the community

Directly around the school is a slum area of mainly Bihar immigrants. People live in and on the street in small makeshift cardboard and metal shelters for which they still have to pay around 4 euros per month. They have no electricity, sanitation or running water.

Most of the men work in the morning as couriers, delivering goods in their cycle carts. Their average wage is 10 euros per month. Although married women mostly stay at “home”, widows need to work, as mostly cleaning ladies or domestic servants. Some lucky children attend neighbouring schools but most stay on the streets until they are old enough to find daily work.

Despite their utter destitution, these families have impressed us with their kindness, generosity, love for their children, open-mindedness, solidarity and interest in our Centre, which represents a wonderful opportunity for their children to find a way out of this precarious life style.