This is the September 2010 newsletter to all our MSF School sponsors and supporters to thank you for your help. Please write back to us and tell us what you think.

Yes -- you've guessed it -- Rachel was teaching the children that wonderful old Tribal Dance, the Hokey-Cokey. She and her young man Matthew have been tireless in raising money for us - running a half-marathon earlier this year, and negotiating a three-year grant from their choir of St.Martin in the Fields in London. In August they made a flying visit to Hyderabad and had a simply wonderful time at the school. Everyone is greatly in awe of her, partly because of her blondness and beauty but mostly because she is at least a foot taller than the teachers.

This is Radha - aged 11 and sponsored by Pat Wallsgrove of Leamington Spa. Radha lives too far away to attend MSF school so we have got her into a private school near me (TomH) which is English-medium, not Telugu-medium.

This illustrates neatly a point that needs to be made about education in India. Radha's school is highly regarded, and yet she has 55 children in her class. In MSF school we don't allow more than 25. Vennela and Ramola tell me they went to the posh Catholic St Alphonsus School, and that also had a minimum of 45 children per class, but it was a very good school because they set homework and they marked it afterwards.... which is quite rare.

Needless to say, we are very proud of the standard we have set for MSF school, and it explains why it is so popular.

Roughly every other day is a 'Water Day', when the municipal water authority provides water for 2 hours via pipes running through the streets. We have a pipe that runs to our own private tank underneath (which we had to pay for). On 'water-days' we fill it and then the school 'Ayah' uses a pump to get it to a tank on the roof of our building.

Just 100 yards away the barefoot waif on the right has taken time off from school to fill the family pot. I tried to discover how she would carry it home (on her head or on a shoulder would be the usual way) but my Telugu and her English weren't up to the job.

From her school uniform she attends the government school down the road. Lavanya tells me that the school is rubbish and the children come and go as they please because the teachers are not there and have sent a friend or a relative to take their place at the front of the class.

Opposite the school a family have dug down to the water main and are filling their pots in the two or three hours while the water flows.

Neighbors join the queue. They are lucky that the water main passes through this community, otherwise they must go to the road and carry it home on their head or shoulders.

Work for women and girls of course.

Courtesy of a wonderfully generous donation from John Abbott Esquire we have taken on extra teachers and here they all are with Tom.

Tom says "I first met John on a train on September 14th 1944. We were both eleven years old and on our way to join our new school in Exmouth.

As the train pulled out he kindly offered me one of his sandwiches -- a typical act of generosity. We have been good friends ever since."

From left front - Sofiya, Ruhena, Anusha, Fahima, Kalyani
Backrow - Amena Begum, Tom, Maheshwari, Shoba Rani, Anitha.

Introducing Maheshwari: I am 18 years old and I am educated to 12th Standard. I started at the school in June this year because Tom Holloway recommended me.

The school is fine to me - it is better than other schools - Lavanya Maam is a very good Principal and the children listen to me and are very obedient. The salary is good for my age and many of my friends have no work.

I teach maths and I have gained knowledge in computer Basics from Lavanya Maam and now I am learning more advance work with Paint Shop Pro from Tom dada.

I hope one day to be a qualified teacher and to come back to the MSF school.

Today, September 28th, the Supreme Court of India will announce their verdict on the cause of the riots which followed the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992. The whole school had a rally to promote community harmony and we marched through a part of Yellamabanda where last year there were terrible fights between Muslim and Hindu youths.

The Cyberabad Police sent an Inspector to support us and there were lots of reporters and photographers from local papers.

This is an important event and so we have made a separate picture page for it. Click on the button to see more.