India

Please see the report below following our trip to Chennai, India on the 16th January 2009. Since this report was written, we are very pleased to update you that the EHSO headquarters have now relocated to the ground floor of the building where the Aark Cafe is located. We also had a donation to buy the 2 new sewing machines.

For further information about EHSO or HandsnCrafts contact

Lisa Anderson or Kiersten Gillingwater.
 

Chennai Report – 17th January 2009 to 1st February 2009

Purpose
Lisa, John, Emma and I wanted to visit, take photos and film the various EHSO projects. We stayed with Vijay and Sangeetha, which enabled us to gain a better understanding of the daily challenges they face. We also wanted to discover what the financial and practical needs were and to pray with each group of people and collate various prayer requests that we can share with our local church. We wanted to provide practical help with the presentation and promotion of the Aark and discuss new ideas, buy material and have samples made of new products to sell in the UK.

Vysarpadi Unit
The distance from the Aark and new home is about 30 minutes drive. There are 5 ladies that work here and they mainly specialise in tailoring. The products that we sell in the UK are the beach bag and the commuter bag. The room they work in is tiny, but clean. There was a good atmosphere in the place. We also met some of the family of these ladies and the couple that live opposite. The ladies have asked that we pray for regular orders for them and the man opposite requested prayer for the health of his critically ill mother.

Ayanavaram Unit & Computer Training Centre
The distance from the Aark and new home is about 10 minutes drive. There are 6 ladies that work here. The products they make that we sell in the UK are the bottle bags. The ladies have asked that we pray for regular orders, work for their husbands and good education for their children. They also will soon require 2 new Sewing machines, estimating around £100 each.
The Computer Training Centre is in an adjoining room to the above unit. We were amazed at the quality of the training material. Each course caters for 10 ladies and 3 courses have been completed so far. This has enabled many ladies to obtain good jobs. Evelyn, who runs the courses has requested prayer for sufficient applicants to run a forth course.

Tondiarpet Unit
The distance from the Aark and new home is about 45 minutes drive. There are 11 ladies that work here. The products that they make that we sell in the UK are the Hanging mobiles, Individual hearts, Bunting and Christmas Decorations. These ladies specialise in the hand stitching and bead work. The conditions that they work in are the poorest of the 3 units and yet the most beautiful products are made by the ladies sitting on the floor here.
The ladies have asked that we pray for regular orders, work for their husbands and good education for their children. They also have many health issues which often prevent them from working. Improved premises could well reduce the amount of sickness.

Children’s Home
The distance from the Aark and new home is about 40 minutes drive. The four of us spent an afternoon having a tour of the buildings, including a new activity room, then playing team games with the children with some toys taken from the UK. Jon and Emma then spent a further 2 nights there to enable them to spend more time with the children, meet and play with the day care children, visit the Elderly Care Centre, Medical Centre and pray with the staff. There is presently a need for 10 more sponsors for children in the home and due to rising costs; there is shortfall in existing sponsors contributions.

Ebenezer Child Care Centres
We had to the opportunity to visit one of the five centres. Each one is run exactly the same. It is like an after school club running between 4.30pm and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. A group of 25 children are taught by two staff and a different meal is provided each day.
Vijay would like very much to set up further groups in other areas of Chennai. The cost per child per month is £15 which covers the food, teaching material, room rental and costs to staff. Vijay would love us to raise awareness of his vision in the UK and look for maybe individual churches to fund a whole group.

The Aark Coffee House
Sangeetha and Vijay have shared the vision for this new venture for some time and this has recently opened. The Aark is based on the first floor of a rental building in a central location. The purpose of this is to provide a place of fellowship providing a coffee house, a place in which to sell the HandsnCrafts products, office space for Sangeetha, her staff and storage for stock and a separate prayer and counselling room.
The four of us spent most of our time here between our various visits. We worked on improving the display of the products, and arranged for photos of the three Units to be taken and used to create a collage of framed photos for display within the Aark. John and Emma designed a poster for a sandwich board to be displayed outside, a poster for the end of the road and a leaflet for distribution to local businesses and churches. Lisa painted two pictures on the walls of the prayer room to provide focal points and we printed some scriptures for the walls.
Lisa and I spent time with Sangeetha discussing new product designs. We went to several shops to buy material, took this to the 3 units and had several samples made. These will be our new products to sell in the UK this year.
I also made some suggestions that Sangeetha may like to implement regarding the running of the office.
Sangeetha would like us to pray that more people will be drawn to the Aark and that regular orders will be sufficient to repay the loan to set this up and the monthly rent.