Dear Family, Friends, and Sponsors
As you may also know, in March 2022 I was finally given my visa after 2 years to return to my cherished Rishikesh, India and school community.
Upon my return, surrounded by my school staff and students, I experienced the beautiful “Indian Welcome Ceremony.” I was overwhelmed with joy to also be surprised with the visit of my entire alumni graduating class of 2021 who had all returned via bus from different colleges to be there for my return.
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Airport & School Welcome by Children |
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My heart while filled with love and joy was also at peace, because most importantly, Mother Miracle School had passed the test of time without my physical presence for two long years through a pandemic. At that moment I was assured that my capable staff can adapt, survive, and thrive under all circumstances.
I stayed connected with Kusum Bijalwan, a previous student, and today’s Mother Miracle director of administration services, on the daily basis for updates, feedback, and planning. Our school adapted to remote teaching through various apps as well as students were provided with school materials, even android phones as needed. During entire mandatory lockdowns and a halt in living wages; our school made sure that our student families were provided with the necessary dry foods to survive. We fed 25000 people during the 10 months.
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I worked tirelessly to achieve major fundraising milestones for the benefit of my school and students, because of the loving, caring and generous heart of the many good people in the world; Mother Miracle school and its students gained the following high-priority benefits of successful fundraisings:
- Each member of our graduating 12th grade class of 2021 found a sponsor to pay their tuition in a private college in India.
- I started the fund raising for land purchase of future non-profit and tuition free Technology College for Mother Miracle alumni.
- Completion of K-12 infrastructure expansion with 6-additional classrooms and 1-teacher’s work room funded via (MAP) charitable organization.
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I get asked the question if Mother Miracle School is back to being fully open? The answer is YES!
Our students have been physically back in school since April 1st, 2022. Our school is back to its full capacity with eager students filling every space of our 50,000 sqft school. So wonderful to see our students back, filling the lunchroom for “all you can eat lunch”, getting their daily “glass of milk”, learning computer science and coding in our 4 state-of-the-art computer labs, performing music, art and playing their favorite sports of volleyball, badminton, and table tennis on campus.
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I returned just in time to be present and involved with the next school year’s 60 new kindergarten and 24 newly added 7th & 8th grade testing & admission process, and the happiest occasion of all, participating for our 12th grade graduation party. Would you believe all of this happened in merely a 2-months period? |
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At this point I would like to take the time to personally thank the sponsors, donors, and volunteers who I had the privilege to greet on campus at Mother Miracle School. It is an honor to have you present on-site to experience our “one of a kind “school in India. I encourage all of you to please come to Rishikesh lets enjoy together, visit the school and our children. |
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During this 2-month period since March, the following Mother Miracle School supporters visited our school.
- Mr. JP Sethi & Renu, our donors from U.S. visited for 10-days.
- Usha Rathee from U.S. visited to see the 3 college students she sponsored.
- Surya Rana from Roorkee visited his sponsored student. Since year 2020, Surya has also been voluntarily teaching me and our students online computer science and coding!
- Rashmi Sharma from Bangalore visited her 2 sponsored students.
- Priyanka & Mr. Patel visited their sponsored student from the U.K.
- Daniel Rankin from UK a sponsor taught for 10 days computer science and Java script coding language!
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We have 3 special long-term on campus volunteers that are volunteering at Mother Miracle School for 6-month durations.
- Krishna Pant is teaching computer science.
- Meenakshi Kandpal is teaching upper grade C coding language via zoom classes
- Anna from Italy helping with office work.
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We are very thankful to our highly educated and qualified computer science volunteers, Surya Sir, Krishna and Meenakshi whom despite having busy lives and careers, have out of the goodness of their hearts committed to tutoring our students. Finding highly qualified teachers in coding and computer science is not an easy task in Rishikesh India. I am so thankful to have all of you on board. May your hearts be blessed forever for all that you are doing for our students! |
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What remains for me to accomplish for the remainder of 2022 are the following:
- Secure college tuition sponsors for my class of 2022 graduated alumni. All 23 of them!
- Secure sponsors for our 60 new kindergarteners & 24 new 7th & 8th graders.
- Fundraise to furnish the 6 new classrooms and 1 teacher work room recently built.
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I would like to end this newsletter by sharing the good news that I am back in the U.S. and getting ready to head to New York to receive the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor Award for my social work on May 14th under the statue of liberty. I am looking forward to the fantastic ceremony and many dinners and cocktail parties meeting new sponsors and donors for the Mother Miracle cause.
I will be sharing the photos from this special event that is so dear to my heart in the near future.
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If I do not see you in person, I look forward to seeing you on the zoom calls.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and wish you many blessings for all your support!
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With gratitude,
Shahla Ettefagh
Founder of Mother Miracle School
Your donation is fully tax-deductible in USA & India.
100% of donations are directly invested in our school program.
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Founded by Shahla Ettefagh in 2004, Mother Miracle is a non-profit, charitable organization in the USA and India, offering the highest quality free english education, nutrition, healthcare and computer education to children from the slums of India.
info@mothermiracle.org
India: +91-9149310966
USA: +1-415-259-5702
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