One of our Projects Abroad India’s staff member – Mr Victor’s wedding being held at the nearby town named Sivakasi. Most of the volunteers and the staff members attended the wedding ceremony. All the female volunteers came to the function in the traditional sarees and made the function as a grand one.

The day was really good and memorable!

Contributed by Nadia – India Social Manager.

There was a Workshop on Dance therapy being held at the Projects Abroad India main office today. The workshop was conducted by one of our overseas staff member – Ms Jenny Shulman.

The idea behind this workshop is to implement these kind of dance therapies in the placements where they are taking care of the mentally challenged children. Probably this kind of therapies will them in improvement. The two volunteers who have been working in Amar Seva Sangam – the place for mentally and physically challenged patients were invited for the workshop and those volunteers attended the day with more enthusiasm. The workshop ended up successfully and they got know about the dance therapy well and they told us that they will implement in their placement well and soon.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam – India Social Manager

Projects Abroad India conducted the Dirty Day at one of our Care placements – Anbarasi Social Action which is at Dindigul. During the Dirty day, the volunteers were asked to do the painting work. Actually the work was delayed by the placement over a long time due to the lack of financial support. And now their wish came true because of  Projects Abroad.

About 12 volunteers attended the day with much interest and enthusiasm. The day was really good and enjoyable. The children from the placement helped them in doing the activity as well.

Contributed by Nadia – India Social Manager

Model farm inaugrates the New Building which has been built for the sake of volunteer's comfort at Chinnupatti.Recently they have opend the cow shed and in connection to that, now Projects Abroad India is inaugrating the office rooms at the Farm.

As a traditional way of inaugration, Our Volunteers are going to extract the rice out of the Paddy, which they have grown in the Farm and are going to prepare a sweet dish called Chakkara Pongal. Also they will boil the milk and the coming up of foam from the Boiled Milk denotes the prosperous life.After these things, special mantras will be murmured and poojas will be performed for the sake of development and prosperity for all the participants and to the Model Farm.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam - India Social Manager

This week, Model Farm team (staff members and the volunteers) visited the Drinking Water plant and the Waste water treatment plant to get some more details regarding the waste water management.

On 19th of April, about 6 volunteers visited the Madurai Corporation owned Drinking water plant which is placed at Pannayampatti. Also the team sponsored some herbal plant saplings for the authority to plant in the campus.

On 20th of April, the team visited the Waste water treatment plant which is placed nearer to Madurai.Over here also, Our farm volunteers presented some herbal saplings.

These visits plays the major role for the farm volunteers since the Model farm had implemented a new small trial plot of waste water treatment plant. So these visits will enhance the volunteers to make the plant a large one which can be used by the local community too.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam - India Social Manager

l finally feel pretty settled now l ve got used to the constant staring guess people here have never seen a sistah with braids before lol. l can cross the roads like a pro and l even haggled with a rickshaw man. On the other hand lm not doing well with the lingo. Tamil is a pretty hard language so far l ve learnt how to say hello, goodbye and l want a coconut turns out that’s all the Tamil l need to get by. Luckily all the people l work with speak English and most of the general public know a few English words. In terms of food lm all about Paneer can’t believe l ve just discovered this AMAZING food. It’s a spongy sort of spicy cheese absolutely yummy.  

The most incredible thing happened last week during another temple visit l was blessed by an elephant. l didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but it was pretty AWESOME. l put 5 rupees in its trunk which it gave to its master then it sort of plonked its trunk on my head, blessing done. lm looking forward to more experiences like that. The weekend came around quite quickly l was glad because we had a weekend trip to Kannyakamari the Southern tip of India where the gulf of Bengal, the Arabian sea and the Indian ocean meet. It was beautiful and worth the 6 hour trip on the Indian highway. I ve met some really interesting people from all the over the world l feel like lm at some kind of global conference, first topic.... WORLD PEACE.

There occurs a big event in Tamil Nadu. It’s the Election which is been held to select the members of State Legislative Assembly. The polling been held on 13^th of April 2011 throughout Tamil Nadu. The total number of members for this Assembly is 234.

These members are Representatives from different constituency in Tamil Nadu. So it marks the important occasion here in Tamil Nadu. Overall in Tamil Nadu, there is about 74 percent of voting been recorded this year.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam – India Social Manager

Our Veterinary Volunteers celebrated the National Volunteer Week by conducting a Veterinary Camp in a rural village named Kallandhri. Projects Abroad India sponsored for the Medicines and the syringes during the day.

About 4 from Veterinary Medicine project and 7 from Conservation project took part for the day. And did activities like deworming the cows, goats, hens and dogs. Also free treatment was given to all the pet animals over there.

The day was really good and the village people were very happy since their long term request been fulfilled.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam – India Social Manager

National Volunteer Week been celebrated by Our Conservation Volunteers. At Chinnupatti, volunteers planted the saplings that are in good condition along the road. There was no plant along the road-side hence the soil becomes very tough.Not only on the road-side but also they selected bare grounds and planted some. This is to avoid further damage and to make the soil fertile. As a whole, volunteers planted about 17 saplings in the morning and some herbs in the local people’s farm in the evening session. Also they extended their activity to the near-by primary school and created a Herbal Vegetable garden in the School campus.

The day was really hot. Inspite of the heavy summer, our volunteers worked very hard to complete the task. On the other hand, the local people felt very happy about our volunteer’s activity and the children in Chinnupatti also helped our volunteers.

Contributed by Nadia Chellam – India Social Manager

One of our Care Volunteer – Ms Lise Lamberts with other two Care volunteers – Ms Linda Hauer and Ms Isabel Duchesne conducted the Leaving party at the Care orphanage – Anbarasi Social Action.

The day was really good with thanks-giving speech and the volunteers donated some study materials (that includes a School bag, coloring kit. a pencil pouch and so on) to each and every kid at the Home. The children felt very bad for hearing about the volunteer’s departure and we too.

Contributed by Nadia – India Social Manager.