Final Assessment and looking forward.

Today, 14th February 2007, marks the successful completion of the fifth annual JSS West Bengal School Building Project. There was no intention on our first trip to Kolkata in 2003 to establish anything. We simply came on the invitation of Sr. Cyril Mooney to fill in a pond and build a playground for a needy village school for girls.

Much has happened in the meantime. 18 schools have received our help in substantial ways. Over 19000 students have had their education prospects enhanced, impacting on many thousands more in poor rural communities around Kolkata and across West Bengal. It is safe to say that the name John Scottus School is known by more people in India than in Ireland, with applications for future projects flooding in.

Mahatma Ghandi, set an example to the Indian nation during their independence struggle, imparting the importance of appreciating the dignity of labour. Young Irish bodies are put to the test in warm Indian sunshine doing strenuous work. Sr Cyril has said that we must not underestimate the importance of this example, within illiterate rural areas, still not rid of colonial teaching that peasants labour while foreigners oversee. Seeing the ever growing confidence of the Aikatan girls’ school each year convinces me that she is right.

The statistics on the effects of our work on the ground are impressive. There is also the extensive character building effect on young Irish lives who give their support and their toil to this work. They sacrifice many week-ends to bag-packs, car washes, church collections etc.. Countless hours are spent counting buckets of coins. However the most transformative effect on our students is the powerful group learning effected by experiencing life in the raw.

The group experience helps them overcome all the tests of hard beds, strange food, sweating under a scorching sun, illness and exposure to desperate poverty. Their greatest commitment comes in their generous sharing of Irish good will and their genuine dedication to labour. Links are forged between middle-class Irish youngsters and their Indian peers who are on the margins of subsistence. JSS may not be a typical Dublin 4 school; its student intake drawn from a wide geographical area with diverse social, racial and religious diversity in our student population. However we are immensely more materially privileged than most of the people we meet here.

On the other hand we drink from the well of Indian spirituality. Hardship and holiness go hand in hand. We return home strengthened bodily and spiritually. This transference is mutually beneficial. We inspire with our vigour and enthusiasm. India inspires with its powerful mysticism.



With so many communities awakening to the support we give, our work is now cut out for years to come. JSS students from five years old up are now looking forward to what has become the great annual school adventure. India with its surging economic growth, its amazing talents and religious tolerance could become a beacon of hope for a world crying out for salvation. To be involved in helping sow the seeds of renaissance in this ancient civilization is exciting and far reaching.

John Alexander…….Project leader