Today we entered a new stage of our journey, traveling out towards Boys Village to see the new babies cottage our fundraising paid for, and the location of the new planned Children’s Village that it will form a part of.

On the way we stopped at the head office of St Joseph’s to meet with Br Sebastian, the founder and Executive Director, to talk more about the project and also other issues that the Trust is addressing in the area.

The new babies cottage is part of a new planned Children’s Village, that will also house a new head office for St Joseph’s.  Br Sebastian explained that of the 118 children at Girls Village, 50 were complete orphans or abandoned children while the others still had remaining family.

Those who have some family left are sometimes visited by them, which leaves the other children feeling left out and neglected.  Br Sebastian’s new village will consist of small houses where one woman will care for 5 – 6 children and raise them as a family.

So far three new cottages have been built on the site, including our babies cottage.  The plan is to gradually add a few more cottages a year so that the new children arriving are integrated slowly without too much disruption.

Br Sebastian also talked to us about the plight of working children in the area, and the programs St Joseph’s runs to help them in the nearby town of Dindigul.  Although child labour is illegal in India, there are many loopholes and it is easy for employers to avoid prosecution.

After our meeting we traveled down the road about one kilometer to the new children’s village site.  The spot is beautiful – quiet, peaceful, surrounded by coconut groves.  Across the road is a small lake, surrounded by more coconut trees and huge mountains and a waterfall just behind them.

Three children’s cottages including ours are now complete, and construction is underway on St Joseph’s office buildings.  Our foreman and painters from Girls Village were waiting on us and after a tour of our cottage, we set to work painting the interior.

The cottages are light and airy, with two main rooms for living and sleeping, a storage room, separate bathroom, toilet and a kitchen designed for a gas stove.  In an hour and a half we had painted both the main rooms bright colours.  The babies are due to move across to the new houses in January once the rest of the main construction is complete and the site is settled.

We traveled back to Boys Village for lunch and a little time to chat to a few of the boys in residence.  Then we took off for Dindigul, to meet with some of the local children from the slums and some of the working children in St Joseph’s programs.

On arrival we received a terrific welcome from around 100 kids.  Thirty of those waiting were working kids who had arranged to have the afternoon off especially to meet us.

SJDT works with over 400 working kids in 12 nearby villages.  These kids work 12 – 14 hour days, 6 days a week, for as little as 10 rupees a day (30 rupees equals one Australian dollar, 40 rupees equals one US dollar).  If they miss a day’s work, they usually lose the entire week’s wages.  We had arranged with SJDT to make up the kids lost wages for the afternoon – all of them had been at work that morning.

One by one the working kids were introduced to us and told us their stories.  One boy started work at 8 am in the morning, and finished at 9pm at night.  He is only 12 years old and has been working for the past 2 years.  He earns 10 rupees a day.  All of the working kids told us that they wanted to go back to school, but they had to work to support their families – if they didn’t work, they and their siblings would not be able to eat.

Several of the young boys told us proudly that although they had to work, they did so in order that their younger sisters could stay in school.  It was heartbreaking to listen to their stories.

SJDT workers try to help these children in several ways.  Once a child worker is identified, they talk to the parents to try to convince them to find a way to send the child back to school.  They also run evening and weekend classes so that those children who do have to work, can find some way to continue their studies, and also try to find scholarships to support them.

For the older children, they offer technical training to try to help them to get a better job with higher wages and better conditions, or to set up their own small business.

Along with the 30 kids who were still in work, we met 20 others who had been employed but were now back in school thanks to SJDT.

After talking with the kids and teaching them a Wiggles song, they performed traditional dances for us.  Then we went downstairs to meet boys who were living in a hostel on the site.  They were all young – under the age of 10, and orphaned or abandoned.  SJDT cares for them and makes sure they can go to school. 

Two of the boys we met had lost both parents to AIDs and were HIV positive themselves.  Fortunately in India anti-retroviral drugs are available free to poor families and children who are HIV positive so the children are receiving good medical care.  It was beautiful to see the kids so happy and taking care of each other.

Our last stop was to visit the technical school where some of the children are receiving training in tailoring, embroidering, computer skills and electrical work.  Then a long drive back to Madurai to reflect on the children we had met and the stories we had heard.