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We are so grateful for the generosity of our supporters who really got behind our matched giving campaign in December. We are overwhelmed by the support we have received, and because of your commitment, we have been able to raise an impressive £76,888 for CINI's Emergency Ward and Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre.
Nina Schrank is currently volunteering over in India, helping strengthen their fundraising locally. She has taken time out from this demanding task to do an interview with Debika Par, one of the young mothers being helped at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre. This is what Debika had to say about her experience:
Mother - Debika Par, 19 years old. Child - Jeet Par, 18 months (boy)
1. Tell us about your situation before you got here?
The situation at home was not good, my child was very sick, my husband is a farmer and was struggling and we didn't have enough to eat.
2. What help has CINI given you?
When I came to CINI it really changed both my sons and my life. He was suffering from breathing problems. He also had diarrhoea. But now the situation is much better. I know if he stays here for some time he will get better.
[Malnourished children are more vulnerable to illness. Illness also makes it harder for children to absorb the nutrients from their food so children enter a vicious cycle. A child dies of a malnutrition related cause every 30 seconds. Because their immune systems are weakened, even common conditions such as diarrhoea can be fatal]
3. How has this improved your life?
CINI helped me get nutritious food for my child and also medicines at the proper time. So, it helped me immensely to keep my child safe from diseases.
4. What are you now looking forward to in the future?
I want to take care of my child the way CINI people took care of him, previously I didn't know how much to feed him and when to feed him, but now I'm confident that I will be able to give my child the proper nutrition that is required.
5. How will you use what you have learnt at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre when you return home?
In NRC I have learned to make Oral Rehydrating Solution, made of 1 litre of water, 1 handful of sugar and 3 pinches of salt, which will prevent dehydration during diarrhoea. Also I have learnt to make nutrimix with lentils, flour and molasses or sugar, made into a porridge which is nutritious for the babies. Previously I used to feed my baby 3 or 4 times a day but now I know it should be 5 or 6 times.
6. Do you feel confident to tell other family members or friends about good nutrition or how to help prevent your child from falling sick?
I would insist to my family members and friends to do the same thing that I have learned at NRC. I would keep my baby healthy by being hygienic and giving him the proper food at the proper time.
7. What message would you give to people in richer countries who can give money to projects like this?
I really want the people outside to know about our story, so that they [CINI] can reach out to more people like us.
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Debika and Jeet are now towards the end of their stay at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre and almost ready to be discharged.
Prevent children like Jeet from ever becoming malnourished by supporting CINI's innovative Sponsor a mother programme. |
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If you would like to help prevent children like Jeet from becoming malnourished in the first place, and would like to build the skills of mothers to give their children the best possible start in life, you may like to Sponsor a mother.
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You are warmly invited to the launch night of an exhibition in Mayfair, London which will take you on a photographic journey around the villages and back-streets of West Bengal. Visitors will be introduced to CINI’s work and taken to meet the mothers and children at the heart of our work. The photos reveal inspiring examples of practical humanism in practice, and lessons from which the West could benefit.
There is no charge for the exhibition launch night which will include free drinks and a Q&A session with photographer, Stuart Mackay. There will also be an opportunity to learn more about our upcoming Mother’s Day campaign and how you could get involved to help us work with mothers to break down the inter-generational cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health.
The launch night reception is on Tuesday, 2nd February at 6.15pm to 7.00pm at the Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HF.
Please do let us know if you hope to be able to join us. We would love to see you there.
The Nehru Centre is having a free Indian Classical music concert at 7.15pm which you are also very welcome to attend
Thank you to photofusion for printing and mounting the photos for the exhibition
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By Stuart Mackay
I arrived at the gates of the CINI compound south of Calcutta at 2.30 in the morning: it was dark, misty and silent. In the pause, I realised I had no clear idea of what to expect: I had had many conflicting impressions, and I was here to photograph the reality of the charity's work in a way that put it across clearly and compellingly. As the gates finally swung open, I was a bit apprehensive.
From the first morning, the natural rhythm of the institute quickly took me in. Awoken by the staff singing, welcomes and on to a village festival, organised by CINI, to raise awareness of protection issues. This drew in the crowds and communicated the complex messages of women's rights, sexual health and importance of education - I was swept up by the warmth and vibrancy of it all.
