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Dear Friends
 I have just spoken to Dr Chaudhuri, the Director of CINI India, who has told me that CINI is going to be involved in the relief efforts to help the families whose homes have been washed away by the flooding in Bihar. It is estimated than more than 2.7 million people have been displaced following monsoon rains of such intensity that the Kosi river has not only breached its banks but has actually changed course.
The greatest need in the refugee camps is likely to be food, and in particular there may be a need for baby foods to help maintain the strength of young children. Currently some people at the refugee camps are only getting one meal a day.
There may also be a need for some shelter materials including ground sheets taupaulins and blankets. It is likely that many people will have lost all their possessions and so will also need basic family packs with soap, kitchen utensils and kerosene stoves for cooking.
This relief effort is in urgent need of funding.
You can donate here, or by sending a cheque to CINI UK, Suite 631, 456-458 Strand, London, WC2R 0DZ.
Thanks for your support.
Anna Taylor
Director of CINI UK
The sponsored fast team for July have now set up their online sponsorship pages. Please support their efforts by sponsoring them online by clicking on the links below. Or if you are interested in joining in the August fast, please email karenallonby@ciniuk.org for more details
Isabelle Pelly - www.justgiving.com/isabellepelly
Sophia Furber - www.justgiving.com/furberfastsforcini
Shelly Raj - www.justgiving.com/shellyraj
Rima Shah - www.justgiving.com/rimashah
Sana Usman - www.justgiving.com/sanausman
Heather Tomlinson - www.justgiving.com/heathertomlinson
After having spent several weeks at CINI's Emergency Ward and Nutrtition Rehabiltiation Centre, assisting the staff there as part of his medical elective, Dr Feroz Shah has been inspired to run the BUPA Manchester Run in aid of CINI's work to fight malnutrition. He is aiming to raise at least £300 - enough to fund the salary of a health-worker working at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre for a full six months. To show your support for his fundraising efforts, please go to www.justgiving.com/fshah and sponsor him online. To find out more about taking on your own sponsored challenge in support of CINI's work, please email info@ciniuk.org
The 8th March was International Women's Day. CINI marked the day by launching an appeal for support for its Adopt A Mother programme, which is helping save mother's lives in poor communities in India.
In most parts of India, entrenched gender inequality compounds poor women's limited access to antenatal care, medical support during child birth and adequate nutrition during pregnancy. Consequently, women are 80 times more likely to die of a maternity related cause than women in the UK, meaning that over 529,000 women fall prey to maternal mortality each year. |
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"Gender inequality is a major factor contributing to poor maternal health in India and is a huge part of the work we do. We recognize the importance of educating families about the priority that pregnant women's health should take."
Director of CINI - Dr Samir Chaudhuri |
By Adopting A Mother you can support a woman's maternal health and empower her to lay a strong foundation for the health of her child for just £5 a month for 30 months .
Your support will ensure a trained local health worker or women's self-help-group representative makes regular home visits to the mother and family, attends the birth, and ensures the baby receives adequate nutrition and healthcare support during his or her first two critical years of life.
All supporters will receive a report on the mother helped and her situation, and when her child is born, and again when he or she reaches 18 months, you will received photos and further reports.
To Adopt A Mother please call 020 7793 3714 or download a standing order form here
If you would like further information about the Adopt A Mother programme, please click here
To make a one off donation to CINI's maternal and child health programme, please click here
Herne Hill resident and mother, Wilma Cavuoto, is excitedly preparing for the Maratona Di Roma 2008 (16th March). She is donating all sponsorship money to the Child in Need Institute (CINI) to help transform maternal health and nutrition in Kolkata (previously Calcutta), in a bid to empower disadvantaged mothers in the region.
Wilma decided to make her 42.195 km-long challenge really make a difference after hearing about CINI UK’s Adopt A Mother programme, through the Herne Hill Union of Catholic Mothers group in the run up to Mother’s Day. “I decided to run the Rome Marathon this year almost by accident! Friends and family encouraged me and eventually the idea turned into a rather challenging reality,” Wilma exclaims.
“When I heard about CINI’s Adopt A Mother programme I decided it would be really worthwhile to help a smaller charity that is focused on the heath of mothers and babies. CINI is about life and that’s both unique and important.”
Limited access to medical care in rural areas contributes to the fact that India accounts for one quarter of all maternal deaths in the world. For every one of these deaths there are even more women for whom crippling complications develop after giving birth. Often these post-natal risks – such as bleeding to death– stem from being underweight, anaemic and generally malnourished.
