Kids Paradise School...

Imagine, if you can, that you live in the country, a barren landscape, dirt track roads, granite bedrock and poor topsoil. In your village there is no schooling for you, no easy way for you to gain an education. You are a dalit, that is to say you come from what is known in India as an ‘outcaste’ background.

Your water supply is separate from that of the caste people and it is outside the village. You are looked down on by caste people. You don’t mix with children from a caste background. Your parents probably work for the local landlord. Your mother works in the fields, your father may work as a labourer, he may be fortunate enough to have a small amount of land where he grows a cash crop and a few vegetables.
Your job as a child is to help your parents you won’t have time to just ‘play’.

The most likely future is one of illiteracy, job prospects severely limited. For a girl, the future will probably be helping mother with younger children, then when a little older working in the fields followed by an early marriage, child bearing when scarcely beyond childhood and then the whole cycle repeating itself. For a boy, again working in the fields and later perhaps working alongside father. Some young men leave the village for the town and find work but with no qualifications at all, the job prospects are poor.

This is how things were in the village of Turukanadoni, a small village near to the city of Raichur in northern Karnataka State, South India. In the past there had been missionaries who had selected certain children from a dalit Christian background to attend the mission boarding school in Raichur. Among those had been Joseph aged 7. Wearing a shirt and shorts he walked bare-footed the 20 kilometers to the boarding school and thus, I suppose, began the story of the village school.

Joseph was a clever boy and worked hard. He was able to progress to secondary school. His father died and it was expected that he would have to give up school, return home to the village and help support the family of 9 children. His father however had wanted an education for his children and four of them attended the mission school, the others remained illiterate.

With financial support from different friends within and outside India Joseph went on to study Theology and after his first degree he continued to acquire two Post Graduate degrees in Theology and Biblical studies with the Serampur University in India. He lectured at South India Biblical Seminary at Bangarpet near Bangalore, and Union Biblical Seminary in Pune.  He was blessed to be sponsored to study for a doctorate in Theology at Manchester University, Great Britain. At the Gurukul Theological Collage and Research Institute in Chennai he had met his future wife Nutan who was to have been the first woman in India to be ordained as a Lutheran minister from her conference. Instead, she married Joseph and later became, like Joseph, a Methodist Minister in England.

You might think that Joseph, having ‘escaped’ from the inevitable poverty and drudge of life without an education would just breathe a sigh of relief and forget about the ‘lot’ of village children. The missionaries had left India and the ‘pathway’ to the mission school was now closed to those without finance. Joseph however did not forget. His dream, as he put it, was to one day have a school in the village of Turukanadoni for the dalit children, a school with a Christian ethos, open to all and from which no child would be excluded.

The fact that the primary school now exists and has a full complement of 200 children is the realisation of that dream.

The story jumps now to Bristol where in 2001 Joseph took a job at Totterdown Methodist Church. His role was to develop and support the spiritual life of the Indian and Pakistani Christians who attended the church. He arrived with his wife and their two young boys, Nikolei and Nathan. The minister at that time was the Revd Gill Evans. During their weekly meeting at the manse Gill outlined the structures of the Methodist Church and what knowledge she held about the families with which he would be working. Joseph shared something of his own background and the problems he had faced growing up.
He shared his dream of a primary school in the village and the project which later became known as Cross Roads for Human Development or CRHD was born.

Initially it was the members of the churches of Totterdown and Knowle who raised the initial £2500 needed to build a concrete extension of two rooms to the side of the village church. The intention was to start a pre-school class for children who otherwise just remained at home looked after by an older brother, sister or elderly relative while the parents worked in the fields.

In January 2002 Joseph, Nutan, the boys and Revd Gill travelled to the village for the official opening of the first school. Some 45 little ones were enrolled. A head teacher, another teacher and a helper were employed. During their time there the first ever meeting of the CRHD India committee was held.

It very soon became evident that the premises would soon be outgrown; there was no water supply and there were no toilet facilities.
It was decided that a purpose built school was needed.
CRHD was formed back in Bristol and monies raised in various ways !!! A piece of land was purchased and plans drawn up for an L shaped single storey building. The estimated cost was £13K. It was decided that deep foundations should be dug and a concrete roof installed rather than a corrugated asbestos one. Photos taken during the building show both men and women from the village employed in mixing concrete and passing ‘plates’ of it along in a chain. The building complete, a bore well was dug near to the school. This was a hand-pumped water supply to provide enough water for essential cooking, drinking and washing up.
The building offered three classrooms, a kitchen and a hall.
Once again visitors from England went out for the opening ceremony.

So where did the money come from?

The village people are among the poorest of the poor so the financing had to come from Europe. Church people and the churches themselves responded generously, Standing Orders were set up and a Bristol committee formed. Its aim, to support the work of CRHD India. Charitable status for CRHD was applied for and obtained both in India and in the UK.
Some very generous donations were received including one which enabled us to buy a 5.4 acre piece of land near to the city of Raichur.

The school started with 15 children. As these grew up others followed and the need for even more classrooms became evident. A second storey was envisaged but this needed a further £20K. The money was raised. A church in Switzerland joined the fund raising and other churches and individuals donated. The news of the school began to spread and talks were given which raised further awareness. The second storey was completed in 2009. The school by now had around 150 children from pre-school to year 5.

The growth in numbers meant that more teachers had to be employed which obviously incurred increased running costs.

Due to the extreme poverty in the village many of the children are undernourished and so the school decided to offer a simple midday meal for all the children. Two ‘dinner lady cooks’ are therefore employed.

Water became a problem as our bore well tended to fail during the dry season.
A piece of land next to the school had been purchased to provide a playing area for the children and in the far corner a new deep bore well was successfully drilled and ‘sweet’ water found. This was brought to the school by an electric pump. A constant water supply was now assured. Trees were planted, watered by the waste water.

By 2011 the school was offering the full range of Primary Education years which in India terminates at the end of the UK Year 7. The full complement was 200 children Joseph’s dream had been realised..well..at least in part.

The Revd David Harris who had spent a large part of his ministry in India was also a fine architect and he designed an Education Centre with a secondary boarding school, an agricultural training centre, a teacher and pastor training centre and a centre for elderly people to gather. The site was to be on the 5.4 acres of land outside the city. In 2007 during a visit from the UK to the site, prayers were said, foundation stones were laid and then covered. The dream was in place but as to date (Jan 2012) the finance has not been available to further the project.

The Primary school however has gained a well deserved reputation for offering an excellent education. It is in some small way too preaching good news to the poor and breaking down barriers between Hindu caste children, Muslim, and Christian children as they learn, play and share food together.

Registered Charity no. 1116524

Site produced by Selina Taylor