Mini Marathon

On Sunday (23.11.08) 45 FFC children participated in the "Mini Marathon" in Coimbatore. The FFC Physical Education coaches trained the boys and girls prior to the event and they did well. The run started from Nehru stadium in Coimbatore. Manikandan and Gowripriya came in at 7th and 8th place in 3km race. They each received a medal and a certificate. After the event a spectator approached the FFC coaches, congratulated our children and said that he would like to donate sport uniforms for them. It was a fun event for all involved.

FFC School Listening Centre

The FFC School has a room called the Listening Centre, this room has many tapes and books that the children can listen to and follow in the books. This is a great way for the children to learn how to read. The children love putting on the headsets to listen to the next new book.

Special Care Section

The special care section at FFC is home to over 90 children and adults. The adults have been with us since childhood and will stay with us their entire lives. Ram Kumar our oldest special care resident is 45 years old. Each person living in the special care section is taught according to their ability. We have play group and 4 other classes where the students are taught the basics such as how to bathe and dress themselves up to how to read and write.
Some of our special care adults work in one of the training sections on the project. They receive a salary and in return pay a small room and board, this allows them to have as much independance as possible.

Harry's House

Harry's House was build with funds donated by Harry Van Nes. It is home to our small boys. They move from the toddler house to small boys house when they reach school age. The boys stay at small boys until they are 12-13 years of age after that they move across the street to the Big Boys House.
Currently there are 46 boys living at small boys. We have a wonderful house mother named Jay Mary who has been with FFC since the beginning. She has a very good influence over the boys in her care, many of them come to visit her on weekends from Big Boys House.

Diwali Celebration at FFC

Diwali is a festival celebrated by a diverse range of religions and cultures. It is commonly called the "Festival of Lights". This year it took place on October 28th.
This light is a symbol of good overcoming evil and hope for humanity. It is a time of renewal and reflection celebrated with family and friends.
The staff and children at FFC celebrated with lots of sweets and of course a display of fireworks.

FFC School

Construction of the new FFC school building is complete and the students have moved into it. Funding was provided by a group of donors in Ontario.

Mission of the FFC School:
To provide a quality education for the orphaned and special needs children living at the Families for Children (FFC) project in Podanur.

History of the School:
Beginning in 2006, Sandra Simpson, the Founder and Director of FFC, realized the project needed a small school to serve the needs of a group of about a dozen children. For various reasons, these children could not attend public school as do the majority of FFC children. The special needs of this group are primarily health issues such as being HIV positive, speech problems with repaired cleft lips, mild cerebral palsy, one with a very disfiguring congenital skin disease, one with a terminal brain disease, blindness and deafness.

Since 2006, approximately 50 other children have been admitted to our preschool and kindergarten. The majority of the original group has progressed to grade two.

The FFC Canteen Patio Grand Opening

The FFC Canteen patio had its grand opening this week! The York School student group 2008 donated the money and Katie Richards, some FFC boys and Katie's 3 brothers Kimball, John and David worked hard to have it built and beautifully decorated.

The new patio seating area frees up the cooking area and will now allow the canteen to be used as a cooking training centre for our older children. They will learn how to cook for themselves and be able prepare their own meals when they move away from FFC.

We plan to plant a kitchen garden around the patio so that the canteen can have fresh herbs available.

Thanks to York School 2008 and the Richards Family!
Canteen Patio Site Before Construction



Canteen Patio Under Construction


Canteen Patio Grand Opening

Dance Program

The Pinto Dance Academy dance with dance master Richi organized a program for FFC and other Children's Homes in Coimbatore. Jothimani, a young woman who grew up with us and still lives at FFC sang the opening song. A number of young men from FFC who are post polio also participated in the program.
Our young men and Jothimani did a great job, made lots of new friends and enjoyed themselves.
The Pinto Dance Academy donated 10,000rs to FFC at the end of the program.
A big thank you goes to the Pinto Dance Academy!

Swimming Mania!

Katie took a group of boys to a local swimming pool. They all had a wonderful time. It is a great way to spend a hot day.

Indrani's Marriage

Indrani came to FFC through childline when she was 17 yrs old. She worked at FFC in the silk project. Indrani keeps in contact with her sister who is studying in a hostel in Coimbatore.
Indrani is 23 years old now and married a young man from Coimbatore. Her husband's name is Vijay Kumar. He works in a petrol bunk as a cashier. They had a Hindu Wedding date- May 26th 2008 and the reception was at FFC. Indrani has been back to visit FFC since her wedding but seems to be happily situated in her new home.

John Graham

John Graham was born in 1983, he grew up at Families for Children. He moved out in 2000 and has been working as a cook in a hotel. He and his friends from the hotel have started to donate school books to the FFC children. They now would like to donate a special meal for each section at FFC every month. They will cook the meal themselves. This will be a real treat for the FFC children.

We are very proud that he has grown into such a responsible young man and happy to have him return to help the others. Below is a photo of John Graham and one of him donating notebooks to our older boys.

