...and our current efforts of constructing a new school building for its children!
The Jawahar Matriculation School of Andimadam (a village in Tamil Nadu, India) is a kindergarten and elementary school that provides basic education to children from underprivileged families in this community. The school, which is run by our collaborating organization READ, is currently housed in a rented school building, which is in bad condition as the walls and roof are slowly falling apart (see pictures below). The owner has decided to sell the property and demolish the school building at the end of 2008, as the land will be developed to build stores.
These children need a new school building. We have already bought a piece of land elsewhere in the area. The total price to now construct a real school building would be approximately $45,000. We will use the same building design as what we used for the recently completed construction of the Mother Teresa school in Periyakrishnapuram village (click here to see pictures).
The Koninklijk Atheneum school in Ekeren (Belgium) has already started to raise the money to construct this much-needed school building in the village. Several other schools in the Antwerp region are assisting them. Click here to learn more about the ongoing fundraising events of this school.
In June 2008, several friends, including Sahaya board member Ramin Yazdani, Lauren Vaage and Sahaya founder Koen Van Rompay climbed Mount Shasta in California to raise money for the Jawahar school. They looked for sponsorship. For donations made through the end of August 2008, any of your donations were matched 1:1 by another sponsor. So that means that if you donated $20, you actually raised $40...$50 became $100...and $500 became $1000! Together, they raised $7381.79 so far!! For more information on their climb, visit Ramin's home page or Koen's home page.
In May 2008, with the money that has already been raised, construction has started. As of October 2008, we still need to raise the final $2,500 to complete the building hopefully by December. You can help us! Any additional money that is raised will be used for better books and other supplies.
Please join us in raising the money to build this urgently needed school!
To make a donation, go to our donation page (click here).
We thank you tremendously for your support!! .
For more information, please contact Koen Van Rompay,
Sahaya International, Inc.
2949 Portage Bay Avenue, Apartment #195
Davis, CA 95616
USA
Phone (evenings): 530-756-9074 kkvanrompay@ucdavis.edu www.sahaya.org
Here are some recent pictures (September 07) of the old school, its lovely children and the teachers:
