Sacred Heart School - Anjuna

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Writing this entry a bit late, as we've been back a while now, but partly trying out this travelblog thing, and partly letting anyone who's interested know a bit more about where we're headed....

We've got a flat booked in Baga, Goa, from the 1st November, for 6 months. We've been over to Goa a couple of times now, November last year, then this Feb.

One of the reasons we're heading back there is that we've got involved with this school, Sacred Heart in Anjuna. We bumped into Assunta, the headmistress, on a bus on the way to Panjim and she invited us back to the school to meet the children. Thinking she meant it was a small village school, we were suprised to find a large two story comprehensive, with 450 kids!

We were shocked at some of the conditions they were studying in. The school was built in the 1970s, and since then has had little in the way of maintenance. The back wall is black with mould and deeply cracked. Any dust off the mould is believed to be a health hazard. The thing that shook us the most was that there was only two toilets (one of which was a squat toilet) between all 450 kids and the staff. The one proper toilet they had, although in use, was actually broken.

We saw school dinners arriving, these are provided for the kids from 3 1/2 to 7. One large pot for each class of about 40 children, it contained pretty much nothing but rice and a handful of vegetables. Made our hungarian goulash we all hated at school look quite nourishing! Suzie, the head teacher explained that for some of the children it would be their most substantial meal of the day, only eating plain boiled rice at home. Many of the children were tiny for their age, some looking about 12 when they were really 15.

There was a lack of textbooks and basic school equipment. The library was full of many donated books, but most were completely unsuitable, Readers Digest hardbacks etc, apparently donated out of dentists waiting rooms! Some donations, mostly from foreigners, get spent on grants to the pupils for basics such as shoes and uniforms. Several of the children would not have owned shoes if it was not for these handouts, which often also come out of the teachers own pockets.

We're going to go back to the school, and we've raised a bit of money for it. We want to try to sort out the back wall, and also supply some more suitable books and some science equipment.

The children seem to have a thirst for knowledge that many here in the UK don't. They know that education is their ticket out of poverty. On our second visit, the school organised a quiz day in our honour to thank us for some donations, the kids seemed much more up on politics and history than equivalent age children over here. We presented the prizes, and they seemed to get as much thrill out of being given an atlas, or a maths set, as English kids would get out of the latest PlayStation or an iPod.

We were speaking to one of our fellow travellers and mentioned the school, and said that we would try to help it. He told us not to bother, and that "you'd never change the world". He's got a point. we never will. These children are relatively well off, they go to school (when their parents let them, many get taken out of school at times to work instead), and the school is relatively prosperous (its got a roof, and some books). They are still doing their best in conditions unbelievable in the west, with outdated equipment (when it exists), eating nutritionless slops for their often only meal of the day. They have precious little of the opportunities available to children over here, and to fail their education means a lifetime of poverty, probably selling trinkets on the beach, or cleaning tourists ears out. The thing that hit us the most was the one proper toilet for 450 kids.

There are undoubtedly schools much worse off, but these children are in genuine need of help. We'll never change the world, but we might help to change somebody's.

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Photos

The Toilet!
450 children shared this one proper (and another squat) toilet

The Back Wall
This wall is the most exposed in the monsoon and is black with mould and deeply cracked

The School Hall
This is the older half of the school at the quiz day

Prize Giving!
Us dragged up on stage...