Our first meeting today was with the Ministry of Social Security, with whom we have already met once. As you may have heard, the ministry is very eager to support our project, and today they brought a panel to discuss HOPE and how the ministry might support our efforts. We presented general information on the HOPE Fellows Program, explained our needs assessment, and asked for government logistical support, including information on orphanages and a letter of introduction from the government in order to facilitate our research.
The ministry did us one better, and set us up with Mr. Caleechern, who has been in charge of overseeing orphanages for many years. He has offered to set up all our meetings with orphanages. Additionally, the ministry will arrange meetings with community leaders to present the Fellows Program. Although we do not yet have a letter of introduction, Mr. Caleechern was nice enough to call the orphanage we visited today (the Currimjee Infirmary).
Obviously, the meeting was a huge success, and we now have permanent contacts in the ministry with whom we will be working closely to organize the logistics of our needs assessment.
Mike