“Pooncholai”

Club Member Carol Evans and her husband Gareth’s Orphanage in India

“Pooncholai” is Tamil for “garden of mixed flowers” and it is the name given to the Children’s Home in the Tirunelveli District of the state of Tamil Nadu in South India that was established in 1991 by Club member Carol Evans and her husband Gareth.

Tirunelveli District is a drought ridden area, one of the most deprived in India, where many thousands of children are labourers in Dickensian match and firework factories. These children, many of whom start to work at the age of six or seven, are bonded to the factories because of family debt arising from normal family events such as deaths, necessary operations or marriages. Carol and Gareth opened the Children’s Home to alleviate the hardship of some of those children who are orphans or are without a functioning parent.

Currently more than seventy girls and boys between the ages of four and eighteen live in Pooncholai with others in educational or training establishments. Each child continues in education for as long as is appropriate for her or him and Pooncholai has produced a teacher, an accountant, a male nurse, computer printers, mechanics and a pharmacist amongst others. This year we are thrilled that our senior girl, found working in a firework factory having lost three years of schooling, has won a place in university on a prestigious civil engineering course.

Children often arrive in Pooncholai extremely malnourished and usually suffering multiple infections. They recover quickly because of the regular nourishment. Second helpings are always available and new children often finish meals almost unable to stand up having eaten so much. This situation normalises as soon as they understand that the three meals, snack and early morning milk arrive every day without fail.

In 2004 the foundation stone of a new building was laid and after many difficulties and an enormous struggle to raise the funds the new Pooncholai, a beautiful and carefully designed Home, was opened in 2006.  Pooncholai’s postal address, “Grace Phyllis Haven”, is named after the mothers of Carol and Gareth. It is situated much nearer the Western Ghats so that more plentiful water is available for more of the year. Better schools than those in the original, far more primitive area are nearby and not too far away there are many colleges, training institutions and universities.

The move has turned out to have been an excellent one in every way. At the inauguration of the new Pooncholai Carol and Gareth were incredibly moved when two young men who had been admitted at the ages of four and five and who are now developing excellent careers and living independently, spontaneously spoke to the large gathering. They said that they had been, “saved from the jaws of death”, “given a new life” and that they will always see the two founders of Pooncholai as their beloved parents.  Words that will always be remembered by Carol and Gareth.  SI Barry and District supports and orphan at Pooncholai and many members make personal donations.  Other Clubs who have heard Carol’s wonderful talks on the orphanage have also made commitment to support he amazing work done by Carol and Gareth, who were jointly awarded the MBE.