Children at the FOI supported Tirunelveli Residential Learning Centre gathering for a meal.

The Tirunelveli Residential Learning Centre will be completed with the money raised at FOI’s November fundraiser and is already home to 20 children affected by HIV. To read more about this story, learn what you can do to assist the Richard Walsh Music School and hear from Pam Walsh about Friends of India’s evolving plans for accelerating our work, click here.

Construction of the Residential Learning Centre, Tirunelveli

Progress is now clearly visible as building work continues on the first phase of the new FOI Residential Learning Centre down in Tirunelveli in the south of Tamil Nadu. To read more about this story and learn about FOI’s new representative in Chennai and upcoming plans, click here.

Children at St. Joseph's where FOI support is helping to build new classrooms

FOI President Pam Walsh has returned from two months in India, where she was joined by several board members and other supporters. The team visited numerous existing FOI projects including St. Joseph’s School. To read the March newsletter, learn more about the visit and get an update on the projects…click here.

Learning sewing skills in Arni

Want to get an update on what is going on in Arni?  Friends of India has several successful initiatives to support women and children in this area which is approximately 100 km. from Chennai. To read the December newsletter and learn more about Arni and other happenings click here.

September 2010 newsletter

New classrooms for El Shaddai Rise and Shine School, Chennai

Thanks to support from Friends of India donors, new classrooms have been added to the El Shaddai Rise and Shine School. El Shaddai offers English-medium education to primary school children in an impoverished area of North Chennai, where most parents are either daily wage labourers or low-paid industrial workers. The 230 children who attend the school were meeting in one large room — the Church hall — on the ground floor. They are now learning in small groups in separate classrooms on the first floor. Attending an English-medium school, to which these children would not normally have access, greatly increases the opportunities open to them in the future.

 Friends of India stand at Paleo, 21st-26th July

Friends of India shared a stand with three other organizations at the Paleo Music Festival in July. Visitors to the stand could make a donation by purchasing miniature bricks which were used to build a model school on display at the stand. Of the 10,000 visitors to the stand, about 1,000 made contributions. The event raised a total of CHF 11,000, of which FOI received CHF 5,500.

Benefit concert for the Richard Walsh Music Project, 5^th September

Margaret de Marchi, longtime Friends of India supporter, organized and hosted a concert and dinner at her home in Arzier to raise money for the Richard Walsh Music Project. The concert was performed by the UK-based Albion String Quartet, whose members have performed with BBC Concert Orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Sir Elton John. The programme included pieces by Mozart, Borodin, Mendelssohn, and Haydn. Following the concert, a delicious Indian dinner was served in Margaret’s lovely garden, which has a magnificent view of the lake. Approximately 60 people attended the event.

Revamp of Friends of India web site

Friends of India has a new website with a new look and new features. Visitors will be able to make a donation, become a member, and subscribe to our newsletter – all online. The new site is interactive, so visitors can leave comments. You can also subscribe to receive automatic email alerts when new content is posted on the web site.

Friends of India Gala Evening, Thursday 19^th November

We hope very much that you will attend our Gala Evening in November at the Ramada Park Hotel in Geneva. The event will raise money for a vocational training programme for women and for transportation for an orphanage for blind children in Tamil Nadu.

Terry Waite, humanitarian, author and hostage negotiator, who was himself held hostage for four years in Beirut, will be the keynote speaker. The evening will feature a twelve dish Oriental banquet, musical interludes, a fashion show, a tabletop musician, and an auction an tombola with items from Audrey Hepburn, Roger Federer, Phil Collins and others. The price of the event, all inclusive, is CHF 180/person.

You will receive an invitation in the mail. To make a reservation, please contact Anne Standley:
Email: anne.standley@friends-of-india.org
Tel: 078 737 0399

Help us increase our impact in India

Thanks to your support, Friends of India is able to help underprivileged children and women in Tamil Nadu to obtain a basic education, learn an employable skill, and generate an income.

Friends of India Circle of Support for underprivileged children and women

Please make a contribution and help us do more!

Those of you who attended our dinner event in November 2008 know that we have taken the decision to expand our work with some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in Tamil Nadu.

Thanks to a generous donation, we have made some changes to the association’s structure and with the donor’s approval have allocated some funds to support part-time administration in Nyon and in Chennai. We are convinced that, our increased capacity, efficiency and productivity in these two new offices will lead to more members, more donations and therefore more effective support to the needy communities in which we and our partners work.

This may appear to be a departure from one of our fundamental principles – the guarantee that 100% of your donation goes directly to those in need in India. It is not. We continue to offer our loyal and generous Friends and donors the opportunity to give 100% of their donation to beneficiaries. Administration support will be exclusively funded from subscriptions, specific donations for that purpose and money allocated to administration with a specific donor’s agreement.

We are also conducting a careful review of our work so that we can respond even more effectively to the ever-changing needs of the communities we help. Generous donations we have received for new projects will only be allocated to particular activities when we can guarantee that your money is being spent in the most effective and efficient way.

In the meantime, we hope you will celebrate this exciting new era for Friends of India! We cherish your continued and invaluable support.

Thank you and with warm wishes,

Pam Walsh OBE, President and the Committee of Friends of India

November 2008

Dear Friends of Friends of India

OUR LATE ACHIEVEMENTS:…

In January 2009, our mission to help education at grass roots will already be 10 years old. We have achieved so much, thanks to you, our loyal supporters. Especially touching is when children give to children less privileged than themselves. So many generous gifts have come from schools where children have run “marathons,” sold cakes, and collected school materials.

With warmth and sincere gratitude, Pam

Extract from the newsletter – Read the full newsletter here.

