This summer has been a whirlwind of activity for HHI – with demand growing and our capacities expanding to meet these. Recently HHI’s lead trainer, Sujatha, led a training for 29 women who work as caregivers, foster mothers and hospice workers for almost 200 orphaned and vulnerable children. All of these women and children are a part of a wonderful organization called Reaching the Unreachable (RTU). The training was such a hit, that it was featured in RTU’s recent newsletter.

Here is what they wrote:
One of the important programmes of this summer was by “Hands to Hearts”. The resource person Mrs. Sujatha Balaji gave training to our staff and trained Foster Mothers on cognitive skills, language development, therapeutic massage, songs & story telling, with focuses on children. The trained people are expected to disseminate the learnt skills to others. We also requested the regular support of this organization. During the programme Brother asked me to rush to the training hall; when I entered I was surprised seeing small children lying on mats and the mothers massaging their legs, the children were enjoying it by half close their eyes. During this training we could hear the joyful shouting of the children and mothers from the training hall. This was one of the joyful events of this month; we expect good results from coming months onwards.

Pictures from the training -

Women working in groups – learning about a baby’s cues of engagement and disengagement.

Who doesn’t love massage?

 

The women and children enjoy the Puppet Show as part of learning about language development.