Addison Rotary Club India Orphanage Relief

Final Thank You from Raj

2007-11-30T04:56:00.000-06:00

Mike and Kevin, as I am sitting on an airplane trying to get some sleep, a few thoughts came to mind...

In what is always a sad time for me, I now realize sitting on an airplane that I will not see for some time -- or ever -- the eyes of those children.

Nothing breaks my heart more then the child I handed candy to at Little Hearts. That child was so helpless, and the image I have engrained in my head shall forever serve a reminder of what duty, humanity, and compassion calls from me. That image and many others from the past 2 weeks haunt me with guilt, but at the same time inspires me to do something more.

I wish we could have brought them all home with us.

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To that end,

I just wanted to thank you both for your help this past 2 weeks. Your energy, drive, and passion as Rotarians and my friends was truly awesome and invaluable.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to be an American, an Indian, and a Rotarian today. It is because of you gentlemen that I am proud to be all three.

I consider myself privileged to have served along side with you in what we did these past two weeks. Many of these children saw from you hope, compassion, and dedication that I can only pray will give them the motivation to survive the insurmountable odds in their futures.

I hope through all the communication we have done this project can become as important as our Bryan's house efforts have been but on the international front. As you know, there is much to do and much more help needed. I say that whether we look to help in India, Mexico, S. America, or other places in Africa and Asia.

To that end I hope we can dedicate others to the cause as well in the coming year.

It only takes 1 person, 1 passion, 1 vision, and hard work to get things going... You both did that with no reservation over the past 2 weeks.

My sincerest thanks to you as your friend, colleague, and fellow Rotarian. I hope your lives are as changed and touched as mine is today.

Raj Narayanan

Leaving Chennai

2007-11-29T11:36:00.000-06:00

Today we leave Chennai. We leave behind the bright smiling faces of hundreds of children who have touched our lives so deeply. We leave behind new friends. We leave behind men and women filled with compassion to help children who have been brought into this world only to be cast aside.

We also leave behind a small mountain of supplies for these children. We've distributed:
- personal hygiene kits (toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, combs, shampoo, fingernail clippers, talcum powder, etc) for 700 children
- 700 bed mats
- school supplies (pens, study books, crayons, coloring books, erasers, pencils, chalk) for 700 children
- basic first aid supplies (guaze, band aides, iodine, etc) for 500 children
- medicines to meet the specific special needs of many disabled children
- food (rice and lentils for 200 children for one month, and milk supplied for 100 children for two months)
- pots & pans and other cooking equipment for several different orphanages
- basic light fixtures to allow study after dark for one orphanage
- soccer balls, cricket bats & balls, and badminton rackets and shuttlecocks

We leave with a renewed sense of hope in the ability of love and compassion to triumph over the worst of this world’s trials. We leave with a renewed sense of purpose, dedicating ourselves to helping those in need. We leave with memories, poignant, beautiful, and tragic. We leave with a sense of mission accomplished.

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We have finalized our accounting of the funds used. Feel free to review the final trip report here.

Each of the three of us wanted to say thank you to everyone we've worked with here in India. The volunteers who work at these orphanages and schools are nothing short of miracle workers, and we salute you. And to all our friends and supporters at home who have given money and moral support, we give you a hearty thanks as well. We could not have done this without your support.

Now, nothing remains but the ride to the airport and the flights back home. Shakespeare poetically describes parting as such sweet sorrow. And leaving these orphans fills me with a swirl of emotions. But now that I'm staring 28 hours of air travel in the face, I can't rise to Shakespeare's eloquence. I'm looking forward to this about as much as a kick in the teeth.

Mike Morath

A Few Words from Raj

2007-11-26T22:01:00.000-06:00

It has been about 9 days since I arrived in India, give or take a time zone or two, and this has been my first moment to write a few words about my experience thus far. We all have been very busy... Trying to get organized, supplies procured and visits arranged has been a challenge, but one that we all have worked through very well.

