Overcoming with education
By Joy Durrant
Across the street from a sprawling Kolkata slum comprised primarily of Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables) is a cemetery. Just inside the cemetery gate is a small building that St. Paul’s Cathedral (of the Church of North India) social services has converted to a school for children from the slum. The Bhowanipore School offers those children their only chance for an education, and also provides some nutrition and health care that their parents may not be able to afford.
As we entered the schoolroom, children greeted us with a rose and a song. A cream-colored bindi was applied to our foreheads. We joined a classroom full of busy, well-behaved children. The school’s teachers and counselor are volunteers from St. Paul’s Cathedral School. To accommodate as many students as possible, there are two classes per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. After more singing and sharing, the students asked us to join them outside. They gathered on the cemetery road, marched in place and sang “We Shall Overcome” in English and Bengali.
Tears streamed down my face as I watched these children. I was left speechless, contemplating Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, grounded in Christianity, come full circle to their roots in Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance. My prayer is that these precious children will be filled with the knowledge of God’s love and that they, indeed, will overcome!
Joy traveled to India in October 2011 with Presbyterian Women’s Global Exchange.
Invite the participant from your synod to your next event to share more insights from this life-changing trip.
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