2000 NEWSLETTER

INTRODUCTION

Once again thank you for your generous support, both with money and care, and for improving the world in the small way we are able. I am reminded of something Mother Teresa said:

"Our care is but a tiny drop in the ocean.
However, the ocean would be much less without it."

It's an awesome thought that we are changing peoples lives for the better, and actually this is what we are endeavouring to do. The love, teaching and material things that are given by our brothers and sisters in India show these children that people care about them. This is a direct result of your care and contributions and cannot be underestimated. The pride and joy expressed by the children has to be seen to be believed and the examples of generosity and caring that are shown to the children have a profound effect upon their lives. I sometimes forget the innocence and openness that is in children and how valuable it is to give them good care in their formative years.

Recently a mother brought her sickly and difficult child to me for treatment. Afterwards, as I had some time, I took him for a walk around my garden. I showed him my birds and chickens and took two eggs out of the chicken house and gave them to him. His mother tells me he gets them out every day and handles them and won't let anyone eat them. This really touched me and reminded me of my own innocence and how we, as adults, can strive to value and nurture this. I believe this is what we are endeavouring to do in India.

We are again fortunate that one of our members, Keith O'Neill, is presently in India and keeping us personally informed and in touch with the school.

On behalf of the BDA I sincerely thank you.

Eoin Liebchen-Meades
BDA Committee Member

Letter from Bodhgaya
by Keith O'Neill

Dear Friends

After a 2-week wind down in Varanasi I arrived in Bodhgaya feeling pretty much relaxed and acclimatised to India.

PRAGYA VIHAR SCHOOL

I took the afternoon off one of the retreats to go to the AGM where all the news was aired. It was an amazingly low-key affair, which could be compared with a village pigeon fancier's society AGM here, in rural Essex. Not much to report on the school as things seem to be running very smoothly and without great incident.

The high point of the meeting was when chai & gulab jamuns came around. I think Thomas has sent you the AGM minutes to which there is little to add. The most surprising news to me was that any further expansion of the school, including land purchases, seems to have been put on hold until the trust has been formed which ensures the school's legitimacy. Apparently the Bandaris in Delhi are seeing to that and all being well it may be complete by July or August.

SISTER JESSIE

The New Building

Jessie's new building was easy to find, set in the paddy fields a mere 150m from the main junction at Dobhi village and clearly visible from where the bus stops. She was overjoyed to see us but she seemed rather tired as she showed us around her new place. The building is unique in many respects, none the least for being a rare example of a new Indian building which does not look old and decaying before it is completed.

My first impression of the building was that it was a bit over the top particularly compared to the hovel that Jessie had been working and living in last year. But since my stay in Rishikesh, I realise that it is simply designed in the tradition of all ashrams, in that the most prominent feature is the temple. In Jessie's case, this is a bare room capable of holding maybe 60 people (30 westerners) with a high vaulted roof the typical shape of a hindu temple but without the excessive ornamentation. Set in a large alcove in one wall, behind a large glass window, is a rather confronting life sized image of a sitting Buddha with the head of a stereotypical western Christ. Adjoining this room are two other slightly smaller rooms which serve the dual purpose of teacher training rooms and dormitories for the teachers. Here it must be understood that when the common means of transport is a bicycle even the relatively short distances to the villages, in which they work and live, prove to be quite an ordeal especially after dark.

Other rooms in the building are a small, simple kitchen and a small private room for Jessie. The building is surrounded by vegetable garden and a high wall secured by large double steel gates. On the outside gate are three panels of a mural depicting Gandhi, Buddha and Jesus - her gurus. I asked her if she was happy with it and she simply sighed and said, "it is much bigger [better] than I thought it would be and the people are so poor".

The Program

As far as her educational programs go there has been a steady expansion over the year. There are now 42 schools with 43 teachers. Some of the bigger schools have 2 or 3 teachers while some of the very small schools operate on only a part time basis with an itinerant teacher running between 2 or even 3 villages. With 25 out of 42 rolls to examine I counted 1624 children registered which will probably amount to 2600 children overall.

