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What has been achieved so far
The Foundation started with one class in June 2004 in a village called Nagore near Bhuj in Gujarat, India. We had 12 students registered at the school out of which 3 girls are only in education because we have put a school in the village. They would have been otherwise been working or housebound at the age of 12.
The nearest other secondary school is 3 miles away but the fees are prohibitive to the local people. A two acre land was donated to us by a local resident of Bhuj. This land is about a mile away from the village and the villagers feel it is too far to walk for the children when it reaches over 40 degrees celcius in the summer months.
The Nagore village council has applied for some government land situated close to the village but the bureaucratic process is taking its time. The Foundation is waiting for this land to be acquired before construction can begin on the classrooms that would be needed for the new school year which starts in June 2006. 11 students took end of year exams and passed. They are now allowed by the State to carry on into year 9.
June 2005
The new school year has started with 3 teachers and 2 classes. We have the 11 students who have moved up to year 9 and we have now taken on 11 more students into a new year 8.
November 2005
As the first language for the school is Gujarati, we are in the process of starting some English language evening classes for the students of the village. The idea would be to have extra classes in English for two hours every evening.
December 2005
After trying for over a year we have finally been given some land by the local government to build the school. It has taken over a year for this process as the government could not charge us for the land as it was for a school but to donate the land they had to go through a long bureaucratic process.
January 2006
On January 16th we were finally handed the papers for the land and a land blessing ceremony was done. We expect construction on the new school to start over the next few weeks to try and finish by June or July 2006. This would enable the new school year to start in the new building.
May 2006
The construction work is well under way and the work is due to finish in July and hopefully we will have 24 people from Leicester at the opening ceremony on July 17th 2006. The new school year starts June 12th with three classes but they will have to have to work from the old building for the first few weeks.
