South Africa Mission – Cape Town & Seven Fountains

   Letter from Irene Easun :  

During the month of August this year, I was able to visit the school set up in Trestha. The reason behind the trip was largely because my 18 year old daughter, Isadora, wanted to spend some time abroad helping with a charitable project of some sort and because I have supported Child Care for some years and know Martine well, I asked Martine if it might be possible for Isadora to spend a week or so in Trestha, helping at the school.

Child CARE Monaco does not run any formal programme of this kind so Martine had to work out if it was feasible to have an 18year old do this on her own at the school. Luckily for Isadora, Martine set it all up very properly and Isadora spent an amazing week acting as a teaching assistant in the school, helping to teach English to all of the girls there.

Isadora has made a small film of her experience which is on the site too. She is very keen to go back and spend longer next time, thanks to the experience she had. The teaching staff were so kind to her, in particular the English teacher. The school’s director, Ghanshyam, was amazing and watched over Isadora so carefully and kindly. And the girls were just unbelievably lovely: their thirst for learning is quite humbling. They arrive at school well before the school opens, so keen are they to get there and start class. There is no discipline problem in this school - these village girls love being in class and it is humbling to see how enthusiastic they are to be there.

I took Isadora to the school, spent a night there and then collected her at the end of her week, spending another night there. Martine had explained just how poor the village of Trestha is but I admit I was surprised at what we found. The village is tiny (around a 1000 people) and there is nothing there other than very basic homes for the village people and one or two “shops” but which are poorly stocked and not shops as we would know them. Ghanshyam took us to his home: one of the better built houses, but even his home was very very basic.

Indian dance, Western dance, songs, a play, poetry in English.... The girls also showered both of us with gifts: lemons from trees in the fields around the village, bracelets, scarves etc. It was amazing and so generous of them. We left with our hands hennaed exquisitely: the henna has faded now but we will always remember the girls’ smiling faces.

The school itself is fantastic: so organized and well thought-out. A series of classrooms, an office, a library which needs to be furnished and supplied but which is a good space, a kitchen where the girls’ lunch is prepared, and a school playground with some playthings (a swing etc). These village girls have very little at home: yet they turn up for school each day, homework done, kitted out with their school uniform and bag.

Ghanshyam explained to us that these girls are from very traditional backgrounds: arranged marriages are the norm and they are destined to marry and work in fields which belong to someone else. Access to education does not necessarily mean that this generation of girls will go on to have further education and become, for example, teachers or doctors. But the hope is that the children of these girls will do so. As Ghandi said, positive change for India must begin in the rural villages and Child Care’s initiative is very much on that wavelength.

The girls made us so welcome and loved my daughter and she them. The girls put on a show for her when she left which was immensely touching:

Thank you to Martine and to Child CARE Monaco for allowing us to live this experience.

Irene Easun