Housing expert Dave Hider recently swapped Hereford for Bangalore in Southern India, along with wife Sarah and children Esme and Josh. He is blogging for New Start about his work with the Fishermen Trust, an organisation that supports street children.

Spent the morning with Raj discussing some of the possibilities for ‘work’ which we may get involved with out here. Here is a quick summary of what we might be up to:
1. Helping to kit out the Fishermen Trust’s offices which Raj has secured. Desks and other furniture need to be got. If you fancy chipping into this pot do let us know…
2. Meeting with and mentoring Raj’s first employee, Nandu, and helping with roles and responsibilities
3. Establishing the Trust’s first hostel for street kids and drop in centre
4. Regular visits to local orphanages with our kids, and getting to know and support the staff there
5. Setting up regular visits and ‘drop ins’ for the street kids at the local train station
6. Regular visits to an AIDS hospice for kids
7. A variety of work in local slums
8. Two camps – one next week (with just me and the kids) in the forest in Ooti (seven hour truck drive) with all their wonderful wildlife (!!!) and one two weeks after that with a church group which again is a seven hour drive and then train home – in the hills north of Bangalore. I have to speak at both camps so have some work to do to prep.
Raj has been really good at hooking us into a great support network here and we look forward to us and the kids making good relationships.
About to all go to bed and checked the temperature outside…....a staggering 92 degrees at 9pm at night!

We are so looking forward to the end of this month when apparently it starts to cool. All the Indians we have met have been saying how hot it is too!

Dave Hider is head of care and supported housing for Bromsgrove-based West Mercia Housing Group.

You can read more about Dave’s work in India at, www.thehiders.co.uk