IDUKKI: For most children, Thiruvonam means new clothes, sadhya, and happiness. But for a brother and sister from Kozhimala, this Onam will forever be remembered as the day their teacher gifted them a home.
On Friday – which is both Thiruvonam and Teachers’ Day – Murikkattukudy Government Tribal HSS teacher Linsi George will hand over the keys of the new house to her students: A Class 10 boy and his younger sister in Class 6.
The children had been living with their ailing grandparents and maternal aunt in a leaking mud house after losing their mother to cancer. The father was also absent from their lives, leaving the family in despair.
“During a house visit last year, we came to know about the children’s plight,” said Linsi.
Though the family owned land in Kozhimala, a tribal settlement, legal hurdles prevented them from getting a house under the state’s LIFE Mission. “That is when we decided to build a house for them,” she said.
With the support of Vaikom natives based in Chicago, US, the project came to life. Construction was completed in four months at a cost of over Rs 7.5 lakh. “I am happy to gift them the house on the occasion of Onam,” Linsi said.
This is the tenth house Linsi has helped build for needy children since joining the school in 2007. Despite being partially blind, she has always gone beyond the limits of the classroom to support her students.
Over the years, she has mobilised resources to distribute groceries to poor families, set up vegetable gardens to ensure chemical-free meals in the school, and even arranged television sets for tribal children during the pandemic to help them continue their studies.
For her, teaching has always been more than just academics. “A teacher’s duty is not just to impart lessons, but to strengthen lives,” she said.