Holly and I spent the first ten days of our trip at this truely inspiring project, which was set up by Xavier Mariadoss in his home village of Kondam (some 20km outside Tiruvannamali) 20 years ago. With a background of working with children with disabilities, he has established an organisation that erally bridges the gap between these children, and the communities they live in. The moto of the Pctc, 'Collective Self-Reliance' really encompasses everything the project strives to achieve, but also dictates the way it is run. It really is the most self sufficient organisation immaginable!
Starting out as a centre for children with disabilities in the community, enough staff were trained to alow the opening of a second centre further away. Since young people can only remain in the centre until the age of 18, a vocational training programme was then established on the same campus, teaching tailoring and other trade skills. Xavier has also been able to purchase land with the help of donations and fundraising, and start a farm - this is a longer term project which he hopes to develop into another branch of vocational training.
A further role of the staff is to go out on field visits to families in incredibly remote communities around the area, and do check ups on new borns who could be prone to developing a disability from birth ( the most common cause of this, we were told, is due to members of the same family reproducing). The staff are also trained to run sessions for parents of very young children, in basic physio and speech therapy, in their early years intervention centre. Mothers and other women are also invited to join one of the many female empowerment groups set up by the pctc.
The most recent project development is that of the Thuli Student Movement - afterschool clubs which currently run in 8 of the planned for 47 communities. This programme provides children with two hours an evening (6 days a week!) of alternative moduels in health, hygine, education about children with disabilities, politics, english laguage, as well as providing an oppertunity for help with homework etc. The real motivation behind this stems from the idea that, unless the community is catered for and supported, selecting individuals for help in the centre is meaningless - the whole community needs support to then be able to support and care for young people with disabilities.
As we were only able to spend 10 days at this amazing place, we spent our time visiting all of the different parts of the project: which involved chasing cows and picking guavas at the farm, riding all over the countryside on teh back of staff motorbikes to do home visits,singing and (for holly) some communication and speech therapy in both centres and at teh Thuli programme, and hours of fascinating conversation with many people involved with the project.
If anyone is planing a trip to India, and looking for a long term volunteer oppertunity, this one is really worth checking out!
www.pctcability.org/
Monday, 23 August 2010
Sunday, 8 August 2010
En route to Santiago de Cuba
JULY 2009:
About to embark on an epic road trip to Cuba's biggest carnival! But first...after some brilliant diving last week, we headed to the Che capital of the world - Santa Clara. A rather quiet town, considering it's history, and aside from the impressive guevara monument and mainly photographic museum, a surprising lack of memorabilia. Another lovely casa here, with wonerful hosts who cooked up a real feast for us every night. The reaction last night at dinner when the subject of politics was breached was entirely classic, i'm beginning to think - that when confronted ont he subject, many (particularly older) cubans are very reluctent to answer questions directly. But then proceed with ' but in my opinion..........................' and so follows hours of fascinating thoughts and feelings. On sunday we stumbled across a beautiful hidden courtyard, filled with trees and wall paintings, and lots of oldies gentle moving their hips to some beautiful son! Which then developed into a very public salsa lesson for me and jessie, as a beautiful man guided us through some dances with a cigar in one hand. Brilliant.
Then made tracks for Trinidad - a truely beautiful town with small painted houses lining the hill down to a white sand beach. Again a very friendly casa - but sadly no home cooked meals available here, so surviving off the typical fried egg sandwich diet. More dancing here, this time on a rooftop over looking the town and sea with a rather handsome young man. Great scene at the Casa de la musica with different live bands all night every night, and a crazy club set deep inside a cave in the mountainside.
So now to Santiago. Everyone i've spoken to about the city says it is too hot, too busy and the most crime in Cuba. Bring it on.