Apart from the increase in numbers the most significant change to enrolments has been the need to yield to pressure to bring non-Harijan children into the schools. Although these children are a significant minority Jessie feels that little by little the Harijan children will again become marginalised due to the deeply entrenched behaviour patterns in their social conditioning. Jessie enthralled both Dana and myself with stories of children running out during breaks to deftly catch rats which they would immediately barbecue on a fire or waste paper and sticks or forsaking their lessons to look after the family pig and so on.

Jessie has begun a policy of charging fees for each child more to imbue a sense of value for the education more than to raise money. This also allows for a minimal amount of affirmative action to counteract caste and gender inequities. From cursory look at the rolls it appears that only about 35% of the children are girls and 10% are new non-Harijan enrolments. At least as far as the upper caste enrolments go these are very early days. Another of Jessie's concerns is how to attract better (more qualified) teachers.

It is easy to forget that Jessie's efforts are not simply about education. In fact, as was stated in our last newsletter, "Education is the key" but the goal is social transformation. In addition to the school programs, Jessie has been trying to do work with the women, in particular the mothers of the children in the schools. In common with a number of other programs in similar situations, Jessie has been trying to instill confidence in women in their abilities to create and run small-scale income producing enterprises. This has to start with creating some experience with the handling of money at a level most of us take for granted.

PEOPLE FIRST

People First seem to be becoming established as one of the most respected organizations in the region. They now have over 1400 children in 14 village schools at an average cost of about $AUS35 per child per year. Apart from the small village schools they have two flagship projects. The Kangiar Village rural project comprises of school, sewing & weaving centre and a small farm with fruit trees, cows and small-scale crops and is aimed at providing all round education and community development. The S.P.V.V. School (The Peaceful Light of Development School) is situated in a small rented house in downtown Bodhgaya. It serves as a free 6 days per week school for 200 poor children of Bodhgaya and surrounding hamlets. 45 of the children are boarders because for special reasons it is not possible for these children to live at their own homes. All of these children are fed at the school.

Our donation of last year was simply put into the general fund, as it was a one-off donation. If we had made the donation as part of an ongoing commitment to PFI they would nominally have allocated a village school to us as "our school" in pretty much the same way as individual children are sponsored by larger aid organizations. Although People first have rather a brash front (a 4WD, fax &mobile phone etc.) I feel that it is a solid setup with good organizational and ethical foundations and stands up to basic accountability scrutiny. Even if Nick (who is highly regarded by all, it seems, largely because of his secular, non-partisan stance) were to disappear the organization would still continue.

SR MARY

I had a lot of contact with Mary this time around and got to know her well. She seems to have cast herself in a fairly pivotal role in coordinating the NGO network around town. With the A$1000 we gave her last year they put in a hand pump for the building that the women coordinators use and the rest was given to a new project initiated by Sr Jyoti as an adjunct to "Chetna Bharati" (Women Awakening). Chetna Bharati is an organization that I find to be truly inspirational. It is essentially a women's organization and although it seems that the principal organizer is Sr Jyoti, a catholic nun, it appears to be essentially political in nature.

Essentially our donation went into the inception of a residential school for 12 girls selected from Bhuiya castes in "tribal" villages in south of Bodhgaya. The Bhuiyas or Aboriginal Indians of the region have been dispossessed of their land and culture and marginalised by the caste system to a degree that they are truly the very lowest of the low and the women of the group are treated even lower than that. The "school" is part of a group of simple mud and brick buildings built on about 7 acres of land that was taken from landlords who had assumed possession of the land in the chaos after the departure of the British.

The land which was once forested, has subsequently been denuded and abused but has been turned into a productive little farmlet capable of supporting the tiny community as far as basic food is concerned. There were even attempts at producing alternative energy - a small solar panel charging a battery powered lantern and a simple methane generator. The educational program consists of a blend of yoga and physical exercise, formal classroom work, manual work in the commune/ashram setting, sewing & knitting, play and cultural activities. The girls are expected to cook and clean and generally participate in the normal day to day running of the ashram. They are given a small amount of pocket money (about $1 per month) to buy the little things that they might want and they can sometimes supplement their income by selling some of the excess vegetables in the local market.

