Today, 28th October, is the day before the Diwali holiday break and the children of the Shiva Ji Mission School are all extremely excited. Diwali is the Hindu celebration of lights, and it is very much a family occasion. In Varanasi, it is the equivalent of Christmas in a Christian nation. No matter how little or how much the children and their families have, they are all excited and the city itself is abuzz with the same excitement.

When we arrive at the school to share bananas with the 250 students, some of the  children from the middle classes are out gardening and cleaning the school under the supervision of older students and one teacher.   

During October, Just One Hunger Initiative held 3 of their weekly fruit distributions on October 1, 14 and October 22 at the Shiva Ji Mission School These programs saw bananas distributed to the approximately 300 children now attending the Shiva Ji Mission School.
 
Over the past 2 months since the school reopened after summer break, there has been a gradual increase in the number of children attending, until now the school has again reached its pre-summer break levels. This year the distribution of children’s ages is very different to the previous year. There are far fewer older children who have returned, and the balance seems to have tipped towards a much younger set of students – six years and under – with may of them seeming almost too small to actually be attending school.