At Planet Hope, children around and over the age of seven receive the opportunity and support they need to attend school as well as benefit from the protection and healthcare provided by Planet Hope. The average cost of providing this care and protection for each child is around £120 a year. (Open Hands India is desperately looking for people who would be happy to support these children)

Small children follow their parents around many of the quarries while they are working, unless there is an older child who can care for them at the family's hut at the edge of the quarry. Through the efforts of the Sacred Heart Brothers a dispensary for the quarry communities /day care centre for smaller children has now been built very near one of the largest quarries, thus helping to provide a safer environment for some of these small children.

Most of the back breaking work is done by hand. Although in the quarry with the crushing plant, the workers and their children have the extra health hazard of breathing fine stone dust. Lung diseases and breathing problems are common place in these quarries.

There are around twenty quarries in the area dealing in various grades of stone. Most of the quarry workers will have come from Tamil Nadu, the neighbouring state. Access to water is often a problem, the same limited amount of water is used for washing clothes and bathing If you enlarge this picture you can see washing drying on the rocks near the water. Quarry workers often have to walk two kilometres to collect drinking water, some quarry owners provide water by tanker, for which their workers must pay. 

Children under the age of fourteen are not allowed by law to work in quarries. However very few of the quarry community people have birth certificates. This girl said she was sixteen.

 The stone workers communities are based around the edges of each quarry. Most settlements consist of rows of simple thatched huts with no water or drainage. Staff from Planet Hope are continuing to develop links with the quarry communities, helping form parents committees, giving advice and listening to what these people are saying. A member of the Planet Hope team visits these quarry communities daily.

Boys waiting for a hair cut in the grounds outside of Planet Hope. Planet Hope consists of four units linked by an internal veranda built around a grarden courtyard and general hall. Each unit is managed by two 'house parents' and each unit provides a secure home for 30 children. The site also has central kichens and office space, a medical room and a couple of  rooms used used by staff or visitors.  

The children are provided with a balanced, maily vegetarian diet. Food is eaten outside, on the verandas or in the units depending on the weather and time of day.

Before school children will clean their units and sweep the verandas, some will help prepare vegetables. After meals each child washes his or her plate. After school the bigger children wash their clothes.

The children are attend either Tamil or Kannada medium schools except the youngest who have recently started attending an English medium pre-primary. The support of the Planet Hope house parents is essential for most of these children if they are to cope with the demands of the curriculum.