To begin with, we were appalled when the weather turned for worse recently. Thankfully, a wonderful organization SOIR-IM that is based in Sweden but works in 15 countries worldwide (http://www.manniskohjalp.se/en/Where-we-work/Where-we-work/South-Asia/Indien/) provided us with general-purpose tents to provide shelter to the families. DO YOU KNOW HOW AWESOME THESE GENERAL-PURPOSE TENTS ARE?? Take a look!
Here is an interesting fact about the general-purpose tents (which btw, are of the same design that was used by the British armies when they came to India and seeing as how long the Brits lasted here, I am convinced about the durability of the tents!)
Now the big question before us was where do we pitch these tents? No place in the entire town seemed like a plausible place. OK, I am exaggerating here a little bit. We considered Parade Ground where the families live but owing to it being Republic Day soon, the main ground of the city must be presentable and beautiful and for that, we obviously cannot have hungry, poor families around, now can we? ~!@#$%^&*
Enter Mr. Hukam Singh Uniyal. He is the single most inspired and dedicated educator ever, and with his family runs a Government School in a way that all schools should be run. So without dwelling into too many details, it is here at this school, in the heart of the town that we have pitched our tents. We presently have 3 couples- that is 6 adults and with them are their 15 children (I know, numbers for our family planning department to mull over)! The families have moved in and our kids stay there all day while the parents, with the older kids who work or the infants who are still at breast leave before 8. They return after 6:30 in the evening. Here are interesting statistics that may be presented to our family planning department. The kids who stay back at the school are taught and fed there.
Our kids are warm and safe at night and are all in good hands during the day and I can see the beauty of winter rains again!
