Jagatpur is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the bustling city of Kolkata. When our research team was looking for a potential school to develop a library in partnership with Futures First, we were absolutely shocked when we visited Jagatpur Adarsha Vidyamandir Higher Secondary School. The school has been there for more than 50 years and is a Government funded school and had an amazing 1200 children packed in one building. To think of the benefit our learning space with a computer and access to high quality books for the children brings a lot of satisfaction. There are however a few things I would like to share with you about this school which were eye opening for me. They have only 3 toilets in the school, and one part time cleaner. The state of the toilets was so bad that I could not stand outside those toilets for even a minute. The challenges were how is one cleaner supposed to maintain and clean toilets for over 1200 children. It also seemed apparent that the cleaner could do with some training too. Some basic hygiene skills for the students would help them in some way to maintain the toilets. I was absolutely stunned and shocked to experience this first hand when I visited the school. I think this is something we can change. Through all of the schools we have developed together, each has their own challenges. In Bangalore we have learned that there are problems with drug abusers dropping needles and syringes close to the school. They could do with a new fence. In Gurgaon the school needed access to clean water for drinking. Here in Kolkata they need a new toilet and maintain the old ones. So if we not only deliver a high-quality learning space but also look to improve one major issue at each school we help, I think this would be of great help to the schools. Lead by the inspiring support of Anil Batra and Elad Hertshten, Futures First has given time, talent and treasure to help thousands of children and for that I thank you eternally. But let’s not stop here, we can do so much more. I was absolutely inspired and blown away by Mr Deepankar Pal Choudhri, headmaster of Jagatpur Vidyamandir School in Kolkata. He swept the library floor, played the harmonium, recited poetry, and had tears in his eyes as we launched the library. This talented gentleman could easily land himself a higher earning role at a private school but chooses to stay here in this poor school to help uplift the lives of thousands of underprivileged kids. All I can say is that the world needs more people like Mr Choudhri. I should also mention Manish from FF Kolkata office spoke so eloquently to the children about the opportunities that lay ahead of all of the kids present. This is the 25th learning space that we have developed and the 5th with the amazing Futures First team. We will do a lot more together in 2019 and we want everyone involved to enjoy and benefit from this wonderful service. We would love to hear from you with any of your ideas about how we can improve the offering for the children directly. Positive feedback will only improve the lives of the children we are all seeking to help. One of the initiatives we are starting is a book committee to oversee all purchasing of books, this team will comprise of teachers and book enthusiasts who can work together to help select a set of books which will be given at all of our libraries. We will of course have to keep a large quantity of local language books to ensure children can read in the languages most familiar to them. But please let us know if any of you ‘avid readers; would like to be a part of this committee. We have lots of initiatives in mind and if you have a desire to improve the world around you please get in touch, we want to hear your ideas and work with you to improve lives. Kindest Regards, Hemal Randerwala