First, my hats off to Mike and Kevin for being so dedicated to our team effort. Initially, I was worried that taking two Americans to India and getting involved would have been a difficult challenge to overcome. Not because of the lack of desire but mainly because of the culture shock.

Overall, they both could not have done finer... Well, ok.. 10 days in to the trip and Mike is craving a Big Mac with Large fries and Kevin a steak. And I admit, I miss my Starbucks Venti Americano...

Overall the experience with all the facilities we have visited has been truly unique. We visited 6 facilities and committed in kind goods to 4 so far. We were also able to help a couple of small orphanages near to my parents residence on the coast in Chennai. These two smaller facilities service the local villages by providing housing, education, and medical treatment for significantly disabled orphaned children. In fact, many of these children were simply abandoned, which is sad to say.

I don't think my words can express how hard it's been on me to see these kids with disabilities. My first thought seeing these kids that could not fend for themselves, walk, or even eat was of great sadness. I could not believe that these kids existed with no hope and or potential way to obtain an improved quality of life. With that in mind we started our mission 10 days ago. Getting the right supplies including medical supplies, food, basic hygiene items, and educational supplies was on my mind as the core mission.

What is my hope? Perhaps with some well needed food or medicine 1 child can become healthy, have a sliver of hope, and in the end 1 child's quality of life has been improved.

To that end, I believe as we start to wrap up our effort in the next few days we have been successfully. As we deliver supplies and goods, we see smiles, hope, and heart. It's all that you need....

Most important, in the last 2 days I've seen smiles on children that are worth a million bucks... Handing out sweets and chocolates to several hundred kids -- able bodied and disabled alike -- they all smile.

We will continue in the next few days and provide a closing blog report soon.

Raj Narayanan

Samajam

2007-11-25T22:12:00.000-06:00

It is perhaps one of the greatest aspects of the divine plan that you can receive so much pleasure from doing good deeds.

We paid a visit to Samajam today, to ensure some lights we had purchased for that orphanage's rather dilapidated dining room / main hall were installed properly. We also wanted to get a few more details on the setup for their new clean water system.

The kids were so happy to see us, we decided to stick around. So once the business of our visit was done, we just ran around like big goof balls. These pics/videos pretty much tell the story.

Click for video
Children have access to water at Samajam now, but at risk of disease

Click for video
The nuances of cricket were pretty well lost on me

Click for video
Even with meager facilities, the kids' spirits are high

Parrys Corner

2007-11-23T22:52:00.001-06:00

It takes some getting used to the Indian version of commerce. You don’t just walk down to a Home Depot and pick up goods and check out in an orderly fashion. It's a full day extravaganza.

Click for Video of Market

Chennai’s wholesale district is called Parrys Corner. It spans a few city blocks, and slams together a huge number of vendors selling all manor of goods produced locally. It’s a disorganized mass of humanity and vehicles and goods, all going in a thousand different directions at once.

So many cars, trucks, buses, and motorcycles pass thru the district – none with catalytic converters – that staying there for any length of time is painful. We were there for several hours, and it felt like I had a two stroke lawnmower engine shoved into my mouth the whole time. The fumes were horrendous – so bad that we all ended the day with soar throats. I don’t know how the shopkeepers live past 45, as it seems like they’d all come down with black lung.

Parking and loading brings its own inconveniences and (for those of us with a bit of perspective) amusement. On our initial approach to the market, we were driving slowly in search of parking – creeping in starts and stops. All of the sudden a tow truck pulls up in front of us. Someone jumps off the back and immediately puts a boot on our car. Having lived in Washington DC for a few years while I was in college, I was quite familiar with getting a boot on my car. But I’ve never been in a moving car, in traffic, and been stopped to have a boot placed on it. 30 minutes and a 150 Rupees later (almost $4), we’re back in search of a parking spot, this time noticing all the other vehicles with boots (including several vans from Mother Theresa’s orphanages). I thought that was the high point, until the same thing happened about 5 hours later as we were loading bed mats in front of another shop. This time, the shopkeeper paid the fee.

