ART THERAPY
The French Art group of Marie-Odile Brêthes from the “Ecole Plenitude” initiative with Valery Lamoure, Sylvie, Catherine and along with 12 french students visited Wide and did “Art-Therapies evolutive” ( = painting, handicrafts and lots of fun! ) with the children. There was also workshop for indian volunteers joining together with the french students, it was wonderful to see how the group’s and the home’s children worked together in creating beautiful artwork, including some nice portraits of all the children! 🙂 , lessons talking about children psychology and many examples as how to work with children in evaluative Art Therapy, a theoretical part and a practical part which consists in drawing and learning how to analyze the drawings. Everyone enjoyed the inspiring atmosphere and the opportunity to take a deeper look into the meaning and benefits of art itself. So we send all our love and a big Thank You to France, for all the materials that each one of you brought and the valuable time together. Awaiting for their next visit again soon. More on Art Therapy and the project: http://www.ecoleplenitude.org/in
Upgraded mobile library 🙂
We are so much thankful to the Regenboog India Foundation, a Dutch NGO, they are one of our major programs that provide us with lots of books and magazines of all types past few years. Recently we have an upgraded version of the Mobile library. Now all the children are so happy and excited in welcoming them in a trendy van,which is more comfortable and elaborated for the children for choosing their own books…here are some pictures.
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Innovative lesson
Apart from other activities such as Art, craft, tailoring, organic farming and Yoga, from january 2014 Wide has started a basic COMPUTER TRAINING for all the children with the support of laptops sponsored by Sylvie Lamoure and Valli of france. We THANK YOU so much for your support.
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Busy (sewing) Bees!
Thanks to the ongoing support of the Infinite Earth Project, the children have been sewing all kinds of textiles, ranging from bags to fully fledged clothes! This is a great creative outlet and provides some practical life skills at the same time. We just wanted to take the opportunity to express our thankfulness towards Mica, who is the local representative of Infinite Earth and has been running things, providing us with all the materials and fabrics needed. Xavier has been instructing the children, and the work has been more than productive (and FUN!), as you can see below 🙂
Dreams of the perfect playground
WIDE may not have a proper one – but that doesn’t mean the children can’t imagine what a perfect playground might look like! See their vision below, paintings of what their big dream is all about. It is their answer to the question “If we had an empty space – what would you make of it?”
New Year’s party 🙂
On the 31st evening a show was organized by Priya, With posters around Ramana Ashram to invite in and around people for this Event. There were around 9 westerners who came to witnesses this Event, their presence were brought in more pride and encouragement in the children. INVITATION:
The show lasted for about 2 hours and was composed of the following : –
- Art show –
- Dances of boys and girls prepared with Priya, their elder sister –
- A prayer song with 3 girls singing + 2 boys and Priya accompanying them with instruments –
- A play on how the children come to an orphanage on those 3 themes:
- Poverty
- Illtreatment
- Child labour
– A Fashion show presenting how people dress in different regions in India.
– A universal song taught by Mr. Joseph Kicken(netherlands) accompanied by a dance
“From you I receive
To you I give
Together we share
From this we live”
After the show, everyone gathered around a nice meal. Such a nice day ! 
Wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR !
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A special meal on Christmas day
Some carpets were put on the floor, with baskets full of vegetables, fruits and cakes for everyone to enjoy a pique nique ! A big welcome and thanks to Eva and markus of switzerland and valli from france to join us on christmas celebration.
Our special gratitude to sponsors donated for this celebration.
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Santa Claus is coming 🙂
On 24th December Eve it was time for all the children to be rewarded by Santa Claus himself for being so good during the year. They set up WIDE’s house prettily with lots of decorations : balloons, garlands and banners to be in the Christmas mood and to welcome Santa properly.
And there he was, he came down the stairs to offer to the children all the gifts he had for them : candies, chocolate and for the finale brand new clothes for all of them !
A Merry Christmas for everyone !!!!!!!
ACTIVITY TIME
The daily routine begins at 5.30am the kids get up to freshen themselves up and do their duties. The morning worship with a prayer is followed by the breakfast at 7.30am and 8.30 the children leave the home in their own school bus. On saturdays and sundays they are off from school, which is been followed by several activities like Environmental cleaning, Organic farming, Artwork,painting, yoga and soccer ball.
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TAILORING PROJECT
The progress of the Tailoring project,which is reached the level of sewing and painting the bags by the children, we thank Mica Dvir the project manager of Infinite Earth Germany, who is constantly taking up this project from 2012.