FFC Baby Room

Families for Children India is home to up to 40 babies under 18 months at any one time. They come to us for various reasons and from many different places.
We are fortunate to be able to feed our young babies goat milk which is tolerated well by even newborns and minimizes allergies and other illnesses.
The goat milk is produced at FFC at our goat farm.
We have a dedicated staff of caretakers who look after the FFC babies as they would their own children. Many have been with us since FFC India began in 1978.

FFC some general photos

FFC India is a wonderful place for children to grow up. The photos below are of various areas of the project.

FFC's New Boys Junior and Senior Football Teams

FFC now has 2 football teams. They are coached by Padmanaban and
A. Arokiaraj the FFC Sports Masters. The other coaches who worked with our boys were Asmathaual, Sajun and Wesley. The Senior team has 15 members: Sasi Kumar, Udhaya, Kumar, Naveen Kumar, Kumar,Vinoth, Ramachandran, Sadesh, Arumugam, Sarath Kumar, Babuji, Ajay, Ganesh, Ashwin and Gokul.

The Junior Team has 14 members: Sakthivel, Praveen Kumar, Anandh, Vanaresh,Ramamoorthy, Jeeva, M. Jeeva, Arjun, Prakesh, Chinnasamy, Manoj, Deja, Gopi
and Kalimuttu.

They boys participated in a football camp that required them to practice everyday for 4 hours. They played against other teams around Coimbatore and our senior team won 1 game and lost 1 game. They won 8 to 0 in the first game and lost 0 to 3 in the second game...which was semi finals. They were supposed to play another team but that team did not show up to play.
Our junior team did not win any games. They played two times and both games neither team scored a point. It was so cute to watch them run after the ball.
FFC conducted the awards ceremony and handed out metals to all of the teams. Our senior team took 3rd place!

Thangaraj - FFC Librarian

Thangaraj grew up at FFC, he is now 30 years old. He has been the FFC librarian since our library first opened. Thangaraj has done a wonderful job running the library which currently has over 900 members, he really takes pride in his work. The library is a peaceful place to visit, browse for books to take out or just to sit and read the newspaper. Thangaraj has a green thumb and planted a beautiful flower garden in the area directly in front of the library entrance. Last month he decided that he was ready to move out from FFC and to find his own apartment, he will continue his job as librarian. He found a place very near FFC which has an outer courtyard shared by the other tenants in the compound. He is very excited about having his own place and we wish him happiness in this new phase of his life.

FFC Extra Special Care Section

FFC India is home to almost 90 children and adults with special needs. Each person living in the special care section has been assessed for level of ability and will be assigned to one of the on site classes that matches their ability level.Classes range from the very basic play group, to learning how to dress or feed oneself, up to learning how to read and write. Our Extra Special Care Section is home to our youngest special needs children and those needing the most care, many are unable to walk or even sit unassisted. This section has a staff of dedicated workers who provide not only basic care but also provide lots of love and stimulation. You can see from the photos that our extra special children have a great environment to grow up in.

Sophie's House Opens

We are very happy to tell you about Sophie's House, a new living space that has just opened at FFC. The house is located on the same property as the small boys house and is now a home for our children with physical challenges who are mentally normal. Sophie one of FFC's longtime staff members and special care teachers will move in with them as the house mother. The first children to move in are Franklin, Raja and Muthulakshmi they have been anxiously awaiting the opening since the idea was formed. Vasenthi, Danacothi and Uma will also live in the house, they will be able to help Sophie with the care of these children as well enjoy the family atmosphere of the new home.

Jamuna's new baby

Jamuna is a young woman who has lived at FFC since 4 years of age. She has been the supervisor of the FFC canteen for 2 years. Jamuna was married in May 2007 and now lives in her own house very near FFC. Her husband Viswanathan is a vegetable agent, he loads and unloads produce in the vegetable market. We are happy to announce that Jamuna delivered a healthy baby boy last month, his name is Manikandan. Jamuna will return to work at FFC after her maternity leave. We are sure that Jamuna will be a wonderful mother.

Celebration Dinner for FFC Girls

We are proud of the 9 FFC girls who completed their 10th Standard or Plus 2 Exams. These standards are the most difficult academic years in the Indian high school system.
FFC visitors Katie and Geoff took them out for a dinner in Coimbatoire to celebrate their success.

It was an evening enjoyed by all.
Congratulations girls!

The FFC Main House cement wall has been renovated

This years group of visiting York School students and teachers put in alot of hard physical labour to completely redo the main house front cement wall. They spent many, many hours in the hot sun breaking down the old wall with sledge hammers. The York group then funded a mason to refinish the wall with fresh cement and paid for the paint.
Katie organized a work crew of FFC boys to paint the new wall and then had every child put their handprint in color on it.

Thanks very much to the York School Group for this. Their hard work has really improved the look of our main property!

Arun, a Families For Children Success Story

Arun came to us when he was only 5 days old and grew up at Families for Children. He always had a love of music as well as real talent, particularly drumming. He enrolled in music college 2 years ago and currently lives in a hostel near his school in Coimbatore. FFC funded his education.

Arun has set impressive goals for himself and has already accomplished quite abit in his 21 years. He founded an organization called Youth Helping Hands (YHH) to assist children living in orphanages to reach their maximum potential through education, music and dance.

