Education India Project #6889

Help disadvantaged Bengali children + young people

by HANDS AROUND THE WORLD

Project Report | May 25, 2017
May 2017 Update

By Tess Molloy | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator

Southampton to Sarberia

I visited St Paul's Church in Southampton recently to update the congregation on the amazing work that Alindra Naskar is doing in the New Life Centre School. Two of the parishioners, Brenda and Peter went on a HATW project to Purulia and first met Alindra when he was working for the Leprosy Mission in 1994. They have been friends ever since.

This illustrates well the HATW ethos which is to 'Give a hand not a handout'. This translates as going on projects not only to help financially, but also to forge friendships with the local people which will sustain and support the project going forward in a very important way.

I have always had the opinion that you don't have to force charitable acts on people. Whenever a group get together for whatever reason you will often find that there will be some charitable giving and I don't necessarily mean financially, but inevitably a financial reward will follow.

The emotional support you extend to a fellow human being when you are on a HATW project can enable the school/orphanage/training centre to sink or swim. When you extend the hand of friendship and 'never let go' you impart strength and confidence to your fellow that is inestimable.

Brenda and Peter's congregation have supported the New Life Centre school financially over the years, but it is their enduring fellowship that has given Alindra Naskar the inner strength that he needs to continue in his vision to educate the next generation of this poor deprived area.

Alindra set up this plaque to St. Paul's when he first opened the school in 2005. He is a Christian but the majority of the children in the school are Muslim and Hindu. Alindra is trying to make a better world for the children in Sarberia.

Wouldn't you like to be part of this better world for the children in Sarberia?

Just reach out your hand.

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Feb 27, 2017
February 2017 Update

By Tess Malloy | Project Coordinator

Students acting out polio immunisation

Global Giving February 2017

Education in the broadest sense is paramount at the New Life Centre School in West Bengal. Alindra Naskar the Founder and Director of the school is keen to educate the parents as well as the children to be not only academically enlightened, but also to be ‘good citizens’ of India and their local community.

When I heard that the children were being asked to go in fancy dress for their Annual Sports day recently, I was intrigued to know how this fitted in to the day. Alindra wrote to me that this event is informative for general public awareness. ‘Go As You Wish’ is a way of educating each other in the school of current problems in society or general Health and Safety advice.

The pictures with this report show the children enacting various scenes illustrating issues currently being tackled in India at this time. Clean up India is an important theme in the school as the children are made aware of the consequences of litter. You can also see a boy showing Green India by Plantation.

Another topical dramatic scene is of a currency forger being arrested by the police as the Government has tried to clamp down on ‘black money’ recently.

Other scenarios covered by the students were the importance of immunization, as shown here representing the polio vaccine, the consequences of when people ride/drive drunk, over speed or talking with a mobile phone whilst cycling, equally dramatic scenes with liberal quantities of fake blood!

When I was there last November one of the girls in the school was extremely ill with measles, and had been off school for a month. Alindra went to see the parents who had sacrificed chickens and set up a loud speaker chanting prayers on her behalf.

Had they thought about using the money they had spent on visiting a Doctor Alindra asked?

Education at this level will save lives in this poor deprived area of West Bengal, and to inform whilst having fun at the same time, seems to me to be what will make the biggest impact. In being asked to participate in these dramas, the children will learn lessons that could never be learnt as effectively in class.

Wouldn’t you like to support this enterprising School?

Students illustrating the cleanup campaign

Acting out a Police Arrest

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Dec 2, 2016
November 2016 Update

By Tess Molloy | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator

I have just returned from the New Life Centre School in West Bengal, where I spent the last month. I went with 4 other women to give them the experience of a school in a developing country which is making a difference to the lives of children. We catalogued books for the Library, which is an essential part of having a Secondary school there, and took English lessons with the young children of 3 – 5 years old.

The school now has over 500 children on its roll, and their beautiful smiling faces each morning reminded me of how lucky I am to be a part of this wonderful establishment. This was my fifth visit in eight years. I go as much as anything to give moral support to the director of the school, Alindra Naskar, who despite providing a good education for this underprivileged area meets constant obstacles to his altruistic desire.

I wrote in September about the school mid-morning break which is known as the tiffin break. Imagine my horror when I returned to see that a shop has opened opposite the school gates, selling all kinds of packet rubbish, full of E numbers. (The small building on the right) The children used to bring home-made tiffin, or buy some provided by several mothers in the school, but now as one might expect they have been lured by the new shop to buy unhealthy snacks!

One evening as we sat chatting with Alindra, a father of one of the boys in the school came to the door. Apparently his son had been allowed to buy his tiffin on credit from this shop and he owed about 160 rupees (£2) - not a lot to us maybe, but the cost of a packet of crisps from here would be about 5 rupees! The shop keeper had allowed the boy to extend his credit and then asked for the whole amount. In a panic the boy had tried to steal the money from his father’s pockets which is when this all came to light.

Unfortunately the shopkeeper’s behaviour is very revealing. Within Alindra’s school, education covers not only academic subjects but respect for others and good living.

The proximity of the shop shows how difficult it is for these children outside!

Enemy at the gates

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