The next day in the morning we were scheduled to visit the Dornakal Girls Hostel. This is located within the Dornakal Diocese compound in Dornakal. To counter the two boy’s hostels we have visited earlier, there is this one hostel for girls only here in Dornakal to balance the provision of support to the children. This is perhaps the largest facility that Children Incorporated supports within the Dornakal Diocese compound. The hostel has three buildings within the hostel compound.
One of the buildings is the dorm, completed with support from Children Incorporated some years back. Then is the dining hall, and the third one is the meeting/classroom area. Toilets are adjacent. The Dornakal Girls’ hostel is run by a new coordinator, Ms. Indira Mercy Salavadi.
This hostel supports over 50 girls, of which 42 are on the Children Incorporated program. As usual within the Dornakal Diocese, the girls are supported with boarding, food, clothing and educational support with the Children Incorporated sponsorship. Mr. Salavadi was familiar with the program, as she learned from our former coordinator, Mrs. Jesantha all the intrinsic issues of our program. Many of the sponsored girls staying at this hostel are attending the English Medium School, which is a plus for them, as they are learning English from a young age.
This affiliation had some updates to make up, but were past due by a month or so. Ms. Salavadi is going to provide updates of all the children as soon as possible. We overly emphasized the importance of letters to sponsors, and reports, so that we could meet our requirements, and they are all willing to support our needs. The girls showed us their dorms and cots, and were very proud of being at the hostel, instead of at their own homes, as they would be probably be helping their parents to work on the fields, instead of getting an education. The coordinator had mentioned that parents are more reliable on the help their children can provide to increase some income after the pandemic, since everything is now more expensive and hard to get.
The children being at the hostel have the opportunity for an education, instead of working on the fields and follow the circle of poverty of their families. The home has some improvements from my last visit, as the dorm had some repairs, and old unused buildings were demolished. The compound seems cleaner, and we could see even a small plot with flowers and threes here now. Meeting the girls was great, as they wanted to take pictures with us, and did a small presentation of local dances and culture.