CHIT Section 2

At the Bapatla home the price of bottle- gas became very high and hard to obtain. The cooks were burning tree roots. Chopping down live trees in India is illegal. We bought pressure cookers, steamers and solar water-heaters.

These 20-litre pressure cookers are made in India. The time taken to cook dhal is reduced from 40 minutes to 8.

These two remarkably cheap thermo-syphonic solar units, 100 and 200 litre capacity, were ordered and delivered within 3 days. We have moved them from Nidamarru and fitted them at the Bapatla Complex, where the water is softer and they work well.

George (chairman) running the water hot before filling the giant rice pan. He then thanked God for His bountiful provision of free heat and suggested warning signs be put up in Telugu/English.

Half the CHIT budget is spent on food: rice, cooked without salt, dhal (lentil curry), eggs and fruit. Inflation has increased their food costs by £2,200 this year.

The boys and girls always eat separately, using the fingers of the right hand only, for reasons of hygiene. They drink butter-milk after the meal.

A fat new water-buffalo with calf, costs £500 The milk they provide for the children is much better than milk bought in, which is often skimmed and diluted. We now have six water buffalo in milk.

New girl Daisy gets a bath. Water buffalo need two or three cooling baths a day when the temperature goes up to 47C. In the background you see our elevated 35 tonne water tank.

The buffalo shed provides shade. Once the mosquito netting got old and torn the animals were tormented. Milk yields fell.

A generous donor enabled us to renew the mosquito netting and replace the broken fans. When happy with a calf, a water buffalo provides about 6 litres of superbly nutritious milk a day.

This is the original building at the Bapatla site. 50 girls + housemother live upstairs. Below there are 20 young girls + senior staff quarters.

Rachel Rani is the Director of both homes and Warden at Bapatla. She is ably assisted by Mannika Rao, Deputy Warden, who lives on site with his wife, the senior cook.

Our children under 16 go to the Elizabeth Barrie High School, near to the home, built in 1997 and improved with a Rotary International Grant in In 2006 with help from generous donors CHIT increased the number of teachers and improved salaries. They are now moving to English-medium. This involves expensive retraining and additional equipment. Children without uniforms are those accepted free from poor families in the vicinity.

Mary Salome, Headteacher. She kept the school going extremely well during a period of financial stringency. She is quite strict and the children are well-behaved.

Although much teaching is still by rote, interestingly, they favour small group work when appropriate. We are introducing white boards, and would like to increase funding for the school: note the empty bookcases.

Claire Brown, visiting TEFL teacher, has the children delighted with her artwork. She and Stuart stayed for six weeks.They are visiting again to help improve the quality of the teaching. Could you help in this way?

Claire and Stuart helped the staff to improve their spoken English

We can get the white boards made in India and have provided every child with a small white board. The special pens are not available - a good idea for supporters to send as presents.

Trustee Pauline busy with a group of children, teaching craft work. She also distributed Bibles and “Why Jesus?” booklets in Telugu and English.