Buddha's Smile School

I am sending the middle school photos and report and I hope you will be so surprise to see these students,they have so completely changed and looks intelligent and smart. This makes me feel proud and gives me hope of my hard work. I really wish to make them stand and see them independent. One [...]

What a surprise. When the teachers visited the Bengali refugee community that collects and sorts garbage, they found lower-kindergartener Kumkum reading a book! When asked where she got it from, Kukum explained how she found it in the garbage she was collecting with her mom. Instead of putting it in with the other paper, Kumkum [...]

We were given a shock in August when we learned that our 13-year-old middle school student Pankaj had been found dead in a sewer. We learned that Pankaj had witnessed a rape in his community and had been killed because he threatened to speak up about what he saw. Pankaj was an extraordinary and curious [...]

BSS students learn how to swim: Swim India visited BSS this month to teach water safety. In August, they will bring BSS students to the pool! 4th and 5th grade students helped out at the Ganga Clean-Up event 4th grade students learn electronics: Prinicpal Jagdish is teaching students how to make FM radios and other [...]

In April, Rajan traveled with her family to San Francisco to receive the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award from Wisdom in Action, a California-based nonprofit. HH Dalai Lama was the honored guest at a reception of 500 people who came to pay respect to the 49 awardees.

Last spring, Buddha Smile School received an invitation for their students to participate in an international poetry exchange called Poems for Peace founded by Lauri Hoffman Bunting, Idaho, USA. In March, 2009, Lauri visited Buddha’s Smile School and was inspired by the children to write “Tiny Gurus.” The student’s poems may be viewed at www.poemsforpeace.org.

Marie-Jeanne is a 94 years old French lady who knitted day and night so the kids at BSS could have warm winter jumpers. Here are a few of them, fitted. Thanks again Marie-Jeanne.

Poems for Peace is a cultural exchange between youth worldwide.

The aim is for people to gain compassion for other ways of living and thinking and to transcend racial, religious, socioeconomic, physical and intellectual differences.

Participants are encouraged to contemplate the meaning of peace, where it abides, how it’s attained, how it’s destroyed and how as “peacemakers” they can contribute to world peace. The notion is that the poem is in the heart and can be expressed as a traditional poem, prayer, letter, story or illustration.

Located on the outskirts of Varanasi is a small and simple school — Buddha’s Smile School. The space for the students is very restricted, and classrooms are of only 3 walls and a roof. In a confined area. Less than 200 m2. 220 Untouchables carry of their daily studies. They sit on small benches, and [...]

The performance by the kids on Sunday was awesome! The kids were so thrilled to be dressed up and performing on stage, and once they were done, were just BEAMING with pride.