A loving tribute

Dear friends,

It is with great sadness that we write of the death of our wonderful Stuart. His passing will leave such a huge hole in so many lives – he spent his life dedicated to helping those less fortunate than himself, working tirelessly until his final days on projects which have transformed lives in Ghana, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and beyond.

There is so much about his life and work to be warmly remembered that we will write at greater length in the near future. For now, if you are able to and would like to mark Stuart’s passing, please consider contributing to the Memorial Fund that our Trustee, Michael, has set up to help continue his extraordinary work.

With love from all at Star Action

Sri Lanka: Clothes for the destitute elderly

Clothes for a destitute elderley lady in Sri Lanka

Our work continues in Sri Lanka, where the economic situation is not good. This lady received a parcel of new clothes.

Shonali and her partner show us their lovely new baby

Shonali, daughter of Richard and Sasees, and her husband were recently delighted to introduce their new son to the Bright Life family. Congratulations from all of us!

Keshav’s work for Star Action in Nepal

This 107 year old woman was delighted with her shawl

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We want to share with you the photos we have received from, Keshav.

Recently, the focus of our work has been helping the poor and destitute in Kathmandu, and most particularly the elderly. As you may know, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world, and very badly hit by the pandemic. Another factor increasing the poverty and suffering in this country has of course been the lack of tourists throughout these past two years:

We, here in Nepal, celebrated Christmas in a very meaningful way: by helping the less fortunate with our 2021 Christmas gifts you so generously arranged. We chose an assisted living facility in the district of Lalitpur in the Kathmandu Valley which needed our help the most.

Helping elderly women abandoned by their families has always been our priority because such women need the most help in Nepal. All women living here are illiterate and most of them are widows. We were told that one of the ladies (in the close-up photo above) at the facility was 107 years old who was rescued from the streets of Kathmandu. In our interaction, they shared their stories with us some of which were very heart-wrenching. However, our Christmas gifts brought smiles to their faces and they gave us all their blessings and best wishes. They expressed their heartfelt thanks to you all and Star Action for all the wonderful gifts (they loved the warm shawls for the winter).

…and more recently in February, he sent his update:

The latest of Star Action’s helps has come at a time when Nepal is just beginning to recover from its third lockdown. With each new lockdown, the people who need help have increased but less help is available because there’s no same sense of urgency in people or government anymore as there was in the beginning of the pandemic. The fund which you have so generously arranged for Nepal this time will also go where it’s most needed. Now that the fund has reached us, we’ve started planning for the relief distribution in a way where most people can be helped out.

We thank everyone at StarAction and our other donors who made the donation for Nepal.

We are very lucky to have the wonderful support of Keshav, whose work with us has made a difference to so many in these difficult times.

HOW OUR WORK HAS CONTINUED IN SPITE OF LOCKDOWN

Sri Lanka has been badly hit by the pandemic, and there have been a series of ‘lockdowns’, followed by partial opening up, and then another lockdown. Different regions have been worse hit than others. It has been particularly bad in the Colombo area where Rohan lives. (As you may know, he has been working with us since the Tsunami and during the Civil War.)

The Eastern Region, where our work has been concentrated recently, has fared a little better, and as we write, things are opening up again. In
order to help all those individuals we are supporting (like our elderly granny, Arosoma), we have continued our regular payments and also a
slightly reduced salary for our teachers. Repairing damaged homes, (even those built by government agents, with substandard materials, after the Tsunami), has also been an important part of our work.

Africa has followed a similar pattern; Ghana continues to be badly hit by the pandemic and lack of vaccination supplies. However, in September we received more positive news about our little school in Asiakwa. The headmaster has told us that they are re-opening again after a second closure earlier this year. He has asked permission to have poultry on our Star Action land adjacent to the school, so
chicken and eggs can be used to supplement the school lunches. We are continuing our sponsorship of our very poor pupils, so they can attend school and also giving them their new uniforms and lunches.

India: Schools in Tirenuveli have recently reopened and life is gradually returning to normal, so we are planning to commence our new project. Through this, we will be able to give support to many more children, (mainly girls), living in their own homes, but with Star Action paying for good food for the family, and providing school uniforms and paying the school fees.

Richard & Sasees have been extraordinary in their dedication thoughout; they are pictured here following a post-Covid review meeting.

