UK YMCA visits India

10 November 2008

For over two years, Halton YMCA in Cheshire have been working with Y Care International and Cosmopolitan Housing Association in Liverpool to raise funds to support an HIV/AIDS orphanage.

The orphanage is run by Y Care International partner, Mangalore YMCA in India. The money raised pays for essential treatment for the children and young people there.

In January 2009, a delegation of staff and residents from Halton YMCA will be traveling to India to find out at first hand the reality for young people living with HIV and AIDS in Mangalore. The aim of the visit is to learn about the issues facing the YMCA in Mangalore and India, to learn from YMCA staff in Mangalore about good youth work practice and build the capacity of staff to deliver global youth work with the young people they work with.

The staff and young people from Halton and those they meet in India will share learning, skills and experience about the issues which face young people, both in India and the UK. When they return, the group will share their experiences with colleagues at Halton YMCA, YMCAs in the UK and Ireland, Y Care International’s Youth Workers Network, and Cosmopolitan Housing Association.

Mangalore is home to some of the world’s poorest people. Many of them are at high risk of HIV and AIDS. Poverty and poor healthcare mean many people don’t get important sexual health information. Y Care International has been working with the YMCA in Mangalore and YMCAs in communities across India to improve the health of children and young people and increase their resistance to HIV/AIDS.

Mangalore YMCA builds awareness in the community about the care of children infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. The disease carries a huge stigma in India and the YMCA has been working to improve the community’s understanding about their responsibilities towards children with HIV and AIDS. Using peer education and street theatre, they are providing sexual health information and services to hard-to-reach young people in urban slums and deprived rural areas.

Realising the need to provide care and support to children who are both infected and have been orphaned to HIV, Mangalore YMCA opened an orphanage with one child in June 2003. Today there are 27 children in the centre and the programme has contacts with another 30 children in the community. Mangalore YMCA staff provide shelter and education, food and medicines, as well as love and protection to the orphans.

The delegation in January will be made up of six young residents of Halton YMCA; four staff, including the Chief Executive Mr John Mackie; and Mrs Kris Karaski, representative of Cosmopolitan Housing. The delegation will be led by Mr Mackie and Stuart Wroe, Y Care International’s Senior Global Youth Work Coordinator, who in collaboration with local Mangalore YMCA staff, will facilitate workshops for the staff, giving them the opportunity to share experiences and skills.

The delegation will spend 4 days in Mangalore learning about the HIV and AIDS programmes, shadowing workers at the orphanage, as well as in schools and with the street theatre outreach team, to help them gain a valuable insight into the work. On their return, the group will consolidate and develop their learning and plan for follow-up work amongst their colleagues at Halton YMCA.

By Stuart Wroe, Senior Global Youth Work Co-ordinator