Women in India are 80 times more likely to die of a maternity related cause than women in the UK CINI recently reveled in its awaited Maternal Health Report. CINI will use the much-needed funds raised to help improve mother and child health services in Kolkata.
To sponsor Wilma and help her to transform the lives of women and children in India go to http://www.justgiving.com/wilmacavuoto.
Have you considered the benefits of leaving a legacy to CINI UK in your Will? The chairman of a respected London law firm, specialising in legacies and bequests, has recently been quoted as saying “people who leave money to charity live three years longer than those who don't".
Though a direct causal relationship between leaving a charitable legacy and living longer has yet to be proved, what is proven is that making charitable donations in your Will has real tax benefits. Though you can leave money to your husband or wife tax free, on the event of the their death, tax is charged at 40% on your estate, over and above the first £275,000 – which with today’s house prices is not an uncommon estate size. In contrast to this, NO tax is charged on charitable gifts left in your will – making this one of the most cost effective ways to give to charity.
For further information on leaving a charitable legacy please contact Anna on 020 7538 0309 or email info@ciniuk.org
Calm and Clear is offering maternity massages and reflexology to expectant mothers with 5% of the cost supporting CINI’s work to improve maternal and child health in poor communities in India.
Details of the massages can be found here
Details of the reflexology can be found here
Under5s.co.uk have announced they will be selling their 2008 Mother’s Day themed educational resources packs, filled with fun ideas for learning through play, in aid of the Child In Need Institute’s (CINI’s) life-saving work to help poor mothers and children in India.
The Mother’s Day pack contains a foundation-stage-medium-term-plan and three focus-plans with advice on helping children learn while making Mother’s Day buns, doing a Mother’s Day painting or making a Mother’s Day print. Also included are three colour pictures of mothers to print, laminate and display. Each pack costs £2.95 of which £2.00 will go directly to fund mother and child nutrition and health projects on the ground in India.
To find out more or buy your copy click here
I arrived in Kolkata on 10 th October 2007. I was to spend 7 full days visiting various CINI projects in Kolkata and Siliguri (Darjeeling).
The first 4 days were spent in and around Kolkata seeing the inspirational work being done in the slums, areas around the station, the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) and Emergency Ward. We visited a village - Daluipur, in the Khagramuri area: Bishnapur Unit 2 outside Kolkata, in 24 Pargans, where we visit two families being helped by the Adopt a Mother programme. Here we were met by two CINI staff who had been involved with this particular village for some years and were told how things were improving with the help of CINI. Two days were spent in Siliguri when we visited - the Drop in Education Centre near Siliguri Train and Bus stations, education shelters in the slums close to the station, and a drop in Education Centre in the Red Light District of Siliguri. Further afield - a Pilot Project in the closed Tea Gardens of Talbiguri.
A visit was made to the Gol Park Office in Kolkata run by Kakoli where she explained to me how the Adopt a Mother project is recorded and how a record is kept of all the project funding.
The HQ in Siliguri is run by Marissa who gave us a presentation of work carried out in Siliguri and the surrounding areas - this being the main HUB helping vulnerable children and families who come to Siliguri from the surrounding states - eg Bihar, Nepal, Assam.
Ronita at the NRC explained the ongoing work and mission of CINI: and how they are moving towards promoting Child and Woman Friendly Communities.
The most important points that I learned from my visits were that communities and individuals must be educated and understand the importance of good nutrition - most important in the first two years of life - together with hygiene, and health care so that their children will survive longer and be able to learn and enter mainstream schools enabling them to gain employment so that they can then support their own families. A lifecycle approach. PREGNANCY to EARLY CHILDHOOD onto ADOLESCENCE.
We need to try and raise funds to support the whole cycle of work supported by CINI. I was struck how the children who attend the drop in centres WANT to learn and how they all support each other. Although these vulnerable children may have been abused and had to leave their family homes, yet there was no violence in any centre we attended. Expert counselling is given to all the children by CINI staff.
It is important to stress that CINI works with other NGOs offering expertise in training.
I came away with a great feeling of hope - yes, the poverty is horrendous and the scale of the problems particularly in Kolkata are immense, but if we can teach people how to improve and care for themselves they will be better able to cope and contribute to society.
Susan Forsyth - October 2007
I visited CINI Kolkata between 10 to 26th October 2007 accompanied by Susan Forsyth from 10th to 17th. Susan has written the report above covering her stay and highlighting the main events of that action packed week!
I spent part of my second week in Kolkata visiting projects with Dr Chaudhuri.