About to embark on an epic road trip to Cuba's biggest carnival! But first...after some brilliant diving last week, we headed to the Che capital of the world - Santa Clara. A rather quiet town, considering it's history, and aside from the impressive guevara monument and mainly photographic museum, a surprising lack of memorabilia. Another lovely casa here, with wonerful hosts who cooked up a real feast for us every night. The reaction last night at dinner when the subject of politics was breached was entirely classic, i'm beginning to think - that when confronted ont he subject, many (particularly older) cubans are very reluctent to answer questions directly. But then proceed with ' but in my opinion..........................' and so follows hours of fascinating thoughts and feelings. On sunday we stumbled across a beautiful hidden courtyard, filled with trees and wall paintings, and lots of oldies gentle moving their hips to some beautiful son! Which then developed into a very public salsa lesson for me and jessie, as a beautiful man guided us through some dances with a cigar in one hand. Brilliant.
Then made tracks for Trinidad - a truely beautiful town with small painted houses lining the hill down to a white sand beach. Again a very friendly casa - but sadly no home cooked meals available here, so surviving off the typical fried egg sandwich diet. More dancing here, this time on a rooftop over looking the town and sea with a rather handsome young man. Great scene at the Casa de la musica with different live bands all night every night, and a crazy club set deep inside a cave in the mountainside.
So now to Santiago. Everyone i've spoken to about the city says it is too hot, too busy and the most crime in Cuba. Bring it on.
Havana and beyond...
JULY 2009:
After an eventful week of salsa, rumba and lots of sweat, we've moved on from Habana to the northern province of Pinar del Rio and the Vinales valley. Feels like an entirely different country! Habana is a total one off- the revolutionary slogans EVERYWHERE, the music, the rum, the music, the cigars, the music, the cars the music...all juxtaposed against very colonial architecture. We stayed with a wonderful couple, Hector and Ery in Habana vieja, which is a truely beautiful area of the city, inspite of the tourista onslaught. The two currencies make it really difficult to escap the well thought through tourista bubble, but staying in a Casa definitely helped. Through a variety of contacts, holly managed to organise rumba dance and percussion lessons which gave an enormous insight into the habana music scene - aside from the salsa groups all over town. Last Sunday, Chiquito, the percussion teacher took us to what can only be described as the worlds most beautiful street party in Cajejon de hammel ( a backstreet of centro habana) to see an array of brilliant musicians doing their thing -including a womens rumba group, which is the first all female group i've seen. Wonderful artwork and powerful slogans fill every available wall space, and the atmosphere just incredible.
Vinales couldn't be more different - calm, peaceful aside from the pigs and goats which fairly roam freely, and lush greenery as far as the eye can see. More wonderful dancing lessons here, with a man who must be well into his 80s but is seriously hot on the dancefloor! Tomorrow we're riding to explore artwork in nearby caves, and then off to the coast for what promises to be world class scuba diving...more soon!
After an eventful week of salsa, rumba and lots of sweat, we've moved on from Habana to the northern province of Pinar del Rio and the Vinales valley. Feels like an entirely different country! Habana is a total one off- the revolutionary slogans EVERYWHERE, the music, the rum, the music, the cigars, the music, the cars the music...all juxtaposed against very colonial architecture. We stayed with a wonderful couple, Hector and Ery in Habana vieja, which is a truely beautiful area of the city, inspite of the tourista onslaught. The two currencies make it really difficult to escap the well thought through tourista bubble, but staying in a Casa definitely helped. Through a variety of contacts, holly managed to organise rumba dance and percussion lessons which gave an enormous insight into the habana music scene - aside from the salsa groups all over town. Last Sunday, Chiquito, the percussion teacher took us to what can only be described as the worlds most beautiful street party in Cajejon de hammel ( a backstreet of centro habana) to see an array of brilliant musicians doing their thing -including a womens rumba group, which is the first all female group i've seen. Wonderful artwork and powerful slogans fill every available wall space, and the atmosphere just incredible.
Vinales couldn't be more different - calm, peaceful aside from the pigs and goats which fairly roam freely, and lush greenery as far as the eye can see. More wonderful dancing lessons here, with a man who must be well into his 80s but is seriously hot on the dancefloor! Tomorrow we're riding to explore artwork in nearby caves, and then off to the coast for what promises to be world class scuba diving...more soon!
