The story so far, of one of our nursery children – Manisha.
Walking the dusty roads in Kalimpong, West Bengal, Ann Mills (Room to Learn CEO) was searching for premises in which to start a school to help underprivileged children into mainstream education.
Beside the road, between middle-class houses, Ann came across a tarpaulin, covering the ten feet from a wall to the edge of the road.
One day she saw a barefoot little girl at the opening. Manisha, at 2 years old was exactly the type of child Ann wished to help and she spoke to the mother at length.
On investigating further she found that a couple lived in this one room with their two small children.It had a mud floor, no water, no electricity and no door.
Using an interpreter Ann was told that Manisha’s Mother and Father had migrated into Kalimpong from Nepal. Many Nepalese live in the Kalimpong foothills, having escaped from earthquake areas to start a new life in India. The Father works as a labourer, doing any work he can get. The work is very poorly paid, and since the birth of Manisha and her brother, the wage is insufficient for them to live on. The Municipality has given them a Below Poverty Line (BPL) certificate which entitles them to have coupons to buy some much-needed rice. They only have two scant meals per day.
In 2018 Manisha moved into our Level 2 class and her little brother Manis joined our Level 1 class.
We will help ensure the quality of Manisha’s Primary education, either through her progression within Happy Days or by helping to enrol her safely into a good Primary school. Either way, we intend to continue to mentor her, her brother and family. In that way, we hope to be able to see what effect we have had on their prospects.
Manisha became the Room To Learn trustees inspiration.
The following year Premises were found and the first pupils started on March 5th, 2017. However when Ann returned to Manisha’s home to invite her to be one of the first pupils the place was empty and no one seemed to know where they had gone.
We were very unhappy to lose contact with the family and worried about how they were managing. So imagine our delight, when, a week after the school opened, Manisha and her Mother turned up to enrol. Her father had found a job with a better place to live. Manisha is doing well and her baby brother starts school in 2018.
Now, thanks to RTL UK, Manisha attends their fully funded “Happy Days Nursery” school, free of any fees. She has two meals daily at the nursery, and her mother has received extra rice, much-needed after the troubles.
Manish enjoys painting and acting out the nursery rhymes. She recites the English and Nepali alphabet up to V. She knows the primary colours. She is learning her numbers up to ten and can recite nine nursery rhythms in English. The local Nepali language is used as well as English. This is essential as the Mums have little if any English. Of course, the parents want their children to learn English, which all schools in Kalimpong teach from the start.
Update Summer 2019
In the two years that Ann has known Manisha, her family has moved house five times, each time after her father had lost a job. In November 2018 the father was admitted to hospital, critically ill. He had liver failure due to prolonged bouts of excessive alcohol intake.
Manisha and her younger brother were constantly absent from school, we now know the reason why.
When Manisha’s sick father was visited in hospital by his mother and brother from Nepal, we noticed Manisha’s behaviour altered dramatically. She became withdrawn, would not speak, and did not take part in any activity. She remained a separate solitary figure in the classroom and shunned any approaches. She was a very traumatised and deeply unhappy little girl.
Several days after this visit, Manisha’s father, with help from his family, returned to his homeland in Nepal.
After they left, Manisha’s behaviour returned to normal. Her mother moved to a safe haven and has acquired two domestic cleaning jobs which provide enough money to pay for the rented room and to put food on the table. Manisha and Manish are now attending Happy Days nursery more frequently.
When she goes back to Kalimpong later this year, Ann will try to make sure that this little family is stable and will look at the possibility of getting Manisha into St Philameno’s primary school as her mother wishes.
