Just like any 9-5 job, I began my day at 8:00am actually to pick up two families from Motiljel Slum and Terretti Bazaar Slum to go to school for registration and boarding. We arrived at Ashalayam by 9:00am and began the interview process with Fr. Alfred. Then the kids and families were brought up to counseling and processed. However, due to morning breaks and lunch where everything stops regardless of what is going on, the parents and I did not signed the completed registration papers until 4:30pm. However, in the end, the two kids were happy they are going to a boarding home and schooling.

Papiya is a 12 year old girl from the Motiljel Slum living with her grandfather, mother, and two sibblings, She is the eldest of the three. Her father recently passed away at the age of 31 years of age. She is in class 4 in Hindi Medium, bvut with the loss of her father and a source of income, life is difficult for the family and so we are happy to be able to help Papiya with boarding and ease the family's financial burden just a little.

Sahil is an 11 year old boy from the Terretti Bazaar Slum area and is also in class 4. He comes from a family of 4 children and he is the eldest. His father works as a laborer, but a recent accident to his abdomen makes hauling material difficult and his monthly earning got reduced. Sahil is a wonderful artist and loves to draw. He can also speak English fairly well so we hope he will be attending English Medium classes soon.

By the end of the day, both kids were happy as they left Ashalayam to their new homes. The families were also happy and are very supportive of their kids. And though they are older than the normal kids we usually placed in boarding, we have much hope these two children will do well in school.

Saint Don Bosco did not receive his formal education until he was 13 years old. He took advantage of the chance he was given and somehow succeeded and eventually became a priest. He later began to set up programs to help street boys similar to himself to also have opportunities to make it in life. Today, there are Don Bosco schools all over the world providing education and care for the poor and often homeless children.

Today, we placed Biki, a slum boy of 11 years old, into Don Bosco Ashalayam in Howrah. Biki, like Don Bosco in early years, does not have any formal education to date. We are hoping that the same success will happen to Biki as it did for Saint Don Bosco. 

Biki comes from a family of three boys. He is the middle child. Biki only has a mother who works in a hospital cleaning for 1500 Rupees a month. He has no father in his life since the father left a long time ago and both his grandparents have passed away. The children and mother and an uncle live in a small 8 feet by 6 feet single room house next to the train tracks. During summer, it gets very hot inside since it is made of bamboo and scrap tin. And during the monsoon season, it is constantly filled with water.

We also tried to place Biki's little brother who is five, but the school said he is too small for boarding. For Biki's little brother, he will have to wait another year or two before it is possible to put him in boarding. Biki's older brother is 15 years old and there is no place to put him and so for him, his life is set and he will grow old in the slum of Kolkata doing odd jobs for 1500-2000 Rupees each month. 

We placed Biki and many children like Biki whom for many reasons have never been to school to receive even the basic education into boarding school with the hope they can somehow follow the footsteps of Don Bosco and walk away from the slum and away from poverty.