March 2006

Dear benefactors, sponsors and friends of our little children in Brisson Bala Bhavan,

Hi there!

This is Fr. Shaju, director of our hostel, Brisson Bala Bhavan, wishing you all every best wishes of the season.

The kids in the hostel send their best regards to all of you. When the kids returned from home after their Christmas holidays, they were all in tears because their nice time at home was over and then school again!!!

Then slowly they got used to the rhythm of going to school, meeting their little friends at school, doing homework, yoga, play, little quarrels etc. and the year went very fast. Now they are getting ready to go home again.

Last week when I met the kids at the hostel, they were all serious studying. Then when I asked, “why suddenly so serious?” one replied “father tomorrow onwards our annual exams are beginning” Then I said “the academic year has come to an end! Vow!!! That was very fast!!!”

Today after the mass I enquired with them how the exams are going their eyes were a-glowing with joy “only two more exams father and then we are going home”.

Indeed that was fast. The year went by very quickly. Their exams will be over on the 14th of March and they will go to their respective homes and will return only in the next academic year starting from the 1st of June ‘06.

Looking at the progress the kids have made during the past year, it is amazing that these small poor kids 5 years old then, left their parents and joined Brisson Bala Bhavan. These kids did not know, when they joined, anything about English. And theses kids were from different language backgrounds. In four months time they were all able to communicate with one another in English. I appreciate the hostel staff for their hard work and commitment. Each one of the ‘Brissonites’ did well in their studies at school. What is to be noted here is that their companions in the class are coming from a much better family background. And still the ‘Brissonites’ performed well in the school. One had a ‘b’ grade and all the others had ‘a’ grade.

Our kids also did well in sports in the school. All of them are in possession of a certificate in one sports or the other from the school.

Certainly they brought a lot of life to our compound here. I wish them all the best for a very enjoyable summer holidays with their parents. They all look very healthy and happy. They are all very much at home in the hostel.

Applications started to come in for the next academic year. We have provision only for seven kids for the next year. By the grace of God and by the generous contributions of our benefactors and friends, I guess, we can run it well.

Once again wishing you all the best of the season and thank you very much for all your generous support

Fr. Shaju
(Director)