Sponsoring a child in India is a totally humbling experience. For 7000 rupees, about 120€, it is possible to pay school fees and a uniform for a village child for a year.
This Sunday morning we walked with Dr Jain through the fields of newly planted wheat, with some potatoes and leeks, through a few small village settlements to visit Reshma, the girl my friend has sponsored. She is ten years old, with the brightest smile, and was keen to show us her home. Below a bedroom and courtyard with cutting machine. Upstairs grandpa was sleeping on the roof there is an open kichen area, with two more fairly large bedrooms and even a TV high on a shelf in one corner. All the village children poured upstairs to see what was going on. Our guide explained that they are all extended family. There are goats and a water buffalo outside. A boy brought hot buffalo milk, smoky and rich for us to drink.
All the sponsorship is arranged by the Sarnath Children's Education Project. They set up a preschool in this neighbourhood and forty little ones showed up. Now there are fifty five, in one small classroom which looked like a garage with no equipment. there is one extremely kind and gentle teacher. When they reach a certain level they graduate from these 'sprouting classes' into kindergarden. There the children dress smartly in blue uniforms and study Hindi, English, maths, moral studies, dance and music. and develop the confidence to speak in public. This warm-hearted community school, funded by general
donations, takes them up to Class 5.
The project also has nearly 300 sponsored children in other local schools, and altogether reaches about 1200 children in the neighbourhood. It is inspiring to see the difference it makes to many lives in this small area of India.