I accompanied Dr Chaudhuri to Murshidabad which, last October, had been badly affected by catastrophic floods and for which CINI UK had raised money used to purchase urgently needed medicines. This time we went to inaugurate a new flood shelter cum Education centre. I have written a separate report on the subject.
Whilst we were in Murshidabad, we were asked to visit a railway station- Azimgang Junction- about 30 kms from Murshidabad, where the local CINI team holds evening sessions for young children on one of the platforms. The project was about to close because of lack of funds. Both Dr Chaudhuri - who was visiting the centre for the first time- and myself were convinced of the usefulness of the project and I very much hope it can be supported by CINI UK as soon as possible.
Back in Kolkata, I helped Dr Chaudhuri launch the Child and Woman Friendly Communities Programme -CWFC- in the Diamond Harbour district. This project is generously funded by Clay Brendish. It was a splendid event beautifully organised by the villagers and attended by several local government officials whose support is invaluable to the success of the project. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the programme.
In Kolkata, I also attended one of the early stimulation sessions in a Muslim slum. I was struck by the dedication of young Muslim girls-aged between 13-17- who go into the homes to teach mothers how to interact with their children so that they are ready for schools. The programme- which falls within the CWFC project- is so popular that there is a waiting list of mothers anxious to participate!
Odile Slynn - October 2007
India has a large number of children living in misery on the streets, railway platforms, markets, slums and in squatter colonies. Living on the fringe, these vulnerable children are exposed to physical, economic and sexual exploitation. Action is needed to address this urgent need to improve access for these children to shelter, education and child protection services.
In addition, it is becoming increasingly clear that action is needed to prevent children from becoming child labourers in the first place. Linking families up to support from the government for families living
below the poverty line, and economic opportunities is one side of this. But another is working with children and their parents before they start school, preparing them for the difficult transition to primary school.
Parents of disadvantaged children frequently have no, or only extremely limited education themselves, and do not have a strong sense of the right of children to attend school, and the opportunities this can open up for them. CINI is working with these parents in order to empower them to give their children the educational stimulation, support and encouragement they need in order to succeed at school.
As well as preparing disadvantaged children for school, local schools also need to be prepared for these children. CINI lobbies local government to improve facilities, for example by providing adequate toilets and equipment, and trains teachers about the needs of disadvantaged urban children, equipping them with the knowledge they need to provide a welcoming environment and the necessary understanding and support.
Together these measures are helping to boost both enrolment and retention rates at schools located in or near to poor communities in which CINI works.
After the festivities, a home detox is the ideal way to purge clutter and start the New Year with a neat home and a tidy mind. Have you considered recycling those well-meaning but unwanted gifts? Or simply removing anything from your home that is neither “useful or beautiful”? Selling your items on ebay could save the lives of a large number of malnourished children and mothers in India .
De-clutter your home and everyone wins. You’ll feel healthier and less stressed when those unwanted kitchen appliances, gadgets and ill-fitting clothes are out of the way. And impoverished mothers and their children will definitely be healthier and happier when the funds we raise are put to good use in our health and nutrition programmes.
Sell your stuff now by clicking here http://www.missionfish.org.uk/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=14755.
Even small sums raised in this way can have a substantial impact on the ground in India. So put your clutter to good use.
Give more than just a present to friends and relatives this Christmas…make a real, sustainable difference to the lives of poor women in children in India with one of our alternative gifts!
1. Gift of health for a child in CINI’s Emergency Ward and Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre
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£3.14 will provide the gift of good health for a child admitted to CINI’s Emergency Ward and Nutrition Rehabilitation centre near Kolkata in India.
This gift will provide one severely malnourished child with the food needed to nurse them back to health in CINI’s Emergency Ward and Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre.
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2. Gift of education for a child labourer
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£4.50 will give the gift of education to an Indian street child. India has the largest number of children under the age of 15 in work in the world, which is a huge number of children who won’t get access to school and the opportunities this can open up. This gift will allow CINI to give a child labourers help with covering the cost of uniform, pens, pencils and school books, giving them a new start for the New Year
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3. Gift of health care for poor women and children
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£11.00 will provide the gift of health care to poor women and children in a poor rural village in India.
As part of CINI’s mother and child health projects in West Bengal, this gift will provide a community health worker’s salary for a week. These workers are drawn from the local community and give mothers and children essential health and nutrition support, helping to avoid preventable deaths
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Please donate online here:
and send an email to karenallonby@ciniuk.org specifying which gift(s) you would like.
