We left the hotel this morning for Children's Village knowing it would be our last day on the building project and spending time with the kids we have gotten to know so well.

A nasty cold has been doing the rounds of our group, but despite coughs, sneezes and sniffles, everyone was determined to be there today to finish our work on the cottage and see our new friends.

As we rolled up, our little welcoming party of toddlers was lined up to receive us. After a shy beginning, they have grown to know us well, and the minute we were off the bus we had little ones climbing all over us.

Our work today was to put the first coat of coloured paint on the outside of our cottage, and we were determined to get it finished before we left. By now, we are expert at hanging off the local scaffolding, and the cottage really began to take shape as a home as we painted the different sections.

By the time we broke for lunch, the job was done, and we lined up for photographs outside with our local builders. We had a great feeling of achievement as we stood back and reflected not only on our work for the week, but the fundraising and journey that had led us to this place.

After lunch we said a sad goodbye to our kids, and then headed off to visit another of SJDT's projects at Dindigul, targeting working children. In India there are 7 pieces of legislation that make child labour illegal, but it is estimated that there are between 40 and 110 million child labourers working in the economy.

For many poor families, it is simply a matter of survival - the parents can't earn enough as poor workers or labourers to support the family, and if the children don't go out to work they won't be able to eat.

SJDT works to identify child labourers in the area, and then talks to the parents to try to find ways to get the kids back in school. Over the last year they have successfully re-schooled 117 children, but they know of another 140 in the area still working in factories.

We visited a local leather factory that last year had employed child labourers from a poor village next door, but all of whom had now been re-schooled.

Br Jagan, the local worker in charge of the project, took us for a tour.

Outside under a thatched hut, workers cleaned goat skins with chemicals and salt, and trimmed off the tails. The smell was indescribable. This is where most of the children had worked, earning just Rs100 (about $3 - $4) for every 100 skins cleaned.

Inside the factory the floor was awash with other chemicals, and in the middle were deep vats in the floor full of chemicals used to soften the hides and make the hair easy to remove. Adult workers with only rubber gloves and light plastic aprons were submersed chest deep in the chemicals retrieving the skins.

From there, the skins went to a machine where the hair was stripped off. It has two enormous steel rollers, and the skins were hand fed through and pulled out by an adult worker. One slight slip and he would suffer a horrendous injury.

The final stage were a series of stretching machines, once again working at a terrific pace with no safety measures.

It was confronting and horrific to think of children working in such circumstances. Of course, the western world was also built on child labour in the industrial age with young children in the cotton mills of Britain and in other countries, but to see it first hand was a very emotional experience.

Next we visited the village next door where the children had come from.

These people lived in thatched huts in very poor conditions, and as the government had recently begun widening the highway nearby, many had had their houses demolished with no compensation and were now living in even worse circumstances.

SJDT is working with them to find solutions to allow their children to remain at school, or go back to school, rather than have to go to work.

Next we visited a vocational training school in Dindigul, that is offering training as electricians, fitters, automobile mechanics, tailoring and in computer skills for former school drop outs and working children, as an alternative to traditional education.

Nearby is the hostel where twenty orphaned boys, several of who are HIV positive, are cared for by SJDT - the same twenty boys who joined us early in the week for the trip to Kodiakanal. The kids were excited to see us and we had a great time catching up with them and taking many photos.

Our last stop for the day was at Girls Village, where the older girls who had traveled with us to Kodiakanal live. The girls gave us a wonderful traditional Indian welcome, and then with many cries of "Auntie, auntie, come" we were led around the campus to see all of their cottages.

We ended up at their meeting hall, and then the girls gave us a fantastic cultural performance with singing of traditional songs, traditional dances, and some great Bollywood routines!

Just before they started, we had another surprise - a van pulled up with all of our babies from Children's Village, as well as the pre-schoolers we had played with last year on our building project, and who live in the cottages at Children's Village but we hadn't seen as they had been at pre-school during the day.

Jennifer, Esther, Katerina and the rest recognized Megan and Meredith straight away and marched over for hugs, along with the rest of our babies.

To end the evening, the older girls gave a drumming and dancing presentation outside, and then we handed out ice-creams to all of the children. Finally it was time to say one last goodbye, and it was very emotional to leave them for the last time.

Br Sebastian gave a speech after the dancing to thank our group and to let us know we were always welcome to visit, or come back and work again anytime, and already our hearts and heads were thinking of our next visit to our little families.