Life is a Struggle - even for Water - Our School Children

It’s Friday again, time for introducing you to more students of our school. Today I will write you about our visit to Abhishek and Varun. Abhishek, now 13 years old, and Varun, 12, started at our school on the day it was opened, six years ago in 2007. They are now in classes five and four and remain two of the best students of the school every year.

The family moved to Vrindavan from a small village when the boys were still small. At first they lived for rent but started saving and were able to buy their own home with the help of a loan. Of course, they now have to pay that money back, something which makes their monthly budget tighter but they have, naturally, a certain pride of living within their own four walls. Their biggest problem at their new home is however the water!

The area where they are living now only gets supplied with water for about two hours a day. So even though they have the pipes and tab all ready for using, it only happens twice a day that water actually comes out of it! They immediately start filling their buckets as soon as the precious good starts flowing – because this is the water they use for drinking, washing themselves, washing their clothes and cleaning their house! And they don’t even get two full hours of a steady amount of water! While the water flow is strong in the beginning, it soon reduces to half and even a quarter of its strength – some of the homes in their surrounding have a motor which pumps the water more quickly into their tanks, leaving less water for the homes that come after them. In the end it is just a slow dripping that finally stops.

While we were there, we saw that they could only fill three buckets of water and got to know that for two days before we came, there was no water at all. What do they do when they don’t have any water anymore? They have to take their buckets and walk to the nearest hand pump, about half a kilometer away, from where they then have to carry the water home. Of course, the boys have to help their mother with this task while their father is at work.

Abhishek and Varun’s father works at a local doctor’s clinic as a helper, taking payments or bringing prescriptions and medicines from one person to another. Obviously, it is not a job that brings a lot of money – 3000 rupees, approximately 50 US-Dollar in a month. They need all the support they can get and that’s how they have given the education of their sons into our hands.

Abhishek and Varun are always among the best ones in their class. They have great marks and they are ambitious, too. Varun would like to become engineer and Abhishek wants to become a police inspector – an honest one who helps people in need and makes this country a better place.

We would like to help them fulfill their dreams! You can support our project by taking a child sponsorship, donating for the food for a day or with a free donation of any amount. Thank you!