RAINBOW HOME Apr-6-2011 (850 words) With photo. xxxi Loreto-run Rainbow Home brings new hope for Kolkata's street girls By Anto AkkaraCatholic News Service KOLKATA, India (CNS) -- Fourteen-year-old Maya Shaw dreams that someday she will be flying over India, perhaps even around the world. "I want to become an air hostess," she said confidently in English at the school she attends run by the Loreto sisters in the Sealdah area of Kolkata. Her ambition is not that of a girl born in a middle class or elite family, but of an abandoned girl picked up along with her younger sister, Chaya, as they roamed aimlessly at the Sealdah railway station seven years ago. Both girls had been left on the railway platform by their widowed mother, who was unable to look after them following the death of her husband. The girls now live and study in the comfort of Rainbow Home, a distinctive program for orphaned, abandoned and street girls founded by Loreto Sister Cyril Mooney that combines schooling with life's necessities such as food, hygiene and housing. Maya is in fifth grade at a Loreto-run school connected with the program. That makes her four years older than most of her classmates because her schooling started late, at age 7, shortly after she and her sister were discovered at the railway station. Still, Maya, like dozens of other girls, are far better off than their peers who remain on the crowded streets of Kolkata, Sister Cyril told Catholic News Service. Sister Cyril said the idea to reach out to forgotten girls came after she realized that most Catholic school buildings in Kolkata were used for only a few hours a day. She wanted to help the girls in a broader way than just getting them off the streets. "It is a criminal waste of our resources (not to use the schools more fully) when thousands struggle outside without a home," said the 75-year-old Irish nun who has been principal at her school since 1979. Initially, poor students were educated in off-hours, separate from tuition-paying students from more well-to-do families. In 1997 though, Sister Cyril began mixing students in classrooms. It was the following year, after a 4-year old girl was raped outside the school gate, that Sister Cyril launched Rainbow Home to provide a home-like environment on school premises for the forgotten girls. Gradually, more and more girls were enrolled as two field workers made the rounds of railway stations and red light districts to look for lost children. Today, half of the school's 1,500 students are from poor families or the streets. Older girls and volunteer teachers coach newcomers on the basics of studying and hygiene prior to formal enrollment. "Those who picked up English are admitted to our (English medium) school while other girls are sent to Bengali (language) medium government schools while they stay with us," Sister Cyril said. At the outset, Sister Cyril's efforts drew objections from some tuition-paying parents who felt their children should never be made to sit with girls from the streets. But Sister Cyril convinced them that true education comes from understanding the poverty and social inequities that exist across Indian society. Over the years, Sister Cyril has persuaded her fellow nuns to open Rainbow Homes at the six other Loreto schools across Kolkata. The Loreto congregation -- formally known as the Sisters of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary -- now takes care of more than 700 forgotten girls in the Rainbow Homes. Tuition is waived for poor children, while fees for students from affluent families begin at $33 a month and rise in proportion to family income. Their tuition subsidizes the education of the poor children. A joyful atmosphere in the Rainbow Home resonates when the orphan girls go to bed at night, after dinner and an entertainment hour. Sister Cyril steps in and blows a whistle to get the girls' attention. Together, the girls and Sister Cyril, whom they call "Mother," say a brief prayer. Sister Cyril then moves to a staircase, where each girl embraces her before climbing three floors to reach their dormitory. As the news of Sister Cyril's revolutionary education system spread, hundreds of poorer parents started flocking to the nun seeking admission to the schools. That posed another problem to tackle. "Then I thought the best option would be to educate the children in the slums itself as it would be impossible for many of them to go to school," Sister Cyril explained. So she started a school program in the slums in 2002. The idea spread quickly, and now 380 schools educate nearly 20,000 students across Kolkata. The school network employs more than 1,000 teachers. West Bengal state officials have acknowledged Sister Cyril's pioneering work by freely distributing textbooks for the 20,000 slum children and printing teaching aids she developed specifically suited for the poor students. Sister Cyril's work has garnered several awards, including recognition from UNESCO, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Indian government. The Catholic Church in India also acknowledges her education model by requiring that seminarians in their final year at Morning Star Regional Seminary in Kolkata to spend two weeks at the schools for pastoral training under Sister Cyril's direction. END --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright (c) 2011 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250