These lovely ladies prove that it’s never too late to change someone’s life.
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The ‘Knitter’s Circle’ from Riverside Gardens Cottages at Nambucca Heads has generously donated their beautiful knitted and crotched rugs to the Buddha’s Smile School in India.
Our creative ladies have been donating to charities for several years.
Maureen Ryan has been a volunteer at Riverside for over 10 years and has been running the group for several of those years.
She travelled to India last year and, after visiting the school, was distressed to see the babies lying on thin mats on concrete floors.
She suggested to Lauris White from Helloworld Travel that she would like to ask the ladies at Riverside if they would participate in making and donating rugs.
They were delighted to be involved.
Lauris has generously organised to have the rugs delivered to the school to add colour, comfort and a home like environment for the children.
Buddha’s Smile School’s mission is to teach and nurture hope for some of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged children.
They believe that primary education is the first step in breaking the endemic cycle of poverty and discrimination.
They have 220 students that range in ages from nursery through to fifth grade, and nine teachers.
Students are taught math, science, social studies, English, Hindi, drawing and general knowledge and are given a daily nutritious meal.
Students come from ‘untouchable’ and refugee communities, segregated in urban slums, village huts and a leprosy colony and are picked up and taken home daily.
The students are incredibly hard working; in addition to doing their homework, most students work before and after school to help support their families.
The school’s founder, Rajan Kaur Saini, was born in Calcutta.
Her vision was born when she began tutoring the children she passed while walking to her teaching job at a private school.
As soon as the resources became available she started the school. Her devoted, nurturing spirit floods the Buddha’s Smile School with warmth and inspires all who meet her.