NAV YATRA - a search for an alternative

307
swathi nagar
west fort
trivandrum, kerala, india
e-mail: keith@navyatra.org
695023

May 2002

      It was at about this time last year that I made an appeal for funds to complete the buildings at Nav Yatra after running out of my savings. The facility is almost ready. There are only three months to go before we open our doors to
welcome persons with disabilities and children – primarily persons with an intellectual disability, working children, street children, orphans. While awaiting the completion of the buildings we’ve been working with disabled persons outside the facility and this work will now be based within Nav Yatra together with the full complement of our programs.

Its a most beautiful and unique facility, I dare say.
Built along ecological lines, gracefully blending into the hillside terraces, integrating rainwater collection, alternative energy and organic planting of fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs. Speaking through its very design the message of beauty, joy, life, hope that we wish to bring to those that society here has cast aside. Designed to be multipurpose, accommodating anything from a training workshop to a dance program to an art and craft demonstration/exhibition, a volleyball game, a cooking class or
quiet places for meditation, yoga, acupressure or therapeutic massage. Meaningful work, dance, music, family support, social integration, normal life experiences, nutrition, recreation - all part of the programs of Nav Yatra to assist persons with disabilities to live more dignified, self reliant and fulfilling lives. And at a more purely medical level, we have elicited the skills of an ayurvedic physician and a homeopathic doctor and have entered into a collaboration with a reputed organisation here to place neurologists, speech therapists, psychologists and physiotherapists at the service of disabled people and their families

We could not have completed the buildings without the assistance we received last year from relatives and friends who now journey with us in a visible way through these beautiful structures. But now, we need your help to run our programs. Several people have suggested that we try to build a 'Circle of Friends of Nav Yatra' consisting of people who would make a contribution to us each year. Some people are already organising a garage sale, charity BBQ and dance for us. Some have sold our handmade cards. This really encourages us. Our annual need is $16,500 Cdn. ($10,000 U.S.). Our commitment to simplicity makes it possible for us to run a facility of this scale on this size of a budget. The Stanley Francis Foundation, a registered charitable foundation, has obtained approval for Nav Yatra to be included as one of their charitable projects and can therefore issue tax receipts to Canadian donors. Funds raised are released to us on condition that we submit detailed monthly reports of activities and expenditures, making us accountable for monies we receive.

The Foundation was started by Stan Francis who on retiring from his business practice committed himself to doing something for the poor in Africa and in India, the country of his birth.