Messages from Old Boys 22

Msg received from Bro James Joseph
Which was forwarded by the GMS Alumini (Regd)

Subject : Funds for looking after very poor local school girl drop-outs.

Dear Sir,

Our Founder Blessed Edmund Rice had founded the Congregation of Christian Brothers solely for educating the very poor street children of Ireland. First, a rich lady by the name of Nano Nagle started a society of women who decided to educate the girls among the street children. Then Edmund, inspired by God and Nano Nagle turned his stable into his first school for boys. Initially it was tough going because the boys were unruly. But his determination and trust in God helped him to make gentlemen out of these boys. Then other generous young men joined him in his good work and the number of such schools and brothers grew. Hence the Charism [ main purpose for starting a society] of our Founder was to educate the very poor. As the number of schools grew, Edmund began to run out of funds. Initially, the brothers taught in their schools in the morning and in the afternoon they went from house to house asking for donations of any kind to run their schools. Later Edmund came up with the 'bright idea' to run a few 'pay schools' for the well-off people, so that the pay school subsidising the 'free schools'. This idea worked well during his life-time. After his death, the brothers preferred to work in the 'pay school' because of the comforts and amenities that come along with the availability of funds. Over the last 150 years the trend has been to close down the free schools and cater to the rich / upper middle class in posh schools.
The 20th and 21st centuries has ushered in so many new opportunities for young people, that few young men are joining our society. The result is that we have very few brothers to run our schools and many of them are too old. So many of our institutes have been shut down or are being managed by lay-people who are not brothers. Mother Teresa's sisters look after the poorest of the poor in the world. The sisters do not enjoy facilities like fans, T.V., computer, A.C.s etc and yet hundreds of girls join their society each year to work with the poor. This has led us to believe that if we go back to the charism of our Founder and look after the poor also, then perhaps it will attract young boys to join our society and increase the number of Christian Brothers in the world. For this very reason and the need to help the poor who are being left behind, the Brothers all over the world have gone back to the Charism of our founder and are now concentrating in having 'pay school' and 'free school' side by side. Our free school for school dropouts gets 6.5 lakhs from Goethals memorial School. But this is not enough. Like the earlier brothers we have to 'beg' and ask you for donations, no matter how small or big it is. 'Begging' is become easier with the existing information technologies. Some of you have enquired about income tax certificate, which is attached along with this appeal. A copy of the pamphlet describing the kind of work we do at Edmund Rice Free School is also attached for your kind perusal.
Thanking You.
Yours sincerely,
Br. James Joseph.
[ Superior ]

The Income Tax Certificate which was forwarded by (Alumini) did not come ihrough properly. Those wishing to make donations could contact jasjames_99@hotmail.com

Msg from K P Tshering

Dear Radheshyamji

I have been reading the mails which you have been forwarding along with the Msgs on a regular basis and I must say that you are doing a commendable job...
By now you must be aware that Mr. Vinay Lama who was more popularly known as 'Khadup' has passed away. He belonged to the early eighties batch if I’ am not mistaken and I would like you to pass on the Msg. to all Goethalites (yes some how I too prefer this to Goats) around the world.
Still looking forward to your Msgs from old boys.
regards to you and your family,

K. P. Tshering (1978)
Msg from Amit Maulik

Hello Amit,

If I remember right, you had sent me a mail just before the centenary.
We have a school blog, I think you may have visited it since you are in my mailing list.http://goethals1907-2007.blogspot.com/
We post old photographs of the school day on it. If you send them, I could post them for everybody to view with any write up that you would want to post.
Further, Richard Johnson has proposed to collect articles of experience from old boys and later may be publish a book. Some of those photographs may be published in the book also.
The book proposal is presently in the nascent stage.
Cheers,

Radheshyam


Mr. Sharma,

Karan Mehta told me that you would be interested in collecting old photos from Goethals. I have them on Face book. I couldn't find you on it. If you are interested, please let me know what you are doing with these and I will send you the scans.

--
Amitava Maulik
1976 Dec ICSE