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Bright Children
We conducted pretty serious exams this year. So serious that Rakesh (our oldest student) got a glimpse of them the day before and was too scared to show up! All the other children didn’t shy away. Kinder Group: No marks given, but they were able to sit and write for longer than we expected. Anil, Anil, Raju, Bhags, Saif. Middle Group (young half): Rukshar and Ravi pulled off with the highest marks. Rukshar is at least a year or two younger than all of the other kids in this group, but flew past them all to get the Hindi award. Ravi, despite family troubles at this time, won Math and Overall Score. Middle Group (older half): Mona and Sonu battled it out in this group, only a couple percentage points behind each other. Sonu won Hindi, Mona won math and Mona squeaked out overall score. Upper Group (bottom half): This was tight in all subjects, with Manda being the surprise winner. She won both Math and English; Dilshad won Hindi, and Parkash won Science and Overall Score. Upper Group (top half): With no surprise, Ashok took the Math award (he is a genius!). Mukesh, who just moved up to the top group, surprised us all to steal the Hindi award. Reshma took the rest away from the boys—her hard work paid off, literally!—she took English, Science and Overall Score. For these exams, the children were awarded 25Rs per subject and an extra 50 for overall score. Special Awards: Baroda, the four children won 200Rs each for their perseverance. Public School, the three children won 50Rs each. |
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 Saturday Fun! |
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Sherwood Park Love
Sherwood Park has been wonderful to One! International. Perhaps we are a little biased as that is home-in-Canada for Tania Spilchen, but the support of the community has been overwhelming. In October-November 2004 the children, families and staff of Wes Hosford Elementary School conducted their third annual item donation drive for One! Once again the “True Spirit of Giving” was evidenced in the large number of items donated: books, paper, pencils, crayons, puzzles, underwear, pens, toys, and more items than can be listed. The children received video greetings from the children in India and an example of the size of a “street home” in India. (7feet by 9feet by 4-5 feet high). We are so fortunate to have this partnership, and children on each side of the world learn about each other. Also in October, local business Yoga For Today hosted an evening of information, culture, dance and nurture (food) for One! International. Participants were very generous with monetary and item donations. Two little girls (aged 5 and 7) who saw the poster put together a large box which included at least one of each item listed as “needs in India”. Yoga For Today has indicated a willingness to continue with a long term partnership. MARILYN |
Annual Program Ease
It is hard to believe that this was our fourth Annual Program already, but I guess when you see the progress of the children then it is obvious. This year was more organized and smooth than ever. The children were attentive and the volunteers were on top of everything! We started off with the older kids performing a Bollywood dance (that we learned within a week!); this was followed by the middle kids doing the ‘Bird Dance’ (Adorable); our version of Aladdin followed this (all of the children involved); the kinder group stole the show (they do it every year!) by singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ and ‘Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ in Hindi; the older kids performed their favorite dance Chandu (the one they performed for the Dance School); we sang our favorite song, and the children were surprised with their cash school prizes. Finally they got their presents and ate a lot of sweets!!!
What an excellent night!! The children were all smiles and the parents were so proud.  |
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Photos by Ralph Sagan: info@rafsagan.net |
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