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The World Mourns
The devastation of the tsunami on December 26th has opened the world’s eyes to the horrors of natural disasters. It is impossible for us to understand the magnitude of this disaster. The disaster did not discriminate—children and adults, hindu and muslim, poor and rich, all races, all of the world’s family. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ ... You must do the thing you think you cannot do.&NBSP&NBSP&NBSP&NBSP&NBSP Eleanor Roosevelt We must go on—trying to make a difference—One! child at a time. |
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 Vinita Singh with One! child Muskaan. |
Vinita’s Joy
We would like to send our best wishes to our soon to be mom Vinita Singh (One! Social Worker). She is due to have her first child in the first couple days of February. She managed to work all the way through her 8th month with a fighting spirit. One! has grown to depend on Vinita’s constant positive spirit and amazing dedication to our children and families. She is an amazing listener and it is evident within minutes the extent to which the parents especially respect her. They know that she cares for them...but they also know that they can’t get away with anything! We will miss Vinita over the next few months, but wish her all the best with her new bundle of joy.
Thank you Lisbeth Overheu for filling Vinita’s shoes for January and February. They are hard shoes to fill, but you are the one for the job!
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Christmas Extravaganza
Belinda Broomfield of England gave our children another great opportunity. They were invited to celebrate Christmas with a movie star. Belinda thought that it was awful that an International Hotel could only afford a party for 25 children, but I guess you have to take what you can get sometimes, eh?
The children had a wonderful time dancing and singing with an actress. They drank and ate to their heart’s content. Even more exciting was being interviewed by the media. Many of the children had their chance to tell their story for local television and radio stations!
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Expanding a Little
Due to the influx of committed students over the past few months, we have made the big decision to expand. Four new families have joined us, adding up to 15 new children in class every day. We needed more space! We have now rented the apartment upstairs as well as our current teaching apartment. This nearly doubles our space and the number of rooms that we can teach out of. Now the children can sit more divided into their specific ability / age group. There are now four (for some subjects five) distinct groups. Leaving an extra room for one-on- one attention or punishment or as a sick room when children aren’t well. We started December off with a brand new class schedule—from 10 until 3!!! 5 hours of learning fun. There are now scheduled classes for Hindi, Math, English, Science, Art, Music, Phys Ed, Play, Cricket, Woodworking and Sewing. It took the children a few days to get used to being in the right place at the right time, but I think it took even longer for the volunteers and employees. Everyone thought that it was excellent, and could see the difference in the children’s attention span immediately. One! continues growing with the children, hopefully we can keep up! |
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