Dear all!
I’m back from India and am happy to tell you about my stay with the widows.
This time I felt the contrast between my 1st and 2nd home country very strongly: I left the darkness, cold, political uncertainty and war atmosphere in Germany at the beginning of January and arrived in warmth, joy, colours and the loving welcome from Manoharan and all our women at Om Shanthi Old Age Home. Unfortunately, Paulette was not there this year because she had to take care of her health. However, she is doing well and keeps emphasising that there is no need to worry.
With me again were Ilona, Bettina and Noémie, a young intern who shared our Om Shanthi life with great joy and was bathed in love and care like all of us.
Our home has not only become an ‘ashram’ for me (please google it!), but also for the many travelling groups who now visit us regularly and feel the special kind of love that exists here, a mystery that I would like to write about only cautiously. Each of our 29 women (plus 7 helpers) is the embodiment of immeasurable suffering and proof that it is possible to transform this suffering into grace, gratitude and love. We and all visitors feel how real and healing life is with us. Our interviews from last year tell of the lives of our women before Om Shanthi and show how it is possible to end up homeless. We are in the process of publishing these life stories in a small booklet. If any of you have experience with this, please let me know. I am grateful for any help!
The absolute highlight of this winter was the opening of our Om Shanthi computer school on 24.1.25.
It is a kind of beacon of the new world and of progress in our small villages around our home. You should know that our village and widow children now have free access to digital education, which is otherwise only offered at high cost by private institutes in the city. Our highly qualified teacher Amu (Masters in Computerscience) lives in the neighbouring village and teaches our children after school from 4.00 pm to 8.00 pm. We have 5 computer labs where 2 – 3 students (mostly girls) can learn all the necessary skills (Word, Excel, e-mail, etc.) together every day. After 3 months they will graduate with a certificate.
(From 16.00 – 17.00 the 5th – 6th graders come, from 17.00 – 18.00 the 7th – 8th graders, from 18.00 – 19.00 the 9th – 10th graders, and from 19.00 the college students). I wish you could see the enthusiasm with which these sweet children seize their opportunity and diligently learn English, among other things. On special occasions, we have opened the garden door of the school so that beautiful encounters between the youth and the ostracised old women can already take place. This is where our intention of ‘changing awareness’ almost happens by itself.
Our Om Shanthi home is thriving and flourishing under the constant supervision of Manoharan and his seven helpers, who work around the clock under the guidance of Kodimalli, always happy and relaxed in their often demanding work. INDIRA is brand new to us. She has no family, no home and lived in the corner of a house outside. She was blind, could no longer walk and at first we thought she was also deaf. A compassionate soul had put a plastic sheet over her. She only cried when she was hungry or thirsty and still does so day and night. It is very rewarding for all of us to see how a person can still learn even in old age when loving communication, help and contact are provided. She is now slowly learning to walk again, to call us when she needs to go to the toilet. She hears us and responds. She eats four times as much and responds to our loving attention. Thanks to your donations, this can happen in our Om Shanthi Home. Please continue to support us!
Our annual company outing took place again on 8 March, International Women’s Day. Unfortunately, only 13 of our current 29 women were able to join us. But this trip is also an absolute highlight for our helpers and a kind of reward for their valuable work. We visited 3 temples and had lunch in a restaurant. The joy and memories will stay with us for a long time.
This trip was paid for by donations from the many visitors and groups who visit us during the season and often raise money for Om Shanthi during the year with concerts and other events. Thanks to all of you: Regula from Switzerland, Marie from the USA, Upahar and Veena from Italy, Rachel from Israel, Agathe, Peter from Germany, Dani from Italy and many more.
You make the season an ongoing celebration for us in Om Shanthi with your concerts and visits. We look forward to seeing you next year.
Many thanks also to Dr Raghuveer Ranganathan, a doctor born in Tamil Nadu, who came from California to fill our medicine cabinet to the brim, rearranged it and carefully labelled it in Tamil and English. Such miracles and gifts happen again and again. We are very grateful! Now we are equipped for all the little things, although medical care from the hospital and our doctor is still our priority.
Our next project is already in the starting blocks: Now that we have given up our kitchen garden after many attempts because it attracts hordes of monkey families who eat our harvest while it is still on the bush, we are going to enlarge our small kitchen. Our approx. 20 m2 kitchen with no extractor fan or ventilation has long since become too small for around 100 meals and 2 tea snacks, for kitchen appliances, utensils, machines and hygienic food storage. It seems that our old friends, the Rotarians from Neuss, are supporting us again with this project. We would like to thank them for all their support in the past and are delighted that this contact still exists.
Please keep your fingers crossed that this happens. And please continue to support us as before.
Thank you to all of you who have been instrumental in making our Om Shanthi project flourish and prosper. I wish you could all see, either live or with pictures and videos, what you have created with your donations. We will be updating our website
so that you can see our new photos there. Just be patient a little longer!
Best wishes and thanks from all of us, always!
On behalf of all of us
Anna