New Year Bounty

It was an ‘Open House’ on the 30th December 2007 when the distribution of the New Year hampers to the chosen families took place. A bounty of food stuff (rice, lentils, sugar, oil, semolina, wheat flour, instant noodles, tomato ketchup, jam, mango juice and biscuits) was packed in a colourful bucket and handed over to the families who were invited to my home. (You might be wondering… ‘…why the bucket?...’ You see, Chennai invariably has a water problem during the summer months and hence the idea of the bucket popped up to enable these people store this precious liquid!). It was a hectic afternoon with the families strolling in and out of my home between 11am to 2pm. New clothes were distributed to the ladies and children and after a satisfying meal, the families left with smiles on their faces. Photographs were taken and will be put up shortly – please excuse the delay. There was one unclaimed hamper and on New Year’s Day, 1 Jan 2008, this was handed over to an orphanage along with 5 kilos of sugar supplied by Anita and Kevin Mawdsley of Chennai.

Whispering Hope would like to thank Pamela Hendricks, her family and friends from Perth, Sharon Gomes and Rebecca Dickson from Melbourne, Alun Long from the UK, P R Balasubramaniam from Mumbai, Alethea Brett and V. Kumar from Bangalore for their spontaneous generosity that made the distribution of new clothes and hampers to the less fortunate possible. We also appreciate the untiring efforts of Lucia in helping with the purchase and sorting of the hampers.

Christmas Treat - 22 Dec 2007

As planned, the picnic on the beach for the children was held on the 22nd December 2007. The kiddos were so excited that they landed up at my place at 5.30pm instead of 7.30pm at the scheduled venue!! Each of these little mites were so thrilled at the prospect of going to the seashore that they put on their Sunday best and kept chattering and singing all the way to the beach. After a sumptuous snack of hot samosas and fruit cake, a few games were conducted by the volunteers, Shankar and Gladwin. It was then time for a quick dip in the Bay of Bengal(!), which turned out to be the ultimate in excitement for them!! A round of delectable chappatis and potato masala was followed by the grand finale - the distribution of goody bags, Tshirts and caps to each child. Amidst the happy chatter, fond goodbyes were said, and screams of ‘Merry Christmas’ filled the moonlit night at the Madras Marina.

Whispering Hope would like to thank the sponsors, Manoj and Tripta Barai from Bangalore, for their generosity in making this possible and brightening up the lives of the little ones. We also would like to thank Jude Jayasingh for the delicious cake, Volunteers Mary, Pauline, Lucia, Shankar and Gladwin for helping with the children and the distribution of the snacks.