Help disadvantaged Bengali children + young people

In my February report I mentioned the Alumni of the school who have exceeded their parents’ expectations as the majority of the parents at the New Life Centre school are manual workers. I am overwhelmed each visit when I meet again the young adults whom I first met in the primary section of the school in 2008.

When I visited last December two of those Alumni are teaching in the school, Pinky and Pallabi. I have known them both since 2008, as Pinky’s mum Cobita used to cook for us on the first few visits, and she is still working in the school on the admin side. I wrote about Pallabi for GlobalGiving May 2023, as she was one of the first young girls I photographed.

Both young women were at the NLC from Lower Kindergarten (3/4 years old) to Class 10 (16 years old) and they are pursuing a career in Education. Pinky would like to be a Professor of Mathematics at a University so has many years of studying ahead, but she is a very intelligent woman, and I feel confident that she will fulfil her ambition.

Pallabi is gifted in Art and would like to go to Art College when she has finished her BA in Education, as she is a talented artist.

I interviewed them to ask what the NLC had meant to them and how it feels to be back.

Pinki told me the discipline and support at the NLC encouraged and supported her further study and considers that she learnt her current teaching skills there.

Pallabi also remembers her time at the NLC fondly. When she was at the school, she would look at her teachers and wonder what it would be like to teach, so feels very proud to be working there.

Both young women are role models for the students currently at the school, highlighting the benefits of working hard, but also showing the great achievements Alindra Naskar has brought about so far!

I recently visited the New Life Centre school in Sarberia in December, my 9^th visit so far. The school has been open 20 years and Alindra Naskar the founder and Director of the school has achieved so much in that time. The area as I have said before is very poor and Alindra bemoans the fact that in India the cities tend to be supported more by the Government and the rural areas left behind. The photo shows my first assembly in the school.

This extraordinary man has worked tirelessly in his retirement years to improve the life chances of the children in Sarberia. I see how much he has done whilst he only sees how much more needs to be achieved!

Apart from the growing community of Alumni who have far exceeded their parents potential, there is tangible evidence of exposure to the wider world and being part of the 21^st Century.

When I first visited the school in 2008, the childrens’ Art reflected their parochial lives, scenes of their houses and surrounding countryside of paddy fields and small allotments.

In the staff room this time we were met with an impressive array of Art and Science projects from Classes 5, 6, and 7, (11 – 13 year olds) These have been worked on all year as a competition. The first prize went to this hydraulic machine which one of the teachers is demonstrating here. There were other diverse and imaginative entries, which we all enjoyed looking through.

Alindra is dismantling the glass ceiling for these students not only in their aspirations but in a knowledge of the wider world which will serve them well, as they will have many more life choices than their parents could ever have dreamed of.

The sky really is the limit as the rocket illustrates!