 Girl, age 15, reads captions about domestic violence poster to her siblings
Over the following days, we observed health visits to vulnerable villagers, pregnancy monitoring, nutritional training, the clinic for severely malnourished children with their mothers - and the astonishing Open Thursday clinic where women from far and wide could bring their babies for free treatment.
Later, in the city, we visited women's support networks, night schooling for the poorest children, early pre-schooling and the seminal CINI home for street kids. The system worked, day and night, at full steam.
Mothers receive advice at CINI's Thursday clinic
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A health worker records the weight of an infant
I came to realise that this was charity with a difference: not crisis-driven, emergency-reactive, but a local, community-based, compassion-driven organism that slowly and steadily improved the quality of life for mothers and children. I met women who had benefited as children, now helping the next generation; teenage girls showing with shining eyes how they taught deprived children and their mothers; street children recounting matter-of-factly how their lives had been saved by CINI. This for me re-defined the whole notion of 'charity': care and prevention not crisis and intervention.
A mother tenderly holds her baby close to her I hope that a little of the huge love, care and compassion I witnessed has been captured in some of the photos. I left realising there are a lot more stories to tell, and that we in the West have a lot to learn from the world of CINI
Stuart Mackay's photos are being exhibited at the Nehru Centre, 8 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HF, on 1st to 5th February - accessible 10.00am to 6.00pm. |
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Anju Chandna has raised a fantastic £1,550 towards the work of CINI. Together with her family, and a loyal and hardworking cohort of great friends, she cooked an Indian meal with all the trimmings for over a hundred guests. The village hall in West Kirby was the only venue large enough to accommodate all the local curry enthusiasts!
Not only were there culinary delights to excite the palate, but also a quiz to engage the brain. A teacher from the local grammar school volunteered his services as quizmaster free of charge. |
No curry would be the same without the appropriate beverage. A bar was staffed by another friend and her willing family members. Last, but not least, there was a raffle with covetable prizes donated by generous supporters.
The local community had a fun night out with the satisfaction of knowing that they were contributing in a very real way to helping some of the poorest women and children in India. Huge thanks to Anju and her team for all their hard work which paid rich dividends!
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For the last few months, high unemployment figures in the west, falling sales of consumer items, bank closure, relief packages for the car giants in Detroit have captured media attention. The news of the rich who have suddenly become poor, giving up their exotic holidays, buying at cheap stores, giving up purchases of designer clothes, living with their old car for one more year have been regularly appearing in the media.
Very few reports l have come out on how the poor who are already living on the brink, cope.
Let us examine food first. In poor communities almost 80 per cent of the daily wage is spent on basic food items, now with lower incomes or no income at all the poor often go hungry, missing out on meals. The first item to vanish from the diet is the source of protective and body building protein such as eggs, fish and legumes. Vegetables and fruit go next, making growing children and pregnant women vulnerable to disease.
Health care suffers when disease strikes, giving up the seeking of early treatment and care for girls and women, rather than boys and men, and often reverting to poor quality public health services, if and when available. Education is the next to suffer, families pulling out girls first and later boys, sending them on to various forms of child labour and exploitation.
At this crucial juncture, we need to take action to help those living below the poverty line. Grassroots workers of CINI are regularly monitoring nutrition, health, education and protection indicators among vulnerable children and women and working with elected representatives to find appropriate local solutions.
CINI sends its appeal to all donors and supporters to remain by its side so that the poor and vulnerable get a second chance over this challenging time.
Dr Chaudhuri (Director of CINI) talks to children in a slum in Kolkata
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Six months ago Becky volunteered to run in the Woman’s Adidas 5K Challenge in Hyde Park on the 6th September. Becky says she is the world’s worst athlete and had never even jogged that far in her life before! She used to run regularly in her thirties (over a decade ago) but other activities such as cycling have taken precedence.
She never dreamed that her modest run would inspire people to give so generously! The total amount raised so far, including gift aid, is £1,357.
