KOCHI: “Dearest friend, I see your tear-filled eyes I am with you, Offering a refuge, a helping hand This is my gift of love Friend, accept it...” So they scrawled, as a preface, before moving on to participate in a mammoth effort to jot down notes for their counterparts in Alappuzha. On a lazy Sunday morning, the classrooms at the Joseph’s Higher Secondary School was abuzz with activities.
The teachers dictated notes, while a total of 200 students huddled together in their seats and penned down notes for the students whose books got washed away in the floods. And in one day, the notebooks covering the first term portions were completed.
The ‘Koottukaarkku Oru Kai Thangu’ (A helping hand for a friend) programme was initiated by the Trivandrum Archdiocese Education Ministry.
The initiative focused on Class X students whose notebooks were lost in the floods. The notes for all the subjects except Mathematics were read out and the students diligently prepared notes. Students of as many as eight schools under the Latin Archdiocese in the regions from Vizhinjam to Anchuthengu participated in the efforts. The notes were prepared for the Class X students of Government HSS, Kidangara and Government HSS, Kodupunna in Kuttanad, Alappuzha.
Students of HSS Pallithura; St Mary’s HSS Vizhinjam; St Joseph’s HSS Anjengo; St Thomas HSS Poonthura; St Mary’s HSS Vettucaud; St Michael’s HSS, Kadinamkulam; St Vincent’s HSS, Kaniyapuram along with the students of St Joseph HSS, Trivandrum participated in the initiative to jot down notes for the 51 students identified in these two schools.
“The whole idea behind this initiative was to inculcate a sense of empathy and a value system in the students on the need to help each other out in adversities like these,” says Fr Dyson Yesudas, manager, St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School. “The students have lost everything. So we won’t be just giving away notebooks. School bags and the notes along with school supplies shall be provided to the students,” he adds.
The notes are presently being corrected by the teachers. “There should not be any error and hence the teachers are going through the notes. These will then be given to the students in flood-hit areas on Wednesday,” Fr Dyson adds.