My story is not very different from thousands of students who go to Christel House every year.

When I joined Christel House in Bangalore in the year 2001, I was excited about going to a school, making new friends, colorful classrooms, vivid lessons, learning life skills, very patient teachers and equally supportive parents. It gave me hope that I will not have to be a guard, like my father with a shoe string income of Rs. 3,500/- for a family of five of us. Every passing year, the determination to break the cycle of poverty grew stronger. I knew that Christel House had given all of us the ladder to leap out of the compromised environment in which we were born and raised all these years. We had to earn respect and this was our opportunity.

Ten years have passed. I have graduated with 66 other students from Christel House in June 2011. The school today has 916 students compared to 320 when it started in Bangalore.

Christel House hasn’t stopped mentoring us. We were the first to benefit from the Work Study Program that was launched around the same time as we were graduating this year. While some students have taken up further professional courses, Degree courses, Vocational training courses some have got into the corporate sector taking up respectable jobs.

I work with Transguard Group LLC in Dubai. While I am part of the procurement department (corporate service dealing with business units and the suppliers), Anil, another colleague from Christel House, is working with the property and logistics (transport and accommodation) team.

Thank you Christel House, management and staff. You gave me the formula to break the cycle of poverty....I have done it. I will continue to update you on my progress as it truly is Christel House's progress and success.

Vinodh Jagadeesh