A Dream Realised By Pauline Price - Part 1 < Part 2 | Part 3 >

It has long been my dream to do voluntary teaching in India. As a retired Primary School Head Teacher, this dream eventually came true, when I spent 2 months, earlier this year, living and working in a very rural part of India .This was achieved with help from Market Harborough Lions Club and 14 - 105M Lions Clubs, who donated to my “anything up to £25 appeal.” I cannot thank them enough. It was an amazing trip from start to finish, in many different ways.

I arrived at the Able Charitable Hospital, where I was based and walked straight into a very tragic situation. A 29 year old woman had come for help from the Able Widows with Children programme. One of her children needed major surgery, which was totally beyond their means. Her husband , who was a hard working man had been some days with no work, so could not feed his family . He had gone to a high building and in desperation, had committed suicide by jumping off, leaving her with 5 children aged from 4 years old to 13.

Within half an hour, Mr Prem Khullar, the founder and President, had accepted her on to the programme, contacted the hospital medical insurance scheme providers, which accepted all six of them and arranged places in their local school for the three middle children , something which their parents had never been able to afford. The 13 year old will remain illiterate as the chance has come too late for her, but the youngest will go as soon as he is old enough. The project also provides uniforms, exercise books and pencils, as well as winter shoes and a coat each year for them. The cost of all of this is about £26 a month, which comes entirely from Able’s fund raising. I am happy to say that with the money donated by family and friends, I was able to cover the cost for the first year. It was certainly an amazing introduction to the fantastic work carried out by the Able Charity AND not a bit of “Red Tape,” in sight!!

The following morning, I was taken to meet the principals of the two schools I was to work with. The first, from 9am until 11:30am the second for the rest of the school day. The first catered for children from slightly more affluent backgrounds, so after the first two 2 weeks I left, to concentrate all my efforts on the second, where the class sizes were huge and the need greater . This school has about 1,000 pupils, 48 of whom were children of ABLE funded widows as well as several orphans. The staff are a wonderful, extremely hard working group and welcomed me with open arms.