News to Keshwa Gurukul and Childline Banaras

School operations at our Keshwa Child Welfare Center in Robertsganj, Sonbhadra continue to run well. More than 50 children come to the school, and we want to increase the number of pupils in 2023 when the school year changes.

The special feature of our school for poor children is the wide range of subjects, that is only offered at expensive private schools. In addition to Hindi, mathematics and science, we offer sports, music, painting, computer technology and English. Science and mathematics are taught in two languages (Hindi and English).

At the end of October, the exams for the second half of 2022 were carried out with great success. The children enjoy coming to school and there are regular teacher/parent talks, as is the case again in November after the exams.
Our target for 2023 is to have 100 children at school.

After the start of the children’s emergency aid program in August 2022, more than 30 children were “picked up and rescued” in August and September, i.e. in cooperation with the authorities they were either handed over to their relatives with intensive counseling sessions were held or taken to other social institutions.

From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., 5 social workers each work in two shifts at the train station and in a 2-kilometer area on the lookout for children who have run away from home, are begging, might be involved in drug deals and much more .

One example is about a 16-year-old boy and an unhappy love affair with a girl who was unaware of his affection. The boy then “threw up” at school, ran away from home and came to Varanasi. A relative of the girl then found the boy at our booth at Banaras train station in Varanasi and physically attacked the youth and our staff. The situation was resolved with the help of the authorities. The boy is now back at home with his parents and is learning a trade and is doing well.

This is an example of cases emerging daily.