This sum is more than enough to pay for four community based camp teachers in our education camp in Kolkata for a whole year. This camp aims to reintegrate young children working as cheap labour in hazardous industries into the mainstream school system by means of an intensive, year long education camp.
This project has been running successfully for over 5 years and we have a track record of getting 75% of the children registered in local schools, in age-appropriate classes, within 12 months. Access to basic education is critical in reducing the inter-generational cycle of poverty.
It was a double celebration for Becky as it was also her birthday. Her close friend Carol baked the highly appropriate birthday cake pictured below!
Becky says the response of family, friends, colleagues and ex-colleagues has been really heart-warming!
It is so easy to set up a fundraising page on www.justgiving.com and it doesn’t have to be a marathon! Come on all you wannabe fundraisers, go for it!
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| This year for the first time ever, the prestigious Royal Festival Hall at the heart of the Southbank Centre Complex, opened its door to host the biggest and most celebrated show of the year. Kings College London proudly hosted the 2009 Diwali Show at such a distinguished venue. Now running in its 17th consecutive year, the Diwali show promotes the crème de la crème of British student talent. On 29th of November, was witnessed the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures through a variety of dances, catwalks, musical acts and comedy sketches on one unforgettable night.
Kings College London Charity Diwali show is the biggest student-organised show in the UK raising thousands for worthy causes worldwide. This year KCL has chosen to support CINI’s work to help poor mothers and children in India. |
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It is with deep sadness that we report on the passing away of Professor David Morley on 2nd July 2009. David was a genuine source of inspiration to all at the Child in Need Institute and it was a great honour to have him act as a patron. David took a very active role in CINIs work, and visited our institute in Kolkata, India on two occasions where he was able to see his pioneering ideas on mother and child health care in developing countries put into practice.
David received the CBE and the James Spence medal of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, in recognition of his influence and achievements in the field of under-five epidemiology. His successes included driving forward the key components of the child survival revolution led by UNICEF, James Grant and Jon Rhode, setting up the breastfeeding policy and practice course with Felicity Savage King and colleagues at the UCL Institute for Child Health, and developing the outstanding concept of Teaching Aids at Low Cost.
In developing simple and effective aids to promote child care in the poorest communities, he inspired a generation of health care professionals, teachers, journalists and managers, and will undoubtedly leave behind an extraordinary legacy.
Our deepest sympathies go out to his family during this difficult time.
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It may sound daft, but toilets are important!
Many schools in India don't have toilet facilities. A lack of loos can lead to girls dropping out.
Without toilets, girls have to relieve themselves outside of the school building, which is not only embarrassing, but can also lead to sexual harassment. A lack of toilets can also pose a threat to girls' health. Reluctant to urinate where they might be seen, many girls don't go to the toilet all day, which can lead to infections and bowel disorders. During their period, girls find it especially difficult to attend school.
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 Girls' education is vital and is known to have a variety of benefits for the wider community, and particularly the well-being of the next generation. We can't let a lack of loos stand in the way of girls going to school!
Actress Sophie Thompson and London Secondary School Teacher of the Year, Dai Jones have come together to launch this campaign. Now we need your help.
- £22 is enough to pay for one toilet
- £125 would pay for running water so the kids can wash their hands
- £562 would pay for a septic tank
- £2,500 would build a complete toilet facility: the building itself, the plumbing etc, with two toilets for girls and two for boys. And your name on a plaque!
By providing toilets for schools in India, you can help ensure more girls get an education.
Sophie Thompson
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Alternatively you can make your donation over the phone, ring 020 7582 1400 or send a cheque to Loos Women Campaign, CINI UK, Suite 631, 456-458 Strand, London, WC2R 0DZ (payable to CINI UK).
If you would like to raise funds for this work at your school or workplace, please email us on info@cini.org.uk for a list of fundraising ideas. |
CINI's innovative mother and child sponsorship programme means your are helping children from before they are born - by teaming up with a mother - to help ensure she can give her child the best possible start in life. For more information see our Sponsor a Mother page.
