Dear friends, donors and relatives:

The past month or so has proven to be a remarkable time for the charitable work I began last January following the tsunami disaster. I thought it might be time to present you with an update.

As many of you know, Jean and I took to the hills during the extremely hot season of mid-April through June. That was a real vacation for us, and even though I really did no service work during that period, things seem to have developed a momentum of their own. Here are a few isolated examples that really fit very neatly together.

A class of sixth grade children in Los Angeles, Calif. decided shortly after the tsunami that they wanted to express their love and compassion for children in one of the areas devastated by the tsunami. The kids made a musical CD which they sold door-to-door over several months and raised several thousand dollars from their effort. With the help of their teacher, Paul Astin, they contacted some 30 charitable organizations involved in tsunami relief in hopes of finding one that was doing a project with children that they could support. Paul had formerly volunteered on one of Plenty’s projects in Mexico and he contacted Plenty to see if they were doing any tsunami work.

From that contact he learned about the two playgrounds we had constructed here in India with donated funds. That idea appealed to the students and they agreed to apply the money they had raised toward building a playground for the tribal children in Shanmuganagar, a village devastated by the tsunami. Working through a local, charitable organization called BLESS we were able to build a lovely playground.

At the same time school children in three states in the U.S. – Tennessee, Texas and California – created beautiful quilts in which each child worked on a nine by nine inch piece, drawing some image of love or support for a child affected by the tsunami. The individual pieces were sewn together into one large quilt. This effort was sponsored by an organization called More Than Warmth (MTW), begun by Judy Meeker, whom we knew from our years on The Farm. While we were in the hills, Judy and her crew mailed three boxes containing 13 colorful and love-infused quilts to our home in Puttaparthi.

A far-reaching connection was initiated by our next door neighbor here in Puttaparthi who put me in touch with a man she knew in England who, along with a friend, had started a charitable organization called Wherever the Need (WTN). His organization primarily funds water and sanitation projects and has done work in Croatia, Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal and now India. I believe I previously wrote about David Crosweller and how I met him in February and introduced him to some of the local charitable organizations I had “discovered” who were doing excellent tsunami assistance.

David contacted me shortly after we got back from the hills and invited me to travel with him and his daughter and her boyfriend to the same coastal areas I had visited with him earlier. He was arriving in Puttaparthi the last week of July and we would be on the road for much of that week. He also told me that his WTN partner and co-founder would be in Puttaparthi the week prior to his visit and suggested I meet with Andy.

Now let me introduce another strand into this before I weave it all together into one lovely tapestry of service. My sister Evelyn is the temporary Executive Director of World’s Children, a U.S. based orphan-sponsoring organization begun by our parents 40 years ago. In March when I was preparing to vacate our second apartment in the town of Tiruvannamalai, I was quite magically led to a small, struggling orphanage called Ephphata Home for Children. (Ephphata means “open door”). This modest orphanage is run by a couple who have taken in 30 children, in addition to their own two biological children. They all live in a small apartment that is about adequate for one family in the heart of Tiruvannamalai. There is no room for the children to play and they must sleep in hallways, the living room, etc. They have one tiny bathroom for these 34 people. I had bought them a refrigerator, using the refund money from my apartment. I think I may have mentioned all this in a previous letter.

I asked if World’s Children would agree to take on the Ephphata Home as one of their orphanages and seek monthly sponsorship for the 30 orphans in that home. WC agreed to do that and is now seeking sponsors. WC also sent $500 as emergency money to help this home pay their rent since they had fallen three months behind and was being threatened with eviction.

Evelyn mentioned in one of her e-mails to me that several of the WC orphanages in India (they care for more than 30 orphanages in India alone) were in desperate need of drinking water because of the prolonged drought in many of the south Indian states. I said I would ask WTN if it would consider undertaking water projects in the ten WC orphanages that have asked for help.

Now let’s put all these loose ends together. Andy, the co-founder of WTN, along with Bhavesh, one of the organization’s trustees, visited us in our Puttaparthi apartment in mid-July. We had a wide-ranging discussion that concluded with their agreement to seek funds from UK corporations for the World’s Children water projects. Then they really sprung a surprise on me. They asked if I would agree to be the India coordinator for WTN. My job would be to visit and oversee projects already underway, identify new project needs and draft proposals which Andy and David would take to corporations based in the UK. I will travel across India and probably Sri Lanka and Nepal as well. I was surprised by their offer, but have accepted it.

Women masons trained by BLESS putting the finishing touches on a toilet. David Crosweller is in the background.

A few days later David arrived with his daughter and her boyfriend. We traveled to the coast near Pondicherry and Cuddalore to look into WTN projects initiated during David’s last visit. We were very happy with the efforts of BLESS in using WTN money to put in a complete water and sanitation project for a large village. Not only was the work being done on schedule and within budget, but we were treated to a program attended by several hundred of the villagers. The program included a humorous skit by some of the BLESS volunteers from that village which made the case for using the new concrete toilets WTN had paid for and BLESS was installing.

