GRACE THIRD WORLD FUNDGTWF is providing a new electricity generator for the Home which will enable power to be available on site during the regular scheduled cuts! [Aug-08]
Following the death of Rev Else in May, the charity committee has elected Mr Ray Richardson of Peel, Isle of Man to take on the leadership role of GTWF. [Jul-08]
Whilst in the island to speak at Rev Elses's funeral, Grace Childrens Home Manager Timothy Babu has enjoyed Manx hospitality with us and taken away much to tell the children back in India! [Jun-08] .
With sadness we announce the death of our founder and chairman Rev Matthew F Else who passed away on 18 May 2008. Please bear with us while we update the web site. The work continues. [May-08]
Old News...
New arrival at the GCH
Some of the young lads living in the Grace Children Home have been selected to join the pool for the Andhra Pradesh state basketball team!
Buy a buffalo!
Presentations around the UK
Successful operation in Chennai
A big thankyou to AFD Software of Ramsey, Peel Charity Shop, Gaiety Theatre, Manx Radio, the Isle of Man Government, Blythswood Care and the many churches around the UK who continue to contribute to the work in India.
-- Grace Third World Fund
In 1997 Mat
thew Else and James Richardson of Peel. Isle of Man went to visit an orphanage in Rajahmundry, and met three people who literally changed their lives.
A young man called Timothy Babu, whose dream was to build an orphanage and to help the many disadvantaged children in India, and two severely disabled boys called Muddada Raju and Pudi Satyanaryana
Muddada Raju (known as Raju) was at this time eleven years old. He had been born with a condition called congenital bilateral quadriceps contracture, which in layman’s terms means that he was born with his knee joints the wrong way round.
However, it was possible for his condition to be corrected by surgery. He had already had a consultation at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai (formerly Madras) and the orthopaedic surgeon saw no reason why Raju should not be able to walk normally.
It would cost £2,000 to enable him. A small price to pay one might think. However, Raju’s father pulled a rickshaw for a living, and earned just a few pounds a week, and the price for his son’s surgery was far beyond his means.
Raju faced a future of joining the many beggars in the streets of India, because he would never be able to work for a living.
The problem was finance. Matthew and James came home asking themselves the question: What can we do?
The £2,000 needed for Raju’s operation was a comparatively small amount by western standards, and a concerted effort was made to raise this money as soon as possible. With the help of the Manx people, and the children of Peel Clothworkers, the local junior school, in particular, the money was soon raised.
21st May 1998 saw Grace Third World Fund officially registered as Manx Registered Charity No 727, and by the beginning of 1999, Raju had not only had his surgery, but was walking for the first time in his life.
See Pudi’s story on our sketch history.
