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Thursday's Program Bringing a school to tsunami-stricken village Anna Weddle, Youth and Children’s Director at the Rocky Mountain Church, will be speaking to the Rotary Club of Estes Park on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the regular noon meeting. She will be discussing the Estes Park Partnership’s efforts of establishing the Good Shepherd School in the village of Marakanam, Tamil Nadu, India. .png)
Anna Weddle Marakanam was one of many villages devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 24, 2004. Coincidently, at the time of the disaster, there was a group of Christians in Estes Park seeking to become involved in freeing the “outcasts” in Indian culture from a life of oppression and slavery. Education was deemed to be the key to helping them gain their freedom. In 2006, Estes Park was offered the opportunity to partner with a startup Good Shepherd School in the village of Marakanam by the Dalit Freedom Network (now Dignity Freedom Network). Since that time, four teams from Estes Park have visited Marakanam and over $350,000 has been invested in the physical plant. In addition, 300 students from Lower Kindergarten through Grade 5 have been sponsored by Estes Park churches and individuals. The Marakanam Good Shepherd School is one of 104 Good Shepherd Schools across India with 25,000 students. The current goal for the Estes Park Partnership is to extend the school through Grade 10 and to increase the school student population to 1,000 students. To achieve this goal will require $108,000 per year for three years. The cost of a student sponsorship at the Marakanam Good Shepherd School is $33/month, which covers all educational costs. After completing high school in Kansas, Weddle lived for five months in North India, before completing her bachelors degree in both Psychology and Bible. In 2015, she joined the Rocky Mountain Church as their Youth and Children’s Director. Her family has been vacationing at the YMCA of the Rockies for three generations. |
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