The important feature of Grihini is not policy or procedures. It is the education and liberation of the young oppressed and suppressed women of the Kodai hills, done in such a way that will enable them to be liberators of themselves and their families and to be contributors and liberators of their communities. This education should be carried out with deep respect and care for these young women such that they understand what it means to expect respect from all people and to offer respect, care and support to others. Many will not ever have experienced care in their lives before coming to Grihini. This calls upon those of you who teach them to be models of respect and care. We are all equal and we need to show by our actions that we regard everyone as deserving equality and respect and that they are worthy of love and care. This is a time of change for Grihini. Those of us who were here at the beginning are growing old. We need to prepare ourselves to hand over the baton to younger people and maybe less experienced than us. This is not easy to do, and changes it brings can be hard. To accept, but if we do not embrace the changes before us, Grihini risks functioning through rituals that have lost their spirit, heart and care that they once embodied. We don’t want Grihini to be a ritual without spirit or heart. We want what Grihini does to be meaningful for each person. That is why we have worked together many times over to gain a common understanding of why we exist as a group and what we must do. The discussions of policies and of procedures enables a new guard to come in and the old guard to go out and at the same time keep the spirit of Grihini alive. Grihini has already changed. It is nothing like it was when we started some almost 40 years ago. But we do want to keep faithful to its intention of care, education and support of the most marginal and vulnerable of women in these hills. But this does not mean young people should not speak up. We want new ideas. We also want those of us who have grown old to speak up, because we want your wisdom of experience. Janice Orrell 2024