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o Helping
poor families save
o Those aimed at women helping them to make
informed
choices in marriage and
family relationships such as
the impact of marriage
between extended family
members and the issues
of dowries
• Health programmes including
o Running a local TB clinic to help poor
families get support and treatment in their communities
The success of CUF has been in its ability to create trust
and rapport with families in the targeted communities, and
understanding their needs and then helping to meet these needs.
This last year CUF
• Visited 500 families in the two slum areas of Bangalore
in which they are active
• Supported 123 children who had dropped out of school
including construction worker and rag picker children
Got 56 children into their summer camps and re-motivated 27
of these children to support their return to school
• Trained 11 women who graduated with an accredited
and recognised diploma
• Created 6 jobs for graduates of the college within
CUF itself
• Supported 3 women to secure employment with other
organisations
Next year CUF’s targets include
• Supporting the establishment of 5 satellite/community
based pre-schools in the homes of the women who have graduated
from the college
• Secure the Foundation’s activities and rationalise
the impact of running 3 insecure sites by seeking land and
a building at a fixed cost
The Foundation’s fundraising activity for this coming
year includes targets to
• to secure the costs of the pre-school staff for 1
year - £1500
• to secure the gap funding for running the project
for the year (beyond the grants available to it locally) -
£7500
• to acquire land and a building to provide a secure
and sustainable a base for
• Local, national and international visitors who come
to learn, work or participate in our programmes
• The college – symbolising a sustainable and
strong learning establishment which women and future employers
can look to with pride and which grows the confidence of all
who attend – helping to prepare them for the experience
of entering other premises of work or learning
• An exemplary pre-school environment which can then
be used to train others in and support satellite pre-schools
which may be setup in the communities we serve now and will
serve as need and opportunity to meet the need grows
My trip to India was made possible by the excellent planning
(and their accompanying me and some friends) of my long standing
friends Catriona and John Roussel
Catriona was in fact born in India although raised in the
UK- she and John had gone back to India in recent years to
work with a number of projects in the Bangalore area.
This project ‘Concerns Universe Foundation’ captured
the attention of the connectives in late 2006- its is a project
aimed at getting children good childcare, addressing key issues
of nutrition and community health for them and their families,
increasing and educational opportunities for the children
and women of the community and for children of construction
workers who often were denied access because of their transience.
CUF’s successes were well documented; the leadership
of the project extraordinary and well distributed amongst
a talent team under the direction of Chitra Lancelot; their
risks rising due to the pressure on land values and therefore
the sustainability of places in which to do the work.
The connections seemed obvious to us – growth in the
UK and elsewhere, leads to growth in places where we export
work to. Not everyone however benefits however and the most
easy to seize land for development is occupied by those most
vulnerable.
The connectives have many contacts in related businesses and
fields throughout the world that made us believe we could
between us do something to help local people address the risks
and strengthen their future work
These blogs were written by me daily and posted back for many
to follow (sadly Peter had to stay home and run the rest of
the business) . The typos and grammar remain – as typed
as I did them daily on my blackberry! Some tidying and distribution
of course is with thanks to my good friends Stephanie and
Peter – I hope you’ll forgive the errors of fact
as well as they’re mine too!
Like many good tv or radio series – the characters seem
many and unknown to start but if you persevere – you
will find you get to know the various characters – fellow
travellers and hosts
My thanks to my travel companions – Sandra Saleh (aka
Jinksy - look out for her book!), Sandra Sinclair –
SAS Daniels – if ever you need a great lawyer, Sue Owens
– who stay behind to work with CUF for 4 months (we
await further tales of the city from you on your return) our
Australian companions Catherine (who had done VSO with Catriona
in 1968) her sister Mary (who did well to connect us all to
the down under crew before we even met) and her son Paul (intrepid
world traveller) and last but not least my family Josh (who
stayed at home but missed me terribly), Kanika (who went to
India before me and will continue to stay there in an orphanage
til March) and Fay- who could only be spared from the great
work she does in the UK for the last week of our travels when
we took some holiday.
And of course my big thanks to Catriona and John and to our
hosts – Mercy flora and family, Chitra and family and
all at CUF, Chandra, John Samuel, and Jacob (who now lives
in the UK) and to you who all went in some way with me and
have supported with kind words and encouragement.
If you have liked the blogs and want to make a donation to
the work at CUF – that would be great you cna donate
by depositing moneys into:
St Peters Church Fund
charity no 1111706
CO-OP Bank 08 92 99
acc no 65287897
Or send a cheque to me for forwarding made payable to Help
India – if you are a UK tax payer let me know if we
can claim the tax back on your behalf by sending me your home
address
Day One . . . Day
Two . . . Day Three . .
. Day Four . . . Day
Five
Day Six . . . Day
Seven . . . Day Eight .
. . Day Nine . . . Day
Ten
Day Eleven . . . Day Twelve
. . . Day Thirtee . . . Day
Fourteen
Day Fifteen . . . Day Sixteen
. . . The Final Chapter
Click the icon on the left to download a PDF leaflet about
the CUF charity.
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