Jesus’ kids!
November 2004 Volume 7, Number 11
“A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” Proverbs 22:9
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Jesus’ kids! November 2004 Volume 7, Number 11 “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” Proverbs 22:9 |
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Schools in Madagascar are far from ideal. Overcrowding is rampant. There are not enough trained teachers. Teacher salaries are low and often non existent. There is no viable curriculum. There are no books, no visual aids, poor quality chalkboards, not enough desks, the list goes on and on. Madagascar is caught in the grip of a tremendous education problem. The Betikara lambs are suffering along with them. When we started inquiring months before the children moved, we received promises from two different schools that the Betikara children could be enrolled come September of 2004. Their names and paperwork were submitted. We thought we were all set. Then September came. The children were already moved and suddenly the schools refused entrance to our children complaining of overcrowding and not enough desks. We offered to purchase school desks for the Betikara children but to no avail. The mayor, the school director and the government officials all stood firm. There was no room for nine of our children in the public school system. That was a surprise. We suspected a problem with two of the oldest Betikara children because the school levels do not go that high in the public schools adjacent to the new home. The government officials took it upon themselves to refuse an additional two children, simply because they were enrolled in a private school the previous year. As far as the rest of the children, they just claimed not having space. We were desperate to get the children in school. Esther, our queen of convincing, managed to get four of the middle school children into the public school by virtue of her bargaining skills and a promise of new desks for the Betikara children (the school tried to get us to supply new desks for all the children), and another seven of the smallest children simply because she refused to take no for an answer. The public schools absolutely refused to take the remaining five children. We placed them in a private school about four kilometers from their new home. Private schools are actually much better here than public schools. There is still overcrowding and a lack of basic materials such as books, desks, and good chalkboards, but at least the private schools have all-day programs and teachers who are actually paid to teach the students. Generally, students in private schools in this country fair better on test results than do public school students. However, now comes the big rub. Not only do private school students have to pay a monthly school fee for their education, but also, once a student is in a private school he can never go back and seek enrollment in a public school. Surprise! New rule! It was a new rule for us too. We now have five Betikara lambs who must remain in private school until they finish their education, or when and if we can get the addition to the building finished and our own school running. For that we need your many many prayers. We need your prayers for another school related problem too. It seems the public middle school physics teacher is an alcoholic and comes to school drunk. The parents don’t seem to mind. Esther sure does! We expect her to work more of her magic to straighten out this situation. Both public schools, the elementary school and the middle school, are short of teachers. The Betikara children in the public school only go to school for half days. Now, because of a lack of teachers, they also only get, on the average, one day of actual time with a teacher out of three. Please pray for the schooling of the lambs. Volunteers pick up the slack. Tefy, our Malagasy refugee who spent two years in Washington DC taking a masters degree, works with any child who needs and wants help with school work. We are so thankful for his help. Rivo also does overtime tutoring children and providing the extra they need. Without these two brothers in Christ, we would be in a pickle indeed.
Christmas Advice
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If you would like to help with a monetary donation, write your check out to BETIKARA and send it to: Indiana Church of Christ
“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him
for what he has done.”
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