News Brief from Paul

4th May, 2010

Dear friends,

It is terribly hot here, just as it always is at this time of year. The temperature climbs to 40C and it's very humid, it's tiring, but apparently I say this every year - maybe I am just getting old ;-)

In SISP it has been very busy, but most visitors, volunteers and trainees have now left or are departing very soon. Then a bit of peace will be restored for a few months.

We received a new application for a young boy, Monu, a serious heart patient, only one and a half years old. He needed an urgent operation that would cost more than Rs.200,000. Without this operation he would die within a few months. The parents are extremely poor and could not afford it. We found a hospital, 6 hrs. from here by train, where they were prepared to do the operation for Rs.50,000. We arranged everything, paid for the operation and it was successful. The parents and all at SISP were so happy that we could save him,  but we also had  a girl of 15, Jancy, who passed away. She was the younger sister of teacher Treesa, she had cancer but it was discovered too late; it was very sad.

As you may know, terminal patients with metastatic cancers are, in their final weeks or days, often sent home without pain medication or oxygen. They often sleep their last days in a small hut with temperatures of 40C, gasping and crying in pain and the hut crowded with neighbours, praying and crying.

Sometimes I can get a local doctor to come and inject some painkiller, but in this case the family believed only in prayer and quackery; we could do nothing apart from occasionally sit with her.
 

Yes, that's life - often powerless, but it also holds some happy moments. Little by little, progress is being made. I hear it from regularly returning visitors that over all those years they are beginning to see a difference for many families in the villages - many are no longer living in the extreme poverty of a few years ago.

Much is also due to the micro-credit groups for women. They learn to save, start a micro-enterprise together and lend to each other instead of the high-interest loans with usurious interest rates of 200% they might have previously agreed with private lenders.

We have, in recent months, given an interest-free loan of between Rs.10,000 and Rs.20,000 to five groups, to start a shop or business. Here are some pictures of the presentation of the cheque.

Groups can apply for a loan through SISP's social workers. They have to file an application signed by all the members, submit business plans, costs, estimated earnings, repayment plans and savings accounts. Then Mrs. Kumari, our Project Officer, visits the group to see everything (accounting , motivation, where they want to open the project etc) and she will give an opinion.
If all goes well they get their loan.