The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Adding colour to their lives

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Monday, Jan 21, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Adding colour to their lives

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Pichumani

Fresh look: Student volunteers paint the walls at the old age home.

CHENNAI: For the 18 student volunteers from United States, scrubbing and painting walls was a new and exciting experience as they added colour to the old age home run by Kalaiselvi Karunalaya Social Welfare Society at Mogappair West recently.

A team of students from Birmingham Southern College, Alabama, accompanied by two professors, have been spending most of their time decorating the old age home, ‘Tapasya,’ for the past two weeks. Political science student Emma Corey said: “My other classmates are exploring other countries. We decided to travel to India and contribute towards the welfare of the people.”

Besides painting the walls, a few students gave an aesthetic touch to ‘Tapasya’ by putting up their paintings. The students have a long list of places to visit before they board their flight back home on January 29.

Elizabeth Cote, a medical student from Harvard University, is providing training to the caregivers about child care and sanitation. “I want to improve the health condition of the children here and prevent hospitalisations and infant mortality rate,” she said.

Executive manager of Kalaiselvi Karunalaya K. Rajini Devi said the training for caregivers on importance of hand washing and early detection of illness among children had been of immense help.

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