I am very grateful to the Mission Fund for sending me €2,000 to help provide assistance in the form of scholarships for tertiary education to young girls in this rural area of Santal Parganas in the state of Jharkhand, north of Kolkata.

We Jesuits have established St Xavier’s College at Maharo, near the district capital Dumka, affiliated to Sido-Kanhu Murmu University in the same capital. Since the aim of the university college is to encourage girls to pursue tertiary education, in 2013, with the generous help of the Mission Fund, we built a two-storey hostel for girls to enable them to enroll in our university college.

The girls’ hostel is managed by the Ursuline sisters.

Since the girls are from small land-owning farm holders, many of them require a scholarship to enable them to pursue tertiary education. I am grateful for the money given to me for the purpose.

On December 17, St Xavier’s College celebrated its fifth annual day. It was gratifying to see a number of Santal girls of the hostel who received a scholarship.

I also thank the Mission Fund for sending me €500 to say Mass for the benefactors, living and deceased, and staff members.

I assure them of my prayersand sacrifices.

I ask the public to send to the Mission Fund in Mosta used stamps and donations. Donations can be made online or by direct bank transfer to one of the following accounts: HSBC (account no.: 061 197 448 050), Bank of Valletta (account no.: 163 007 980 19), APS (account no.: 200 008 207 62) or Banif (account no.: 000 879 631 01).

More information can be accessed from www.missionfund.org.mt.