Frishta News - Issue 16 - Spring 2009

Welcome to our Spring 2009 edition of Frishta News. A special welcome to our new readers. We now send Frishta News to 780 readers and supporters.

Nigel Studley writes:

Spreading a little happiness!

Recently we had the happy task of distributing some toys to children in Abohar village, Punjab and to mentally handicapped children in an orphanage in Ambala - please see the happy faces below. They were sent to us by Operation Christmas Child (see http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/). The charity sends gift filled shoeboxes to needy children across the world, and has just started to reach India.

Slumdog Millionaire

Have you seen the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire? The slums of Mumbai are the setting for this rags-to-riches story of an orphan. I think it is a great film and although the story is fictional, it has many scenes of slum-life that from my experience of India is true to life. Many disadvantaged children in India survive by the skin of their teeth, but sadly many don't. More than just entertainment, Slumdog has touched people's hearts in a way that 'cold' news reports about poverty and injustice never could (see also And to Close, below).

As proof of that, please read this extract from an email I received from Gurdip Khela in Walsall...

'I watched that film Slumdog Millionaire and in some ways it really opened my eyes to some of the horrors these kids have to face. Some of the scenes kept going through my mind over and over again. I kept thinking how could I possibly help? So, I started looking for orphanages, etc., in India that I could donate to. Which is how I came across your site on the internet ... it was like WOW! These people are already doing something I can only dream of doing.'

...and if you haven't watched it yet, give yourself a treat!

"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."
Dr. Loretta Scott

Project Progress

I wrote in the last newsletter that we were negotiating with the Punjab Departments of Social Welfare and Urban Development about waiving the very high development fees levied on our Project.  Whilst we have been given many verbal assurances of exemption it is taking a long time to get the concerned parties to draft the policy. But at least this job has now been assigned to one officer and recently we provided our help in suggesting the eligibility criteria, checks and controls that could be included in the policy.

Work on the Boundary Wall is progressing that will divide the residential part of the Children's Village from the agricultural area where we hope to have chickens and buffaloes and grow some crops and vegetables. The Frishta Village site plan can be viewed below (click on it to expand).

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Martin Luther King

Press Cuttings

Did you know that...?

Blighty is an English slang term for Britain, deriving from the Hindustani word vilāyatī (pronounced bilāti) meaning "foreign", and is itself derived from the Arabic/Urdu word wilayat, meaning a kingdom or ministry.

The term was more common in the later days of the British Raj, but can now be considered self-consciously archaic and, when used by some speakers younger than the dissolution of the British Empire, can be intended slightly ironically. It is more commonly used as a term of endearment by the expatriate British community, or those on holiday to refer to home.
Courtesy of Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blighty

Still Out of Focus - The State of India's Children 2008

HAQ's Third Status Report on India's children comes at a time when the country is trying to build the image of an emerging economic power, even while contending with a deepening global economic slowdown, preparing itself to host the Commonwealth Games 2010, grappling with the challenges from natural and environmental disasters, and fighting terrorism, insurgency and communal-ethnic violence tearing at its social fabric.

A country that has the resources to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon is however unable to save its children from starvation. Ranking India 66th among 88 countries, the Global Hunger Index 2008 shows that despite close to nine per cent economic growth for the past five years, the hunger situation here is the second worst in Asia and worse than in 25 Sub-Saharan nations.

UNICEF has warned that the current global food crisis, with escalating food inflation, has placed more than 150 million children in India at risk of becoming malnourished. Madhya Pradesh is the hungriest state in the country, followed by Jharkhand and Bihar. Emerging challenges such as rising food prices and diversion of global resources to bio-fuels are severely impacting poor families, who have to cut back on the number of meals in a day. This has a dramatic impact on child nutrition because children need to be fed frequently.

Without a major policy shake-up and more efficient implementation of the nutrition programmes, India is unlikely to reach the millennium development goal by 2015.
To read the full report http://www.crin.org/docs/Executivesummary08-1.pdf

"Soft power is real power. If you want to make things go in a direction that you think is better, the best way to do that is through goodwill and not through authority.
Through authority, the changes will be short-lived.
But power that comes from trust and caring and goodwill is the kind that that produces lasting change. People feel they can own it and wrap their arms around it and live with it for ever."
Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan

Frishta Runners Span the Globe

Here are the personal stories of two runners who recently ran races in support Frishta.