Dollars can be stretched quite a long way in India, but you’ve got to be prepared to make a serious time commitment to get anything done.

Mike Morath

A Day of Thanks

2007-11-22T20:23:00.000-06:00

In America today, we would be celebrating Thanksgiving. A day when we take a breather from the hussle of our daily lives, and give thanks for all our blessings. India has many wealthy citizens, newly rich in India's booming econonmy, with many obvious things to be thankful for. But millions remain untouched by this econimic revolution, mired in abject poverty. I thank God that I've had the ability to take this two week breather from my otherwise typical working life in Dallas, to count my many blessings... and even to reaffirm my faith in humanity. For you don’t have to look too long in India for proof that the human spirit burns with compassion.

Today we visited an organization that takes care of orphaned children infected with HIV/AIDS. The stigma of HIV/AIDS looms large here, where infection rates are growing rapidly. Children who are abandoned and suffer from HIV/AIDS are shunned, even in existing orphanages. So this organization receives referrals from all over the country. They also operate several HIV/AIDS clinics and conduct a large amount of community outreach to help those infected and prevent others from getting infected. HIV/AIDS is a large and growing problem in India: their epidemiological studies in just one area of the city show over 100,000 cases. This organization was actively supported by the local TamilNadu (state) government, the American India Foundation, and US AID, but even with that support, their primary orphanage location cares for 41 children ranging in age from infants to 18 years in less than 4,000 square feet of space. They make amazing things happen with very little.

We also visited a school operated for children with learning disabilities. This school was absolutely amazing. The executive director was a former professor of Special Education in the states, with a PhD from Rutgers. She founded and expanded the school to cover three separate facilities, and offers the highest quality education for children with special needs that I’ve ever seen – including any facilities in the States. The curriculum is tailored to the needs of each child, traditional classroom educational mixed with vocational training in areas as wide as typing to screen printing to cooking. What she has accomplished, with only a fraction of the resources truly required for such an impressive operation, is nothing short of miraculous. The school is highly sought after in the community – fees are collected from a few wealthy families, and those are used to subsidize the education of the rest of the students (roughly 2/3rds of the students don’t pay any tuition). The local state government also recognizes the value of their educational services: the TamilNadu state government uses the school’s teachers to go outside the city limits to rural (and extremely poor) areas in the state to offer training and teaching services to India’s rural poor. There they work with families that have little to none of the basic necessities of life: no four walls, no hygiene products, irregular food supplies, many with families that lack any education or even literacy. The school’s work in the rural areas covers over 2600 children that would otherwise not receive any education whatsoever. But even this extremely well run operation is desperately short of supplies.

We are here to try, however meager our efforts might be, to help address that problem. We’ve gotten lists from each facility we’ve visited, ranging from pots and pans to light bulbs to toothpaste to sheets to basic medicines. One agency director said she could use anything from matchsticks to a million dollars. One orphanage teacher said she made very little money doing this work, and cared very little about the money she did make, but wanted anything we could supply to help the children – requesting things such as learning aids and a rice cooker.

Tomorrow we start our procurement efforts in earnest.

Mike Morath

Chennai Orphanages

2007-11-21T21:50:00.000-06:00

Today we got our first taste of life in Chennai.

