This Christmas 2014 - Helping children in poverty reach for the Stars!

Children from Udhaya Vasal Boys Home, a Catholic Boys Home

Dear Frens,

It has been my dream to help at least one child with no possibilities, no opportunities, no dreams, no hopes, no home, no food, no shelter, to fill him and fill his life with some of the opportunities I have had in my life, a warm home, a good education and love.

Often when I travel to poorer countries, I see children running around the streets, begging, selling things or just hanging and sleeping around street corners with nothing to do, neglected and unwanted.

I always feel a sense of pain at the bleak and daunting future faced by this child. His future is marked by minutes and days and not by years ahead as it is for us when we speak of our future.
The dangers they face on the streets at such a young age on his own is scary to think about especially if he has no adults to care for him and doesn't know when his next meal would be.

My thoughts are always if only I could help them...and now I can and I hope you too have the same sentiments and we can help these children together.

As you know, we have been exploring and feeding the poor in India. The poverty in India is immense.



We found a established Catholic Children's Home run by Somascan priests since 2004 -  they are taking care of 20 children who come from extreme poverty. 

The Children's Home provide a safe haven for the children as well as food, a roof over their heads and place them in schools.

We told the Priest that we wanted to rescue more poverty stricken children especially orphans from the streets in India and the priests have agreed :

1) to search and take in another 5 orphaned or homeless children aged about 8 -12 yrs old into their Children's Home on behalf of us.

2) to finance the upkeep of these 5 children till they are old enough to look after themselves,  the priests have agreed to manage and run a small print shop.


So for our Christmas project this year, we will help these 5 poverty stricken children reach for the Stars! To fill their lives with hope and possibilities!

We want to take the children off the streets and give them a normal life, they will be able to have shelter, to eat, to play, to study, to pray, to live the life of a normal child in safety of the Children's Home.

The total cost needed is $24,500

1) $8750 - The  maintenance of 5 orphaned / homeless boys for year 2015-2016.

• Expenses of each child is $1750  for full board and education for the year.
• 2016 onwards, we target for the earnings from the print shop to pay their yearly upkeep.
• We need sponsors for these 5 orphaned or homeless boys for at least the first year.

 2) $15,750 - Start up expenses for the print shop.

• Printing shop - we have plans to start immediately as soon as in Oct/Nov as location and all key personnel have been identified and are ready to go.
• Costing of 2nd hand equipment are detailed below.
• Printer personnel has 15 yrs experience and can repair and service printing equipment himself.
• Low salary as printer and family will live at the printing premises.
• The Somascan priest will be fully managing the operations.

Project Kyrie cannot make this project happen without you.
Every contribution will make a difference.

Let's all gather together to rescue these children from a life of extreme poverty on the streets with no education.

Christmas is a time of giving so let's give generously and share our blessings with these children who have nothing.

You can contact me through email or whatsapp me at 96956267 if you would like to join me and make your contributions.

As always donors and volunteers are free to visit the boys and also to visit the print shop as well.

May the Lord bless you and your families always!


God Bless,
Mill

'Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man's entire relation to God and to his neighbor'.- Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1166)


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Apendix


YEARLY MAINTENANCE 2015-16 FOR 5 ORPHAN BOYS IN CHENNAI, INDIA

          CATEGORY                                                 PER BOY INR            SGD        

School Fee for English medium school                          30, 000                     $625         

Uniform clothes & stitching                                    6, 000                       $125             

School shoes (white & black)                                   3, 000                      $62.50           

School accessories (bag, lunch box and bag,                   5, 000                      $104.20       

water bottle, pen, pencil, note books, etc.)

Stationery & toilet items per year                           10, 000                     $208.30        

Sports items per year                                                        5, 000                      $104.10            

Colour dresses includes inner wear,                                 15, 000                    $312.50        

banyans per year

 

Food expense, electricity & other miscellaneous       50, 000                  $1041.65

per month

                                                                                    --------------------

TOTAL                                               420, 000 INR           $1750 per child

                                                                                    ----------------------                                                                                                                                           

Set up of small print shop

                        CATEGORY                                                COST: INR              Cost SGD

1.     Second hand off-set printing machine                           250, 000                  $5208

2.     Paper cutting machine: 32 inches                                 100, 000                   $2083

3.     Heater                                                                               5, 000                   $104.20

4.     Machine Tables, steel racks, etc                                     50, 000                  $1041.65

5.     Perforation Machine                                                         5, 000                  $104.20

6.     Paper stocks                                                                    15, 000                  $312.50

7.     Spiral Binding Machine                                                    8, 000                  $166.65

8.     Shop & house advance (refundable)                    100, 000                  $2083.30

9.     Rent for shop and house for 3 months (per month)    16, 000 X 3              $1000

     10.  Salary for Joseph for 3 months (per month)              15, 000 X 3                 $937.50

11.  Salary for DTP: Desk top publisher/designer (per month)  5, 000               $104.20

12.  Electricity Bill approximate per month                              5,000                 $104.20

 

13 Office for client consultation                                               120,000             $2500

                                                          --------------------

                                                                                                         756, 000 INR = SGD$15,750

                                                          ---------------------

Thank You Aloha Changi Resorts on behalf of the poor!

We wish to thank Aloha Changi Resorts for the donation of 21 sets of TV. The needy community who have no TVs in Toa Payoh, RC Zone 1, are now happily enjoying their new TVs :)

Special thanks to Sim Yong, Peter Ng and Irene Leong for all your efforts in getting the TVs to those who need them.

