Winter News 2013
December 20, 2013
Dear Supporter,
Wishing Everyone Merry Christmas and Safe Happy New Year!
There are two major exams in India. At the half term exam all children passed with good marks. Jitender and Santos both received exceptional marks in Math, English and Social Studies and Science. Congratulations Jitender and Santos!
Diwali is a special celebration of light in India. Children love this festival. They enjoyed a lot decorating the school with lights and flowers and making sweets. On this happy occasion Sonia, from Brazil also brought fire crackers and Indian sweets and fruits for the children. Thank you for bringing so much joy to the children!
Maria came back from Holland and brought Dutch sweets, big kites and a football for the children. It was so great to see Maria again and of course the children love her. Weekends with Maria are a very special treat for the children.
Cynthia from Canada played with and tried to help the little children with their English studies. She expressed the greatest admiration for the work the school is doing and she is very impressed with the children’s academic progress.
I wish to thank, from the bottom of my heart those wonderful people who have helped.
Mr Heinrich and Talassi provided me with the funds necessary to paint and maintain the school. These funds have not yet been spent because it is necessary for us to wait for the longer holidays to get this job done. These funds are greatly appreciated.
Mr. Tim Brown and his friends from Australia also kindly donated money to the school and I will use those funds to install more toilets and hand washing facilities for the children. All These renovation and construction works will be done in June, the summer holidays. Thank you so much!
The beautiful sisters Paulien and Gerdien from Holland have donated three hundred and fifty Euros. I bought 40 plastic chairs and cabinet for the school with this money. Thank you very much!
The former president of the Rotary Club in Holland, along with his wife visited us recently. We were very happy to see him. He kindly donated one hundred Euros to the school to buy materials. We bought many educational toys and software for the school. Thank you so much!
Last season a flood occurred and there are many fewer tourists in Rishikesh. The economy is down.
The main problem Ganga Valley School is facing right now is lack of business from the shop which provides some help for the home stay children.
Although many children’s parents pay fees, more than a quarter of the children have poor parents and cannot pay school fees. My intention is to give all students a good education so they can enter good high schools. This will give them much greater opportunities in life and will help them to escape poverty.
The fees we charged go towards paying the teachers, utilities bill, providing school supplies etc….
My Appeal
Student of Ganga Valley is growing so we had to convert the balcony and rooftop into the classroom. These classrooms are open which is unsafe for children and during the winter it is very cold and windy. These area need to be enclosed from the sides with glass and wire netting. The estimated cost would be around 2000 Euros. We converted our storeroom into kitchen on the top floor, but we need storeroom to store our food items and other things. We need to build the kitchen on the roof which will cost around 600 Euros.
I appeal to all kind donors to make donation so that we will be able to build this classroom safe and warm for the children and one airy kitchen for the home stay children.
We wish you all well, we will continue our hard work here and give you further updates.