Zainabiya School held a celebratory ceremony day to acknowledge the progress of the school. On the 12/09/2011, people gathered to join in celebrating the valiant efforts of those are working so hard to make the school what it is. The day was awash with praise from the dignitaries, who reminded everyone that without the student's hard work and excellent results all the work that was put in would be futile.

One of the young students from the 8th grade gave an inspirational speech detailing how much his life and the lives of his fellow students had changed since the improvements have been made. The crowd and dignitaries followed the young man's speech with a thumping applause. The school day is being celebrated every alternate year, while in the intervening year a Educational/Recreational tour is conducted for the refreshment and gain of general knowledge for the students. In 2002-2003, the school consisted of just 61 students. Now thanks to exspansion the school has a stregnth of 436 students, all of whom are now taking good advantage of what the school has to offer.

The day was concluded with a speech from an Ex-student, who spoke only praise of the schools fantastic work and continued support from parents. Two students, who have excelled in all fields of the schools educational capabilities, also received an Rs1000 cash prize (around £13) for their efforts.

Kareempur School is approximately 70km from Bangalore, capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Kareempur is also one of the worst affected cyclone areas of India and is still recovering from a cluster of cyclones that struck with devastating effect back in 1994.

The town suffered badly due to this barrage of cyclones and the rain that tailed behind them. The towns' infrastructure was badly damaged as a result and its buildings as well as its people have still not fully recovered. After the cyclones had stopped striking the town, its citizens began to rebuild what they could, starting with repairing the schools.

Initially hopes were high however, it was as if the cyclone had battered the yearning for knowledge out of the area. By the time our ground team visited the town in 2002 they could see the immediate need for a better educational facility. Children were lining the streets begging, working and generally trying to survive. When the team inspected the schools registration records they showed that the schools were running under capacity and the children and parents had lost interest in schooling or had a greater need to fulfil; survival.

When the team adjourned to discuss their day and what they had seen, they realised there was only one solution: the town needed a new school. Building a new school would tackle many problems, the children would have a new, exciting and safe place to learn. This would take them off of the streets and back into education, where they could learn and grow, create a future for themselves and  eventually give back to their community.

The idea was approved by all and planning permission was requested that very week. By 2004 the planning permission was in place, the blueprints had been drawn up and the ground breaking ceremony was about to begin. The school was to be one like no-one in the town had seen before. Things started small. They had planning permission to build a 9 room school each capable of seating 30-45 students. Once completed it became a refuge where students could learn, play and be free from the daily struggle to survive.

The schools’ reputation quickly grew encouraging more students to attend. As the school flourished and the students did well, it became apparent that more rooms were needed to try and accommodate the number of students who had rapidly taken an interest in enrolling.Once again planning permission was requested and the next stage of the build began. This time our team had bigger and better things in mind. The planning permission they received enabled them to extend the school a further 5 acres allowing them to build more classrooms and accommodate interested students. They then began to facilitate a broader range of what was taught within the school. For example, with the availability of  the extra space they managed to build a laboratory for science and biology lessons and a music room complete with instruments.

The extra planning permission did not just allow more children to enrol in the school, but it also improved the schools teaching capabilities and raised the school's educational standard from an Indian grade 8 to a grade 10. This means the school is now equivalent to a GCSE standard educational facility.