By Tess Molloy | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator
On one of my visits to the New Life Centre School in West Bengal, I had an interesting conversation with one of the staff members who is a Hindu.
It was November and we were talking about my return to the UK at the beginning of December and Christmas in the UK. He asked me what my family did at Christmas and I explained about going to Church on Christmas morning.
‘I like that too’ he exclaimed to my surprise. ‘You go to your Temple?’ I asked feeling ignorant of Hindu rituals. ‘No’, he replied ‘we go to the Christian Church here and wait for the people who are in the service and then we have a picnic together’.
'How enlightened' I thought, the true meaning of Christmas where inter-faith communities celebrate together and respect each other’s rituals.
The school is thriving because of this ideal. In the face of a child, Alindra Naskar, the Director of the school does not see difference but equality and respect. In this rural area which is poor and the majority of the adult population are illiterate, the New Life Centre School is making a profound impact.
A child was born on Christmas day with no sense of privilege or entitlement, poorer than most. It is for all those children that the New Life Centre School exists.
Wouldn’t you want to put a smile on all the faces of these disadvantaged children?
By Tess Molloy | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator
By Tess Molloy | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator
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