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 Recently I interacted with our first-ever graduating class students.
I asked, “What are your dreams for the future?” Some students instantly raised their hands and said they wanted to become doctors. A few wanted to become engineers, pilots, and more. They wanted to pursue professions which are lucrative. What a change! Some of these children would have become sweepers or maidservants in elite Indian homes if they had not been given the opportunity to study in our English medium schools. To me this is the true yardstick of the transformational work we are involved in. These children, equipped with the power of knowledge and character, will bring about formidable change in their families and communities. The 13,500 students in our schools and those who will join us in the years to come will dream big -- and their parents and communities will see a brighter flame of hope.
Special Visitors
George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilisation visited India after 40 years. Children in our schools at Bangalore, Jeedimetla and Uddamarry were very excited to meet such a globally-known man. George attended the Children’s Day celebrations on November 14 at Jeedimetla and Uddamarry Schools and children performed colourful dances, dramas for George.
Philip Yancey, the world renowned author also visited our school at Uddamary and stopped over at each class and spent time with children. Philip also visited the tailoring and computer institutes at Uddamarry and the Lydia Enterprise of Women With a Cause.
 Staff Training
We continue to strive towards raising our standards and bringing excellence in our schools. One of the highlights of the last months was various staff trainings conducted in different parts of India for our staff members.
We conducted training covering child psychology, phonics, teaching methods, developing habits of reading, learning and teaching. 68 staff from our schools in North India attended the training.
Training with staff from Australia’s Pacific Hills School System was conducted and 95 staff members from all over India attended the trainings in Hyderabad and Lucknow.
Trainings also were organised for principals on academic administration and quality evaluation framework along with one of our Australian Educational Consultants in Hyderabad, Trichy and Lucknow. The consultant, with his experience of being an education inspector, brought lot of insight about maintaining and evaluating the school standard.
Fun Family Phonics training was organised with two Canadian consultants for the kindergarten and primary teachers in Hyderabad and Lucknow. The aim was to help our teachers teach phonics to younger children in creative and better ways. The staff really enjoyed the print, audio and video material they received as part of their training.
The Only Health Worker
Leela, the community health worker at a school in North India is providing medical services over and above what is requested of her.
She is the only choice for medical care within the radius of 80 kilometres. Since Leela began health work in June, she has assisted in delivering babies, given IV fluids, and was able to apply catheter for a stroke patient. In addition to caring for and teaching school students, Leela is visiting and checking three nearby villages. Now Leela has taken two health workers from other schools along with her to train them.
 World AIDS Day: December 1
Many of our schools celebrated world AIDS Day on December 1. In most places, schools organised rallies and processions through nearby villages to bring awareness among the local people about AIDS. Children held placards and shouted slogans as they walked around the villages and villagers came around to watch.
In a school in North India 150 students paraded through the streets carrying signs, followed by 20 vehicles. A television reporter interviewed the Community Development Officer (CDO) of the school, and several newspaper reporters published an article on AIDS awareness. The CDO is trying to enforce the hair dressers in the village to use new blades with every customer. He is also informing the public that the hospitals and clinics must use fresh syringes with each patient.
At a school further north, staff are planning to screen a film about AIDS awareness in many villages in the upcoming months.
In South India, staff members organised a community program in the school. Three local doctors were invited to share information of the HIV virus. They explained what the virus is, how to prevent, and how to care for an AIDS patient.
Medical Camp
During November 3-11, a medical camp was organised in the 2004 Asian Tsunami-hit area along with 22 doctors, including 16 from USA and 6 local doctors. Many people travelled far distances to reach the camp site and 1550 people were checked and treated in these camps.
Needle and Pen for Manual Scavengers
A small village in Central India has a community of people who belong to the caste of ‘manual scavenging’, which includes the collection and disposal of human excrement. Their caste-vocation places them as one of the lowest in the social order. On November 16, we inaugurated a new tailoring centre as an initiative to beak them away from their caste-vocation. We also started an adult literacy training centre to help them to learn and write. Their excitement was obvious in their words, “Holding pen in our hand is beyond our dreams. Now we will not be cheated in our work as we can read and understand what is being given to us”.
On the same day, a loan of Rupees 95,000.00 was granted to 3 SHGs and 4 individuals. Santhoshamma is an uneducated Dalit woman and her husband is a manual labourer. Her family lives in a small room along with 4 brothers and three sisters. They continually went through scarcity and poverty as there was not enough income to feed all of them. Two of her children study in our school and that is how she came to know and joined one of the SHGs. Santhoshamma was one of those women, who received a loan from our SHG and has started a small business of buying and selling clothes from house to house.
An honourable job
The Mushahar community by its name itself is known as ‘rat eaters’ community. Since they are at the ‘bottom’ of the caste system, very little was done to lift themselves out of illiteracy or poverty. The community leaders at a school in North India asked us to open a tailoring centre to train their girls and offered one room of their two rooms of the community head office. Without any delay, machines were bought, a teacher hired, the training centre was inaugurated, and the girls from the community began learning. The tailoring classes are 6 months long, and cover basic stitching and garment making. The excitement and anticipation of the community is so enormous, and now they begin to believe in hope in their future.
 Jeera Kuamri, the eldest daughter of a family, is 16 and lives with her parents and two brothers. Her parents could not send her to school; so she began labouring in the fields for the landlords to earn money for the family. When the tailoring training school opened on August 25th, she wondered if she could learn. She convinced her father to enrol her in the training and put all her effort to learn the skills. She watched carefully as her tutor taught the class. Now she has learned to use the tailoring machine, stitching paper and old clothes for practice.
One morning, while Jeera’s father was about to go to work, he noticed that his trousers were torn and decided to stay at home. As soon as Jeera heard, she immediately took his trousers to the school and stitched them. She happily rushed home to give them to her father and told him to go to work.
Her father proudly tells everybody that “because of Good Shepherd School Tailoring Training Institute, my daughter learned tailoring. Now we don’t pay money to others for stitching any clothes, but my daughter does it for us. Tailoring has helped us saving money for the family.” Jeera’s dream is to open her own tailoring shop, and says tailoring is a more honourable job than working in someone’s fields. She hopes to get her own tailoring machine to continue stitching after the training is completed, and to always learn more to become a good tailor. She repairs many torn clothes for neighbours. When she is offered money, she replies, “I have been trained freely and will serve you freely till my learning class is over.” Her villagers are happy about her achievement.
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