Kusala Projects Supporting Children in Bodhgaya, India

Organic Growth

The growth of Elsa Primary School has always been an organic process. With increased support for the school over the years, we’ve gradually been able to provide more for the students.

For example, classes were originally held in a private house. Later, they were moved to a designated school building with one classroom. Our current school building has three classrooms, an assembly space, a kitchen, an office and a bathroom. We started classes with thirty students and one teacher and this subsequently increased to forty students and two teachers. In the early years, students sat on the floor for classes. Now we have bench seats and desks. Initially, we weren’t able to provide food for the students. Later, there was one meal a week and now nutrition is provided on a daily basis. For some years, the students came to school in their civvies. Now we provide full school uniforms, including footwear and sweaters for the cold winters.

The most recent upgrade in student provisioning was backpacks bearing the school name. As you can see in the photos, the students were very happy to receive these.