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Solidarity project: French high school students in India
Solidarity project: French high school students in India – (France 2)
High school students from Saumur (Maine-et-Loire) have been raising funds for two years. The goal ? Saving a school in one of the poorest cities in northwest India. It was with emotion that they made the trip and discovered the establishment rebuilt thanks to them.
The trip has been planned for months. In the northwest of India, high school students will visit the school for disadvantaged children that they helped to renovate by raising money for two years. The only classroom is twenty square meters, it was completely dilapidated before the renovation. “It made it possible to redo the ceilings a little, the paintings on the walls, we made it possible to install electricity in the buildings”, explains Nathalie Bozec, the English teacher who supervised the project. The city is one of the poorest in the region and one in three children cannot read or write.
3,600 euros raised in two years
A few moments of exchange between Indian children and French high school students and a lot of emotion for Léna Pearson, 17 years old. “We realize that we are offering children a chance to have a better future because they have better conditions for learning and that, I think, is a lot for them”, she confides, with tears in her eyes. The high school students raised more than 3,600 euros thanks to paid activities organized in their establishment (lotto evenings, theater, treasure hunts, etc.).
The high school students’ trip is also an opportunity for them to discover the culture of India, such as the Palace of Winds in Jaipur built at the end of the 18th century. They experience this trip with Indian correspondents like Eugénie who is staying with Shraïa. She is welcomed into her family of eleven people where children, parents and grandparents live together. “This is the only time I can really experience this, it’s incredible.” Before departure, a dancing evening was organized by the Indian correspondents, traditional attire required!