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They believe education is the key to unlocking the chains of extreme poverty in which they live. While he was unable to finance a school, Ellis still wanted to help. He identified a small amount he felt he could commit to sending monthly in perpetuity, and has been doing so ever since. It became his life dream too, to one day build a school in Sujata’s Village.
In early 2007 he took Orna, a graduate student at Antioch University Seattle’s Center for Creative Change, to India and introduced her to his friends at the Tathagat School. Orna and Ellis spent three weeks in nearby Bodhgaya, visiting the school and the nearby village communities, and talking with villagers about their lives, their struggles and needs, their hopes and dreams.
From this independent study emerged the seeds of an elaborate community development plan, envisioned and led by the members of the Tathagat Welfare Trust, that prioritizes primary education for all children, followed by empowerment of women through vocational training and a micro-lending program. The plan is fueled by the dreams, ambitions and dedication of the local Trust members to their village community and the children in particular. The four Trust members have been running a school on “a shoestring” from a one-room borrowed building for the past five years. But the larger plan of providing an education to all the village children, as well as other aspects of the community development plan, remains in the dream stage due to a complete lack of resources and support.
