We were told that fund raising is becoming ever more difficult as we compete with the other 200,000 charities in this country for every £1 we raise and it was with regret that our chairman Peter Church announced that sponsorship fees would have to be increased with effect from next April to £18 per month from the current level of £15. However Lord Tyler, a new patron was holding a big fund raising party at The House of Lords in November in the hope of attracting the support of some of the richer members of the community (the expression ‘Fat Cats’ was not used). More efforts are being made in both India and Thailand to increase the public’s awareness of our work among the poorest of their respective populations and to up the level of financial support from these communities. This effort is meeting with more success in Thailand than in India where the newly rich middle class are very ambitious and self centred, partly because they themselves are only just becoming aware of their own new status: however some progress is being made and some of our partner NGOs are going after corporate support although this is only on a small scale at present.

On the subject of NGOs Peter reported that for the first time JHC had attended a meeting together with all our partners and this had been a very useful exercise, which he hoped would become an annual affair. One such partner is DACS (Dindigul Aids Control Centre), which has grown again and now looks after 38 youngsters and 4 mums. The difficulty of safely transporting the children to schools where they would be accepted has been overcome with the presentation to them by one of our support groups of a minibus.

In his talk Joe said that he was delighted to be able to attend this year, as he had been unable to make the trip last year because of a requirement to reside in India for a consecutive 365 days as part of his application for Indian citizenship.

He told us that he had finished writing his book – Miles O’ Smiles.  Copies of the book will be with JHC during November for private sale, all profits going to JHC. Derek Brown will also assist in further publication.

At the end of his talk Joe rhetorically asked where the Boys Town Society (BTS) partnership with JHC was going.  When he started in 1965 there were very few schools available. Today India is so developed good schools are much more widespread. The need to run boys towns and residential projects is reducing and BTS now have 5 Education for Life projects, allowing children to stay at home whilst attending school. He feels this may be the way forward for BTS in coming years.    

Joe ended with a very sincere thank you to one and all. “Our Charity is what our Supporters have made it

today. These are tough times, but we have the wherewithal to continue helping hundreds of the poorest to

gain an education and so move into the world of a decent living.”

GUEST SPEAKER:  Arun Chinnaraj    CEDAR (Centre for Development, Action and Research)

Although currently working in London, Arun has much experience of working with CEDAR (another of our partner NGOs), and gave an informative presentation, describing how poverty still affects millions of poor people in India despite recent economic development. He explained the facts hidden behind some of the figures, and how CEDAR continues to tackle the problem of poverty.

He told us that India now has 69 billionaires:, it’s GDP growth was 7.7% p.a.    That 3 million Indian’s had incomes in excess of $110k but that was only 1.25% of the  population. The middle class numbers some 31 million which is 13% of the population but they are the ones who own all the cars and the big TVs etc.    

The class system is as strong as ever with the ‘untouchables’ still at the bottom of the pile. In other words it really is the same old familiar story that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer which is why even though the Indian economy is booming there is still plenty of work for JHC and our partner NGOs to do. The poorly paid jobs in agriculture are fast disappearing and the newer better paid jobs demand trained employees which is why education is the escape route for children we seek to help and why we are so gratified that they all work so very hard to make the most of the opportunity our sponsorship gives them. It is also the reason that so many of our congregation are happy to give so generously of their time and talents to raise funds for this relatively small charity.

The Boy’s Town Society of South India, and the Joe Homan Charity - Report.

Our Fundraising harvest supper and cabaret was a huge success and raised a super £640.

 ’The Pleiades’ (stars that come out on dark nights) provided our entertainment and we supped on Jacket spuds followed by apple pie or crumble topped by ice cream. All in all it was an evening of great fun so much so that one young lady told her mum that it was ‘better than watching X Factor.

Notes from this year JHC AGM (15 Oct 2011)

Molly and I made the trip down to Kenilworth on Sat 15th Oct to attend our charity’s AGM. It’s a 300 mile round trip and we were quite tired by the time we got back to Knaresborough but it was well worth the effort to hear at first hand about the work in India and Thailand and also to meet up again with Joe our founder.

We were told that fund raising is becoming ever more difficult as we compete with the other 200,000 charities in this country for every £1 we raise and it was with regret that our chairman Peter Church announced that sponsorship fees would have to be increased with effect from next April to £18 per month from the current level of £15.

   Alan Colebrook    Jon Crouch     Joe Homan