The city itself is huge. The geographic area of the city of Chennai is maybe only half the size of the city of Dallas proper, but there are about 8 million residents.
Touring different parts of the city requires a bit of planning, since a visit to a location in a far away part of the city can take 4 hours or more in light traffic. And the roads in Chennai (and Delhi) are not exactly built for the smooth flow of traffic. Barriers in the road are set up randomly, in the middle of an otherwise perfectly traversable street, for the sole purpose of slowing traffic. And some of the “vehicles” on the road aren’t exactly speedy: cars and motorcycles share the road with carriages drawn by water buffalo and camels, and you can’t go half a mile without seeing a few sacred cows. Many streets have no lane markings, and those that do have lanes might as well not have any. Drivers in India look at all forms of traffic signs (including stop lights) more as best practice recommendations than actual laws to follow. I’m convinced that the drivers of India could be placed in the highest pressure environments in the world and never flinch, because they are absolute masters of the game of chicken.

The most immediately observable difference between Chennai and Delhi is air quality. The air here is bad but breathable, comparable to a heavily polluted US city on a high ozone alert day. But Chennai is still filled with all the contradictions of rich and poor that we found in Delhi.

We visited four orphanages today.

The first, Samajam, was a traditional orphanage caring for street children and offering schooling for the children in care (who range in age from 5 to 16). They have 100 children in care, and their facility is big enough to hold more, but they can’t take any more children as they don’t have enough ongoing funds for food and salaries. Our rotary partner in Chennai, the Madras Rotary, has initiated a matching grant project with our rotary club in Addison to install a clean water pumping facility for these children to help prevent water-borne illnesses. Some of the supplies for this project have been donated, and are already on-site (pictured here). The children that are here are extremely excited to be here, as they would otherwise have to beg for food on the streets, would not have any clean clothes or bathing facilities, and would not be getting any education. Children show up regularly to see if there are open spaces, and the word of mouth on the street (from one child to another in the streets of the slums) easily fills any spots that are available.

Each of the remaining three facilities we visited were orphanages for mentally handicapped children. These children, long since abandoned, are referred by hospitals or concerned citizens, and these orphanages are perhaps the only way these children can experience any quality of life. Many of the children are trained to do handicrafts or other basic vocations. The first of these orphanages, Little Hearts, also operated an elementary school for children from very poor families, and integrated some of the high functioning handicapped orphans in their care into that school in preparation to receive a complete primary education. That school was phenomenal – caring teachers and attentive students. They even offered physical education classes to the children. While we visited, an instructor was conducting a Kung Fu lesson, so I tried to keep up with the kids in that class as best as I could. My inability to keep up made me glad I wasn’t on “Are you smarter than a fifth grader.”

Click for Kung Fu Video

Each of these facilities does nothing short of God’s work, every day. It’s amazing to see, and it was an emotionally draining day to say the least.

Mike Morath

Wealth and Poverty

2007-11-20T07:32:00.000-06:00

The contrasts in India are striking. "Work in Progress" signs line every road, as construction is booming, seemingly everywhere, all at once. The broader economy is clearly growing by leaps and bounds, and wealth is on display. Parts even seem like you could be sitting in the West Village in Dallas (although everything is dirtier here). But abject poverty is also everywhere. A level and scope of poverty that you don't see in the States. Children, covered in dirt, brown teeth, walking and sitting and begging on the streets. Adults missing limbs or with other congenital problems, huddled in a corner or crawling along a dirt path somewhere. Huge numbers of wandering men and women that seem to be shell shocked, making the problem of homeless in Dallas seem easily solvable. The poor walk thru Indian society like the flotsam of a destroyed ship cast away in a sea of riotous economic growth.

Click for Video

Yesterday we visited the Taj Mahal. Our friends in Delhi, Adnan and Kristen, arranged for a private car to take us the 4 hours from Delhi to the city of Agra where the Taj is located. It is a magnificent work of architecture without question, with a beauty in its symmetry that seems to resonate perfection. But it is also symbolic of the broader struggle that the poor face in India. The Taj is an international symbol of India's rich cultural tradition. And many of us know its basic back story of love and devotion: it was built by a king mourning the loss of the love of his life. But many Indians refuse to visit it, because its construction required the total subjugation of the people under the king's rule, and tremendous hardships were borne by the poor as a result of his act of devotion.

