Quick Facts about India

• Second most populous country (1.3 billion)
• 1 in 3 children are malnourished
• 68.8% live on less than $2 a day
• Of India’s poor:
  45% are illiterate
  94% lack access to tap water

Living at the orphanages provides students with the basic necessities they need to focus on their education. Instead of worrying where their next meal will come from, the children can focus on learning and growing. Instead of working in dangerous conditions, the children can enjoy their childhood. By striving to excel for service, the children can envision a bright future for themselves and for their community.

The children who live in the orphanage, along with other local children, attend school at Mary Rose Buds School. The state-of-the-art school building contains classrooms, offices, a library, a science lab and a computer lab. Subjects include Math, Reading, English, Computer, Library, Religion, Science and Lab.

There is a convent on campus for the Sisters that teach at Mary Rose Buds School. The school principal is the Mother Superior of the convent. They are from The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo. The Sisters also take care of the needs of the girls in Mother Teresa's Orphanage. The presence and the involvement of the sisters in the school have a great impact on the children. Their self-sacrificing spirit and dedication for the cause of the poor bears witness to the beauty of the Catholic faith to Christians and non-Christians alike.

The classes within the school are taught in English, with Hindi and Telugu as secondary languages. The school has become a model of education within the community. Now-retired Bishop Gali Bali reported, “We are taking every care to maintain good standards of education with moral and spiritual values and discipline of conduct. There is a general appreciation of the entire people for the school.”