Monday, 20 August 2007
The time of my life
Almost last thing I do before heading to airport! Was going to try some kind of clever summing up of the whole trip with my thoughts on Africa etc but am short of time and am yet to cultivate such thoughts so just news from the last stint of travels...last stop in Uganda was a trip up to Murchison Falls on Lake Albert in the North west - breathtakingly stunning views, an amazing safari game drive (during which a leopard RAN BESIDE OUR CAR!!! - esp exciting as they say there are incredibly few leopards at Murch now), boat trip up the Nile to the falls and a hike around them - apparently some jokers like to raft down them but I think more than a torn ligament would come from that! Then met up with a Tz friend and took the most hard-to-the-core bus journey from Kampala to Nakuru in Kenya - 17 hours over arguably the worst road in Africa. Lacking Valium, a copy of Harry Potter that they found was the only thing that got me through. A bit of a mission through the Rift Valley and we got to Lake Naivasha, with incredible views across and a beautiful campsite right on the shores. We'd planned a mountain biking day in Hells Gate NP but my knee was feeling a little dodgy, so instead took a boat out on the lake for the day and thoroughly chilled in the sunshine and peaceful scenery. Amazing meal last night (crayfish in garlic and white wine sauce followed by Amarula cheescake!! Tz people will know how good that is) and now in Nairobi, about to catch our shuttle bus to airport that we've winged for free through the Hilton hotel...out to partaaay tonight in Dubai during our 10 hour stopover and then I guess I'll be seeing you all soon! To finish, this trip has without a doubt been the best thing I've ever done, and the experiences and friends made along the way will last forever - or at least until I get round to the next african adventure!
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
It's the final countdown
Utterly BIZARRE that a week today i will find myself in heathrow..incredibly mixed feelings about the whole thing, and am seriously going to miss life as it currently is. But rather than tearful anticipation i need to update you all on recent events which have been immensely cool, mainly featuring antics on the Nile river with a raft and the best grade 5 rapids in the world! Spent a day in this little boat with a Russian, a Croat, a Ukranian, an Irish guy, an American, a Canadian and a serious Italian Stallion (going wild as opposed to mild over the rapids), flipping the boat as much as possible,getting caught up in whirlpool things, messing around, having lots of fun and wound up with a tear in a ligament in my knee! But all so very very worth it, as usual met amazing people, maxed out on the free food and alcofrolics and had a great weekend. Bujugali falls also very beautiful. Then found my way to Kampala by a string of interesting transport and went down to Entebbe yesterday to the very beautiful botanical gardens (saw lots of colobus monkeys including the cutest mama and baby!). Spent last night with the Bells (friends of Jeremy and Barbara) in their amazingly beautiful house on the hills surrounding Kampala - the novelty of good food and a comfy bed never wears off it seems!Off up to Murchison Falls in Northern Ug tomorrow (will try very hard not to get caught up in any violence..) for more safari etc..then to Kenya for a flying visit through the Rift Valley pre Nairobi!
Friday, 10 August 2007
Uganda
After much drama at the border where the nasty people terrified me and made me pay double the visa price just because they could, meaning i had $0 left, and a lovely ugandan lady adopting me and taking me to her home,feeding me and paying for my bus to kampala, and from there onto mbale (during the latter journey the bus broke down twice and i ended up travelling 2 hours with my huge hiker-sack on the back of a moped!) i met up with Richard Hide and went off exploring coffee farms on Mt elgon! honestly had no idea what a long process coffee-making was, and was so overwhelemed by the commitment of all te owmen in the village to the work (obviously the men do very little.) Hve very little internet time and can't really do justise to what an amazing experiece i had with these people and in the stunning surroundings. Next i went off to a small village a few hours away to meet an old school friend who's working for the NGO little big africa, building water tanks etc. I got to make bricks! Have definitely decided i am not cut out for hard physical labour! Really enjoyed being a part of village life again, although uganda style this time. And now have just returned form a trip to Sipi falls, highest in East africa which i absailed down, about 10m from the falls all the way..absolutely INCREDIBLE views! Hate having to rush these things so will update properly soon when i find a decent computer..until then 10 days till im home!