God Bless,
Mill

Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man's entire relation to God and to his neighbor.- Saint Aelred of Rievaulx (1109-1166)

Partnering Red Dot Traffic to provide under-privileged children with educational opportunities

We wish to thank Red Dot Traffic Golf Charity 2013 for their successfully fund raising for the under-privileged. 

On behalf of  under-privileged kids who have received special educational assistance through Morning Star's Nova programme, we wish to thank Red Dot Golf Charity Committee for their generosity and effort in providing this educational opportunity for under-privileged kids to get the help they need to start out their young lives right.

Special thanks to Kitch Lum and Eugenie Sia for the heart and care that was put into this project.

The 2013 children participating in NOVA have done so well that we are looking for more friends of Project Kyrie who might want to participate in this project in 2014 to put more under-privileged kids through the NOVA Programme.

The best way to stop poverty is to stop the vicious cycle of poverty. 

The difference between children whose parents have money and children whose parents have no money is that the latter lack the cultural capital provided by their parents.

Reaching out to needy and under-privileged kids at a young age and by providing them with the proper guidance and extra mentoring will we enable them not only to achieve better grades but be guided from young on how to make good decisions which will be crucial, later in their lives.  

So friends of Project Kyrie, if you would like to raise funds through your private activities to put more under-privileged children to participate in this hugely successful programme called NOVA , pls do contact me as there are more children waiting to join this programme :)

(NOVA) Programme - Nurturing One’s Valuable Attributes

Mission NOVA is a learning support programme for discouraged and under-achieving children.

The objectives of the programme are as follows :

•         To give the pupils strategies to cope with learning in school
•         To empower the parents with parenting skills that complement the project to bring about a positive impact on pupils’ learning      
•         The facilitator/s will be in school daily to guide the pupils in the programme
•         Each pupil will be given an Individual Educational Plan (IEP)
•         Pupils will be taught strategies and skills to cope with learning
•         Pupils will be taught ways to affirm and receive affirmation from peers
•         Pupils are coached in social behavior
•         Pupils are taught to take charge of their lives (rules and consequences)

The programme is run daily after school for a period of 2 years for the selected child, unless she is able to ‘graduate’ earlier after a year. This programme also works on a small facilitator-pupil ratio of 1:8. 

The programme details are as follows :

The schools selected will identify pupils from Primary 1 to 5 for the programme.  All the pupils identified will be from families with financial difficulties.

The identified pupils are severely under performing as they lack the home environment to support them and some may even lack a proper space to reinforce what they had learnt in school or to complete homework. 

While many of the identified pupils may have parents who try very hard to help, they may be unable to because of their own lack of education or work/family difficulties.  

With the NOVA programme, the school is most certain that these under privileged children will be able to meet their ability as they will be closely guided and taught the strategies required to succeed. Most importantly, this programme reaches out to their parents as well to equip them with the parenting skills required to nurture their daughters in a warm and loving relationship.

The total cost per year for the 16 pupils is $80,640, at $420 per child per month (inclusive of lunch).

The estimated cost of start-up furnishing of allocated room (with tables and chairs in clusters) would be $3000-$4000.

If full funding is secured the programme will be able to commence for selected children

The selected school will have to identify the space for the programme in the school and will begin furnishing the room once we are able to confirm that we have the funds to start it. 

*As with most programmes, each family may be asked to pay a token sum monthly to ensure their child’s regular attendance unless the family’s financial situation is absolutely dire. This is a negotiable point with the donor.

* Donations are tax deductible

What better fun than to organise a fun-filled event and to help children for a life time? :)

God Bless,

Mill

Thank You, NACLI for the 163 mattresses

Dear Frens,

On behalf of the families, we wish to thank NACLI  for blessing Singapore's and Indonesia's needy families with the 163 pcs of very good condition mattresses.

We would also like to thank our partners on the ground for the heavy work and high cost of distributing these mattresses to people who need a good mattress to sleep on in Singapore and Batam.

It is very heartening to know that there is so much goodness in the world :)


God Bless,
Mill

"The Lord can use me like a ray of sun to brighten the day."

- Blessed Maria Euthymia Üffing (1914-1955), Feast Day September 9

Sharing with you the faces of the poverty

The Aged

The Men

The women and children

 Dear Frens,

Have you ever looked into the eyes of a person living in poverty?

A man, a woman or a child who is more often than not hungry, using clothes that have hardly been washed and perhaps living in a makeshift tent if the person is fortunate.

When money is zero, hygiene is zero, the necessities we buy for ourselves and take for granted whenever we go to Guardian or Watsons is also zero.

I believe it is most humbling when you look into the eyes of a person in extreme poverty. How can a brother or a sister who live amongst us survive such odds?

I would be humbled  knowing how blessed I am. I feel certain, in that moment many of us will realize how insignificant our daily pains and sufferings are when we compare with the person standing in front us who have so little.

Project Kyrie have been so privileged to be able to reach out to some of our fellow brothers and sisters living in such conditions before the close of 2014.

With the support of friends from Project Kyrie , we managed to distribute 250 food packs and blankets to the poor in Gujarat India. Friends who have supported our feed the poor and homeless in India project know who you all are. A very big thank you for your support and making this food and blanket distribution possible :)

The poor we have helped are very thankful and their blessings reach out to you where ever you are as you celebrate the start of 2014.

I would here like to add a word of special thanks to our friend and partner, Mr Paul Raj for at the age of 72 is living everyday, a life of compassion and mercy as Christ would want.

All food and blankets have been personally administered and distribution supervised by him when he visited Gujarat in December 2013.

Anyone who would like to be part of this project , pls do contact me and we will let you know when the next distribution is. If you would like to personally go to India and distribute the food. You are also welcome!

As always All Glory to God \o/\o/\o/

God Bless,
Mill