The last home to visit was The St. Mary’s Home for Girls. This facility is also located in a large city about one hour away from Dornakal, and it is where our hotel was. It was formerly a home for Polio Rehabilitation, but now has been converted into a hostel for children who want to have an education but live in rural areas where schools may not be available.
The compound is large, and the facilities are also large. A bit in disarray after Mr. Prabakhar Rao, the former Children Incorporated Coordinator left to work within the Diocese as the new Treasurer. Mr. Prabakhar Rao is still in touch with this home, as he was a Director of the Rehabilitation Center for a long time.
The Children Incorporated coordinator now is Ms. Esther Celina Moses. She was not very familiar with our program, I believe because her reliance on Mr. Prabakhar Rao’s involvement. We shared with her all needs for maintenance of the program, and share the importance of the children’s involvement with their sponsors. We indicated the importance of letters, updates and pictures, and the required reports, so that the program can function. She did have good records of the children, but indicated that more children are requesting help from the program, as the pandemic had devastated the sources of work in the city. The Children Incorporated program support is utilized to provide food, shelter, and mostly support educational activities for the children. The facilities need some improvement, which we vocalized to the coordinator, and to Mr. Prabakhar Rao on a general meeting, but the children seem happy to be there, and glad to have the opportunity of an education. We left the facility after a small cultural presentation from the children on the program.