This newsletter is the most difficult written to date. 

 Some who will come on the 8th of July to our annual fundraiser garden party have supported Room To Learn since we began in 2016.

Our hearts are overwhelmed with the caring love and dedication you have all given to make Room To Learn a success, bringing help & hope to so many poor homeless families.

There is a steady flow of Nepalese migrating to India from Nepal. They are homeless when they arrive. They migrate to do those jobs that Indians, due to their higher caste, refuse to do, cleaning toilets, handling dead animals or human bodies of outcasts, cleaning out sewers, shifting rubbish, really all manner of jobs in terrible conditions.

The municipality needs this cheap labour and gives the migrants a 6ft by 8ft piece of land and some sheets of corrugated iron to build a shelter. The extended family help with buying bricks and mortar. There is no plaster on the walls, just bare brick inside and out. There is no water or heating, just blankets to keep themselves warm while they top and tail in beds. If they have legal proof of their poverty, the municipality gives them ration books to claim monthly cheap oil, rice, flour & salt.

Our little ‘pin up’ boy, Briyanksh, was from such a background. A cake was presented to him on his 4th birthday at school. On the same day, he started to have diarrhoea & vomiting. His family had to get him to the hospital. Carrying him, they travelled as fast as they could over small footpaths, crisscrossing the hilly slopes. These paths to get to the main road are often shifting shale, and only then could they get a local Maruti van to take them to the hospital. These vans are frequent on regular tracks, but not so on less used routes, which this desperate family would be on. We cannot begin to imagine how they felt as they saw their dear little child becoming pale, limp and then unconscious. Sadly, by the time they reached the hospital, they were unable to save him.

Briyanksh was not used to rich food, except on very special occasions like his birthday. He would have felt thirsty and drank any water that was available. All the water the family gets is from rivers or illegally from water pipes that they can tap into as they cross over roads. All water must be boiled before it can be used. Our school children carry their ½ litre water bottles with them every day.

As the extended family were present, all the boiled water must have been used up and their sweet darling child must have drunk un-boiled water. The tremendous hardships that these poor families endure are impossible for a Westerner to imagine. Their kinship family network is full of loving care for each other.

Room To Learn quickly responded. Our CEO, Des Mills, got in touch with Ritika Chettri, our child mentor and school liaison officer, and we gave money towards the costs of the funeral. We also helped raise money locally in Briyanksh’s school. Our school bus was used to transport little Briyanksh’s body for burial. Funerals in India last seven days for each side of the family; up to two weeks.

We will do whatever we can to help the family as they grieve their loss. These poor families are very supportive and help each other. They have so little, but an abundance of love. I always feel humbled in their presence, wishing Room To Learn could do more.

Paramount School, which Briyanksh went to, held a memorial service; all the families/guardians and their children attended. The mothers organised the food. It was a long service. Meeting the extended families and offering sympathy for their loss was done with reverence.

We need your help. To send 60 children to Pre- Nursery School currently costs £13,000 pounds annually, which would only cover two children in the UK! 

 Our Indian school costs are, however, rising. Like almost everywhere, schools in India are seeing their costs escalating.

Please be generous. The ‘Universal Law’ holds that what is given sincerely and with a generous heart is returned – the bible tells us ‘sometimes a thousandfold.’ 

The children we send to Nursery School are provided with their school uniform and attend with fee-paying children from higher castes. Our children share the same facilities alongside them without any segregation. 

We thank you from the very centre of our hearts, which are overwhelmed with the love and compassion you hold for these children in your loving gifts dedicated to their future. May the universal spirit of creation and love guard and guide you on your journey through life. 

If you are unable to go to the Ann and Brian’s Garden Party (which is a major source of our funding) on the 8th of July, please give generously on our gifting page: https://www.roomtolearnuk.org/gifting/  – not forgetting to use the Gift Aid form, which is at the bottom of that page.

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