As I told you yesterday, we have distributed food today in the area which is again flooded by the water of the Yamuna. This time I could myself experience how the people come forward, in a crowd, everybody stretching out the hands to get one of the boxes with food. And if they can grab one, they pull it out of your hand. It is sad to see this poverty which is not only caused by the flood. On the other hand it helps to see that we are doing something for them, even if it is just the small contribution that we are capable of.
Some children who come to our school also live in the area where we distributed food. It is great that we can give them the chance to a good future. I told you yesterday about the situation in India. Years ago we started with sponsoring children in another school not far from our Ashram and now we are running our school. Some people asked why we take this extra effort; instead we could just sponsor more children in another school and we would not have the administrative efforts. However I had the wish since long time to run a school in which all children are same. Maybe I talked about this already. I want all children to be sponsored by us so that none of them feels poorer than another.
The wish for a school here increased even more after one of my last visits to the other primary school where we sponsored children. We went there and had a look into the classrooms. There I saw something I really did not like. The teacher was holding a stick in his hands. In India many teachers still have an old concept of how to teach children and in many schools children are still beaten as a punishment. The media also nearly regularly gives news from all over India that a child was injured by a teacher who intended to punish him or her. When I saw the stick in this teacher’s hand I asked the principal about it. He answered it would only be there to make the children afraid but the teacher wouldn’t really use it. I did not believe this and I told him also my opinion on this. I do not want any child to be hit or mistreated in this way. This is not a way to learn! They should enjoy learning and going to school and not be afraid of it.
In that time the wish to open our own school grew more and more strong and finally we made it after a lot of bureaucracy. Now we can appoint teachers ourselves. We are in charge and can make sure that the children are treated nicely and the way that we want it. Yes, there is some more work to do but this is what we want: to make these children happy!
Click here to see more pictures from today
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The flood must have hit hard in Vrindavan as may people were already living in poor circumstances. It is sad that so many people suffer, but it is great that you try to help.Thanks Swami Ji & fam.