Building futures

“The best thing at school is studying," says Sulendra, a 16-year-old student at the Jesuit-run Masi Marsal (Light of the Messiah) High School, in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, India.

“At home, in my village, all the boys my age are not there. They go to work in the factories. Here we study well, the facilities are new and I have many friends here."

Run by the Jesuits in Hazaribag, in collaboration with the FCC Sisters, the high school provides quality education to young people, like Sulendra, from indigenous tribal groups in the region – including the Santhals.

The Santhals are amongst the most marginalised and poorly-educated people in India, and the school aims to help bring social justice and dignity to the Santhal people through the education of the next generation of children.

Many Santhal students live in extremely remote locations, making it difficult to travel to school each day. As a result, these students end up sleeping at the school.

Now, thanks to the generosity of people like you, the school will begin construction of a Boys’ Hostel.

The Hostel will provide safe and comfortable living quarters for students, enabling them to have privacy, dignity and better participate in their life-changing education.

“I’m very happy about the new hostel. The hostel will have many new facilities and we can be comfortable and focus on our studies better," said Sulendra.

With your kind support, young people living with structural injustice – whose homes are often unsuitable for study – will have a safe, welcoming place to begin a journey of empowerment that will help them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.