Dear James, I am happy to report that I had a wonderful site visit in August of 2009 at Shraddha school. I was visiting India on a personal matter and since my parents live 5 hrs drive from Varanasi, I decided to visit the school on a surprise and unplanned visit. I arrived close to noon on August 17th 2009.There were about 6 children in the school, it was the first day of school after a long weekend due to Independence Day holiday. Anil Kumarji has taken to working on ways to collaborate with other schools and programs similar to Shraddha in order to establish set patterns of functioning in schools which have mentally challenged children. He is also obtaining certification to work with hearing impaired children. As was discussed in the past, the biggest challenge for Shraddha is finding ways to sustain attendance in the school. Mentally challenged children coming from very poor homes face no encouragement of any sort to attend school or be a part of a routine. Anilji mentioned that the only hope of success comes if the children are repeatedly made to live in a constant and continuous pattern of life, sort of teaching them by repetition. If they could have the support from their homes to wake up, wash up, dress up and go to school, that would be success for them. At this time the teachers at Shraddha go to the extent of going to the children's homes to get them ready for school and bring them to school. While there are a total of 25 children in school, each day the attendance at school varies tremendously. Ashaji told me about instances where she sets out in the afternoon, after school is over, and goes to at least 2-3 homes to enquire why the children missed school. Anilji said that since the families know that these children have no future, due to their lack of mental capacity, it is a waste of time to send them to school as there is nothing productive to learn for these children that will help them lead a secure future. Anilji has realized that the best thing for them to do is to be able to have a system to pick the children up personally from home, bring them to school, give them breakfast, study, play and lunch and take them home. They continue to struggle with transportation issues for the children. The autorickshaws make more money ferrying passengers than they would ferrying the children to school. The best option is to invest in an old van/mini van that can be driven to the homes, pick the kids and bring them to school. Shraddha participates in events around their city and neighboring cities, the van will come in handy for that too. Anilji is working on starting a vocational program for older mentally handicapped children teaching them to sell sealed drinking water poly packs at bus and train depots. He is a part of a collaboration that has come up with a blue print that could be used to train partly mentally handicapped children to successfully learn and practice this trade. The visit ended with me seeing pictures of a flag ceremony and celebrations for the Independence Day that was held in the small plot of land across from the school. I am forwarding the zipped file of the pictures. Needless to say, we continue to want to support this school despite the fact that there are no traditional means of describing success or landmarks achieved by them. It is important that such schools are encouraged, especially in poverty stricken areas such as the city where Shraddha is located. It is always hard for me to elaborate on what I feel when I am done with a site visit at the school. There are no neat rows of books, chairs,colorful charts, potted plants and other traditional school items that we see elsewhere. There are children with strange smiles, expressions full of pregnant pauses as if some hope is about to be delivered, and two hardworking, eternally optimistic people who have chosen a professional path that they know will not get them glory or fame but will fulfill a void. I hope your family continues to support this wonderful school as it has done so in the past. Best wishes,