Before starting a new job earlier this year, I had some time off and went to India and a few other places around the World. At India we volunteered at the Worlds largest orphanage (not sure about how true this is - but thats what we were told), with roughly 2,000 children. This orphanage is in Salem, India. Salem is a 'small' city in a state named Tamil Nadu. Salem has a population of roughly two million - and when you stay there for over two weeks - believe me, you feel like you have seen two million people.
About the orphanage
The orphanage is called the "Indian Christian Mission Centre" (or ICMC).
People often ask me how the children end up in the orphanage. It varies. Sometimes parents can't afford to keep the child so they will often leave them at the orphanage. Other times a homeless child or a child whose carers have passed away will just arrive at the orphanage. We met this girl that was dropped off at the orphanage at six months - left at the doorstep, with a small note saying "Please call her …" (with her Hindu name) - no reason why, no background, no history - nothing.
The orphanage was founded in 1988 by an orphan. He has a house where western people (like us!) come and stay from all over the World. The house caters for around 10-15 people. The orphanage has grown from 12 orphans to around 2,000 orphans today.
ICMC's ultimate goal is to be self-sufficient. This is very hard - given their position in society as well as the growing demand for orphan care. When I spoke to the founder I asked him what his biggest challenge was, "To become self-sufficient" he said. Over half their funds come from overseas supporters - and this is a big dependency for them. All it takes is a few donors to pull out for the children to go without food.
How they are trying to break the cycle
This is very hard. You don't realise how hard it is till you get there and you hear all the stories of corruption, struggles, in-fighting and disagreements between the people of Salem. Add to this the cultural implications of being an orphan or being born in a different caste and it is very hard. Yes - the caste system is still alive today. In saying all this, it's really encouraging to see the progress they have made and the passion many in the community display to help their own people.
The first thing they have done is built schools. The orphanage owns several schools in town. In these schools both orphan and non-orphan children attend. The idea here is that non-orphan students pay fees, whilst the orphan students are sponsored by the orphanage. The profit that comes from these schools goes back into the schools - to hire more teachers, purchase equipment as well as building other schools. Not only so, but the money also goes to sponsoring more children to come out of the orphanage into a proper education system. This system seems to be going quite well and has picked up some momentum. I heard many stories where orphan children would finish school and come back and work there as teachers - which is really exciting to see.
Beyond schools the orphanage also runs training for young adults in computers, science, English and arts. The orphanage also runs a Bible college where some train to become ministers. When we just left, the founder was attempting to get a nursing collage setup - last I heard he had a lot of hurdles to climb to get this set up.
The orphanage also tries to farm as much of its own food as possible. Feeding a lot of children is always a challenge.
What did we do there?
Well - not much really other than playing with Children! There are a lot of kids there, ranging from month-old babies to children who are near finishing high-school to young adults studying there.
Our average day? Wake up, get on a 2-hour bus trip to the orphanage, play with children, come back, eat, sleep - thats it. On some days we took some classes teaching English (yes, even with my grammar!) and I shared some basic computer stuff with some of the mature-age students.
On one of the days we decided to take some of the children out for a treat. We took 50 children on a bus all the way to one of the "most expensive" places to eat in Salem. You should have seen the face on the restaurant owners when these westerners walked in with 50 orphan children, mostly with no shoes on - it was pretty amusing. For most of the children, this was the first time they had ever eaten in a restaurant. How much did it cost to feed 50 people at an expensive place in Salem? Well, lets say it worked out to be under five Australian dollars per head - with a generous tip.
There were a whole bunch of people form the UK that were also visiting the orphanage while we were there so we played lots of cricket - it was usually "India VS rest of the world" !
The orphanage also gave rice to people who had leprosy and the homeless once every couple of weeks. We helped out with this. I probably found this to be the toughest part of our trip. Below is a photo of me and Babo. A homeless man who is losing his fingers to leprosy.
So how was it?
It was heart-wrenching. You realise how rich you are and how good you've got it… why? Just because you happened to be born somewhere else in the world where you have tonnes of opportunities.
All the children get super excited to see a foreigner. They jump all over you. You literally have 10-20 kids follow you around all day and hang all over your arms and legs. They want to feel loved. They want to be hugged. They feel special to have someone travel all the way across the world to tell them they
are loved. It's pretty amazing. You are an uncle to 2,000 kids… "uncle uncle…." is all you hear for about eight hours of the day.
You also see what happiness truly is. You walk into their rooms. Around 20 kids sleep in one room. On the floor. They all have two outfits (or most of them do), and a box with their life belongings. This usually contains a ball - maybe a pair of shoes and some clothes or a hat. These kids are happy - and they have nothing. This world tells you that the more you have, the happier you are. Theres always this need to find yourself wanting more...More money, more clothes, more choice..... This kids have literatly nothing.
Would I go back?
A lot of people ask me if I'd go back. I usually respond with "it depends". If I were to go back to use my specific skills in an area of teaching or training - I'd go back. However, I wouldn't go back for the experience - I couldn't bring myself to. After seeing how little these children have. I look at the cost of my flights, accommodation and realise I'm far better off donating this. But that's just me. I worked out the other day that one regular coffee from my usual coffee place down the road can feed three children for a day… crazy!
