2004 NEWSLETTER

THE YEAR THAT WAS

We have been fortunate this year to have many generous people support our projects. As usual it is mainly people in or connected to the Insight Meditation community. In particular we have had a lot of support from people at the Bluegum Sangha in Sydney and from Eoin Liebchen-Meades in Brisbane, who donated the proceeds of a year of teaching meditation one night a week. In the end it is the projects and the kids in India who benefit, although generosity and helping have their own rewards.

There have been challenges in managing the PV School. While the school functions well and is considered the best school in town, it still doesn’t have proper school registration. Having this would be very helpful but it requires negotiating the complex mysteries of Indian bureaucracy and developing stratospheric levels of patience.

Both of these are being attempted in order to get one of a range of different registrations available.

Another challenge has been trying to determine whether to develop the existing school further, taking into account the flood problems in the area. It is partly due to this issue that funds collected in the past have not gone straight into further development. We have been cautious. As it turns out we now have a green light and the held-back funds will be sent over later in the year.

These sorts of challenges need people on the ground in Bodhgaya who are trustworthy and good at assessing issues clearly. We have tended to rely on the few Westerners who are part of our network visiting Bodhgaya but not having people there for long periods makes some of the tasks associated with the running of the school quite difficult.

There is also a high level of corruption in Bodhgaya and so far we have found this to be somewhat of an obstacle though we still maintain our policy of not paying Westerners.

Sister Jessie’s program is thriving, as much from Jessie’s spirit as anything else. It is still serving the poorer and more remote villages. It seems that one of the benefits of having Westerners come to the villages is that locals see Westerners as interested in the schools and so the schools must be important. There are also opportunities for people to help with Sister Jessie’s program.

Once again, to everyone who has helped in some way: donations large and small, time or food given for one of our fund-raisers, even just spreading the word - Thank You!

Victor von der Heyde

A CASE FOR HAVING A SWEET TOOTH
Kerstin Liebchen-Meades

As in the past five years, students from the Amnesty International and Greenies Group at St Aidan’s AGS have raised funds through selling gerberas and sweets at a sweets stall at this year’s swimming carnival. Their donation of over $300 and continuing fundraising efforts as well as their ongoing commitment to the students in Bodhgaya, India are very much appreciated.

Mrs Page, the geography teacher at St Aidan’s AGS has also been a very committed supporter over the years. This year, her Year 9/10 students and the Year 11/12 students ran lolly stalls, which raised a whopping $200.
Both of these fundraising activities from the Geography students and from the Amnesty International and Greenies Group simply proove the fact that lots of students have “a sweet tooth”!

“BEFORE THE MOVIE WASHING CUPS, CHOPPING VEGIES, MAKING SOUP…
Crissi Schmidt

…AFTER THE MOVIE, WASHING CUPS, CLEANING UP, EATING SOUP LEFT-OVERS.”

A behind the scenes peek at the latest BDA film night fund raiser in September 2003.

The BDA team rolled into action after Victor’s magnificent procuring of the DVD of ‘Princess Mononoke’, the animation classic by Hayao Miyazaki.

Kim produced a beautifully designed and colourful flyer. Kerstin came up with the venue- St Aidans Anglican Girls School donated the use of their superb hall and kitchen. Beautiful organic vegies donated by Mark, one of Eoin’s patients were lovingly prepared and chopped by the team and other much appreciated helpers, George, Maria and Ricky. Bread rolls were generously donated by Steve the baker, another patient of Eoins. Kim turned these organic vegies into two different flavoured huge pots of scrumptious soup and Karen made a to die for delicious Thai soup. All in all it was definitely a move over ‘Soup-Nazi’ affair.

We moved in on the St Aidan’s Hall and so the scene was set for the 70 wonderful people who came and enjoyed firstly the short movie ‘Poverty and Purity’, a documentary of the history and functions of the PV School in Bodhgaya and then after the devouring of the 3 different soups and bread, tea and coffee, the extraordinary ‘Princess Mononoke’, despite one small hitch in the technical department.

Once again a huge thanks to St Aidan’s AGS, all who donated the food, and all the great volunteers who helped with the big wash up clean up. Ricky and his wife and Maria,( whom I can still see on hands and knees cleaning the carpet with a dustpan and brush.), and especially to you wonderful folk who supported us and enabled $1,195 to be raised for the kids and other worthy projects in Bodhgaya.

Three cheers !!!
Much Metta to all you generous souls and may you all be equally and even more supported in all your compassionate endeavours.

