on weight. Without help he cannot get to the hospital nor afford any treatment necessary.

This gentleman brought his child to goodwill village, she looks like a baby but she is 2½ years old. She is not growing nobody knows why within the village. But it is too difficult to get her to a hospital. This has been brought to the attention of Goodwill so arrangements are being made for this man and his wife to take the baby to hospital to find out what medical treatment is needed so she can enjoy a good life.

Thanks to the generous support of Churches, schools and individuals Goodwill children have a bright future. They send their thanks to you all.

Goodwill can not be a missionary organisation would not be allowed in India . Local churches can have a missionary outreach in India and there are many of them. But a foreign church or organisation cannot be a missionary organisation as such. So the children are taken no matter what class or creed into Goodwill. The criteria is poverty the poorest children are the ones we look after. The staff are the same mix of all the varieties there are in India of Hindus, Muslims, but of Christians as well. The leadership of Goodwill in India is a Christian leadership. The Bishop of Magori is the Chairman of the Trust in India , which supervises the home. There are many Christian staff.