Dear everyone

Before entering one of our class rooms, we politely ask permission from the children and of course their teachers, but the children first.  Once permission given, we take off our shoes, because each class room is a sacred place – a place of learning.  A place where the guardian angels ‘hang out’  protecting  each of our 2,400 kindergarten children.  We have lots of classrooms in 23 slums, 12 construction site camp ‘make-shift’ schools, one ocean classroom on an island in the Andaman Sea for Sea Gypsy children. Why there?  Because they are the most abandoned.

We always ask the slum parents/neighbors  what is their ‘gut feeling’  - what is their path that they wish to walk,   getting out of being ‘dirt poor.’ And they always say, one way or another, send my kids to school.  Teach them to read and write.

And humbly we ask would they honor us, allowing us to walk that path of education along beside them.  We say, and it’s true, ‘we don’t got much money, but enough that  together we can build a ‘second hand shack’ in the slums –good enough to get out of the rain, and that will be our school – owned by the children .  Let me remind you our first school over 50 years ago, was in a seldom used holding pen in the slaughter house.  It worked perfect.  Slaughter house kids learned to read and write.  

Now, it’s almost 50 years, and 50,000 slum kids have learned to read  and write – following the path out of ‘being dirt poor’ –

the path  their parents and elders say’ ‘yes, we can do that.’ And ‘yes’ we will trust you to teach our children’ and we will be with you every day.’ Some of those slum kids are now slum teachers. Some are policemen who guard our schools.  Some are moms and dads who now send their children to these same kindergartens.

And finally a request.  You know, I’m almost 80 years old now and what I would like on my birthday is to paint and ‘spruce up’  all our 23schools.  Most are wooden, and all need a bit of fixing. Our Slum alumni will help, and I humbly ask you, will you help also. 

Prayers and Respect    fr Joe