School donation

I was given some money from a teacher in Sacramento, Bob Nosler, to be used as a donation to a public school in India. On my first trip, I used some of the money to pass out pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, colored pencils, and color crayons. With the remaining money, I went to one of my student’s father’s shop to purchase books and supplies for a government (public) school in my friend’s village, Dhurgaon.

I started with purchasing a set of copy books (blank notebooks) and then looked at various books for the subjects of math, science, Hindi language, English language, and general knowledge. I purchased several of these books in various grade levels. I also purchased math tool kits (protractors, rulers, semi-circles) and small dictionaries.

 As I waited for Nabin’s father to tally up the amount, I sat on a stool and took a few pictures of the local children.  Then I handed the camera to the children to take pictures.  One bold girl took hold of the camera and snapped several shots.  I tried to show another girl how to hold the camera, but she didn’t have a steady arm and all of her pictures were blurry. I was able to convey to her not to block the lens with her finger!

With a box tied up with string, I visited my friend Deepak’s village of Dhurgaon the next morning. At the village we were greeted by many village elders and local politicians. We walked through the beautiful village to the local government school, Maghya Vidhaalaya Dhurgãv. Deepak pointed out the new school building that was in the process of being built; a two story structure with bricks and rocks still piled in front of the structure.



Walking up the dirt ramp into the school building we were greeted by several women preparing food. Deepak mentioned that this was the government food program to feed the school children a daily meal.

Next we met the school officials in the office and we opened the box of school supplies.  They were very thankful to get the supplies.  Since I didn’t know the number of students in the school, I did not bring enough supplies for everyone. Deepak mentioned that the school could have a contest and the winners could get some of the supplies.

After meeting with the officials, they brought all of the children out of their classrooms and onto the school grounds.  Everything was explained to the children and many photos were taken.  I gave a short speech telling who I was and how I brought a donation.  Then Deepak made a speech to the children.  We took our leave after that with the happy children going back into their classrooms. Thanks, Bob, for the donation!!! Thanks, Deepak, for finding a school to receive the donation!!!!