Anup Kumar, founder of Prema Metta, speaks to BE Change about his school.
“Before I started Prema Metta, I remember seeing a lot of impoverished children in this area. I saw children begging around the temples in Bodhgaya. I was moved to do something. I wanted to do something for their future.
When I visited the village of Sujata, I found that it had no roads and no school. After talking with several people in the village, I learned that they had never been to school before because there was no government school in the village and the local private schools charged an expensive fee. No one was educated because they didn’t have a free school to attend. Many parents wished they had a free school where they could send their children to study. They believed, as I do, that education is the key to a child’s future.
“I saw children begging around the temples in Bodhgaya. I was moved to do something. I wanted to do something for their future. ”
I started Prema Metta in 2008 with some friends, my savings and some small donations. Our first building was just a small tent made of bamboo and plastic. After two years we slowly started receiving enough in donations to begin constructing our current building. By 2013, the building was complete.
Currently, we have two classrooms, a computer area, an office, a toilet, a playground, a cafeteria area and a kitchen. We teach about 65 children from 4 different villages ranging from the nursery to fifth grade levels.
Our most immediate needs every year are the costs of this expansion and our lunch program. Every dollar goes a long way with our kids.”
Fast Facts
Prema Metta was founded in 2008. It’s located in Sujata Village, approximately three kilometers east of Bodhgaya.
The school consists of one two-story brick-and-mortar building including two classrooms, a cafeteria area and a kitchen.
The school currently has over 65 students and four teachers. Meet the students and the teachers!
Students learn English, Math, Hindi, Science, Social Studies and Sanskrit. Students attend from the nursery to fifth-grade levels.
Part of Prema Metta’s mission is to provide housing and care for students that need it.
Prema Metta currently provides a light breakfast and a full lunch to each of its students.
Prema Metta needs funding to continue the meal program, pay teacher salaries, finance additional construction and purchase new supplies for the students.
Meet the Founder: Anup Kumar
Founding a school wasn’t always the goal for Anup Kumar. As a young man, he studied Buddhism and meditation to become a monk. He was even sent away from his home in Bihar to the Himalaya mountains in Nepal to continue his studies. Although he lived with little trouble and was well on his path to becoming a monk, he always worried about his family and the local people back home in Bihar—especially children.
Anup eventually decided to forego the monastic life and return to Bihar to help the local people. In Sujata Village, he found many adults without work and young children forced to beg in the streets. Knowing he returned to make a difference in their lives, he started working and saved his money, little by little, to start the school that is now Prema Metta.