Love, Explore and Excel

I was moved to tears yesterday. Patrick, Ellie, a few Googlers and I visited a school yesterday, called Parikrma Foundation that takes children from the local slums and gives them a chance in life. They bus them to school daily and provide them with an excellent education, 3 square meals, and an environment of love, respect and encouragement. When we arrived at the school, the children swarmed over to greet us, proud to tell us their names in English, shake our hands with a firm grip and look us in the eye. They were like little monkey's, attaching themselves to our arms and not letting go. The CEO, Shukla Bose, commented that many of them don't get physical attention at home, so crave for the personal touch when they arrive at school.

As the children settled and went into their classrooms, Shukla gave us a tour of the campus, noting the art on the walls, all drawn by the children. (I will post all the pictures in a few days; having camera issues). There was a dragon that really impressed me and she noted that this was drawn by a beggar boy, who really had little chance of anything in life. Shukla and team had to not only convince the boy to go to school, but his family. Many of the families put their children to work at early ages as they are so desparate for the extra income. They live off of less than $1/day. Much of Parikrma's work has to go beyond the school and into the community for counseling, education and support.

Our first real visit was the "Earth" classroom filled with 12-14 year old children. All polite, neatly dressed and just bursting with enthusism, the children lit up when we sat in on their class. The kids tried to guess our names, including Ellie (who had fun w/ the starts w/ "E" and ends w/ "E" trick), and then we went into introductions. What comes next may floor you as it floored me... about 80% of the children (children who come from slums, who have begged, charmed snakes, and lived as the poorest of the poor) stood up and said "my ambition is to be a software engineer"! I couldn't believe it. I would love to ask the same question to the same age kids in the US and I doubt even in Palo Alo 80% of them would say software engineer! (Esther, what do you think?!) The other 20% ranged in becoming doctors, animators (animators!), artist or working for the army/navy. The teacher asked if there was anything new in the world today, and this beautiful girl stood and talked about the latest events in astronomy. Crazy impressive.

We visited all the other classes, grade by grade. Poor Ellie was in total culture shock and just wanted to leave, but I knew deep down, this would be a great experience for her. The Kindergartners were amazingly cute (as most of them typically are). In the 8 weeks since school started, these kids learned enough English to tell us their names, names of flowers, and to sing/recite/perform about 5 nursery rhymes. To be totally honest, I was more impressed with what these kids accomplished in 8 weeks, than what Ellie and her kindergarten class in a relatively wealthy school in California accomplished in an entire year.

After the classrooms, we visited the computer lab, library and dining room. We also talked to Shukla and her team about how we can help. I was afraid to stay too long as the longer I was there, the more I wanted to adopt one of the kids (approximately 82 out of the 250 students are orphans) and the more I wanted to quit my job to work there!

The conclusion of the visit was visiting the children as they sat in orderly fashion on the floor eating their plates of rice, porridge and water. About 100 of the children in the room sitting quietly awaiting their meals. The principal spoke with a prayer and the students repeating each line. In their prayer, they prayed for "Katie Akka" (elder sister Katie), for coming to see them, and praying for ME and MY FAMILY, for our health, happiness and safe travels. These children, who have nothing, praying for me.. I was so touched and overwhelmed, trying so hard to not let the puddles of tears burst from my eyes.

The mission of the school is "Love, Explore and Excel". It's a great mission and I have full confidence that these children will love, explore and excel in life, thanks to Parikrma and their ability to break the cycle of poverty and despair.

The operating budget of Parikrma is modest, roughly $300,000/year. Each child costs them $360/year. We're going to make a donation, and encourage everyone to do the same. Here's how: http://www.parikrmafoundation.org/donate_online.htm