David offered that WTN would create another model water/sanitation system for a different village when this one was completed. Then BLESS took us to visit a very poor tribal village and David agreed to completely rebuild the village including new homes (about 50), water wells, toilets in each home, etc.

Next we were taken to see how the Pregnant Women’s Project was faring. That project was jumpstarted with funds donated by many of you reading this. The project now provides medical treatment and counseling for 365 pregnant women, 472 nursing mothers and their 472 children drawn from 25 tsunami-struck villages. BLESS has conducted several medical camps for these women and hosted additional informational meetings in which guest speakers talked about nutritional needs during pregnancy, needs of the newborn, and yoga techniques to assist with relaxation during labor. Each week the women can attend an open-ended session in their village in which they ask questions and receive advice from the BLESS women running this program.

One pregnant woman enrolled in this program died a few hours after delivering her baby two months ago. We were taken to her home for a visit. The widower is a manual laborer who is struggling to provide proper care for his infant daughter. While he was at work the baby was being cared for by his elderly mother and she gave us a photo album of this couple’s wedding ceremony just a year ago. BLESS staff told us they were seeking funds to pay for child care and other needs of the baby since the father did not have regular work. On the spot David said he would pay for that support for the next two years. It was a heartwarming gesture.

If we can find additional funds, BLESS would like to expand the Pregnant Women’s Project to allow them to pay for hospital delivery expenses, give a gift package to each mother that includes items a new born would need, and provide nutritional supplements to the pregnant women on a regular basis. The medical camps discovered that virtually all the pregnant women suffered from anemia. After returning from the coast I drafted a proposal to meet these needs and David is circulating that proposal among businesses in the United Kingdom.

David gives the merry-go-round a push

Then we were taken by BLESS to the village of Shanmuganagar, where the playground was built by the California school children. This village is extremely poor and the people live in very temporary palm thatch houses. When we stepped out of the van it seemed the entire village had assembled to greet us. We were garlanded with flowers and a troupe of women did a circling dance in front of me to the beat of hand-held drums. We were led toward the playground, which was enclosed behind a chainlink fence with a gate. About 100 feet from this gate the children of the village had formed two columns leading up to the playground and I was told to walk between the columns. As I did so, the kids threw flower petals on me. At the gate, I was given a pair of scissors to cut the ribbon officially opening the playground.

I had assumed the kids probably tried out the equipment after the playground was finished, but that did not seem to be the case. Apparently they had kept the kids out of the playground until that moment when it was dedicated, because when I stepped out of the way those children just raced through the gate, screaming and shouting with glee, jumping on the first piece of equipment they came to. Their parents were close behind them. David followed one group of kids to the merry-go-round. They all clambered aboard and then just stood there, not knowing what this toy was supposed to do. David gave it a good spin and then they understood. After seeing him do that, parents stepped in and ensured the merry-go-round kept spinning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such happy faces as I saw that day on those children.

Later there was a ceremony in which the BLESS people explained how children in the U.S. had raised money for this playground. I was asked to say a few words to the people of the village and then BLESS distributed new bicycles to the children so they can ride to school, and new Styrofoam insulated boxes to the men to transport the fish they purchase at the beach to the town where they sell them. BLESS has a donor who is building concrete, duplex homes for everyone in Shanmuganagar.

That evening we were driven to the district collector’s office in downtown Cuddalore. This position is the equivalent of a county manager in the U.S. BLESS had found a village called Chinoor South where 11 children had lost at least one parent in the tsunami. These kids and their caretakers had been brought from their village and all had on their finest clothes. With the district collector’s assistance we gave one of the beautiful More Than Warmth quilts to each child. A photographer took photos for the local newspaper. I explained to the recipients how school children in the U.S. had personally made each of these quilts as a way to express their love for the children who suffered in the tsunami. Later I interacted with the children outside and they seemed excited that children in the U.S. had actually made the quilts for them.

David has offered to immediately provide about $1,600 in order to ensure the home can meet their rent and buy food over the next few months until WC finds sponsors for the children.

I guess you can see by this report that the seva (service) work is picking up speed, set in motion by the needs created by the tsunami, but following new directions as the needs dictate. As I have always done, I just take one step at a time, waiting to be led to the next project or using funds provided by many of you to help with one of the various projects we now have underway.

Thanks for your support, both financial and spiritual. I feel truly blessed that I get to be the one to witness the love and joy that has resulted from your kindness. We will just see where the spirit leads in the coming months.

Love and blessings,

David Purviance
342 Sai Eswar Apartments
Shanti Lane
Puttparthi, Anantapur District
Andhra Pradesh 515134
INDIA
Phone: 011-91-8555-288557
E-mail: jeanpurviance@yahoo.com

Back to tsunami relief page