There are many many people working to help alleviate the suffering of India's poor masses. New and old testament scripture alike tells us that the poor will always be with us, but commands us to do all in our power to help those in need. Like the role filled by churches and synagogues in America, India's Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities act as powerful and unending advocates for the poor. One temple in Delhi feeds thousands. But in a nation of over 1.2 billion, with millions upon millions upon millions living in abject poverty, the need is tremendous -- and is not being met. Walking the streets of Agra around the Taj, your heart is torn apart instant after instant. The poverty is overwhelming. But if our effort in India is very meager compared to the needs, our hearts are filled with hope. If our efforts to help some of these in dire need are only but a few drops in the bucket, then at least we squeezed those drops.

Today we fly to Chennai, and tomorrow we start our work with a few orphanages there.

Mike Morath

We Have Arrived

2007-11-19T01:05:00.000-06:00

So there really isn't much positive to say about flying 15 hours across the globe. For those lucky enough to have business class seats, it's a bit like being forced to sit in your living room in a lazy boy watching movies. For the rest of us -- with tickets in steerage -- its an exercise in patience. How long can you hold it before you've got to clamber over the two half-asleep passengers between you and the isle? How long can you wait for the stewardess to come back with some water, the thirst building up thanks to the dry airplane air while you remain crammed in your seat covered in blankets, pillows, and leftover airplane food made from partially hydrogenated something-or-other and rubber? And, how long before what seems to be an entire preschool class of children on the plane decide that crying more loudly than the roar of the engines isn't helping anything and finally go to sleep?

Arriving in India is really an experience unto itself. When the jet lands, you get your first exposure to life in Delhi as the outside air starts to get piped into the plane. Air quality in Delhi is horrendous. Think LA at the height of the fires this year, and then assume along with all the smoke from thousands of acres of burning forests you add 1,000 lead smelting plants to the greater LA area, and that's much what you breathe while your in Delhi. It burns the throat. I'm pretty sure that going for a jog would actually take a day or two off your life.

Walking out of the airport, the air really hits you full blast. But when we headed toward a cab, I noticed another fragrance in the air as well. It seems the attitude towards public use of marijuana is a bit more lax in India than in the US, so it was fun trying to figure out which cabbie to avoid cause he was hitting the ganja. Not that I know what that smells like for any reason, mind you.

The cabs in Delhi are mostly modeled after an old British car design, the Ambassador. The general coolness factor can't be overstated on these cars. I felt like I was walking into some Benny Hill episode. They don't have any shocks, were probably constructed originally around 1960, and make sounds that don't exactly inspire confidence. But, boy howdy you do ride in style.

Raj and I arrived in Delhi together, a few days after Kevin. We are staying in Delhi for a couple of days before we actually head to Chennai to begin our work. Randomly, Kevin and I have a mutual friend, Adnan, who along with his fiancee Kristen is doing work with the street children in Delhi, having just finished B-school at Stanford. (I guess he wants to get in some humanitarian work before he sells his soul to corporate America.) So we headed to his apartment to enjoy his & Kristin's hospitality for a day or two in Delhi. We plan to hit the Taj Mahal together Monday before the three of us catch our flight to Chennai on Tuesday. Raj has seen it before, but I figured if I was going to be this close to one of the Wonders of the World, I had to check it off my list.

Of course, going across the globe does some strange things to your internal clock. I can only kind of half sleep on airplanes, so by the time we arrive at Adnan's in Delhi I've been awake since Saturday morning and its now the equivalent of Sunday afternoon. Delhi is 11 and a half hours ahead of Dallas time, so it is Sunday night here. (Honestly, what's the deal with the half hour? Does the Sun rise and set in such a way that India really needed that extra half hour, and everybody else in the world just has to deal with extra arithmetic?) When we get to Adnan's, his neighbor is throwing a party on their rooftop to celebrate their 12th year wedding anniversary, and invited us up. They had a tremendous spread for their party... We ate like kings. The food is nothing short of outstanding. And even this far across the globe, the Johnny Walker Black Label was in abundance. After a few scotches, the host and I began to solve all the world's problems. Its amazing how easy problems are to solve after a fair amount of alcohol mixes with the weariness of 30+ hours without sleep.