A VISIT AND SOM VIEWS: PRAJNA VIHAR SCHOOL 2004
Jiva Masheder

My first visit to the Pragya Vihar School this year happened to coincide with a staff meeting and so I was invited in with a friend and we sat and waited, listening to the meeting in progress. I was impressed with the clarity and leadership of the new principal, Sister Yogita, the atmosphere of cheerful cooperation and the dedication to the pupils. Later, on the street, I met some of the students in their distinctive uniforms, all chirping “hello,hello what is your name”. Even the smaller ones were able to talk a little with me in English, now the national language of India and the key to good jobs and working with tourists, a major source of income in Bodhgaya. They all said how much they enjoyed going to school – and they even looked like they meant it!

I spoke to several of the Christian nuns who are on staff at the school as well as Sr Yogita, the new principal. All of them spoke about the joy it brings them to serve the children and I was especially struck by the teachers’ warmth of heart and love for the children. The job has its challenges though, ones that are hard to imagine in the West. There is a big drainage problem; of waste water from hotels which is not reaching the river. The school, which is built upon raised ground, is surrounded on all sides by stagnant water, a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes. The water was at least 30cm deep while I was there in the dry season and the sisters told me that in the rainy season they have to hitch their saris up to their waists and wade through thigh-deep water to get to work! However it is also worth remembering how priceless education is in a country with a literacy rate of around 50%; in Gaya District this drops to single figures in some villages. It is easy for us to take education for granted; here the children at the PV school know how lucky and privileged they are. Everyone I talked to both within and outside the school agreed that it is the best school in the area.
I spoke to one former pupil, Umesh, who works in one of Bodhgaya’s most popular restaurants, Mohammed’s. His English was fairly good, and he has a steady job. I asked him what his peers who had not been to school were doing for money. He shrugged and said “field-work, carrying bricks”. These jobs are poorly paid, physically demanding and very unreliable sources of income.

It is good to remember that the pupils of the PV school are low-caste children in a country where caste determines everything. If a child is born knowing he or she is inferior it is a wonderful gift to be able to help them to feel self-respect. So, as well as better earning prospects, education has other benefits too. Talking with the teachers about this most of them agreed that present and former pupils of the school had noticeably better self-esteem and were generally more considerate to others.
The teachers expressed a wish for a little more equipment for the school, as well as a couple of extra class-rooms so that each class has a separate room. At present the lower classes have to share a room, which adds to the challenges for both teachers and pupils. Also on the wish-list were some desks so that the pupils were not hunched over when trying to write, and some more floor mats for the younger students to sit on; they only graduate to benches in later years! All these things are being prioritised. New desks have been ordered and slowly the facilities at the school are getting better.

The whole thing is heartening to see. There is room for growth and improvement but the school is also having a wonderful impact.

Sister Yogita (centre), principal of the school in January 2004,
with other teachers.

FIVE DAYS WITH SISTER JESSIE
Rodney Farrelly

It is very difficult to talk about Sister Jessie without using what appears to be a lot of flattering adjectives. I will restrict myself to my interpretation of the events and attempt to be impartial and objective.

After previously swapping a few emails with Sister Jessie about the directions and an approximate arrival date, my partner and I got off the bus in the village of Dohbi at the intersection of the Grand Trunk Road, India’s busiest national highway. We shouldn’t have been surprised to find the Ashram statue emerging above the weathered roofs, but we were. Finding it all locked up and swapping sign language with the neighbours, we waited for Sister Jessie at a local chai shop listening to Australia playing India in the cricket at the Gabba. As Matty Hayden was making a century, the friendly neighbour brought a message Sister Jessie had returned. We learnt that some American health professionals had asked Sister Jessie to show them the homeopathic clinic she runs in one of the remote villages. Such was the unpredictable nature of Sister Jessie’s schedule.

Sister Jessie outside the new entrance to her ashram

Over the next five days we had many opportunities to talk to Sister Jessie about her work, her philosophy and her life. However, it was the first hand observation of her programs that touched us most.

On Day 2 we accompanied her employee a couple of kilometres through the rice fields to visit one of the schools Sister Jessie runs. One composite class was taking place among some straw huts, another in a disused, dilapidated old government building with students sitting on the dirt floor. From the dirt mound behind the neatly seated students of the “outdoor classroom”, we observed the attentive students choral response to the teacher Basudev’s recitation of the English alphabet. Students brought empty rice sacks to sit on and carry their less than A4 size slates and chalk for writing tasks, with a lucky few having an exercise book and pen.

The thought occurred to me that it would take a lot of money to even come close to spoiling these villages with resources, yet Sister Jessie was still quite ruthless in her approach to these and other villages in relation to how she helped them out. Basically she has adopted a stance that encourages these villages to work together to help themselves rather than rely on handouts for their development, “like a man with no teeth who still manages to eat,” she illustrated. This was quite inspiring given that we and they both knew that she was unrelentingly generous, herself living a very simple life and surviving solely on donations. Add to this the fact that these people belong to the lowest caste, in Bihar, the poorest state in India.

