Newsletter from Ebenezer - May/June 2019
The Teaching Staff:
The teaching staff at Ebenezer School are now through with the examination for the last term ending 2018-2019. They have been working hard make it within the 15 days deadline so a new session could start, and to award the meritorious kids when having some guests visiting the school. Stipi and Simon from Glocal Aid Norway were to have a look at the progress of the work being done and more importantly to film a documentary of the daily schedule in the life of a normal child enrolled at Ebenezer School. The school was very excited about this. The guests were welcomed to the school by a lot of flowers and the kids who had prepared dances and craft exhibitons for them. The guests were requested to present to the meritorious students a medal, a certificate, and a prize. Likewise, all the children of Nav Jeevan School were also handed out a memorabilia for their good performance in their studies and good behaviour throughout the previous year. Stipi and Simom spent three days interviewing various teachers and filming at the home of the girl Preeti who was specially chosen for the documentary.
The teaching staff has also been doing a "Door to Door" campaign visiting every village and home which has not been reached the previous year. At the same time all the homes of the children who have been already enrolled into Ebenezer School are visited for a «follow-up» to help the kids reach a higher level in their educational performance. The harvesting season is crucial for the family economies making it hard for the parents to come to the school, and even for the kids to attend classes in April and May. The Teachers and Management are working hard to keep the attendance as high as possible, even in temperatures up to 45 C.
Celebration of Holi Festival:
Holi is the festival of colors celebrated before the crops are ready. Before harvesting, taking up to a month, people ease their tension and worry by putting color on each other and eating a variety of sweets made in the homes. The 500 kids got to celebrate at school before the holiday started by rubbing synthetic color on each other and wishing each other a happy Holi. They had a great time together with their friends and with the school staff.
Story of Children enrolled under the Benefit Program sponsored by Glocal Aid:
1. Roshni Devi , Rashmi Devi and Virender Singh:
Name Age Class
Roshni Devi 13 Years 7th
Rashmi Devi 9 Years 4th
Arpit Singh 5 Years U.K.G.
These kids comes from a village in the hills of the Vindhyachal Range, 25 kilometers from the school. Their father Mr. Virender Singh is a farmer and has the additional burden of taking care of the families of his younger brothers and sisters who are still unmarried. That means besides his own fields, he also works in the fields of other wealthier farmers to be able to provide for everyone. Through Door to Door visits done by the School Staff in April last year, the family got to know about the sponsorship program at Ebenezer school. The father was a little reluctant at first, but after learning about the benefits of good education he agreed to send his kids to Ebenezer school in Karwi. Because of the support from Glocal Aid covering botheducational equipment and transport, these kids have the opportunity to attend.
The father is so happy with the progress made by his children he now plans to also get the children of his younger brothers enrolled into Ebenezer School. He is also telling other people about this amazing program and is so thankful for the gifts given from Glocal Aid so that children such as his could be able to dream big and achieve those landmarks which nobody else ever in their family could even dream about.
2. Sakir Ali , Shaukat Ali and Md. Shajid Ali :
Name Age Class
Sakir Ali 11 Years 5th
Shaukat Ali 7 Years 2nd
Md. Shajid Ali 4 Years L.K.G.
These are the children of Mr. Anees, from a small village called Shekhenpurwa. Mr. Anees owns some fields, but they are not sufficient to fulfil the daily needs of his family. Therefore he has started a small business with his brothers of making cupboards and boxes out of polished tin. He came to know about the sponsorship program run by Ebenezer school school while he was bicycling across a street in the town of Karwi and happened to look at an advertisement displayed. He became curious and took some time from his busy business schedule to visit the school. He ended up sending all his three children to Ebenezer School. Both the parents and kids are very happy with Ebenezer School and being a part of this project which started with 250 children a few years back. The school is now flourishing and benefiting many tens and hundreds of poor children who would have otherwise never been provided an opportunity to good and quality education.