Updates of all activities of Saheli Trust, Dehra Dun, India View this email in your browser Dear friends, Please accept our apologies for the delay in this month's Newsletter. One of our children, Prakash, has been seriously ill for the last 15 days and his health has been the focus of our attention. He was shifted to PGI Chandigarh 4 days ago, and is now better. Please read below to know more about Prakash. Prakash, a 9 year orphan who was brought to us by the Child Helpline two months ago. He was attacked by a leopard who held him by his neck. Even though he was rescued by villagers, he was left to die by the family which employed him. Prakash was unable to breathe and had to have a tube inserted into his trachea to help him breathe. Unfortunately the area around the tube which was inserted into his trachea collapsed about 10 days ago and he was unable to breathe, which resulted in him being put on ventilator.  He was shifted to PGI Chandigarh for further treatment on 7th November, where he is now stable. He is due for two surgeries in about a fortnight from now. Please pray for his speedy recovery. Dusshera & Diwali Celebrations at Saheli Women's Shelter Dusshera & Diwali are two major Indian festivals and were celebrated with enthusiasm by both the children and adults of the Shelter alike. Upper left picture shows prayers being held on the occasion and the top right shows effigies of Ravana, an epitome of evil, built by the children. Sweets and  Education never ends.... This month we spent time with the women of Sapera Basti, Shanshai Ashram, a slum in the outskirts of Dehradun, educating them about importance of having a small family. Dr Poonam Maithani, Gynaecologist, joined in the meeting and gave a detailed description of various family planning methods. The desire to have a male child has a number of families in the slum cluster to have upto 7 children, the youngest being a boy. Invariably all the children are left to fend for themselves and rarely go to school. We will continue to attempt to change this mindset of having a baby boy in the families in the slum.   Off we go to school.... The younger children in the Shelter going to  school in the morning. Prakash, the boy we talked about in the beginning, is seen on the extreme right. The few weeks he was well, he had started attending school. Students of St Thomas College visited the Shelter and spent quality time with the residents. An interesting exchange of ideas made the encounter memorable. Message from the Secretary Greetings from Saheli, October has been a particularly sad month for us, because of Prakash. He is such a lovely child, full of energy and an enthusiasm for life inspite of the obvious pain and suffering he goes through. As winters approach, warm woolen clothes were required for all the children and adults of the Shelter along with winter school uniforms. A big thank you to all those who helped us by contributing towards the same. Without the help of each one of you, it would have been very difficult to manage things. Thank you. Finally a big request. Please forward this email to your friends and relatives. Help us in spreading word about our work. The more people know about us, the more suggestions we will get and our work will improve. So, please after reading this, forward it to your contacts. With regards, Shruti Kaushik, Secretary, Saheli   ...and in the end... If you missed the back issues of our newsletter, please follow these links: October 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 April & May 2014 March 2014 February 2014 Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences  *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*