Check the photos: www.flickr.com Saint Joseph's Elementary School serves over 300 students ages 6 to 12 in a poor fishing village near Chowara in the state of Kerala, South India. This February, I was invited to visit the school by our friend Azul Meeser, during a ten-day retreat with my yoga group at the nearby Somatheeram Ayurvedic Center. I shot this short video of that eye-opening experience, as well as the photo slideshow (see above link). Both show in vivid detail the real conditions in which many children are taught in developing countries around the world. I was impressed by the children's natural curiosity and vivacity, as well as the teacher's commitment to bringing a quality education in this disadvantaged community. But it was also clear that this 'private aided' school needed more help from outside sources, since it receives only minimal support from the government. Many of the children need shoes, uniforms -- even food bowls (some kids come to school on an empty stomach and need to be fed so they can focus on their studies). They also need a vehicle to drive some of the students who live several kilometers away from school. So we reached out to other guests of Somatheeram to help us pay for uniforms and food bowls for 325 students. In less than 24 hours, two dozen people joined forces with us to raise over a thousand US dollars in cash donations. They included most of the students in Erika Trice's yoga class, as well as other generous world citizens from ...
Keywords: india, kerala, kovalam, chowara, adimalathusa, fishing, village, saint, joseph', saint-joseph, school, children, student, teacher, newspaper, class, uniform, bowl, fab, friends, vacation, travel, asia
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