Youth Helping Hands is less than 2 yrs old and currently works with 16 orphanages across Coimbatore. YHH has organized a number of well attended fundraising events to showcase the musical or dancing talents of the children. One thousand people attended the YHH event held in February, including the mayor of Coimbatore. Arun hopes to set up a scholarship fund to assist children from orphanages with higher education.
(Families for Children does support our children who excel in school through post secondary education, but many organizations do not).

We are very proud of Arun and will keep you updated on Youth Helping Hands.

Celebration Dinner for FFC Boys

We are proud to report that 6 FFC boys have completed their 10th and Plus 2 standard exams this year. These 2 grades are particularly challenging and very important years in the Indian School System. To congratulate and encourage the boys, FFC visitors Katie, Manoj and Geoff took the group to Nilgiris Restaurant in Coimbatore for a celebration dinner.
They had a great meal which was enjoyed by all.
Well done boys!

Compost is now a go!

We now have a composting project running at FFC! There are 14 compost bins in the various areas of FFC, collecting waste from cooking and vegetable and fruit peelings. Every day at 11:45 sharp a group of staff deliver lunch from the main kitchen to the other houses and pick up the compost at the same time. The compost bins are then emptied into one of our six large vermicompost bins located beside the goat farm. This in turn will soon convert into mulch to nurture the garden areas and coconut groves around the project.

Paper Project and Saravanan FFC Resident Artist

The Paper Project was started 4 years ago, it provides work for a number of the young adults living at FFC. Old newspapers, magazines, notebooks and paper products are donated from local people and recycled into home-made sheets of paper. These are then made into cards and envelopes which are used for thank you notes and seasonal greeting cards.

Saravanan, our resident artist is a 25 year old man who has lived at FFC since childhood. He helps create the 2 types of cards made at FFC.
Saravanan draws the picture outline on the hand embroidered cards, these are then emboidered with colored thread by John Basa, small Saravanan, Balamuregan, Ram Kumar and John Peter.
Saravanan also paints other cards with numerous images, his most recent creations are cards with botanical illustrations of flowers. Each of his cards are unique and we think beautiful. We are lucky to have such a talented young man at FFC.

New and Improved Women's Co-op Space.

The Women's Co-op is a great project going on at FFC. The old space was in a room that wasn't well ventilated, this was fine for most of the year but in hot season it would become uncomfortable. We recently renovated the top floor of boys house and the co-op has moved. They are much more comfortable in the spacious airy rooms of boy's house.

Sandra's Goat Farm

The FFC Goat Farm is thriving under the care of Lawrence, the supervisor of the goat project. The new goat farm was built on FFC land in May 2007. We now produce enough high quality goat milk to feed all babies in the babyrooms. Goat milk curd (yogurt) is made for the special care children. Since we began to feed FFC goat milk to our babies the overall health has improved, they gain weight consistently and are less prone to diarrhea and other health issues. Hospitalizations are rare for the babies now.
We are very pleased with the success of this project.

In addition to the goat milk we are able to produce goat milk soap eliminating the need for us to purchase soap for our babies and children. It also creates a job for 3 of our special needs men as they make the soap!

FFC Boys compete in Coimbatore Marathon

In February of this year 23 FFC boys took part in the Coimbatore Marathon. It was very impressive to see our boys run the 8 or 15 km course.
The FFC Sports Master S. Padmanaban provided the motivation and training program to allow our boys to succeed in this event.

Sign Language Classes

This past Monday 24 FFC girls ages 12 to 16 had the opportunity to learn sign language! The class was taught by two guest teachers from Bhatiayar University. Lieutenant Colonel R. Sivajar and Ms. Pavithra are both studying toward their Masters of Social Work and have learnt sign language in the process. The class was taught to give the girls a better understanding of sign language and living with a disability. They learnt some basic conversation as well as the alphabet (they are spelling their names in the pictures!). A class for the older boys is currently in the works and should be happening soon.

International Women's Day Celebration

Families for Children celebrated International Women's Day! The women's co-op organized the event. It was a great success and an inspiration to the girls and young women of FFC. It will be the first of many for years to come.
Speaches, dances and songs were enjoyed by all.

Women's Co-Op

A Women's Co-Op was started in January 2007 by two hard working Canadian volunteers, Mano (an FFC girl), and 12 dedicated women from the community. The project now employs 15 women allowing them to earn an income to support their families. The co-op is entirely run and staffed by women.
The FFC signature product are bags made with "crazy quilting". Crazy quilting is made using scrap pieces donated from local tailor shops and medleri silk produced on site. The medleri silk is a beautiful, colourful cloth that is ideal for making bags.
Proceeds from sales of the co-op products are used to pay the women, purchase new materials/equipment and helps to fund FFC running costs. The Co-op products are sold with the help of volunteers and are available at various craft sales and through our website: familiesforchildren.ca
Prices are Canadian dollars (as of March 2008):
15 for passport bags
20 for Jen bags
35 for Yoga bags
15 for backpacks
25 for the Hobo bags