YMCA Project Work

Hello Dave, things are good.
Nagpur YMCA has a building which houses a few offices and a couple of drop in centres, one for people living with HIV & Aids and one for Sarite a group which works with LGB & MSM (men who have sex with men). These act mostly as office bases and the majority of the work is outreach in the community. The project staff visit people in their homes providing vital support and friendship, they have a vocational training centre and they support other community activities and schools. I visited a hospital project providing an Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART), it was emotional but really opened my eyes to the reality of people living with HIV & AIDS. We met with some really ill people, who were very poor and reliant on ART. Poverty obviously has an huge impact on these peoples lives as the drugs are expensive and it is only the stage one drug that is available free through the project at the moment, so if they develop resisitance they don't have much hope.

In the evening I had a much more surreal experience, Iva and I joined Sarite crew to go 'cruising' round the pick up areas in Nagpur, they do contraception distribution and informationa and advice outreach work in a creative way! It opened my eyes particulary when I was asked to approach a 'mating' couple and help give out condoms! I enjoyed riding around Nagpur on the back of a scooter, the guys took us on a bit of tour we were supposed to be out for 1 hour but we were gone for about 2.5!

The work of Nagpur YMCA is fairly contraversial, front line and extremely innovative, but highly effective, these workers are inspirational, I think we have learn't a lot from them.

We arrived in Kanyukumari on Sunday and we have been visint Tsunami Projects, this YMCA is supporting some self help groups which empower women in a society where they have to constantly struggle for identity. The projects enable women to run their own businesses, obtain loans via a sort of credit union and save money. Each group has its own identity and business, even their own colour Saree. In other areas YMCA has developed new housing projects which again empower women as the houses are in their name, in this society this is really contraversial but the effect on these women is phenominal. They talked to us, invited us into their homes for Chai and cooked for us. The workers said that in the begginning they wouldn't come out of the houses. This work is vital.

Anyway out of time in the internet cafe, will update soon. Andrea