Dear Friends of ‘Friends of India’

My trip to India earlier this year proved to be a very stimulating one, as I was joined by members Alydia Seidell and Sarah Browne. Alydia was with me to visit and photograph projects. Some of her photos will feature in the 2007 FOI Calendar – remember to buy one, or lots. Sarah was there with a view to organizing group visits from
Switzerland later on in the year. How about a 10 day tour to familiarise yourself with the projects you are supporting and to discover Tamil Nadu? Watch this space! Our visit was – as always – packed to bursting with a variety of visits. Schools, with varying needs from toilets to new classrooms. A home for women with HIV/Aids who are learning to embroider table linen (which we will sell at our next bazaar). Unveiling the foundation stones of 2 multi-purpose educational centres – one in Arni and the other in Kovolam. Once completed these centres will provide education and training for thousands of rural women and children. Another exciting moment was meeting a few of our 30 FOI cows you gave as Christmas presents! All had calves and were adorable (see back page). And our collaboration with the Chaîne du Bonheur is bearing fruit. There is news of these and other projects filling this newsletter.

The most lasting memory I hold of this last trip is the incredible energy, self esteem and the joy expressed by the SUEB women (see the photo). They have progressed from being uneducated, often abused and degraded, to selfsufficient, enterprising, confident members of society. FOI has helped them to help themselves. That is all we want to do!

Thank you for your continued support. Remember, we need your 2006 membership fee to support FOI’s work.

Pam Walsh, Geneva, June 2006

How do we choose? How do we say ‘No’?

First a few numbers:

These figures are from various sources, including the 2005 Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) (www.pratham.org)

FOI has no fear of running out of projects. Every time we visit TN the challenge we face is not finding projects but how to turn them down. Above are the kind of numbers – enormous numbers – that reinforce FOI’s resolve to assist women and children in Tamil Nadu. The situation across India is similar, sometimes significantly worse. Thankfully the situation is improving, so maybe the Indian Government’s goal of universalization of quality primary education in India by 2010 has a chance of being achieved (compare this ambitious goal with the UN Millennium Development Goal for 2015 “to ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling”). FOI is contributing to achieving this goal. But sometimes it’s not easy to say “No”. Fortunately we have a certain number of ‘First Line Filters’, in particular our partners SUEB and TNF, which receive proposals and after a review will pass to us ideas that seem to fit the FOI portfolio. But then the FOI executive needs to decide! But how? With a pyramid! Those of you that have recently participated in a FOI event can’t havefailed to notice the FOI ‘Mission Pyramid’. It illustrates the four aspects against which we judge and focus our selections.

• Infrastructure (basic needs): Water, toilets, walls
• Environment (for learning): classrooms, teachers’salaries, equipment
• Motivation (for attending school): Uniforms, nutritional snacks, pens & pencils
• Empowerment (opportunities for women): Skills,training

Most FOI projects can be easily mapped to these aspects. Most. There now and then exceptional cases or exceptional circumstances that we respond to as ‘one off’ opportunities to assist (a ‘good’ example of that were our steps into the area of disaster relief last year when the tsunami hit some of our communities).

Extract from the newsletter – Read the full newsletter here.

Dear Friends of ‘Friends of India’

What a truly wonderful turnout and atmosphere at our October 7th “First Five Years, Already” celebrations and information evening!

Yes, 5 years have passed under the bridge since a couple of us were motivated through our contributions to the work with the late Peter Ustinov to take up the flag ourselves, launch Friends of India (FOI), and address issues faced by women and children in the south east of India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. In that time we have been able to make a difference to the lives of about 14′000 women and 4′000 children. All thanks to the efforts of a faithful band of volunteers, and to the generosity of a whole family of benefactors. You. But if 18′000 sounds impressive, it is but a drop in a human ocean of needy. By highlighting a sample of FOI’s projects and some of our future plans, this newsletter serves the ‘Grand Plan’ of keeping alive your motivation for helping FOI by showing what can be and is being achieved. And having done that we hope that you will in turn be ambassadors for FOI and go out and gather new support. In money, ‘in kind’, in moral support, and in actions. No matter how good at words or committed in thought we, the ‘organisers’ of FOI are, ultimately what moves and shakes and makes the difference is the resource that you and yours put at our disposal. I hope that you will find this newsletter interesting and useful and worth sharing. At the end you’ll find information about various events, and some other useful info. Read on! Share! Enjoy! And please remember to keep on giving.

Thank you. 18′000 times. So far!

Pam Walsh, Geneva, November 2005

Lord Paddy Ashdown

Lord Paddy Ashdown, since November 2005, FOI’s most distinguished member

British politician, ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats and since 2002 the international community’s High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lord Paddy Ashdown has agreed to be associated with the work of FOI as a member of its ‘Comité d’Honneur’. Lord Paddy was born in India, in New Delhi, and comes from a family of soldiers and colonial administrators who spent their lives in India. We look forward to a fruitful collaboration, and to making him as proud as we are to be associated with the work of FOI.

Working with the Chaîne du Bonheur to offset the tragedy of the tsunami

Nobody missed the news that broke on the world on Boxing Day 2004, when the tsunami slammed first into Indonesia and then the Indian subcontinent. Of the over 228′000 deaths, 11′000 were on the eastern coast of India, including losses amongst communities we support.

Friends Of India was quick to identify a need for new boats for fishermen, and is now proud to announce that it will be working with the Swiss organisation ‘Chaîne du Bonheur’, and thanks to their approval of a request for CHF 200′000 will be able to provide fishing boats for 65 families who had lost all hope of regaining their livelihood. What a difference this will make!

“Bounty”, one of the Friends Of India boats on the coast of TN, named after a theatre character, and paid for by a group of benefactors running in Escalade 2004, Geneva

Extract from the newsletter – Read the full newsletter here.