Waugh wants to help more children

KOLKATA: Australian cricketer Steve Waugh has a new passion. It is called Ashray, a home to 200 girl children of leprosy sufferers. The foundation stone has already been laid at Nepalganj in South 24 Parganas and the Ashray fund has been set up in Australia.
"Steve wants to reach out to many more girl children of leprosy sufferers," said Calcutta Foundation chairperson Shamlu Dudeja who had introduced Waugh to Udayan, an NGO which Steve Waugh was associated with earlier.However, this was not possible at Udayan because, according to Udayan founder Reverend J G Stevens, who was given the Order of British Empire (OBE) last Friday, their facility at Barrackpore "had reached its full capacity with 300 children — 250 boys and 51 girls — and would not be able to accommodated any more."
Meanwhile, Rev Stevens himself has been caught in a bit of a controversy. That Rev Stevens, did not mention Steve Waugh in his acceptance speech at the OBE function on Friday last raised many eyebrows. The priest, however, dismissed all reports of "differences in the top brass of the Udayan management over certain issues".
"There is no trouble at all in Udayan. Steve continues to be our friend and I will support him in all his future projects with children of leprosy sufferers," he told Times News Network on Sunday.
"The allegations are baseless. A man cannot name all beneficiaries in a two-minute OBE acceptance speech in front of the British high commissioner to India. Dominic Lapierre has been with us for years now," said a Udayan staff member. He was reacting to a section of the audience saying that Rev Stevens should have mentioned Waugh who brought in funds for the Nibedita House and the Japanese consulate which pumped in Rs 30 lakh for the school within the Udayan premises.