World Food Day (16th October) highlights the plight of 962 million undernourished people in the world. In 2001, India committed to the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving its number of hungry by 2015. According to a recent report published by the Institute of Development Studies China has already met its target. India, though, will not meet its goal until 2043, based on its current rate of progress.
Much more needs to be done. These photos illustrate the work of CINI's outpatient clinics and related emergency ward and nutrition rehabilitation centre. These services serve as a model for helping to improve government services, and are visited by 3,000 government staff and health professionals a year so that they can see effective work to prevent malnutrition and improve maternal health in action - and implement this knowledge in their own workplaces.
Please help mark the run up to World Food Day (October 16th) by donating here or supporting our Sponsor a Mother programme - please see below.
Photos by journalist Ciara Leeming
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Fundraising doesn't need to be all about jumping out of airplanes, hiking up cold mountains or swimming in the English Channel! You can entertain your family and friends at home and still help to raise funds for our ongoing projects. CINI has now launched its own 'Dine to Make a Difference' program. All you need to do is invite some people over, provide a meal and refreshments. CINI will provide a special invitation card explaining to your guests that they will be asked to donate whatever they would have spent if they went out for a meal. Holding dinner parties in aid of CINI are an effective way of fundraising because;
- anyone can do it
- satisfaction of actively raising funds and supporting CINI's Fighting Malnutrition in India Appeal
- having friends and family over is always fun
- snowballing effect (you introduce your guest to CINI, they then host a dinner and so on)
Please let us know you are interested in doing a dinner party by emailing Avril at avriloriordan@cini.org.uk
Hold your own Dinner Party - click here for the information you need to get started
Here is CINI volunteer Avril hosting our first 'Dine to Make a Difference' dinner party! Avril (in blue) and friends enjoyed a Spanish-themed array of dishes. If you would like to ask Avril how it went, or ask for tips on how to run your own party, email avriloriordan@cini.org.uk
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Would you be interested in joining a trip from London to see the gardens at Highgrove, the family home of the Prince of Wales, on September 17th in aid of CINI's work in red light areas?
The gardens at Highgrove embody the Prince’s environmental philosophy that it is better to work with nature than against it. Today, after much time and effort, the gardens are a flagship example of the organic movement, both in terms of environmental sustainability and natural beauty. Currently there is a two year waiting list for organisations to visit the gardens and they are not open to the general public.
Tickets cost £150. £120 from each ticket purchased by CINI UK supporters will go directly to CINI's work to prevent children from red light areas in West Bengal being drawn into sex work, £10 will go to the Prince's Trust and £20 will cover event costs including lunch, transport and a tour guide.
The Oscar winning film, Slumdog Millionaire, has given more people an insight into the difficult lives faced by children living in India’s slums. Children stuck in desperate circumstances are forced to take menial jobs from sorting litter, to working in industries making consumer goods destined for the British market, including leather items and plastic flip flops. Many are working in hazardous conditions for very long hours, earning as little as £2.50 a month.
“We obviously still need to get across the point that if children living in slums or on the streets are going to get the skills they need to lift themselves out of poverty, they need to be studying not working” he added.
The CINI founder is ambivalent when commenting on the Indian government’s role in trying to ensure education for all children. He says: “The Indian government has brought in an impressive array of legislation on this issue, including laws made last October banning children from working as domestic servants, but we need to hold them to account for implementing these laws.”
Disagreeing vehemently with the idea of work being the only option for children born into abject poverty, Dr Chaudhuri says the failure to provide them with a stable life and a secure future lies with society – and its failures to look into the roots of these problems: “Working children are being deprived of their childhoods - and it is important that we all take responsibility for helping them get educated, rather than taking the easy route out by pretending the situation is hopeless.”
“To date, CINI has helped more than 10,000 child labourers go back to school, or get registered at school for the first time in their lives – so we know that by motivating parents and children, providing good quality teaching and supplying two nutritious meals a day at education centres, it is possible to give children the start they need to reach their potential as productive young men and women” he added.
If you would like to support this work please use the big yellow ‘donate now’ button at the top of the page and when asked for your instructions to the charity, write “for work with slum and street children.”
