Lunch time

The gate

Buddha Smile School (cont.)

Yesterday I went back to Sarnath to visit that Buddha Smile school to meet the students and take photos. Entering the school the noise level is overwhelming; kids are everywhere. Some kids are running to the bathroom, some getting their cuts and scratches tended too, some doing errands for the teacher, some being naughtily, some arriving late and some small ones crying over something or other. When I arrived the little kids were having their health and hygiene practice class; i.e. cleaning their teeth and washing their faces. So you can image the teachers rolling up the sleeves of 30 small jumpers, fights over who had the toothpaste, kids splashing water on each other and 30 small toothpaste filed mouths saying Namaste! to the visitor. Mayhem, is maybe the best way to descried the scene but everyone was smiling and with a great feeling of happiness pervading the air.

Teachers lunch break

lesson time

The school is very small and teaches kids from ages 5 to 15, each classroom holding anywhere from 15 to 30 students in a class and there are 8 classrooms. As I may have mentioned earlier the building is bare concrete with some paint on the walls and each class is furnished with benches which serve as tables and chairs. The children come to school at 7.30am and have breakfast before their lessons they are also served lunch before classes finish at 1.30 pm. For many of these kids this will be the only food they get in a day.

Principle and doctor

 Each subject, which includes Hindi, English, math, social studies, history and art, is taught for about 40 minutes then the teachers rotate classrooms to teach another subjects. In this way, since space is tight, time is not wasted moving the children from classroom to classroom. 

Rajan and Sukdev

Each child has a uniform complete with woolly hat and scarf however many of these uniforms look like they have not been washed since they were handed out. Rajan tells me that for many of the children their home is a tent on the side of the road, or a broken down room with no light and no running water. She tries her best to keep the kids clean but with limited washroom facilities in the school it is a constant battle to keep the school and the kids clean. The children’s parents are the poorest of the poor. Their job include driving rickshaws, cleaners, labourers or unemployed doing odd jobs now and again. Unfortunate many of the parents are also on drugs and alcohol so the children are left often to fend for themselves. Rajan says that many of the kids either bring their friends or siblings to school to get fed and be taken care of. Many of the kids also to go to work or beg after school in order to supplement family income.

These children have been born into terrible conditions and it is more than admirable just how dedicated Rajan and her husband are to educating these kids so that as they grow they can help themselves get out of poverty. By providing love, care and education and a safe place to dream these children have a much better chance to have a positive future. Thank you Rajan and Sukdev !!!

 http://buddhas-smile-school.org/