Educate Forty Village Children in Bodhgaya, India

At the end of 2020, one of our supporters kindly donated extra books to Elsa Primary School to stimulate the students' interest in nature. These included illustrated books on Indian garden flowers, trees, birds and animals. Also, instructional books on gardening plus gardening tools were donated.

Subsequently, students were given practical gardening lessons -  planting tomato, cauliflower, chilli and mango seeds in the school grounds. It has been a source of ongoing interest for the students watching the plants grow. To the delight of all, the first tomatoes and cauliflowers are almost ready for picking. In contrast, it will take three or four years of careful nurturing for the mango trees to fruit.

In India, the prevailing religion is Hinduism which has multiple deities. One of these is Saraswati who is revered as the Goddess of Knowledge, Art & Creativity.

It is believed that Saraswati was born on Vasant Panchami Day which fell this year on 16th February. Her birthday is celebrated by worshipping books, and all things to do with art & music.

A part of the tradition is the Vidya Arambha ritual where children are initiated into learning, reading and writing. Thus, students think of Saraswati as the 'Goddess of Education'. 

For Saraswati Puja, Elsa Primary School students arrived at school in new clothes gifted by their parents and brought offerings of fruit, vegetables & sweets. They also sang songs in praise of Goddess Saraswati.