The idea here is that the girls are given education within the cultural context in which they would be living and to which they will return. The intent is not to educate the girls so that they can leave the community and "escape" to the cities but that they will return to their villages to teach the rudiments of what they have learned. I spent a day at the ashram and found it one of the nicest days I spent in the region, the simplicity of the routine, the cleanliness and quietude was a marked contrast to the filth, noise and squalor of Bodhgaya and other towns of the region. As with People First there was muted disappointment when I informed Jyoti that there was no donation from us this year although I did manage to raise A$150 or so from dharma friends. I hope they can get their hands on more funding?!

ANECDOTE

As a concluding note: I found myself fairly deeply involved this year in issues around aid and foreign intervention in the region. I was feeling even more confused over wise and unwise action in this regard. Sitting frequently at Gautam's Lassi corner, I studied the beggars and the begged. As I'd become a regular on the Plaza, I was no longer hassled and could behave as a fly on the wall but even so, I still find the issue an enigma.

On the day before I left Bodhgaya I was walking over the fields by the old ruins towards the PV school when I passed a young boy maybe 12 or 13 diligently collecting plastic bags. Knowing the rate for recycled plastic bags is in the region of 5Rp/kg, an amazingly worthless sum even by Indian standards, I figured that I would reward him for doing such a worthwhile job for such pathetic pay by giving him and unsolicited 5Rp. He grabbed the money and demanded more with such astonishing aggression I was quite taken aback. What we have here is a serious communication problem. I can't help but wonder how wide and deep the problem is and I can't even begin to fathom the consequences of even the best thought out or intended actions in this strange land\

PRAGYA VIHAR SCHOOL
follow up on Keith's very expansive articles in last year's newsletter.

Last year's articles on the school as reported by our committee member Keith O'Neill who visited Bodhgaya were very expansive and full of the spirit of Bodhgaya and the school. This year our report is more basic and a little scant. Keith visited Bodhgaya again in November en route to the U.K. and other destinations, and has said that so far as news of the school goes not much has changed. It seems the growth that has taken place over the years has plateaued out and this could be expected as the growth since inception has been impressive. There are a few success stories such as the continued success of the cultural program resulting in the dance team winning a competition involving nearly 100 schools in the area. Education, including the cultural program and dance, is vital to the essence of the students and local community. Prior to the students' introduction to the school, the illiteracy and hard life of these very poor resulted in a lack of knowledge of their inherent culture and of the dance and music which we, who have a connection to India, regard as so very rich.

Enrolment last year was 350, and some 400 presently attend the school, with 354 students sitting the annual exams in December. Some failed these end of year exams, and consequently have not progressed to the next grade. This is a twofold conundrum. The failure is sad for the students who have to surmount immense hardships just to regularly attend school and bring some energy to their place of learning. Considering these hardships it would not be an easy decision to refuse progression to the next grade and risk demoralizing the student, but the school's 'integrity approach' could be more beneficial to long term growth and value setting of the students by reinforcing the need to reach the set standard. I'm sure we can all relate to the level of personal satisfaction we feel when we discipline ourselves and overcome a failure. To simply 'turn a blind eye' to the exam failures could lead to higher and more entrenched levels of failure for these students throughout life. The school is looking at the feasibility of building a high school, which would allow the more capable students to continue education to a higher standard. We will keep you informed of progress. Last year's expenditure for the running of the present school was around A$16,000 and the budget for 2000 will be higher.

IT WAS A PUKKA NIGHT!
by Annette Corrigan

When Keith suggested we depart from our usual fundraising method of a movie night in favor of an Indian banquet, it is fair to say that the BDA committee members were somewhat equivocal. It sounded like a good idea - bring people together, create the atmosphere of India, feed them good wholesome curries and provide some entertainment as well as updates about our projects in India.

