The Untold

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The Untold: The Real Marigold Hotel

The Volunteers Helping in India

The Real Marigold Hotel

BBC Radio 4 - The Untold, The Real Marigold Hotel

With covid sweeping through India a group of UK volunteers hope community links can help.

When Phillida and Christopher Purvis dreamed of a guest house in India many were bemused: but the couple succeeded and pre covid many others had joined them as community volunteers

As covid continues its relentless rise through India many in the UK are wondering what they can do to help. It’s a question that is particularly important to Christopher and Phillida Purvis, who have spent the past five years setting up a unique volunteer program in the Nilgiri Mountains

The couple hit on the idea of establishing their own kind of ‘Marigold Hotel,’ which would give retired volunteers the chance to spend weeks at a time helping Adivasi villagers on a whole range of different projects, from gardening and bee keeping, through to teaching and innovation hubs.

In 2017 they started building the PLENTI guest house and over the next couple of years a steady stream of UK volunteers have used their skills and interests to help in different ways. The youngest volunteer was 52, and the oldest was in his 80’s, with people bonding in the evenings over meals and shared stories of their adventures.

That was pre-covid. Last March as the pandemic took hold, the guest house volunteers had to leave. And since then they have little idea of when they might be able to return. Some, like retired teacher Elayne Wehrlin, have been able to maintain their involvement. She holds English classes via zoom for people in the community that she’s got to know and care about:

She believes she has got as much from the volunteering as those she has been helping: “I’m so lucky to have found something this rewarding to do in my old age. There are many inspiring projects going on there and I am hoping people are alright during this terrible time and that we can be with them again later this year.”

The idea for the guest house came after a chance encounter between Christopher and Phillida and the community leader Stan Thekaekara. He and his wife, Mari, have been alongside the Adivasi community in the Nilgiri Hills for more than three decades, setting up businesses, a school and a hospital, for tribals living in more than 300 villages and settlements.

An original Untold programme on the early days of the PLENTI project attracted a number of radio 4 listeners keen to volunteer, including Nick and Helen Moore, who run a guest house in Greece. They’ve not only helped train the hotel staff, they’ve also helped improve the way meals are prepared in the Adivasi hospital. Helen says it’s been enormously rewarding:

“What’s been nice about the project is the way that Christopher and Phillida didn’t set things up from scratch - all of the community groups are there and what we are able to do is really unite with people and to work together. We are so privileged in the West and this is something we can help with that really makes a difference.”

Another volunteer, Jack Daniels, has been involved in training some of the Adivasi nurses, particularly in patient interactions. He is in his 80’s and says that age is no barrier when it comes to helping out: “I go for five weeks at a time and always love it, sometimes I fit in a week of travelling by Indian rail at the end and alongside my work in the hospital I always do some poetry sessions because they’re very popular.

“In the guest house people meet at the end of the day and exchange their experiences, which is super. I love hearing about things like the Innovation Hub – Christopher is a man of many ideas and he believes that volunteers with any skills can find something there. I am anxious about what might happen in the community and keeping a close eye as things develop.”

PLENTI: http://www.plentiproject.org/
The programme is produced by Sue Mitchell

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