Walking the Walk

Imayam School students at assembly

Near the southernmost point of India we visited three schools: a college where women are preparing to be teachers, a well-equipped school for girls with over 3000 students from what we might term middle class families, and a smaller school of 170 students for boys and girls from small villages that surround the city of Tuticorin. Called the Imayam School, this school was started ten years ago in an area that was completely rural. The school site itself was barren. Now it is a kind of oasis, with hundreds of trees planted on the school grounds (three more were planted during our visit to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the school). The students gathered on the grounds near the entrance to the school for the big celebration. Every single student participated in the program that was offered: boys and girls danced, a group of girls presented a very funny play in English, another group recited ancient Tamil poetry, and boys offered acrobatics. It was a wonderful event—with very few words from the staff!

Tree planting with Ms. Saraswathi & Ms Ponrathi

This school is run by two women who are the founders. I asked Ms Saraswathi how the school was founded. She told me how she and her assistant principal Ms Ponrathi had been teachers at the larger, more prosperous school we had visited. They taught there for 25 years, and then took early retirement, gathered all their retirement funds and purchased the property and built the first building and opened the school. Both of them had felt for many years that the education they had received and then had offered at the larger school—that quality of education should be available for poor students who could never dream of attending such a school. So they walked the walk, putting all of their savings into the project and depending on the generous support of some of their ex-students, now adults—many of them prosperous: doctors, lawyers, bankers, community leaders. With the help of the community of peoploe they had taught and worked with all those years they got the school up and running.

The school also receives important support from the Kolam Foundation started by Vi Ganesan Herbert who is a native of Tamil Nadu now living in Hawaii. Vi has been our guide during this visit and one of the purposes of our trip was to introduce us to the school and invite us to support its mission.

I was touched by the story of these two women who had a vision, offered their savings, their energies and skills and who turned to the community in which they had worked and lived for support. They were among the most humble people I have met, deflecting all praise and thanks, giving thanks to others and to their students and to God for what has been created.

Boys acrobatic performance

Some of the students began the day by showing us their science experiments, explaining them to us one by one, then all the students offered their gifts in dance, and drama, and athleticism. Their rapt attention to one another and their enthusisasm were infectious. They were all in their uniforms (if not in their dance attire, especially sewn by their teachers) and, like most people in Tamil Nadu, had no shoes. Their parents mostly work in the farmlands of the area, and earn perhaps 300$ a year. They pay no tuition. The students are highly motivated and grateful for a chance to learn. They walk or ride bikes that the school has provided to get to school, traveling between 2 and 5 kilometers each way. Many of them who finish their tenth grade go on to another school to finish high school, and many of those go on to college. This is a remarkable intervention in the cycle of poverty.

Girls dance performance

The directors of the school also work with the parents of the students, provide educational opportunities in the surrounding villages, and counsel the families about educational and work opportunities for the students. It was a wonderful experience to visit this private school serving the poor. It was humbling to see what two women have been able to accomplish—with help from others in their own community and a bit from abroad. The day began with a prayer, and I left the school with one of thanksgiving.