Mar 20
New York artist Erica Harris teaching a class
In January of 2012 Brooklyn, NY artist Erica Harris was welcomed to Buddha’s Smile School in India to teach art classes and take photos of daily activities at BSS. Thank you also to Erica and her friends who raised over $6,000 for BSS middle school scholarships. We invite you to take a look at Erica’s beautiful photos of our BSS students: http://www.ericaharris.org/2012/03/2012bssactivities/
Feb 2
Tim and Kids
Friends,
I spent the final week of January at my home away from home; Port-au-Prince, Haiti. If you would have asked me a year ago where I most enjoy spending my free time, the last place I would suggest would have been post-earthquake Haiti. Yet after each subsequent trip to Haiti I find it more difficult to leave and often feel a sense of loss for my Haitian friends I leave behind. Haiti and its beautiful people have a way of changing ones outlook on life. While it’s true that Haiti has needs beyond needs, the people of Haiti are blessed with a kind, loving and caring spirit unlike any group of people I have come across. I often say I get more out my trips to Haiti than I provide to those whom I serve, and this trip was no exception. I left for Haiti with a heavy heart, traveling for the first time without my amazing wife, Summer, and without Dr. Terry and Jeannie Dietrich, as Terry (my father in law) recovers from a back injury. But together with eight new friends, I had another incredible to trip to Haiti as I helped serve those in need.
38 students are enrolled in the Children’s Ger School. Amistad provided the paint for their cheerful schoolhouse.
Mongolia: Thanks to Amistad, Children’s Ger School (CGH) is an “oasis in a desert of deprivation,’ reports American volunteer Dr. Ann Altman. CGH sits in an otherwise harsh drab ger (yurt) settlement sprawling rapidly around Ulaanbaatar. Nomadic herding families arrive daily from the countryside seeking work. They either bring a ger (yurt) or built provisional shanties wherever they can find a shard of land in the ger settlement. Sadly, their children are unable to attend public schools in UB. Mongolia allows children to attend public school only in their birth aimag (region.) Children’s Ger School,a free private school, was started by Mongolian teachers with a vision for helping the migrant children.
From Gulfnews.com, story by Saifur Rahman, Business Editor
Corporate social responsibility assumes a whole new meaning with the risk of instability rising in the absence of economic empowerment and sustainability.
The unkempt alleyways of Kalighat in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata remain dank and dark — even by day — like those in crowded metropolises across much of the Third World. For many a boy, girl, young man or woman in this teeming city, simply getting on with everyday life can be a murky affair too.
Kalighat is one of the oldest red light areas of Kolkata, housing minors vulnerable to exploitation from the city and the neighbouring districts. Destitute youngsters fight against the odds to get by each day, but are just as often defeated by the harsh reality of their environment. They do everything — including selling themselves — to earn a square meal or two.
142 impoverished children are enrolled in the new school year at Amri School.
For most of the children, the meal at school is their only meal of the day. For some of the deeply poor guardians and parents, the daily meal we provide is more motivation to send the children than is the education we provide.
Currently Amri school is meeting in a rented building. We hope to help their community build a new school for the children within two years.
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