With Evelien back in our rich and comfortable (yet cold!) world, we wish you all the best for the new year. We hope you have all received SINAM’s new year greeting card, as well as the calender for the coming year. All children were doing well when Evelien left India.

There are two points of interest that are the topic of this quarterly newsletter. Firstly, celebrating Christmas at SINAM, and secondly the opening of SINAM’s new development centre. On December 25, a very important day with us, but a seemingly normal day in India, mr Perumal organized a Christmas celebration for all the sponsorchildren. We all spent the day at the new and later-to-be-finished SINAM development centre, where the theme was ‘sing and dance’. The children as well as the village teachers and Evelien took turns dancing to popular TV songs and singing old village songs. It was simply wonderful to see the happy faces of the children, loudly cheering for each other’s performances. Lunch consisted of chicken biryani and ice-cream. Meat is a very rare luxury in the lives of these children, and provides some much-needed nutrition.

Secondly on January 6, SINAM was able to celebrate the inauguration of the development centre that has been built over the past 2.5 years. It was a struggle to build this office. Funding came in bits and pieces, and over time the price of cement and bricks doubled. Not everything is finished yet, but SINAM has now started to use the large training room, a kitchen to cook food (and hence cut down expenses) during training sessions, two office rooms and guest rooms for volunteers who come on a regular basis now. The inauguration was attended by hundreds of women, who are looking forward to the training that is to be organized here. The training is also used for events with the sponsorchildren.

Over time, we have received several inquiries regarding the ending of their contracts. Most of the sponsors have a contract that runs up to June 2011. By that time, we will send you a new contract, hoping that you will continue the support. The two year expiry date had been put in place because for many it is hard to commit to a longer period than that. However, the child you are supporting will still very much need your help, and so we do ask you to consider prolonging your participation in the SINAM sponsorship programme.

With thanks for all donations so far,

Evelien and Rosanne

– A movie of the dancing can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EQzEURrkMo