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Last Monday, Cyclone Aila swept up from the Indian Ocean and struck India and Bangladesh devastating villages as far as 400 miles inland. Alongside the 325 confirmed fatalities and 8,000 still missing, it is now estimated that over a million people have been displaced.
Despite the numbers affected, media coverage of this humanitarian emergency has been sparse at best and we are urgently trying to raise awareness of the need for assistance for those affected
Women with their children carrying belongings they could salvage from the flooding
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CINI is working as quickly as possible to meet the needs of those affected, but we need support to provide basic provisions. In Maipith Island 20,000 of the 65,000 inhabitants have sought refuge in schools and community centres after seeing their homes swept away in the floods. They are in urgent need of shelter, food, clean water, bedding, clothes as well as mosquito nets and medicines to fight the increased risk of disease.
To give you an idea of the costs involved:
- Protective sheets from which families can build their own shelters cost £11 per family
- Family sized mosquito nets cost £4 per family
- Food will cost 28p per person per day
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Funds are urgently needed for this relief effort. Please donate at www.justgiving.com/cycloneaila-ciniuk
Thanks for your help
Anna Taylor - Director of CINI UK
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Bani Makkar is swimming 10 kilometres in aid of CINI on 1st May. Having trained for weeks and weeks she is now ready to make a splash for your cash. "It's going to be tough, I think it will take me about four and a half hours. But if I'm able to help rehabilitate just one severely malnourished child, or help one child labourer get back into education, it will all be worth it."
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South Asia has the highest rates and by far the largest number of malnourished children in the world. Fourty percent of the world’s severely malnourished children under five live in India. Launching the report, Dr Samir Chaudhuri, the founder of CINI, said: “We need to question assumptions such as the idea that rates of malnutrition are not as bad in India as they are in Africa, or that malnutrition is primarily caused by a lack of money for buying food. It is a sad fact that South Asia leads the world in rates of child malnutrition, and that even when incomes rise, rates of child malnutrition do not necessarily fall.”
“We need to be prepared to discuss difficult issues around gender relations in the South Asian context,” he continued. “These issues affect mothers’ consumption of nourishing food, and this has implications for the health of our children”. The gender issue is complex, but the report suggests getting new fathers to act as male peer-educators encouraging local discussion about attitudes and behaviour that are damaging to women’s health and well-being. The NGO’s staff and volunteers also prompt fathers and other family members to consider the actions they can take to help improve the health and nutrition of the next generation.
The report includes practical recommendations about training mothers on how to prepare nutritious meal on the tightest of budgets, preventative healthcare that can help ward of illnesses that make it difficult to absorb nutrients, and the home treatment of diarrhoea. The charity’s experience has shown that these measures have the potential to halve rates of malnutrition within a five-year time-frame. Please see below for a link to the full report. For a practical way to help prevent child malnutrition, see details of the sponsor a mother programme.
Child Malnutrition in India report (pdf)
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The Right Honorable Lord Slynn of Hadley died yesterday (7th April) at the Cromwell Hospital in London. Lord Slynn has been a Patron of CINI UK from its inception, and has provided much needed love and encouragement to his wife, the charity's founder - Odile Slynn. He will be sorely missed by all of us.
Do you dream of conquering some of the worlds most famous challenges, but have limited spending money, time, are afraid of flying or all of the above?
Then a virtual challenge is a great alternative for you. Simply think of a challenge you would like to do, such as cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats, or swimming the English Channel, find out the length/distance/height of the challenge, and get sponsored to do it in the comfort of your local gym (or park, company, school or home). You can do this on your own over a number of visits to your gym, or you and a group of friends could take on one big distance and see if you can complete it one go.
A few ideas:
Cycle Land’s End to John O’Groats - 874 miles
Cycle London to Paris – 300 miles
Climb Mount Kilimanjaro - 5898m
Climb Mount Everest – 8850m
Swim the English Channel – 21 miles – 680 lengths of an Olympic size pool
For more information just email karenallonby@cini.org.uk with the subject line 'virtual charity challenge info please'
Perhaps you’d rather a 'normal' charity challenge?
For tips on doing sponsored events click here
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click here to see CINI News Archive part 2
click here to see CINI News Archive part 3
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