About our gifts
All proceeds from our alternative gifts will go directly to the projects in India, so you can be assured your support will reach where it is needed. You will receive a gift card with a photograph of the project explaining how your gift will help, which you can personalise |
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Between 20th and 26th August 2007, CINI UK will be having its first ever Child Labour Awareness Week to highlight the plight of working children in India and the practical measures that can be taken to give children access to education and the opportunity to have a childhood. We are currently looking for individuals, organisations and companies able to help publicise the campaign. If you think you might be able to help, please email Anna Taylor on info@ciniuk.org or ring 0207 793 3714
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On the 1st July Kathy Butt-Ellwand is going to run the London 10K in fancy dress - as long as she receives sponsorship of £250 or more towards CINI's Sponsor A Street Child Programme. Please donate generously to encourage her in this energetic and creative feat and to help disadvantaged children access the education they need to lift themselves out of poverty.
Her sponsor page can be found by clicking here:
http://www.justgiving.com/kathybutt-ellwand
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More than £150,000 was pledged following the launch of an appeal in aid of CINI’s work with severely malnourished children at the House of Lords. This means we are now 83% of the way towards our target to raise the funding needed to run these services for the next five years. |
Amin, his sister Arifa and their mum soon after being admitted
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and one month later |
We now need just 52 supporters to pledge £10 a month (or 26 to pledge £20 a month) for five years to cover the outstanding balance in full!
If you would like to pledge to support this work over the coming years and secure the future of this project in the longer term, please see the services for severely malnourished children section of our website or call 0207 793 3714 to request a pledge form.
CINI wants to expand its mother and child health services, scaling up its successful programme to help more poor women and children in India break free of the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health.
To achieve this we need your help. In the run up to Mother’s Day we are looking for individuals, groups and companies prepared to donate or raise the funds needed to provide one or more mothers with nutritional and healthcare support and advice. It costs £150 or £5 a month over 30 months to support a mother in this way. |
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If you would like to be involved in this campaign, please contact CINI’s UK Director, Anna Taylor on info@ciniuk.org or 0207 793 3714.
Under5s.co.uk have announced they will be selling their 2007 Mother’s Day themed educational resources packs, filled with fun ideas for learning through play, in aid of the Child In Need Institute’s (CINI’s) life-saving work to help poor mothers and children in India.
Director of the UK branch of the charity, Anna Taylor, said “In India, one in every ten children dies before their sixth birthday. More than half these deaths are related to malnutrition. We’re thrilled that Under5s.co.uk have decided to raise funds in such an innovative way to help families break free from the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health.”
The Mother’s Day pack contains a foundation-stage-medium-term-plan and three focus-plans with advice on helping children learn while making Mother’s Day buns, doing a Mother’s Day painting or making a Mother’s Day print. Also included are three colour pictures of mothers to print, laminate and display. Each pack costs £2.95 of which £2.00 will go directly to fund mother and child nutrition and health projects on the ground in India.
To find out more or buy your copy go to www.under5s.co.uk/mumday.
Why not buy an alternative-gift to help save mother's lives? Women in India are 80 times more likely to die in labour than women in the UK. For £11 you can sponsor a health-worker's salary for a week and help women access antenatal care and, critically, a trained person to assist during childbirth. Donate here and then if you would like us to send her a special gift-card please send an email to info@ciniuk.org giving the amount donated, your name and the name and address of your mother.
E-certificates are available as an alternative if you need the gift ASAP.
If you would like to go further and Adopt A Mother for Mother’s Day please click here. Sponsors will be sent a report once the woman who will be helped has been identified and a report and photos will be sent when the baby is born and when he or she reaches 18 months explaining how this support is making a difference to their lives.
Items on offer include beautiful clothes donated by holistic well-being store Calmia, books on pilates and yoga, CDs of music by leading Bengali artists and new experiences such as a skating lesson donated by Skatefresh. You can even bag yourself an original artwork by Cordelia Cembrowicz (recently featured in the Metro).
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We all know New Year's resolutions usually fizzle out within a few days of making them, leaving us feeling guilty and weak-willed. CINI UK has come up with a novel solution. Why not get your resolutions to stick by getting them sponsored?
The sponsorship money raised will be used to help pay for CINI's work nutritional and healthcare projects and its educational work with child labourers.