Finally, though, we bid our host adieu, get settled into our sleeping arrangements, and look forward to starting on the road to the Taj Mahal at 6am... A solid 4 hours of sleep to end a long, long day.

Mike Morath

About Our Relief Trip

2007-11-16T13:02:00.000-06:00

With over 1 billion people who are living together in relative peace in the world's largest, pluralistic democracy, India represents great hope for humanity. But the shear size of its huge population also brings tremendous problems for its poor, stressing the nation's social cohesion. India is witness to high levels of illiteracy, persistent malnutrition, shortages of clean water (which lead to some very dangerous water-borne diseases), and worse. All of these factors hit India's population of 18 million street children the hardest. In fact, India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.

A small amount of US Dollars can go a large way toward helping these children meet their basic needs. Buying supplies wholesale on site in India, and taking advantage of the exchange rate between the US Dollar and Indian Rupee, a few greenbacks can buy a child in an Indian orphanage an extra month of life.

Inspired by this need and the work done by Baal Dan, the Addison Rotary Club (ARC) has committed to organizing and running a volunteer outreach effort to help these children. To this end, a group of three members of the Addison Rotary Club is heading to India. Mike Morath and new member Kevin Yu are heading out under the leadership of International Services director Raj Narayanan for two weeks from November 17, 2007 to November 30, 2007 to Chennai, India, starting with a two day pit-stop in Delhi.

Our club and several generous donors have raised $6073 to purchase the basics for these children: rice, lentils, toiletries, underwear, bedding... Basic necessities, along with a few little luxuries like candy and other gifts for the kids. In addition to these funds, the three volunteers are paying entirely for themselves -- they've kicked in money for all airfare, ground transportation, lodging, food, and anything else that isn't directly related to the kids (which is a bit north of $3,000 each).

We will also be working with Rotary clubs local to Chennai to help start a project to put in clean water facilities at these facilities.

The objective of the trip, then, is to help meet the basic immediate needs of these children, and put in place infrastructure that will continue helping them for years to come. With luck, we'll repeat the trip with more intrepid volunteers in the coming years, as we continue to emphasize Rotary's international service efforts.

This blog has been set up to report back to our donors, friends, club members, and anyone else on our day to day trials and triumphs as we work half a world away from home. Expect financial updates, pictures, and stories of our progress.

Thanks, and enjoy your blessings.

Mike Morath

Final Report

2006-11-29T02:53:00.000-06:00

Addison Rotary Club
India Volunteer Trip
Summary of Financials & Operations
11/29/2007

Summary

The purpose of the Addison Rotary Club - India Project is to provide relief to children of need in India through international monetary aid. Various organizations have been identified via the project leader, word-of-mouth, and the local Rotary of Madras. Each of the organizations is based around Chennai, which is located in the southern part of India.

The project is unique in that it is an end-to-end initiative. It spans across two weeks and begins with U.S.-based fund raising, logistical planning, on-site audit & qualification of each organization, procurement of goods, and finally, the distribution of goods to each of the organizations. Approximately $6,000 dollars were raised in the United States and a sizeable majority has been distributed to the organizations in the form of tangible goods.

On 11/27/07, the three project volunteers attended the Madras Rotary meeting to present the project to the local members. In addition, it offered an opportunity to foster and build the internal relations between the Madras and Addison Rotary Club.

Financials & Operations:

Roles and Responsibilities

Raj Narayanan – Rotarian, Mr. Narayanan served as the project leader. His responsibilities involve the overall planning of the project and logistics in Chennai. As he is fluent in the native language (Tamil), Mr. Narayanan also served as the natural liaison between the volunteers and the local constituents.

