We believe that education should be available to all, irrespective of caste, creed or gender. The Indian system also is set up that way but with such vast numbers it is hard to reach everyone. Varanasi is in a state called Uttar Pradesh which has a staggering population of 200 million.


That means that currently in the world 1 in 6 people are Indian and 1 in 6 of those is from UP. It is one of the four poorest states in India. People tend not to realise what a lack of facilities and cash there is in India because as a nation they are pretty happy and satisfied with whatever they have - despite the fact that they lurch from one natural disaster to another. Every year, there is a serious drought somewhere, farmers are committing suicide and huge floods will devastate chunks of land displacing thousands of people at some point. Did I mention earthquakes? Despite all this, you will see our children radiantly smiling, you will see travel magazines, Facebook photos and documentaries showing happy people. This is their greatness. They have different priorities where education is traditionally highly valued, not as a means to make money, but for the sake of knowledge for itself. Of course, there is a modern tendency, people to want to be doctors and engineers to the detriment of more cultural subjects, as a way of getting ahead financially in the world, perhaps even to get a job abroad. However, you also have those who see the value in sustaining their communities and working together and who see their heritage as a valuable one.


Exciting Times for theYoga


Mission 12


It is hard to believe that I have been in India for 17 years now. We built a school in the Himalayas which now has around 1,000 children and is self sufficient. We now also have around 250 children in Varanasi, 40 of whom live with us all year round and the rest who come daily split between a Primary School, a Sanskrit school and an “after school” School. Most of these children are either orphans or


come from impoverished families. We rely completely on donations. We do this work because agencies such as UNESCO have found that 90% of underprivileged kids are illiterate even after four years of schooling. It is an incredible statistic. We see so many incredibly well educated Indians around the world but it is hard for us to comprehend a population of 1.26bn and 65% under the age of 35.


The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017


This year, we have made huge progress with our day school which transformed from a Kindergarten school to a Primary School on April 1st! We were curious as to why two girls aged 10 and 11 had stayed on to do another year in Upper Kindergarten in the previous academic session. When we met with their father, he pleaded with us to keep them, because he had nowhere that he could send them to school. It dawned on us that we needed to continue to teach the children after Kindergarten too, and so our Primary School was born.


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