At the launch of the new scheme, Anna Taylor, the Director of the UK branch of the charity said: "Before you struggle with your resolutions yet again in the coming year, and see them fall by the wayside before January is out, think sponsorship. It will help you stay on course, and it will save lives. One of our volunteers is going to give up smoking. If she makes it through January without faltering she can claim her sponsorship cash. I hope friends and relatives will sponsor generously - as they want to encourage her to stop – and she'll be more likely to keep the resolution if it is sponsored: so everyone's a winner!"
To contact the charity about getting your New Year's resolutions sponsored please email info@ciniuk.org or call 0207 793 3714.
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Dates: December 1st to December 31st 2006
First night reception: December 1st 6.00pm to 9.00pm (all welcome)
Price: FREE
Venue: The John Street Gallery, 11 John Street, Hull, HU2 8HD
Map: Click here
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An unusual insight into CINI’s life saving work to help break down the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health in India through pictures by photographer Laura McCarthy with captions by journalist Emma Krijnen Kemp.
For more information please contact Freewill Events on info@freewillevents.com or call 07811 400232
On 14th November, the Indian government recognised CINI’s outstanding work to help children and the charity received the National Award of Child Welfare. Recipients for this prestigious award are chosen on the basis of the quality of their work, its significance in leading the way on improving child welfare in India, and the numbers of children whose lives have been touched by the charity’s work.
Four days later Dr Samir Chaudhuri, founder of CINI, was also awarded the Italian Parliament’s Prize for Infants, in recognition of the many years he has devoted to promoting the health of children.
Director of CINI UK, Anna Taylor, said, “CINI has always been held in high regard in the NGO sector, with representatives of many well known charities such as UNICEF, CARE and CRY coming to visit CINI’s work on malnutrition and preventative healthcare to see how its success might be replicated elsewhere. It is really wonderful for all the staff working on the projects that the high standard of their work, into which they put so much energy and determined effort, is now being officially recognised by the Indian government”.
“Our warm congratulations to Dr Chaudhuri for winning these well deserved and prestigious Awards which will help raise the profile of CINI worldwide”, added Lady Slynn, Chairman of CINI UK.
26 Oct 2006
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More than 1.5 million villagers on the border between West Bengal and Jharkhand have been forced from their homes by massive flooding.
CINI, which has been working on mother and child health and nutrition projects in the area for the past 5 years, has been playing an important role in the emergency relief operation.
“The priority is to prevent the outbreak of water borne disease and dehydration in children. This is particular important as many children in the area are debilitated by the effects of chronic malnutrition, which weakens their immune systems, making diseases which could be easily fought off by healthy adults potentially life-threatening” said CINI’s Director Samir Chaudhuri. |
Continuous rainfall since the beginning of September has led to rapid rise in river levels forcing villagers out of their homes and into temporary accommodation.
Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed, and there has been widespread destruction of crops.
CINI is distributing water-purifying tablets, bleaching powder and oral rehydration salts to control the spread of diarrhoea and other infections. The charity is also training members of women’s self-help groups in hygiene and sanitation to help to prevent the outbreak of communicable diseases. |
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Funding is urgently needed for this work and can be given by clicking here or by sending donations to CINI UK, Suite 631, 456-458 Strand, London, WC2R 0DZ.
For the latest letter from Dr Chaudhuri about the situation on the ground click here
Click here for report from flood area 15th October
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On the 27th September painter Nigel Cox, sculptress Sandra Bell and Stonehenge Public Relations held a function at Gallery 27, Cork Street at which they told potential buyers that they would donate 10% of every sale made on the night to CINI UK’s work to help poor women and children in India.
Enough was raised at the event to provide nearly 230 severely malnourished children at CINI’s centre just outside Kolkata (Calcutta) with the food they need in order to be nursed back to health. |
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On the 25th September 2006, the Director of CINI UK, Anna Taylor, her new PA - Kathy, and all the charity's regular volunteers (Lexy, Sophia and Andrea) went without food for 24 hours to raise funds for the charity's Fighting Malnutrition in India Appeal.
Please show your support for their efforts and for the appeal by sponsoring them online now at www.justgiving.com/ciniukfast.
The money raised will be used for the charity's work with severely malnourished children and preventative outreach projects.
If you would prefer to give offline, please send a cheque (made payable to CINI UK) to Sponsored Fast, CINI UK, Suite 631, 456-458 Strand, London, WC2R 0DZ.
Even a small contribution can make an enormous difference in India. £3.14 is enough to provide the food to nurse one severely malnourished child back to health. So imagine what could be achieved with £10, £25 or even £50.
In fact - don't just imagine it. Show your support now at www.justgiving.com/ciniukfast or by picking up your chequebook and a pen!
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