Mike Morath – Rotarian, Mr. Morath served as the communicator of the project’s operations to the wider audience. Because of his strong background in technology, Mr. Morath is able to share up-to-date status and reporting on various medias such as the project’s blog. In addition, his experience in operations has been instrumental in creating a procurement and distribution process that is a model of efficiency.

Kevin Yu – Rotarian, Mr. Yu served as the accountant and financial monitor over the project’s financial activities. Mr. Yu has a background in accounting/ internal controls and has been instrumental in tracking all expenses as well as producing the financial reports to the project’s sponsors. In addition, he is in charge of photography and visual documentation.

Fund Raising

Funding of the India Project totaled approximately $6,700. The various sources include: Addison Rotary Club, Addison Rotary Foundation, and individual donations.

Administrative Costs

The total administrative cost of the trip is approximately $2,700 per person, for $8,100. The various expenses include: flight, accommodations, food, and local transport. A large portion of the total administrative costs is the cost of the place ticket. The accommodations are covered by the volunteer project leader, whose family resides in the city of Chennai. As a result, much of the expenses related to room and board have been minimized. In addition to the costs stated above, a private driver and a large sport utility vehicle have been utilized to navigate unfamiliar roads and also to assist in the delivery of the large amount of procured items.

Please note that all administrative costs have been absorbed by each of the volunteers. Administrative costs do not constitute an expense against the funds. As such, the project is able to attain 100% “Pass-Through” rate and is able to maximize on the impact of the funds.

Audit and Qualification

Volunteers visited a total of six sites through the course of three days. The purpose of the site visit is:
· to understand the nature of the organization
· to understand the financial status of the organization
· to assess the qualitative measures of the organization
· to assess the organization’s level of need

The site visits varied from 30 minutes to 2 hours and was spontaneous in nature. The methodology of each audit involves a discussion with management followed by a tour of the facility. Upon the qualification of the organization, volunteers requested a list of items and/or services that can be provided to the organization.

Procurement

The procurement of goods relied upon lists provided by the organizations. Each organization provided a list of items ranging from medical to hygiene supplies. Also, the quantity of items requested varied greatly depending upon the number of children belonging to each organization. As the purpose of the project is to maximize the reach of the funds, the allocations are based upon need and also common necessities applicable to all children (such as rice).

The total amount of funds utilized for the procurement of requested items total Rs 235,613.20 (USD $6,100.81). The majority of the funds have been applied towards medical and hygiene supplies. Items were purchased from a variety of stores such as the local shops, local wholesale markets, and the local pharmacy. Many items purchased were discounted due to bulk and goodwill of shop owners.

Items included:

Mats (Straw sleeping mats)
Aluminum pots and lids
Rice cooker/ cookware
Lights (Flourescent light bulbs)
Light Installation
Medicines
Medical Supplies (Gauze, bandages, iodine)
Hygiene supplies (toothpaste, shampoo, soap, toothbrush, nail clippers)
Speech kits (training tools for handicapped children)
Rice and beans
Milk
School supplies (pens, pencils, erasers, paper)

Sporting goods (cricket supplies)
Sweets

Distribution

The distribution of the items spanned across four days. Certain items such as comb, toothbrush, hair oil, were assembled as an individual hygiene kit. One hundred hygiene kits were packaged and distributed directly to Samajam, an organization comprised of one hundred male orphans. The medical supplies were placed directly in the hands of administrators at Little Hearts School for the Mentally Challenged. Other items such as rice, mats, school supplies, and light bulbs were also distributed to each organization based upon their specific needs.

Metrics and Statistics

Total Dollars Received $ 6,000.00

Total Dollars Distributed $ 6,014.18

Total Children

V Excel 560
Samajam 100
Little Hearts 100
Meston 25

Exchage Rate (US/Rupees) $ 38.62