On school days Shanthi (meaning peace in Hindi) Ashram is bustling with the sound of children going about their day-to-day activities. Located in Vijayadka village, Mangalore (State of Karnataka)* and home to some 65 students who reside there, the ashram works to provide children from disadvantaged backgrounds with a safe, nurturing environment that enables their education and future development.

 The summer holidays in April provided an excellent opportunity for the ashram community to work on child-friendly infrastructural improvements. A group of our 13 long-term volunteers and 3 FSL staff helped them with this, working for close to 20 days to brighten its environment, saving the ashram thousands of rupees. Together, we were able to:

• 

  Clean and paint 8 rooms, 8 toilets, 2 big dormitories, a hall and a kitchen

• Paint 24 doors and 36 windows
• Paint 8 benches, 6 desks, 3 dining tables, 2 stands and 1 serve table
• Paint educational murals showing alphabets, letters, pictures, words, a world map, the anatomy of a heart
• Dug 2 holes with a capacity to collect water of up 2000 and 1000 litres respectively as a part of the ashram’s water harvesting initiatives
• Created a canal for rain water to flow into these 2 holes
• Helped with arrangements for planting trees in the coming monsoon

 On behalf of the children, Sister Luciana Pinto wishes to extend her gratitude and thanks to all who gave their time and energy to improve the ashram.

*Information edited on: 22 October 2013, 4:20 p.m.