Help Orphans In India (GSAM General Fund)

We hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. We want to express our deepest gratitude for your continued support and generosity. Your contribution has made a significant impact on the lives of the children and families here at The Good Shepherd Agricultural Mission. 

In these challenging times, your support has been a beacon of hope for us. Please don’t read this sentence lightly; we truly mean it. Despite the difficulties faced globally post-pandemic, we are thrilled to report that all our children are healthy, thriving, and actively engaged in their education. Our kids study in Maxton Strong School, our school, up to Grade 10, and beyond that, we enroll them in external schools and universities. We truly believe this good education is the key to unlocking futures with meaningful careers and not just “jobs”.

Here on our property, we are actively working towards the completion of our expansive kindergarten building, a project that holds immense promise for our mission. Our aim is to fully complete it in 2024, with a soft opening of three to six classrooms in the upcoming session starting in April. This building represents not just physical infrastructure but a space where young minds will grow and flourish.

The kindergarten will serve as a conduit for new students into our school, with an ambitious target of exceeding 1000 enrolments in the next five years. Currently, we have around 650 students, with approximately 250 receiving education for free and the rest contributing through subsidized school fees. Unfortunately, about 20% of our fee-paying students are facing financial difficulties, creating a significant challenge. While we strive to show compassion to these families, we also need to cover essential costs such as power, salaries, maintenance, and infrastructure—a complex puzzle that keeps our administrative team on their toes.

In the agricultural realm, we've successfully completed our sugar cane harvest. While the sale of this product provides some financial relief, it's not enough to meet all our needs. We’re also watching our wheat crop growing strong, in a few short months we’ll be harvesting it; most of which is for our own consumption.

While we try to be as self-sufficient as possible, your ongoing support plays a vital role in bridging the gap and ensuring the continuity of our mission. Your donations enable us to provide quality education, healthcare, and a nurturing environment for our kids. As we face the hurdles of the present financial strain and work towards a more sustainable future, your support remains the cornerstone of our efforts.

Outside of financial burdens, in general, the last quarter has been relatively stress-free. We enjoyed a delightful Christmas, albeit a bit quieter than usual. Our focus has been on tackling maintenance tasks, tidying up gardens, and conducting a thorough stocktake of supplies. Strangely enough, our biggest challenge in recent times has been the mischievous monkeys invading our campus! These troublesome creatures have been causing havoc, scaring our staff and kids, plundering our fruit trees, and rummaging through trash bins. It's not uncommon to find them attempting to sneak into our homes in their endless quest for food!

Once again, we express our deepest gratitude for your commitment to our cause. Your compassion is shaping the lives of these young people, and we are immensely thankful for the positive impact you continue to make.

Kind regards,

Clifton Shipway
Director

We’re currently transitioning from monsoon into winter; a very brief and fleeting autumn. Over the next few weeks we will put away our shorts and pull out our warmer winter wear. It’s a great time of the year – a welcome relief from several months of what can best be described as “exhausting heat”. Now, it’s not too hot and not too cold. Just right.

This last week India celebrated the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi Ji; the most famous freedom fighter in Indian history. As a nation, we have been focusing on the idea of Swacch Bharat (clean/trash-free India) as a tribute to Gandhi Ji. Now this might seem a little strange – focusing our attention on trash and sanitation in memory of someone - but it was actually part of the great vision that Gandhi Ji had for the country. He famously said, “Sanitation is more important than independence” - a bold statement for a man fighting for the very freedom of the country. Gandhi Ji realized the impact that cleanliness has on physical wellbeing even way back in 1947; we couldn't agree more.

Our last report was heavily focused on our Summer Games program; they seem so long ago now. Life has continued at its usual hectic pace with project after project coming out way. Specifically, through the funds we have been receiving through GlobalGiving and our supporters we have been able to continue to put our kids through college, purchased a new generator for our workshop/water system, kept providing eduction to over 650 kids in our school, completely overhauled a tractor, completed construction on our new carpentry workshop, continued construction on our massive kindergarten, kept up with the endless maintenance jobs, celebrated countless birthdays, kept alive the work of caring for all the amazing children here in our home and many more things in-between! It sure has been busy!

We want to thank you all for your incredible support, we simply could not do this without you.