Thank you to all those who joined us for our Annual Supporters’ Meeting on 11 September 2021. We were privileged to have Dr JV Peter, Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore’s Director, and Dr Anu Rose from CMC’s Community Health and Development Department join us. Dr JV Peter gave a presentation on the current situation at CMC and how they have coped with the second wave of Covid. Dr Anu Rose spoke about CMC’s work in the Jawadhi Hills and the maternal health facility they hope to build to enable safe deliveries and address the high maternal and child death rates. The recording is now available on our YouTube channel here.

The Friends of Vellore UK Annual Supporters Meeting is taking place this Saturday 11^th September 2021 from 10:30 am to 12:00 noon on Zoom.

We are delighted that Dr JV Peter, Director of CMC, and Dr Anu Rose from CMC’s Community Health and Development Department (CHAD) will be joining us. Dr JV Peter will give a presentation on the current situation at CMC. Following this, Dr Anu Rose will speak about CMC’s work in the Jawadhi Hills, the projects we are supporting there and the new emergency obstetric and neonatal care facility they are hoping to build. There will also be an overview of all of Friends of Vellore UK’s current projects.

If you would like to attend, please register for the webinar here.
(Only one person per household will need to register if you will be sharing a screen.)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

We hope you can join us.

Friends of Vellore UK are looking to appoint a part-time fundraiser. Working from home, this post is initially three days a week for one year, with the possibility of renewal. Please download the job description here and get in touch if you have any questions.

On 24th April 2021 Friends of Vellore UK launched an appeal to raise funds to help CMC Vellore and associated smaller Indian mission hospitals care for Covid patients. We are so grateful to all those who donated. Wonderfully, we have now raised £216,000. We have allocated grants totalling £220,000 and are hoping the final £4,000 will come in over the next few weeks.

£60,000 has been transferred to CMC Vellore for oxygen concentrators, BiPAP machines, ventilators and to cover the cost of patient care. We have transferred £20,000 to Kotagiri Medical Fellowship Hospital to enable them to expand and upgrade their 2-bed ICU, £20,000 each to Baptist Christian Hospital Tezpur and Miraj Medical Centre to enable them to purchase oxygen generators and £20,000 each to Asha Kiran Hospital Lamtaput, Reynolds Memorial Hospital Washim and Madhepura Christian Hospital Bihar for equipment to treat Covid patients. We are also sending £40,000 to Christian Fellowship Hospital Oddanchatram for them to expand their ICU facilities.

These hospitals are very grateful for the support that we and others have been able to show them in this challenging time. You can read more about how CMC has been responding to the pandemic here. Asha Kiran Hospital sent us a report which you can read here. We will include more updates in our Autumn newsletter.

The second wave of COVID is now abating in India. CMC have gradually started opening up the hospital to non-COVID work and patients have started to trickle back in. Though the pace of COVID work is gradually reducing, CMC are preparing for a possible third wave that has been predicted by many. Please keep them, and all the mission hospitals mentioned above, in your prayers.

If you would like to donate towards Covid costs, please do so here.

We have just published our Spring 2021 newsletter.  View it here:

If you are not on our mailing list and would like your details to be added to this, to receive this newsletter and future issues by post, please sign up here.

On the 5th of December, 2020, CMC held a 24-hour global online event to honour the legacy of Dr Ida Scudder, born 150 years ago. If you missed this, a recording of the main program can be viewed here.

CMC have made available the pre-recorded elements of the other parts of the celebration available, hour by hour. They currently don’t include the anchor contributions (i.e. Thomas Pulimood’s introductions for FOV UK’s hour). These may be added in future. The playlists are available here. FOV UK is playlist 13.

Please join with us in praying for the work of CMC.

The latest edition of Maitri for 2021 is now available to download. Maitri in Sanskrit means friendship. It is produced by the chaplaincy team at CMC and contains Bible reflections and suggested areas for prayer for each week of the year.  If you would like to be added to an email list to receive this on a weekly basis, please indicate this on the consent form here.

We have just published our Autumn 2020 newsletter.  View it here:

If you are not on our mailing list and would like your details to be added to this, to receive this newsletter and future issues by post, please sign up here.