Harjit Singh Gill recently moved with HSBC to Hong Kong: 'During the summer of 2008, I was fortunate enough to run for Frishta in the British 10k. This was the first time I had run a 10k and in public, but I was hooked and it just propelled me to do it again. So when the opportunity came to run for the Hong Kong equivalent (The Standard Chartered 10k Run), I jumped at it.

Thus began my training for the big event. I bought myself a top-end treadmill in order to prepare myself for the race. All I remembered was this is for the orphans – don't give up - stick to the plan.

The night before the 10k, I didn't sleep too well. A combination of a heavy pasta meal, plus pre-race anxiety, resulted in a 2am wake-up. The race was held on Sunday, 8th February, timed for a 5.35am start and arriving at Victoria Park, it was amazing. There were 33,000 runners all getting ready for their individual 10k runs.

The race began promptly to cheers galore. I turned up the volume to max on my IPOD and focused on the training on the treadmill I had done. The HK 10k comprised of many up and down slogs on the highways of HK Central.

I overtook many runners from my own and the previous race but the slog between the 6km and 8km mark was all up hill and in my mind I just wanted to give up. I looked towards the heavens and prayed to God to help me complete this slog. Remember it's for kids, I kept telling myself.

All I wished to see was the finishing line! At the finish the crowds were cheering, there were lights and the press cameras flashing. I crossed in 55 minutes and 36 seconds. Whoa-hay!

But there it is - another 10k under the belt and a much faster time. Just glad I bought the treadmill and kept it at a 3% incline!

As for Frishta and the reason why I embarked on the HK 10k run in the first place, I managed to raise a total sum of 1,122 pounds and would do it again without a shadow of a doubt. I just now need to find the next event in another country - Delhi in India will be nice. How about it Nigel? Fancy giving me a race?'

To read Harjit's full account, click here.

After living in Dubai for two years, Nicola Beer felt in need of a challenge and so signed up to run in the RAK half marathon on February 20th 2009. Here she tells her story:

'Ras al Khaimah in the UAE is an hour's drive from Dubai. On race day the sirens went off at 7.20am and it was freezing, but by the time we finished at 10am the temperature was 30 degrees. Over 12,000 people took part and I loved every second of the two hours 38 minutes it took me to run the 13 and a half miles.

I started running in November after contacting Nigel at Frishta about volunteering to go to India and help out. He replied that you're very welcome to visit, however we are in the building stages, so help will involve lifting bricks, etc. Alarm bells started ringing in my head. I thought I am so unfit; would I actually be much help if I went? Since I moved to Dubai I had done zero exercise and you can not even walk anywhere in Dubai as there are no pavements. That same night, I started surfing for a walking club and I found a group that train in shopping malls. I called and was told about the half marathon 3 month training programme that was due to start in 3 days. A light bulb flashed in my head and I thought that's it, I will get fit for Frishta instead - I signed up the next day.

The three months has been an amazing journey and experience. Although I have had aches, pains and times where I could not walk for 2 to 3 weeks (and had to continue training on a bike instead) nothing would stop me from achieving my goal. It definitely helped knowing that what I was doing was for an amazing cause and at times when I felt I could not be bothered it got me out of bed. It is also a comfort to know that my pain would end in an hour by lying on the sofa and watching TV, but for the street children of India... there is no end to the pain.

I would just like to thank Frishta as this experience has been wonderful for me personally and raising over £500 makes it doubly worthwhile.'

So remember, wherever you are you can run for Frishta!

And to close...

"Tell those who are rich in this world... to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them."
1 Timothy 6:17 & 18

For much of my life I never considered my self to be rich, but gradually my narrow view changed to a world view that confirmed that I was rich indeed. Did you know that if your home has something other than a dirt floor, a roof, a door, windows and more than one room, you have a fridge, a toilet with a door, a microwave, a video, a car and a computer then you are in the top 1% of the world's population?!

One of the great things about coming to India has been learning about poverty and suffering and that there is a whole world outside my door where people don't have the basic things of life that we take for granted. We keep seeing the pictures of starving children on TV, but never get close enough to really feel it. But when you see it face to face, it knocks you out.

Although we have been here for almost a year now, I still get deeply affected every time there is a knock on my car window from a child or adult beggar when we stop at a cross-roads or traffic light. Their faces linger in the mind for a long time. We have befriended some of the children we see regularly and told them what we are doing. With your help, before long, we hope to offer them a chance of a better life.

How to become a Friend of Frishta
Nigel Studley

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