But what about all the work?? Who would shop and cook, how would we feed 100 or more people, how would we know how much to prepare? Where would we get all the pots and pans and plates? And that was just the food side of it! We still had to do the publicity, manage bookings and ticketing and think of the hundred and one things that are always necessary for a successful event. Movie nights we had down pat. But banquets ...??

Well not being a group of people to shy away from a challenge, we took it on. BDA meetings took on a flavour not seen before: menu planning - vegetarian or not? Chai? Punch? Who would cook which curries? What venue could we use and moreover how could we give it an Indian ambience? A sailing club on the banks of the Brisbane River proved to be a good choice. We scoured our homes for candles, saris, flowers and plants, statues of the Buddha and Indian gods, ornaments, whatever we could find ... Fortunately among the group, our travel collection was rich so we had ample material for the job.

Two days before the event, the run-up began: markets, Indian supply stores and late nights preparing curries. The sailing club looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a few seasons and I don't think it has ever seen the likes of the scrub and polish we gave it on Friday afternoon. Saturday for most of us was a long day ... starting very early with setting up the tables and seating, decorating the hall and completing last minute food preparation and delivery. The club was transformed for a night with pictures of Indian imagery overlaying sailing boats and racing trophies. (I think someone even covered up the Queen with a picture of the Buddha - a frustrated Republican no doubt!)

Guests started arriving at 6pm. Soon we were in full swing. Candles flickered as night fell and Yani and Shen created a beautiful backdrop of Indian music - singing, playing flute and Tabla. The food came out, giving real meaning to the word banquet - hot, delicious and plentiful. Everyone tucked in.

Eoin's slide show about the Pragya Vihar school and Sister Jessie reminded us why we were all there. Qwired, Queensland contemporary choir, cheered us with a few a cappella songs. Some people scored prizes as the raffles were drawn. Sitting back and relaxing with a cup of Crissi's magnificent chai completed a fun and fulfilling night.

But it was not the end of the night for the workers! We still had to clean up. The night's success must have given us the extra burst of energy we needed. We rolled up our sleeves, washed up, put away, swept up, packed up the leftovers and finally locked the door of the sailing club ... exhausted but satisfied.

An Indian banquet was a novel suggestion for a BDA fundraiser. Not only did we raise money for the projects we support but this event had another layer of significance. It showed us what a team we could be. We worked hard and we pulled together. And we pulled it off! Our energy and spirit set the tone for a great event.

ST. AIDAN'S FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES
by Kerstin Liebchen-Meades

The Amnesty International Group of St. Aidan's Anglican Girls School, consisting of 50 girls from Year 8 to Year 12, have for the second year running raised funds for the Pragya Vihar School. The group's primary focus for this year has been to raise money for the betterment of women's rights around the world. Their main fundraising activity has been a 'Thinking of you Day', where girls could send a gerbera to someone else within the school. Approximately 1000 Gerberas were sold over two days with many girls (some not even belonging to the Amnesty International Group) helping out to assist in this very successful endeavour. Of the total funds raised ($802) the group has very kindly donated $200 to the children in Bihar.

On behalf of the BDA I would like to express our gratitude to the students of St. Aidan's, the Amnesty International Group and Ms Yanardasis for their ongoing support of the BDA.

DIRECTOR OF PV SCHOOL IN AUSTRALIA
by Victor Heyde

Christopher Titmuss, who has for years been on the board of the Pragya Vihar School, was in Australia recently. He led an eight day Insight Meditation retreat in Northern NSW and gave a public talk in Brisbane. Christopher has been a patron and key supporter of the school since its very early days. His teaching approach encourages social and environmental action and he tends to put his money where his mouth is (and this doesn't mean that he eats money).

The public talk he gave in Brisbane was free but Christopher suggested we put out a bowl - it turned out to be a hat - and at the end of the talk he said a few words about the school. While he relies on donations he gave 60% of the donations (which totaled over $1200) to the school. The meditation retreats in Australia have been run recently with all donations for managers (who don't get paid) going to the BDA. At the end of the retreat this year the donations came in at $1563. This is the biggest amount we have received from a course so far. Much appreciated.