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Published: March 12th 2008
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Our Russ visit began in the very early hours of seventeenth February when we disembarked the night train from Trivandrum. We were met by Berlin a founding member and the current President of Russ Foundation and a number of other staff who were waiting at the various exits of Madurai’s busy mainline station looking for an English couple (had we mentioned the size of Bob's beard in advance there would have been no problem spotting us but we'd somehow omitted this detail!) After a little confusion and a couple of phone calls we eventually found each other and headed off towards the Russ campus in Chatirathondamanpatti (more commonly known as Chatirapatti!)
The Russ Campus is set in beautiful grounds which look completely different to when I visited in 1995 - the trees and plants are now very well established providing a beautiful leafy green environment, various buildings have been added, and a small scale farm has been developed. The girls home has been here since 1994 and currently accommodates 29 girls aged from 6 to 21; what was a children’s nursery when I last visited has now become Carlsson Nursery and Primary school; the sewing, weaving, batik and tailoring training
buildings which had just been opened in 1995 have operated successfully until recently but are currently closed and due to be re-opened for new training initiatives in the near future; the former elderly home is likely to re-open as a care centre for PLHAs (People Living With HIV Aids); finally the Harrington dog kennel houses around 20 dogs which are bred for sale.
A quick tour of the campus introduced us to the vast number of crops grown here which include bananas, coconuts, mangoes, papayas, cashew nuts, jackfruits, drumstick, tamarind, teak and Indian gooseberries; and the animals that live here which include chickens, ducks, cows, goats, pigeons, turkeys, dogs and a cat! The kennels, crops and animals all generate supplies for the girls home and/ or sales - the profit of which is fed back into the project. On our first evening here a calf was born, as we watched it take it's first steps and first milk we were asked by the girls to name it!... Daisy the cow it was - a thoroughly English name for a cow and complimentary to the name of the other calf recently born and christened Diana by another UK visitor!
The next day we went into Madurai to visit the main office of Russ Foundation. Projects run by the foundation include APAC (AIDS Prevention and Awareness Campaign); an HIV care and support scheme for PLHAs (People Living with HIVs AIDS) which provides a range of medical and support services such as provision of home visits and counselling; a project called TAI which focuses on raising awareness of HIV prevention with sex workers and offers health screening, free contraception and a support group; a health clinic in Chatirapatti and associated mobile clinic which visits three rural areas each week; a SHG (Self Help Group) scheme which enables local groups to save money and take small loans from the group or other sources which assist them to cover unexpected living costs or to set up small scale businesses; and an evening tuition scheme which takes place in 11 villages, offering homework support and additional studies to those whose families may be unable to support their schooling due to a lack of education or resources.
During our stay we went out with the mobile clinic to a rural area where the team are able to see up to 140 patients a day
from the surrounding villages - patients commonly come for vaccinations, vitamin supplements, pain relief for arthritis, and TB and asthma treatments. The mini bus that takes the doctor and nurses to the clinic spends the day ferrying patients from the surrounding villages to the clinic and back home. The clinic takes place in three separate locations each week so is able to treat a high volume of people. We were lucky to have the opportunity to visit Malyou, a hill village accessible only on foot; Russ Foundation is generating funds to support this village with health and education initiatives - villagers visit the mobile clinic, a library has recently been opened, the village well is due to be covered to keep the water clean and the children are to be provided with school uniforms. We also went to visit two of the evening tuition centres which operate Monday to Saturday evenings and provide study assistance to many young people.
Aside from learning about the fantastic range of initiatives supported by Russ Foundation and having the chance to see many of these in action, we gave our time to a variety of activities! Early in our stay we learnt that
the Carlsson School annual day was just around the corner and the teachers had been preparing rhymes, monologues and drama scenes but needed some dance numbers for the event! With the help of Bob on technical support and two of the older girls - Christeena and Sumathi - I created four dances - two with the home girls and two for the school children. Many rehearsals took place, costumes were prepared but on the day a accident in the village left the annual event with no electricity, and therefore no music! The show went ahead, minus dance numbers in the hope that the power would be restored. After all their hard work it was looking doubtful whether the girls would get a chance to perform until Bob had a eureka moment - why not use the stereo of one of the parents vehicles!? A van was driven over to the stage area, the stereo cranked up high, the doors and windows opened and I sat in the van playing each tape! Unconventional but it worked, the girls enjoyed themselves and looked great! Much of our time at Russ was spent working on a data project for the main office -
they have been collecting data about PLHAs since 2004 but were finding it hard to retrieve useful statistics. I consolidated the data whilst Bob worked on providing pivot tables of analysis which offer at a glance information that can be easily accessed for future reporting, assessment and planning. It took a long time to get everything in order but we eventually handed over our work in our last week! Bob was also invited to present a seminar on The Use of Information in Management at a local university and ran some basic IT training sessions for The Russ office staff.
In between dance rehearsals and IT project work we very much enjoyed our time at the campus. We played games, helped the girls with homework and basic computer skills, learnt about cooking and got the chance to make chapattis and dosas, helped cotton pick to make pillows, planted out tomato, chilli and aubergine saplings with the farm workers, helped gather gooseberries and collect bananas for sale at market, explored nearby villages by bike and spent an evening star watching on the roof with the girls where Bob shared his knowledge of various constellations. Off campus we visited the incredible
Sri Meenakshi Temple and the fascinating Ghandi museum in Madurai, had some lovely home cooked meals with Berlin and family, went to market early one Saturday to help buy provisions, ran a dance session at the TAI project on international women’s day, and sat in on some interesting meetings including a Rotary Club evening and a Leprosy Awareness session.
We are delighted to say that the gifts we received from our wedding meant that we could donate 45,000 rupees to the Russ Foundation - this has been used to purchase a tilling machine which will help land preparation for future crops. We are also pleased that the Just Giving page we set up to raise further funds for Good Foundation UK which supports Russ Foundation, has been very successful - if you wish to make a donation visit
We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Russ - after nearly 5 months travelling overland to get here it has been an awesome and humbling experience seeing the workings of these fantastic initiatives and getting to know the girls and staff of Russ Campus - we'll miss everyone and hope to return again in the future.
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Clarissa
non-member comment
Yippieeee for Russ
Hi Sarah and Bob... Give all the lovely Russ girls a GIANT kiss from me and Anna - we miss them all SO much! Love and hugs to you both too, Clarissa and Anna xxx