Thursday, 2 August 2007
Rwanda continued
After a few days pretending to be a loaded ex-pat in kigali (which, incidently, all the ex-pats hate - well they seem to think Rwanda in general is the most disfunctional of places (clearly they havn't seen tz!) and are all kind of depressed to be there..bizarre as i thought it was brilliant!), i headed off to Gyiseni, in the northern most part of lake kivu. Pretty panoramic setting and at dusk you can see across the lake over to the hills of Congo..very nearly added that stamp to my passport as reports of Goma and the surrounding area were pretty positive, but luckily i didn't, seeing as last week 4 Gorrillas were killed by rebels pretty close to the volcano i was going to climb. Anway, managed to pull an AMAZING deal at the Kivu Sun 5* hotel,staying there for just $20!! Partied hard until dawn with my kigali pals and lots of Rwandans, after most incredible buffet in the world (sticky toffee pudding in rwanda?!). After that i found my way to Ruhengeri national park where Gorrillas play amongst the 7 volcanos. Seeing as gap year = uuuber budget i couldn't afford the $500 to spend an hour with those beasts, but instead did some volcano trekking - the top of Bisoke volcano is home to a vast crator lake with incredible views out across Rwanda. My legs are still ruined though, even 4 days later!
And of course then there was the Genocide Memorial back in Kigali..an incredibly fair and informative documentation of history. Throughout the exhibition are a series of short interviews on video with survivors who lost close family members which is pretty horrific - but for me by far the most harrowing part came at the very end : First of all you enter a dark circular space with 3 rooms coming off it each with a different Rwandese voice-over; the first room contains maybe 500 photographs hanging from strings of faces of people who were killed; the second, has preserved clothes that were found on disintegrating bodies; and the final room contains bones and skulls that have been unearthed. After that you go on into the children's room..asided from the many photos of young people all over the place, there are maybe 12 bill-board-things,each with an enlarged photo of a child and underneath, their name, age, favourite activity, favourite food and how they were killed ('beat around the head with a club', 'machette through the chest' etc). Absolutely horrendous. There is another large memorial in the city of Butare which apparently holds preserved bodies in the room they were killed in - really didn't think i could handle that one.
But it really seems to me that Rwanda is looking to the future in a big way - very firmly, the people maintain that 'The past is the past and the future is now'. It is unheard of to ask whether one is Hutu or Tutsi and 'PK' is doing lots (by the sounds of it) to try and being people together as far as possilbe - for example, whilst i was there, and on the last weekend of every month, 'Umuganda' takes place..a day when nobody works and everyone does some form of community serivce (most commonly cleaning up the streets).
A huge emphasis is put on understanding and learning from the tragic history of Rwanda, in the high hopes of creating a secure and stable environment fo rhte next generation.
And of course then there was the Genocide Memorial back in Kigali..an incredibly fair and informative documentation of history. Throughout the exhibition are a series of short interviews on video with survivors who lost close family members which is pretty horrific - but for me by far the most harrowing part came at the very end : First of all you enter a dark circular space with 3 rooms coming off it each with a different Rwandese voice-over; the first room contains maybe 500 photographs hanging from strings of faces of people who were killed; the second, has preserved clothes that were found on disintegrating bodies; and the final room contains bones and skulls that have been unearthed. After that you go on into the children's room..asided from the many photos of young people all over the place, there are maybe 12 bill-board-things,each with an enlarged photo of a child and underneath, their name, age, favourite activity, favourite food and how they were killed ('beat around the head with a club', 'machette through the chest' etc). Absolutely horrendous. There is another large memorial in the city of Butare which apparently holds preserved bodies in the room they were killed in - really didn't think i could handle that one.
But it really seems to me that Rwanda is looking to the future in a big way - very firmly, the people maintain that 'The past is the past and the future is now'. It is unheard of to ask whether one is Hutu or Tutsi and 'PK' is doing lots (by the sounds of it) to try and being people together as far as possilbe - for example, whilst i was there, and on the last weekend of every month, 'Umuganda' takes place..a day when nobody works and everyone does some form of community serivce (most commonly cleaning up the streets).
A huge emphasis is put on understanding and learning from the tragic history of Rwanda, in the high hopes of creating a secure and stable environment fo rhte next generation.
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