Sampurna Program

The Loreto Day school runs, or has its fingers in, a large number of programs in the Kolkata area. One program that I've been learning a lot about lately is the Sampurna Program, which just began last summer. The loose translation of "sampurna" from both Bengali and Hindi is "togetherness" or "self-sufficiency". Thus far the program has opened up 6 schools (with three more set to open next month) for over 800 students in rural villages surrounding Kolkata, and they have focused on areas that become easily cut off during monsoon season. Several of the schools were opened in slum areas where large numbers of families are squating on unused government land. The Loreto School funds the building/renovation of schools (usually just one large room for classes 1-4), and also trains (and pays) local community members to be the teachers and school administrators. Obviously this is not an ideal solution, but it is certainly better than nothing for the large number of students who would not be able to attend school otherwise. Additionally, these schools also offer adult education classes in the evenings, and several will be starting up micro-credit programs in the coming months.

I have been doing a little fundraising work on the side to help out with this project, so I was invited yesterday to go visit one of the schools. I took a train to the edge of Kolkata, and then had to walk about 20 minutes along the train tracks to get to the school because there is no road to the area during this season. The school is in the middle of a slum that is located a mere 20 feet or so from the train tracks. Below is a picture of the path that that leads to the school:

Here is a shot of the school itself. Note that it is raised off of the ground - this is due to the fact that flood waters rise very high during the monsoon season.

My Bengali teaching/tutoring bag of tricks is quite limited, so I was happy to have the opportunity to work briefly with the student below on the English alphabet. Aside from "5" coming after "Y", I think we did pretty well...
Finally, this is a picture of the community from across the lake/flood waters. If you did not know better or look too closely, you might think it was some sort of lakefront area.
Now a quick shameless plug: if you or someone you know would be interested in supporting the Sampurna program, please drop me an email (jay.s.thompson@gmail.com) and I'd be happy to pass along the necessary information. For just $36 you could pay a teacher's salary for a month, and in turn help to open up even more schools that would reach even more students...