Off beat

parents. The problem then, lies in the fact that if they don’t
clear NIOS, what next? Drop out? Well that’s what I don’t
want to happen”, laments D’ Souza.
But for the students who do pass the exam, venturing
out into the real world is not easy. These students will be
facing the problem of unemployment for sometime, as the
Indian Government does not allow employment in a formal
place until a citizen reaches the age of 18.
“If you can’t work till you are 18, what do you do un-
til then?” asks D’ Souza. They can’t just be discarded till
they attain the age of discretion “because then you become
a cannon ball for many other things”, he adds. Brother D’
Souza hopes to solve this problem by creating an appren-
ticeship for them.
But he feels that a greater problem will come from the
parents of the male students. He explains, “As they grow,
their parents prefer to send them out for daily labor”, add-
ing that as the boys get returns immediately they decide to
leave school. Providence has lost many students to this and
will continue to do so. He hopes that ultimately there will
be campus recruitment.
Usually after food is cooked and sold, what ever re-
mains is shared among those who have cooked it. But there
was an incident when the food was cooked and sold, but the
teacher forgot to tell them that they could have what ever
was remaining; none of the children touched it. Because
“Miss” did not say anything, so they did not ask.
The students of the school have a great sense of humil-
ity and dignity. In the eight years he has worked in Provi-
dence, no child has asked him for anything.
How many of us have whined about not having shoes
that match that one outfit or complained about the food hav-
ing too much or too little salt? These students don’t have
several pairs of shoes to choose from every morning, yet, if
ten students among them are given new shoes and two oth-
ers aren’t, they would not speak a word of complaint. They
have enough for only one meal a day to keep alive, and yet
they have never asked for nor taken any of the food that
they have prepared.
There is a tremendous dignity in the students of Provi-
dence, which forbids them to stoop. In an inspiring episode,
a young girl and her family had nothing to eat at home.
They were eating grass. Yes, the grass in your garden, the
grass that we walk on. But though she was working in the
kitchen, she did not take a single thing. No, not even a
crumb. It was the children who saw her eating grass and
informed Brother D’ Souza, who then gave her a bag of rice
to take home.
“I have that to learn from these kids. If it was me I
would have been far more selfish”, says Brother D’ Souza.
It is the most amazing phenomenon and we all should
learn from them.
Gail T. W. Thomas
16 June 08 June 08 17