Christmas in India
The past month I have worked very hard with our Angels work and I am now proud to write about and show you the Christmas in India Story with a write up and a few photos.
This year as in Past years Anwesha and Sister Mary worked with me almost every day for over a month making sure every detail of this Christmas project went well for many children in a far away village in India.
It was not easy to do and it took time to put all the parts of the project together.
The first part of the story I will start with is the arrival of the Christmas tree to the Village School and see all the children decorate it… The kids were amazed as they never did anything like this before so it became very special for everyone.
I might add that the Christmas tree was bought to be special and to look just like a Christmas tree that we would have in North America for Christmas. It was very big. Anwesha and I buy it from a great company, in Southern India, over 2000 miles from the village where the children are. Shipping and tracking is very important as well as ensuring that the tree arrives undamaged. Anwesha is right on top of every detail of the tree during the process.
When the day came that the Christmas tree was delivered all the children were so Happy along with Sister Mary.
The children have no idea what it is all about but are full of smiles and Happy faces when the box is opened.
They set the Christmas tree up and bring it outside to decorate. The children have so much fun doing it ! Again, as they have never done this before.
Every year for the past 20 years local schools in the USA have donated Halloween candy to our small charity. This year we sent out many boxes of candy and one of the boxes was sent halfway around the world to Sister Mary in the far away village called Champa at St. Paul’s English Medium School to be part of the Christmas celebration with the new Christmas Tree and the children.
There was one sad part of the story that I will not hold back from all of you. I was charged approximately 20 USD as Indian duty charges for the candy to arrive at the school. But if you look at all the Happy smiles from the children it was money well spent for the children to receive the candy.
It is late Dec at Christmas. The children now have the new big Christmas Tree and the Candy.
Sister Mary and everyone at the school was very happy and excited about that alone.
When I was exchanging Emails, I asked Sister Mary what kind of toys do the children have at the school ? Sister Mary said because the community spent so much money for the new school there was no money left for toys so the children do not have anything to play with.
I was truly taken back by that.
I contacted my friend Anwesha Bhattacharya and we made a list of toys to buy for the children at the school for Christmas, to go along with the New Christmas Tree and Candy .
We wanted to buy learning games for the classrooms as well as sports games to play outside in the school yard.
Anwesha was not too happy with me at first as my list of learning games and sports games was very large and long, but after a few days of working together the toy list all came together to be needed and very good for an entire village school full of small children.
When I sent Sister Mary the list to see she was very happy with everything as it was for boys and girls of mixed ages.
St Paul’s school is an English Medium School so the children learn to read and write English so learning games in English was great for the classrooms along with many other board games.
Anwesha helped me every day doing the shopping online at an Indian Company in India and having everything shipped to the Village School in many different small orders. Remember this location is in a very rural area of India so shipping had to be looked into very carefully so there wouldn’t be a problem or everything would get lost.
Everything arrived at the Convent after about 3 to 4 weeks and Sister Mary took charge of everything when it arrived and sorted all the toys out as to what classroom would get what toys. SomeToys were for the inside of the school and some Toys were for the outside of the school to play with.
In the end , after many days and hours of getting everything done and what seemed like a thousand emails the project came 100% together Christmas Tree, Candy and Toys
Here are a few photos of the toys for you to see at the Village School .
Just to give you an idea of how the children in the school played games before the angels donated the games/sports items to the school.
Now the children can play with proper toys and games, thanks to your generosity.
I hope that you enjoyed seeing what a small amount of money with good management of your donated
funds can do to help children , be children no matter where they live in the world.
I would like to Thank The Daughters of the Cross Sisters, Sister Mary and Anwesha Bhattacharya along with all the people who help support our small charity every year to make many smiles from children that we try to help each year.
Below you will read the Thank You Mails from Sister Mary at the Village School.
Ray O
A Short report on the Project by Children are Angels from Heaven
St. Paul’s English Medium school is in the remote part of the district of Jashpur…at the outskirt, in the margin, it is a border. So, it is understandable that the area lacks many facilities which otherwise is enjoyed or accessed by people in the town. In the same manner the children in the school lacks many facilities. Our focus was to introduce academics in the area and give good education to the children but with time we soon realized that the children had much energy and enthusiasm for outdoor activities. The management had invested much of the available funds for the construction of building so it was not possible to go for purchase of sports/games items. The children played with bricks, sand, stones, pebbles, wooden planks – whatever materials were lying around for construction purposes. They also made own arrangements for play. We were aware of this facility lacking but did not venture to do anything due to the lack of funds. So, when Mr. Ray approached me if we needed any of the sports items, I was more than grateful. I suggested and requested for items like balls, skipping/jump ropes, bats, frisbees etc. By the first week of December, we started receiving boxes with various items. It was like Santa sending us much desired and needed gifts for Christmas. We opened the boxes on 19th December. The children were very excited. We distributed different items to different age groups and they thoroughly enjoyed. During games’ hour we call the senior most students to distribute the sports items to the students and collect them after the games’ hour is over. It is with utmost sincerity they perform this duty and responsibility. The seniors know that they must take care of these items if they want to enjoy games.
On behalf of the management of the school, as well as the students I sincerely thank Mr. Ray and all associated with the organization for their help and generosity to make it possible for our students/children to have a happy and active life in the school through their contribution of all the games/sports items.
Sr. Mary
Christmas Tree
Thank you, Ray, for the lovely Christmas tree for us this Christmas. The students had great fun doing the decorations. They had never done the decorations before so we had to spend much time doing and undoing and then doing till, we got the desired result. But it was fun. They enjoyed climbing the ladder and fixing everything. It was like an adventure for them. On the last day the students gathered around the tree and enjoyed the look of it. It was the ‘first time’ experience for them but it will not be the last time because of your generosity and kindness to us. Thank you very much.
Sr. Mary
Halloween Candy
Hello Ray,
We waited for a long time for the Halloween candies to arrive to us for the school children. The delay was making me impatient and anxious but it arrived at the right time….just a few days before we closed the school for Christmas vacation. On the last day we had the Christmas tree put up with colourful decorations. All were in mood of celebration. There was dance. There was singing. There were games and there were candies! The candies were sufficient for all 294 children and after the celebration I was able to give away some candies to all those who worked hard and helped me put everything in order. Children were very excited to see and taste different kinds of candies. Thank you very much for your effort and hard work to bring smile in the faces of children. It is worthwhile.
Sr. Mary
