Children’s Day in the Himalayan foothills
Friday 6 December 2013
UK visit to St Mary’s School in India to celebrate Children’s Day
Since 2001, John Casson’s company Securewest International, and now the John Casson Foundation, have sponsored St Mary’s School, which is about a 90-minute drive north of Darjeeling in the India Himalayan foothills. The sponsorship has helped the school grow from 210 to the present-day attendance of 540 students aged from four to sixteen.
John and Jenny Casson’s guests who joined them from the UK at St Mary’s School
The school is run by the Congregation of Jesus (CJ), an international order, headquartered in Rome, of some 2,000 Sisters who are present in 24 countries.
On Children’s Day, 14 November 2013, John and Jenny Casson visited the school and took with them 15 guests from the United Kingdom. The group included sponsors of St Mary’s School, trustees of the foundation and John and Jenny’s friends.
They received an extremely warm welcome from the Sisters, teachers and students.
The guests were treated to a cultural show of singing and dancing in the school assembly hall and were honoured to present the students with various end-of-year awards for class, year and individual achievements.
The school’s newest sponsor, Helen Nattrass, gave an emotional speech in which she explained to the students that she too had been taught by the CJ Sisters back in the United Kingdom. She told the students that they could achieve success in life via education.
Afterwards the group mixed with the students in their classrooms, sharing stories and pictures of life in the United Kingdom and learning what it’s like to study at St Mary’s School.
Tiffin (afternoon tea) was served in the school grounds, and afterwards John cut the ribbon and opened the excellent exhibition of the students’ art and craft work.
John said: ‘This was another truly memorable visit to St Mary’s School. The school really seems to be gaining confidence. Everyone was very impressed by the speeches, cultural displays and the exhibition, which displayed the talented students’ work.’