For example, for the current roof project, Sister Jessie is encouraging villagers to set up bank accounts to save half the cost of upgrading their straw roofs to tiles. Sister Jessie then hopes to be able to match their savings to protect homes from unsanitary conditions during the rainy season.

On Day 3 we ventured out early and observed Sister Jessie tackle the mob of jeep drivers to negotiate vehicle hire. With the sides zipped up yet still quite breezy, we trekked along pothole-ridden bitumen come dirt roads to several outlying schools that Sister Jessie hadn’t visited in a while for some unannounced inspections. Sister Jessie manages to visit each school about once a year due to the high cost of travel, relying mostly on the village women representatives to congregate at the Ashram to provide updates at a Women’s Council. These inspections are her only means of validating the truth of those reports, and seeing first hand the attendance levels, wearing of Ashram-provided uniforms and shawls, and standard of teaching through random quizzing.

Sister Jessie with students

Day 4 was Homeopathic Clinic day, a bi-weekly event at the Ashram. Sister Jessie and a Doctor attend to the health needs of approximately 180 patients each day. Sometimes an assistant or volunteer will help with the making up and distribution of medicine, otherwise they just make do. Despite medical care being a relatively unfamiliar concept to the villagers, its value is spreading and Sister Jessie charges a minimal fee of 3 Rupees (10 cents, occasionally waived) to attempt to ingrain self-reliance.

We were sad to say goodbye to Sister Jessie and the Ashram on Day 5, feeling like there was so much we could do to help in her Campaign for Awakening Wisdom. Knowing how big a difference we could make in so many people’s lives compared to our Western existence was very confronting. Tirelessly, Sister Jessie accompanied us to nearby Bodh Gaya, again saving us from the torture of rickshaw negotiation. Seeing us comfortably into a room at the Burmese Vihar where she lived for many years, she set off for her weekly checking of emails, promising a resident she would return at 4am the next morning to a help distribute blankets to the homeless at Gaya railway station.

Basudev, one of the teachers who works with Sister Jessie, with students

CYCLING FOR A PURPOSE

Karen Longland

John Pink has embarked on a challenge of enormous proportion. He is traveling from Brisbane to
Melbourne on his bicycle. John says the idea come to him when a friend was talking about making the journey. John decided if he was going to make such a huge effort and cover so many miles with only his legs to power him, he would like to do it for a purpose. Fund raising seemed like the obvious answer to John who has witnessed the huge difference that donations can make to the poor and underprivileged.

A few years ago John’s life changed dramatically. He left professional work to travel to India and Sri Lanka on a quest to discover the ‘truth’. It was during this trip that John was introduced to the benefits available from the BDA fund raising efforts. John spent time at the Praya Vihar School in Bodhgaya and was amazed at the opportunities offered to the children who would otherwise likely not receive any formal education. On returning to Australia, John’s life is very different to the one he left a year earlier. He is now driven to work for the benefit of others by applying sustainable practices and principles.

John Pink with bike

John says he chose the BDA to receive the fruits of his fund raising efforts as he is comforted in the knowledge that funds donated to the BDA actually go directly to the school. The volunteers who administer the BDA receive no remuneration for their time and efforts ensuring 100% of funds raised reach the charity organization.

So with a cause in hand, John headed south intent on enjoying the experience and making the most of the journey. Without the luxury of extensive savings, he is funding his trip by working on organic / permaculture farms along the way.

John is currently in Sydney and has raised an astonishing $2,000!

TREASURER'S REPORT: 2003 - 04

Thank you for your continued support and generosity. This year $14,663.31 nett funds were generated. Running costs have, as usual, been separately met by committee members. Donations were received from the following sources:

· Anonymous $1,550.00
· Dharma Cloud - Room Use $1,644.00
· Eoin Meades - Relaxation Centre Courses $2,170.50
· General  $356.00
· Global Nil
· Greeting Cards sales $45.00
· Newsletter $2,994.96
· Organizations Nil
· DharmaCloud Retreats - Teachers' & Managers' Dana $2403.00
+ Donations
· Bluegum Sangha $1690.25
· Tallowwood Sangha $114.55
· Interest earned $568.30
· Function - Film @ School $1,195.00

Distribution to India this financial year was $4,000 to the works of Sister Jessie. Once again funds have been allocated for The Pragya Vihar School pending request for them to be transmitted.

This year we have again been blessed. Dana has come from many new donors. Our recurrent donors, a large quorum of whom have been giving to the BDA since the first Newsletter, have again honoured us with fiscal funds. And … those who donate their services and time to the activities and running of the BDA have continued their aid. On behalf of the children of Bihar India … "Thank you".

Pam Grayson