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Ninety schoolgirls line up and hold out their hands for the steel thali tray that will be their plate from now on. The cook holds out theladle to the first in line to serve herself, but the girl is frozenin confusion. All down the row, eyes are wide, disbelieving. It is more food than most of them have seen in their lives. These girls who have always eaten last, left with only thescraps at the edge of the pot are being told to help themselves.To fill their plates. And they do. They eat and eat, giggling through mouths stuffedfull. When at last they sit back on their heels, unable to swallowone more grain of rice, their plates are still covered in food. Now, Sister Sudha Varghese steps forward and calls gently for theirattention. You have eaten very well, she says approvingly in Hindi. Thereare giggles. Sister Sudha goes on, her words slow and measured: There will always be enough for you here. You will have threemeals every day, and you will have two snacks, and there willalways be as much as you need. But food is precious, she tells the girls, all of them silentnow. And many in our community are hungry. And we do not want towaste. So please, take only what you need. Come morning, the girls line up again for breakfast. This time,they fill their plates just so far, no further. One of the smallestgirls approaches Sister Sudha, wraps a thin arm around her waist. People in my village are hungry, she says earnestly. Wecan t waste. Here you will always have what you need: The words, when the slightnun speaks them into the fading light of her new schoolroom, aredeceptively simple. But they are the bedrock of Sister Sudha seducational philosophy, of the revolution she is trying to engenderin one of the world s most marginalized communities. Nearly 50 years ago, Sister Sudha, then a teenager, came to theeastern state of Bihar from her native Kerala to join a Catholicreligious order and work with India s poorest people. She soon fled the comfortable confines of the convent and spent thenext 25 years in a tola , a huddle of mean mud houses at the edge of a village that arereserved for the Mushahar, a group at the very bottom of the Hinducaste system. These are the so-called untouchables, or Dalits, deemed by virtueof their birth too impure to eat, walk, bathe or even breathe amongtheir neighbours. Eventually, Sister Sudha was driven out of the village by her ownsuccess: When Mushahar she had educated on their rights demandedpolice action over their abuse, the dominant caste members camelooking for her. She moved nearer to the capital of Bihar, Patna. She was determined to try an experiment she had been thinking aboutfor years: She would build a safe and nurturing place for Mushahargirls. She would take them away from the strenuous farm work and domesticlabour they perform from the time they are toddlers, and away fromthe omnipresent risk of sexual assault and certain marriage intheir early teens. She would educate them, in the school curriculumand in something more: She would try to dislodge their deep senseof inferiority and teach them the rights they are promised inIndia s constitution and how to fight for them. Sister Sudha called her residential school Prerna, the Hindi wordfor inspiration. In the past six years, its students haveflourished beyond everyone s wildest expectations, except for herown. She imagined just what has happened: The girls would wininternational karate tournaments, fine-art competitions and schoolprizes; they would bloom with poise, confidence and a quietlynourished defiance. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Glass Jar Candles , Flameless LED Candles Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Scented Tealight Candles today!
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