EMERGENCY COVID APPEAL FOR INDIA

UPDATE Feb 22

Thank you so much for your wonderful response to our appeal; your compassion & generosity enabled us to give the much needed extra help to our STB/Brighter Life Children’s home in Tamil Nadu, South India. In this compact community district (Tirenuveli has three and a half million inhabitants), most needing to earn daily wages, it was impossible to maintain Covid 19 Lockdown in the way it has been done throughout much of Europe. Inevitably Covid badly infected some of our children (and our elderly family too). With your help we were able to give them the care they needed, and they have recovered, except, sadly, Richard`s own mother, who passed away later in the summer.

Please consider donating to help support our Brighter Life family in this very difficult time: any help you feel moved to give will be greatly appreciated – we will use these extra funds immediately to take advantage of any medical or other assistance they can get.

Several of our children are already seriously ill. Social distancing is not possible, so the virus is spreading rapidly. Richard and Sasees are exhausted, as you can see from the photo.

Richard’s mother, Chandra, is ill and other relatives too. They live far away, in a part of India even worse affected, so of course this is adding to their distress, as well as the death of four of Richard`s ex-school mates, all only in their forties.

There is no NHS in India, and most medical care is expensive, and even if there is the money for it, there is no vaccination available at the moment for most people – as you will know from the news.

Sasees tells us that the local hospital in Tirenuveli has advised: ‘steaming process for the children to avoid virus entry through nose and mouth. We have started this with our children. In the steaming process we boil water and then add eucalyptus oil. It clears the nose and throat and this process is helping us a lot.’ They, and we, are hoping this will also help protect Rosammal, the only older resident in our care at the moment.

Now we have heard that poor Mayakannan has a swollen face after his fever – as you can see in the photo – and the hospital are doing more tests. Any form of treatment for him or any of the children is expensive and adds to the worry for Richard

and Sasees. (They are trying to work within a very strict budget as they know our limited funds are very over-stretched at the moment.)

Any additional help you feel moved to add to the support you are already giving us will be greatly appreciated – so we can remove money worries – allowing them to take advantage of any medical or other assistance they can get. (For example more nourishing food, and herbs, and help for Sasees with the cooking, cleaning and washing! She is doing this now, in addition to caring for the children, and trying to keep up with their ‘home lesson’ as schools are of course closed again.)

Zahra’s progress

Veterinary colleagues

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We have above some fabulous images from the mother of Zahra, whom SA is supporting through Veterinary School in Indonesia, along with this note:

Dear Sir,

I wish you “Happy New Year 2021”, hope you and your family are happy also in good health.

Zahra has completed 5th semester and will continue 6th semester in the middle of Febuary 2021. I attached Zahra’s pictures which done some activities …

Thank you very much for your kindness and success for you all.

Warm regards,

Desy

India update

2020 has been a difficult and challenging year for our Brighter Life Children’s Home in India: It has been impossible for India to

conduct a successful lockdown against Covid 19 in the way that many others have succeeded. The sprawling population, many living on daily wages, have been unable to change their normal lifestyles very much.

To keep our children safe, and with all schools closed, Richard and Sasees have kept everyone at
home conducting their own devised school lessons (Sasees having been Head of English at a large school before she joined us).

Many families in the UK have struggled to care at home with two or three children for the long lockdown. Imagine the problems tor Sasees and Richard with over thirty. Self-discipline is a big part of the children’s home life and routine, and this has helped greatly to keep harmony and fun as main themes in 2020.

Inevitably the cost of food has risen to strain their budget and the loss of cook Rani, who now lives 100 miles away after her marriage, has compounded the challenges. But you can see from recent photos that the smiles are still there and everyone is growing stronger and brighter in the usual way. The images and video here show the celebrations and some of the new clothes that the children received at Diwali.

New clothes for Diwali

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Nepal Update

Keshav and Sujata write from Nepal:

Christmas gift distribution program in Pokhara

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I have sent a few photos from this year’s Christmas gift distribution program in Pokhara. On the recommendation of my sister, we visited an elderly centre in Pokhara and gave away gifts to the elderly women and men there. The Centre has been providing for 12 elderly people (both women and men) of which two were in the hospital due to some regular health issues. The Centre is in the middle of a small woods but is sunny and fresh. For the winter, we provided scarves to the ladies and jackets to the men. To support their daily ration, we provided rice, lentil, sugar, tea, salt and a special Christmas food packet too. As you can see in the photos all residents were happy and grateful. They send you lots of thanks and warm greetings.

Rakshana’s Sinhala class

Rakshana was able to resume her classes on August 11th after the end of the lockdown