Children wait on the steps of the new St. Gemma School.
In the previous school space, children sat on the floor for class.
Traveling to and from school can take almost two hours.
The Passionists are celebrating the dedication of their new school, St. Gemma, in the Indian village of Randham.
Some 300 children from Randham and surrounding villages, ages 3 to 12, are going to class on the brand new first floor of what will one day, hopefully, be a multi-story school building. Many students travel over pot-holed, dusty roads on crowded buses and vans, sometimes for as long as two hours, to get to school each morning and back home again at night.
For the first time these children will have desks, a library and a science lab with equipment. Though extremely modest by American standards, this school marks a major step forward in the education of children from some of India’s most disadvantaged families.
