St. Patrick's Day at Shantidhara

My daughter Andrea (12) decided to offer €100 of her confirmation money to give the children at Shantidhara a St. Patrick's Day Party of all things! I put the idea to Joji and he was more than happy to organise it. In fact he made it into something much bigger than we thought, combining it with Easter Sunday and an anniversary party. There must have been something close to 100 people on Sunday 8th April from villages all around. He even bought small gifts for the kids, and also used the occasion to hold a meeting of all the local parents to discuss the issue of suicide which has been a problem in the area, and to ask them all to solemnly swear off that course of action as a solution to their problems. Joji posted about 195 photos of the event to a Yahoo album, but for today, I'll just post the two above: they show the children with their small gifts of BIG pencils, and a most thoughtful banner Joji made to thank sponsors and volunteers, and of course Andrea for her donation.