News Letter

January 2010

Loving Greetings to all friends and supporters of DAYA Orphanage. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all the best in the new year of 2010. After a long wait, at last DAYA Children’s Home got permanent electricity. Before that we were dependant upon lamps. It is a great joy for DAYA. To get electric supply in India takes long but it took even longer for us because there was no electricity supply near our location. All the children had their half yearly tests in November. They will have their annual tests in March.

The month of December was exciting for all the children. Each day we did some new or special activities with them. Once we had an activity where each child mentioned what mistake they had made in the past year and what new resolution they would have for the coming year. They sang Christmas Carols and had a Bible quiz related to the birth of Jesus. Priyadarshini was first in the Bible quiz. From December 24 until January 2 we had Christmas celebrations. Some times the children got Christmas cakes or candies and at other times they received fruits. On the evening of the 24th we had a delicious dinner for all the children. Afterwards Santa Claus came and distributed gifts to each child and each staff member. After that there was a short program where some children danced, some did drama reenacting the Nativity and some sang songs.

Amar, the son of Shantipriya and Ameya Basiston was visiting his fiancee in Norway in November and December. While there he also represented DAYA, visiting some churches and giving them Christmas cards created by the children for selling.

Monique from Holland, who sponsors Diganta, a boy in our orphanage, spent time with us at Christmas. At that time we also had a volunteer from Germany, a young man age 20. Matthew stayed for five weeks, during which time he taught English to the boys and played cricket with them. He also led the children in cleaning up the campus.

Although DAYA Children’s Home has permanent electricity now we still have no running water. The children go to the well to fetch water. They bathe near there and also go to toilet in that area. It would be wonderful to get running water. This would require a water tank and pipes as well as an electric pump. The tank and pipes with fittings would cost $500 (US) and the cost of an electric pump to pump the water from the well into the tank would be $450 (US).

Thank you so much.