Dornakal  is a tribal area and that 25% of the locals are farmers with the other 75% being day labourers. The wage for a day labourer is 600 rupees per day (about 90p), with the wages increasing to 100 rupees (about £1.20) if they were involved in construction. However, the work is obviously very erratic and these are very poor areas.

Some children live in hostels on site as their villages are too far away for a daily journey. There is a local school on the same premises which teaches in the local language of Telugu, however, if children do not learn English then they cannot go on to any form of further education or to any of the well paid office or government jobs. In very poor rural areas like this the parents often pull children out of school at 12 or 13 as they need them at home helping with work and do not see the point of schooling them, especially if they are girls who will often be married by the time they are 15 or 16. English Medium Schools would normally charge fees but this school if provided free of charge and enables children to break out of the cycle of poverty. We heard stories of children who would certainly have become day labourers like their fathers, but had gone on to University and to work in Government positions.

Our partner Bishop Devanmi commented ‘’The Children will be very happy and comfortably accommodated in the classrooms.’’ In addition he says that the school will be an asset to the people in the area of Dornekal who otherwise would not have dreamt of having the privilege of being educated in English.