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MOBILE LIBRARY 2014
On Wednesday, two men from the Regenboog India Foundation, an Indian NGO, came with many different books and magazines of all types and for several reading levels. They are part of a programme that provides a mobile library to children. They are given a feeling of responsibility by putting down their name and being in charge of a book which will be given back in 2 weeks, Before the book is given back, the kids summarize the story and tell this to the others.This way, hundreds of books are available to children and always changing! We are proud of this foundation which, is being providing this service from 2011 onwards !!!!!
Merry Christmas everybody!
Feel the Christmas Spirit from WIDE!
Karthikai Deepam
We celebrated the festival of lights with a special feast and all the traditional rituals. It was loads of fun and everybody enjoyed the party!
Craftwork
We finally have nice pictures to show you of the children’s weekly craftwork with Ashok and other volunteers from all over India. The children enjoy the change and learn playfully, doing creative work. Enjoy!
What is Art?
Early in April, the French artist group around Marie-Odile Brêthes from the “Ecole Plenitude” initiative visited us and did “Art-Therapies evolutive” ( = painting, handicrafts and lots of fun! ) with the children. They stayed for a week and it was wonderful to see how the group’s and the home’s children worked together in creating beautiful artwork, including some nice portraits of Kumari and Xavier! 🙂 Everyone enjoyed the inspiring atmosphere and the opportunity to take a deeper look into the meaning and benefits of art itself. So we send all our love and a big Thank You to France, for all the materials you brought and the valuable time we were able to spend together.
More on Art Therapy and the project: http://www.ecoleplenitude.org/in-english
Surprise visit from Germany
There was a nice surprise for the WIDE family on the 28th of January. Maria, a friend and individual sponsor from Germany, came to visit us for two weeks.
We were able to celebrate Marias birthday together at the 8th of February. In order to surprise Maria the children and Priya woke her up at midnight, took her to the rooftop and served her a birthday cake that was decorated with lots of candles.
Of course Xavier and Kumari, unaware of what had happened at night, had prepared a cake for Maria to celebrate her birthday the next morning. Much to the pleasure of the children Maria had also ordered a cake for her birthday, a very delicious chocolate cake from a German bakery so no one had to run short of cake on that day 🙂
Happy New Year!
Joseph Kicken, the so called “Father of WIDE” who was the first to discover WIDE Children’s Home in 2004 came to celebrate New Year’s Eve together with Eric and us. We had a special Apple Ceremony to thank God for all the blessings of the last year and pray for the upcoming year in order to bring joy and even more happiness and peace into the family.
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Merry Christmas
We were very happy to have Eric of WIDE Support Foundation and Josepha, both from the Netherlands, as visitors for Christmas. Eric brought many presents for the children like toys, stickers and candy which they really enjoyed. The children were very excited to see him again as he had already spent Diwali at WIDE in 2010. Josepha ordered a very delicious German cake for the children which they liked a lot.
Eric and Josepha decorated the home for the children on the evening of the 24 th and then Eric joined the WIDE family for the midnight mass at Ulage Madha Church where we included all the sponsors that supported us during the last years in our prayers. It was very moving and a special and exciting experience for the children.
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Cookies and Blankets – Sounds like Christmas!
Sorry for not updating for a while, but WIDE is back just in time for Christmas.
In the meantime, it was our old friend Vali’s (France) birthday! She sent some cookies for the children which everyone was happy to receive. The children sang songs and Kumari met Vali in Puducherry.
Moreover, WIDE was happy to get warm blankets from a local hotel. That way it’s warm and cuddly in spite of the rain and cold.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Somewhere over the Rainbow…
On Wednesday, two men from the Regenboog India Foundation, an Indian NGO, came with many different books and magazines of all types and for several reading levels. They are part of a programme that provides a mobile library to children. They are given a feeling of responsibility by putting down their name and being in charge of a book which will be given back in 2 weeks. This way, hundreds of books are available to children and always changing!
(Sorry, no pictures are available yet due to technical difficulties.)
Hairdresser Action
Last week, Ambika’s (10) brother, wh0 was trained by Xavier (the father of the family) to cut hair,visited us for the children’s regular haircut. Some were more eager than others to get their mane trimmed, but hygiene is necessary and washing afterwards was fun!
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Sticky Fun
Last Saturday, the artist Caroline Venn, who often comes to the home, visited the children, together with a local author. They brought journals for the children to decorate with tissue paper. Enjoying their artistic freedom, the children set to work immediately. The result was a wide range of very different works, one more beautiful than the other.
Next week the poet will be back to do some literary work with the children in their new notebooks.
All of us at the home are inspired by this generous gesture and would like to thank the sponsors! As the children would say: “Very very thank you!”
WIDE Children's Home 
