Reaching The Unreached G. Kallupatti P.O., Periyakulam Tk., Theni Dt. 625203.

Happenings of May 2019

Dear Well-wishers,

Greetings from RTU.

Happy to be back at home!! After a long summer break (due to the General Elections), all our

children and the foster mothers returned to RTU on 30th May. They had a good summer break

with their parents or relatives, and those with no relatives had a good summer break with us. The

trees in all our Children’s Villages are so glad to have all the children back again that they have

covered themselves with blossom! What a reunion of mothers, children and teachers!! All at

RTU are happy to everyone back.

Providing clean and safe drinking water to our school children:

On 8th May, we installed a new water purification system in our main campus as per new

government guidelines. This reverse osmosis line is connected to our main kitchen to prepare

food for our children. We sincerely thank Mr Joseph and his family who sponsored this

purification system for our children in remembrance of his son.

Joining hands again!

The 14th RTU Alumni Reunion was held on 19th May. 150 former RTU children came with their

family members. To begin the day, they all visited the J K Meditation Hall and made a special

prayer by offering rose flowers on Brother James’s grave. Along with Fr Antony and our

present hostel students, they remembered his 94th birthday. Each one shared their own

memories and promised support to RTU in all its endeavours. Fr Antony updated everyone

about events at and the support received from the alumni. He also thanked each person for his or

her continued commitment and support to RTU. Finally, an election was organized to select the

alumni leader. Mr Alagarsamy was elected as the male representative and Mrs Selvarani for the

female alumni members.

RTU’s New Year!

On 23rd May, Brother’s actual birthday we began our new

year. The celebration started with everyone gathering in the

J K Meditation Hall for prayers. On that day, Sister

Anastasia, a friend of Brother, launched a new Tamil book

on James Kimpton’s life history. The name of the book is

“Oru Kadavul Manithanin Kal Thadangal” (Footprints of a

God-man) and Mr Sivakumar, our Auditor received the book with honour. Prior to this

Br Arockia Doss gave a brief introduction which created much interest among the audience to

read the book. Fr Arockiaraj wrote the book joyfully and spent months collecting literature on

Brother and his own journal writings. He read almost all the available resources and held

interviews with those who were close to him; listening to the information and experiences

shared by them.

Motivation for our staff

As part of a programme of training that we hold for our teachers and staff members, we

organized a special session on gender sensitization and how we can do more to treat both sexes

equally. As part of the Right to Education Act, gender equality is one of the expected outcomes

in our schools. Advocate Henry Tiphagne and his team from People’s Watch, Madurai

organised the day for us with discourses and discussions on gender equality and gender-based

violence. This was very helpful to all the members to learn more about how behaviour affects

gender equality.

Our Children’s Villages and Childcare Programme Sight-seeing for our children

During the summer holidays, we organized a 3-day tour for our children who stayed with us as

they have no one to go and live with during the school summer break. They went to Pondicherry

and stayed in Velanganni Children’s Home there. They enjoyed visiting historical and tourist

spots like the beach, Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, and the city itself. In exchange, a group

of 16 children and 4 staff members came from the children’s home to spend two weeks of their

summer holidays with us in Anbu Illam

Children’s Village. They enjoyed our foster

mothers’ tender love and care, and went out

for visits and picnics around our area.

Marriage bell rings in RTU

On 17th May, Jancy Mary’s wedding was

held in Trichy. Some of our staff members

attended the wedding. Jancy Mary came to

Anbu Illam in 1993 at the age of 5 after her mother committed suicide and her father died of

sickness. One of her relatives bought her to RTU but after that she never had any visitors. After

completing her schooling at our schools, she studied nursing. Firstly, she worked in a private

hospital and then took further studies to enable her to work in a government hospital. She is a

government employee now and serves society happily. She found the groom through her friends

and the betrothal celebration was held at RTU and the wedding in Trichy. We are very proud to

have settled this girl nicely. We wish Jancy Mary all the best in her married life.

Capacity building training for the foster mothers

A 2-day training programme was organized for all our foster mothers with the help of

Br Brinesh, a trained counsellor and Dr Anita Jerome, an expert in home medicines. It was very

useful to the mothers to help them take care of their children. Dr Anita explained about the

importance of health and cooking methods at home.

New blossoms

During May, we admitted 25 new children (10 boys and 15 girls) and 3 new foster mothers into

our Childcare Programme. 49 teenage girls and 36 teenage boys moved from the small family

houses in our Children's Villages to our hostels, making space for the new entrants. The

Government inspection team visited Anbu Illam and Sirumalar Children’s Villages for their

routine checks.

Choosing of higher studies

All the 44 students who have completed their 12th standard have applied for their professional

courses based on their marks and they will be joining different courses in different institutions

soon.

Case Study:

Gowri (name changed) who is 9 year’s old came to RTU this month having been referred by the

HIV+ Network in Thanjavur. Her mother has recently died, and her father who is also HIV+

deserted the family to remarry another woman. The paternal aunt approached the Network staff

and they asked us to admit this child in RTU’s care. Gowri has very poor health and is unable to

read and write properly as she did not go to school regularly. It is a big challenge for us to

improve her studies and social skills. Our foster mothers are happy to embrace this challenge.

Now Gowri has entered a paradise and we are sure that she will enjoy her childhood with proper

food, recreation, friends, schooling, clothes, uniform and everything. She is studying 4th

standard in St. Peter’s Primary School.

Schools and Education – Getting ready for next academic year

Minimum Learning Programme (MLP) – Project

During the summer holiday, all our schools got ready to welcome the students into the new

school year with minor maintenance work, and new textbooks and writing materials. When our

children are at home for their summer breaks, all our school staff members spent some time with

their heads down planning and preparing for the next academic year. Mr Kamaraj, a government

resource person from Periyakulam, organized a 3-day training programme on Minimum

Learning Programme for each class. The teachers have worked out a plan for this and

Br Arockia Doss will help them implement this scheme in all our primary schools this academic

year.

English teaching made easy – This two-day training programme on using group techniques to

motivate the children was organised by Fr Kennedy who holds a double doctorate in literature

and teaching. Using phonetic sounds in teaching English was organised for staff at our

Nirmala school in Bodi and Mrs Praveena was the resource person. We were happy that we

have a very good resource person with us teaching English. In total, 110 teachers from our

schools attended and learnt easy techniques to improve their English language as well as the

students.

A 2-day training

programme on Problems

in learning was

organised. Mr David,

who is a lecturer at the

District Teachers

Training Institute and

Mr Panneer Selvam, a

teacher in St Joseph’s

Primary School in Ramnad, were the resource persons. They made the class more interesting

and joyful. All 110 teachers from our schools had the opportunity to attend the training and

learnt about dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. We thank Br Arockia Doss who arranged all

the training programmes for our teachers and appreciate him for all his efforts. His concern on

our teachers’ development and training is great and tremendous.

Your caring support is making a great difference to the lives of thousands of orphaned and the

most disadvantaged children. Yes, you can see achievement of our children. We deeply value

your contrition and participation in this holistic service to show the world that you deserve most.

We are very grateful to you for joining your helping hands with us in ensuring unending support

to our children. Thank you again for your compassionate support.

May God bless you all!

Yours fraternally

Fr. Antony Paulsamy, OFM Cap,

Secretary and Director.