Grandmas is a charity working with people affected by HIV and they visit the TB hospital in Calcutta as often people present with TB who actually have HIV but have not been tested for it.  Patients stay at this hospital for six months while having treatment for TB as the medicine must be taken every day and it ensures that they get the right medication at the right time.  The hospital was built as a "flag ship" TB hospital in India but as you can see it has fallen into appalling disrepair . I am an average white english mother of three teenage children and found the conditions that these poor ladies are forced to live in totally shocking, with no one to fight their corner, no visitors, little nourishing food, zero hygiene etc but very sweet and
caring nurses trying to do their best against all odds.  As we sat with this wonderful old lady we literally flicked bugs off her bed.

Last November I was taken to the womens section of the TB hospital in Calcutta, I felt like I had arrived in the Soviet Union thirty years ago. I had taken three tubes of hand cream with me and thought that while we sat and "chatted" through an interpreter I might do a little hand massage. On the side of one of the wards was a lady probably in her forties who was unable even to sit up and I asked if I could go and sit with her.  As I was unable to communicate except by sign language I asked if I could massage her hands.  As I massaged her hands she began to weep and the tears flowed down her cheeks.  After a few minutes she pulled up her top and motioned for me to massage her stomach and chest.  I was so shocked that she would exposed herself in such a way as the Indians are so private and are covered up all the time, I was also shocked by how thin she was, the cream kept getting stuck between her ribs.  What I felt God saying was that no one touchs this woman with love and care, the only touch she gets is being examined or for medical reasons not just with love.  That her skin was soft and smelt lovely was a real blessing for her in such a grim and harsh place.  As I left her I hid the cream under her sheet so she could use it later.  
I am able to go back to Calcutta at the beginning of May and am hoping to take back enough hand cream to give a small tube to every lady in the hospital as a gift and to massage as many as we have time for.  What a tiny thing to be able to do but what a difference we can make.  If any of you know anyone at  Clarins or L'Oreal or Dove or anyone who makes hand cream could you send this on to them and then we can all be a part of blessing them!
Thank you.