What TFWA Care did for... Lotus Flower Trust
Changing children’s lives through education. The Lotus Flower Trust was formed to provide access to education for disadvantaged young people in remote areas of India
TFWA Care has supported its work almost since the Trust was founded. TFWA president Erik Juul-Mortensen and World Duty Free Group business relations and external affairs director Sarah Branquinho became involved in The Lotus Flower Trust through their son, who helped on one of the projects in India. After visiting the project and themselves helping with construction, Sarah and Erik sought TFWA involvement in the cause.
TFWA Care has supported a number of projects launched by the Lotus Flower Trust. In recent years TFWA Care has helped the Trust complete the construction of the following schools in the remote areas of India:
- Brahmaputra Home for Railway Children in Guwahati
- A home for staff at the Ashram Shala Savada school
- Nalanda Residential Primary School for boys and girls in Ladakh
- International School for English Language (ISELL) in Ladakh
- An accommodation block for girls at the Middle School in Ladakh
- Additional classrooms and toilet block in Montessori Junior High School in Jawasha Nagar
- Additional classrooms and toilet block in Montessori Junior High School in Pantnagar
All the projects undertaken by the Lotus Flower Trust make a huge difference to the quality of care and teaching provided to children in parts of India where educational infrastructure is practically non-existent. As Lotus Flower Trust CEO John Hunt says: "The only way out of poverty is through the education of children! So the Lotus Flower Trust works at grass-roots level providing children with well-built schools with caring teachers and homes where the children can feel safe and have dignity.”
Project in 2020
This year, TFWA Care and Lotus Flower Trust will team up once again to reconstruction of the Montesorri Junior High School in the remote region of Pantnagar in India. There are over 200 students from different neighboring villages in Pantnagar and beyond of ages of 4 to 12 currently attending this old dilapidated school. They are the children of miners in an industrial area in the foothills of the Himalayas. Without the school, their parents do not have an option but to bring their children along to the mines because no one is available to care for them during the day. Child labor is seen as a normal option in order to contribute to the household. Some parents are forced to take them along and child labor is the inevitable consequence for many of the kids.
Together with TFWA Care, the Trust wants to give the children in this poverty stricken region a better option in life. No child should be left behind. This year's financial assistance will construct five additional classrooms, 4 toilets, and an office for the Head Teacher. Hand in hand, we can give these children quality education to help them build a brighter future ahead.
Project in 2019
TFWA continued its partnership with Lotus Flower Trust to further its mission and help eradicate poverty through education in the most remote part of India. In the province of Manali, the locals are from a very poor farming community and the prospect to improve one's livelihood in this remote region in Uttrakhand in Northern India is very slim. The rest of the nation has benefited from India's modernization and its growing economy except for this corner of the subcontinent. Through TFWA Care's financial assistance, the Trust has been able to construct of 5 new classrooms, toilets and a teachers office at the Himalayan Public School in Manali. The building of the new classrooms has allowed 150 more children to be enrolled who would normally end up in child labour if they are unable to have access to school.
In the province of Manali, the locals are described as subsistence farmers who live off from what they grow. Poverty is never far away in this part of the world. Jobs are scarce and the locals do not have much option other than to pursue a livelihood in agriculture. The only way out of poverty is through education and by building schools to give the children in this region the chance to learn more than what their parents have acquired. By supporting the building of new classrooms, TFWA Care opens an opportunity for the children in Manali a chance to breakout from their current situation. Little by little, we can help make a difference for a brighter future.
The current size and structure of Himalayan School Manila.
Classrooms at Himalayan School Manila
Gathering after recess
Himalayan School Manila will open its doors to 150 more students after the reconstruction
Break time for students.
Girls are encouraged to receive primary school education at Himalayan School Manila.
Reconstruction at Montessori Junior High School
‘Good things happen only if we make them happen’