2009, June

Dear Friends, for those of you who do not know the story, in November 2007 Phill Booth eetep projects manager visited an orphanage in Chennai India. On arrival, my immediate reaction was to say pack up we are leaving this place.

Building work at the new orphanage.

Rags to Riches

The city of Chennai was no place for children, the small rented building they had was ill-equipped and cramped. They ate, slept and played in one room and they could not play out as the streets of Chennai are constantly full of traffic. Even I found it hard to cross a road. It was like living in a little prison for them. They found it almost impossible to find rented accommodation for so many children and were forced to move around quite a lot.

The Promise of a Better Life

After making some enquiries and having endless discussions about the future, a promise was made. The promise was simple: eetep aid would support the orphanage financially in the amount of £350 per month, and we would find some land in a better area and build a new orphanage there. Eighteen months later our dream is now a reality as our orphanage project has been completed. Our children now have a place to be proud of, at last a place to call home. We have delivered our promise and » this film shows each stage of the build « (film to be added shortly) from buying the land to building an orphanage we can all be proud of.

A Heartfelt Thanks

Many, many, many thanks to everybody who made a contribution, I cannot thank you all enough. I am sure eetep have put every penny of your kind donations to the very best use. Together we can move mountains; we have brought these children from a couple of rooms in Chennai to this. Words cannot express what working together has achieved. We did it! Against all the odds, we did it! Let us keep this momentum and do so much more; we have the experience and we have the support so let's use it. Every week new appeals drop into our inbox and we can achieve so much more if we continue to gain support. Although this orphanage is now complete we still need to send £400 for a water purifier, landline telephone connection and school fees for the year ahead.

The orphanage project has been our biggest project to date and we would like to send special thanks to the following supporters: William Burras who has supported us from the start; Barbra Helm of Glossop; Catherine Sykes and Jennifer Castle for all their fundraising efforts; Danielle Booth of Penistone who has worked so hard raising money in every kind of way and Heidi Herrington (although we have never met you Heidi, you always deliver just when we need it most).

A big thanks also to all our supermarket bag packers: Antonia Smith; Andrew Sim; Mollie Eccles; Tom Ray; Sian Squires; Mike Howard; Debbie Fletcher; James Dennis; Jess Massey; Laura and Megan Fletcher; Bethany Price; Cody Donlan; Beverly Zastauny; Tania Squires; Chelsea Mcglone; Karen and Aiden Backhouse and all the Booth family: Eileen; Anthony; Tracy; John; Charmaine; Kayleigh and Samantha; Melissa Drake and Kayleigh Cass.

And thank you to all our standing order supporters: Lilian Stokes; Tracy Booth; Eileen Booth; Mary Murgatroyd; Barbara Helm; Vivienne Clements; Jean Nichols; Colin Booth; Gail Brown; Mr & Mrs Courtney; Matt Nicholas; Kath Walker and Mike Jackson. In total we receive £227 per month in sponsorship for angels of hope. I know times are hard in the UK but if you feel you are able to contribute even a few pounds a month please get in touch.

New Projects On the Way

Eetep will be calling a meeting of trustees in the next few days and we will be deciding what project to take on next. Sadly there are three projects to choose from and due to the fact they are all in different countries we can only take on one at a time but children's projects will always be given extra consideration.

Manchester to Blackpool

Eetep are putting together a team to enter the Manchester to Blackpool cycle ride (12-07-2009) to raise money via sponsorship, everybody welcome - contact us for details. Please consider a donation towards our work as we cannot function without support. Thank you for reading.