Nav-Jeevan

Newsletter December 2007

Children's day, 14-11-2007

The children and employees of Nav-Jeevan wish you a merry Christmas and a happy 2008

The past year, Nav-Jeevan made a lot of progress. Nearly one hundred street-children attend our school on a daily basis. Not only do they get proper schooling, but also healthy food and medical care. 50% of the children stay in our hostel. At the start of the new school year, the first floor was furnished and put to good use. As a result we could accept so many students.

In November, the construction of the first floor had been finished. The coming months we will try and get funds in order to furnish this building. This will allow us to accommodate more children.

A quote from Iris Wilkinson a few months after the start of the new school year:

"It was good to see the children again. They greeted us with big smiles, especially the little ones. In a cheerful way, they kept on greeting us using the Indian greeting "namaste". The small children from the previous school year, such as Sanchit, Sagar, Nakul and Anil, have grown a lot and are now in the First form. There are so many new children that at first we couldn't tell who was who. But now we know each individual child, they've become part of Nav-Jeevan.

Most of the new children had to make up arrears in their development. To give them extra help we put them in an extra form paying extra attention to their needs. Some of them have learned so much already that they can attend a regular form. Lunch in the great hall was a bit of a problem. It seemed as if we had to feed a thousand mouths. During the monsoon there are a lot of flies and mosquitoes. So we decided to serve lunch in the class rooms, no more flies and more space. Each teacher looks after his/her own form. When you see the new children eat you realize how hungry they must have been. They are totally focused on their meal, not a sound is to be heard.

We have two little girls, sisters without parents: Isha en Saloni. We discovered that Isha ate lice from her own head. When we shaved her head she concentrated on the lice on her sister's head. I'm convinced that both girls will play and be happy as the other children in no time.".

Ishita and Saloni

Planning

We visit Nagpur every year in November. This didn't happen, due to personal circumstances. Hopefully we'll now go in February. We'll evaluate the situation and make plans for 2008. You'll be able to read about this and the outlook for 2008 in the 2007 annual report.
Below a number of photographs of the new children.

Pictures of the new children

Bharat

Madhuri

Monica

Kundan

Arti

Sanjana