We recently asked Diane Kirwin what life is like for many of her students. She sent us this letter, which was sent to her by P.R. Dwyer, president of KIRF Bodhgaya.The Back ground & Normal daily Routine of the students.

Life of rural areas of India is very simple and complicated, based on caste system which has been in placed for centuries.

Most of the villages are inhabited by people belonging to different castes and creeds.

The village and rural life of India is very traditional as guided by old sayings, blind faith and superstition.

Sarbodyapuri is such a village under Bodhgaya block of Gaya district where people face different difficulties in every step of their lives.

Villagers in Sarbodyapuri are economically very poor and educationally illiterate.

The main sources of their incomes and lively-hood is agriculture and some sort of vegetable, crops production.

Most of the villagers live below the poverty line. They don't have the capability to send their children in good schools or standard private schools which are available in different areas of Gaya.

Considering the facts and circumstances stated above, the board of trustees of KIRF has been running two educational centres inside the villages of Bahradih and Sarbidyapuri to provide opportunities of free and quality education to poor children.

There are four male and one female teacher in both educational centers, who regularly lead classes.

Presently, the junior students are learning to write on the slate and the senior students are learning to write in exercise books.

The total numbers of the students are 100 boys and 50 girls in Sarbodyapuri education centre.

Students have to sit on plain carpets inside the classroom as there are no wooden benches in the school.

KIRF provides all kinds of educational materials such as pencils, exercise books, slate, copies, reading books etc.

It is correct to note here that KIRF would have to bear to expenses for school uniforms for the students in future.

The diet and nutrition of the students is very low qualities as their parents cannot provide healthy food for their children due to poverty.

The children eat by hand and do not know how to use spoons for eating. Plants are use as utensil in most of the houses of the village.

The children normally awake up 5 o'clock in the morning along with their other senior family members.

Sometimes children are forced to do some household chores in the morning or evening.

The elder are custodians of the children who are required the follow the instructions of the senior in the family.

It is true that the village children in India are engaged to carry out different kind of agricultural works in the paddy field.

These things happen only to those children who belong to extremely poor situation and for the survival of their family.

They work in the paddy field along with the elder of their family. So, it is important for those children to attend classes in the school to build up bright future.

It is also sometimes found that the children need to work either in the home or in the paddy field after school hours.

The children get free time in the evening to concentrate on their school home works and to study further.

Most of the families of those villagers, do not have chairs and tables in home for the study purpose of their children.

So the boys and girls sit in the corner of the house or in some open space to study at home.

The children also suffer to study at home due to an erratic electricity supply and there are some houses where electricity is not provided at all.

The students normally take baths by the water of hand pump in the dry or summer season and by the water of well in the rainy season.

They hardly get soap for bathing and washing their clothes and bodies.