Kodai: Bethania Kids Children's Homes and Care Centers

Returning once again to the Bethania projects in Kodai... I have been amazed by the quality care provided to the children here. There are two children's homes, one for girls and one for boys, each with about 35 kids. There are also five care centers, which serve at least four purposes: preschool/day care for kids aged 3-5 years, after school tutoring for school-aged kids, immunizations, and skills training for women. I learned yesterday that there are 200 kids in the preschool programs, and probably at least that many in the after-school programs. Then, there are three different facilities for people with disabilities -- Mr. Jayachandran's center (which I mentioned and which I will be visiting later today), a school for kids with disabilities in a place called Poombarai (outside of Kodai a little bit), and a respite center/group home for young adults with disabilities who have grown too old for the other two centers. All this to say that there is quite a lot of Bethania activity around Kodai, and hundreds of children are being helped. It's a wonderful thing.

We had very nice visits with the two children's homes -- Bethel Home is for boys, and Shalom Home is for girls. Once again we saw some great dancing performances by the girls. At the boys home, we had a more casual time of singing praise songs, led by Todd and Ingrid on the guitar and violin.

Yesterday Dad went on a long hike to Tope, and so I had a longer opportunity to visit three of the care centers without him. I went with a woman named Gethsy Jayapalan, who is a nurse and takes care of any medical needs of the kids. Words cannot adequately describe how unbelievably adorable these kids are, so I must show you a picture. They showed me their Independence Day programs, including more dances, songs, and recitations of the alphabet, fruits, planets, Bible verses, the Lord's Prayer, national symbols, historical figures, etc. We had a great day.

These care centers provide really important services, not only to the kids, but to their parents and the entire community. They have become quite popular and always have many more applications to the programs than available spots. The kids are well prepared for school in comparison to their peers. On a regular basis, the centers will host educational sessions and programs for the parents. The kids learn important lessons about manners, hygiene, daily routines, and study habits, which they then take back and teach their parents. While these programs are different from the other projects in that they are not providing residential care, they offer great support to many kids in the Kodai area.

Time to move along to Mr. Jayachandran's center. I hope to post more later!