A bright-eyed child from a humble farming family, once destined for endless days in the sun-soaked fields, now mastering English and dreaming of innovation. That’s the magic we’re creating at Manthano Modern School your passion and our hard work are educating farmers’ children, one transformed life at a time. You might wonder: Why English-medium education for rural children? It’s a question we hear often from visitors. The answer lies in the frustrations of village youth. Trapped in tradition, they toil endlessly in fields under scorching sun or pouring rain, just like their parents, grandparents, and ancestors before them. Their young minds crave exploration but fear the unknown, with no clear path to a brighter future. That’s why we founded Manthano Modern School: to empower the next generation with hope, skills, and vision. Educated, these children won’t remain frustrated; they’ll revolutionise their villages into smart, thriving communities. Imagine them shifting from traditional farming to integrated methods that boost food production and wealth. They’ll harness innovative technologies and the AI revolution to agriculture, ending waste of water, energy, and soil while ditching harmful chemicals for sustainable profit. Today, though, we face hurdles in securing our building sanction and fire certificate for affiliation with an education board. Some officers hesitate without bribes, slowing our progress through negligence. As we persist with local authorities, we cherish your prayers and support. Let’s make their dreams a reality. End the youth’s struggle, rural children deserve better Education. Together, empower them to build dream villages with good roads, quality schools, healthcare, businesses, and jobs. Your continued partnership fuels this mission.
Reflecting on 2025, it's hard to believe how quickly the year flew by—so much progress amid the challenges. We spent much of the year tackling paperwork for our school and awaiting the District Civil Engineer's certification to advance the affiliation process. We had hoped for completion by year's end, but we've learned that bureaucracy moves at its own pace. Still, we're optimistic that everything will fall into place within the next few months. Securing affiliation with the Education Board this year would feel like the perfect New Year's gift! The children we serve in the slums and villages brought us immense joy during Christmas, especially with the Christmas gift candy boxes programme. Though we fell short of our goal to reach 600 children—achieving about 50% and skipping a few rural spots—the smiles were priceless. We've attached vibrant photos that capture the magic better than words ever could describe - checkout out our latest albums.
Save the Date for our 2nd Annual Mark Karla Memorial Golf Tournament Friday, September 25, 2020 8:30 AM -2:30 PM CommonGround Golf Course, Aurora, Colorado Sign-up to reserve your spot to play in the 2nd Annual Mark Karla Memorial Golf Tournament - "FORE" FLūME. Unable to attend in person or not-a-golfer, see sponsorship, volunteer, and donation opportunities on the website. All proceeds will again go to benefit Kolkata City Mission's educational efforts in India. Thank you for helping to make this event a great success. https://www.flumefoundation.org/golf-tournamentMark Karla devoted much of his life to caring for the under-served. During the last years of his life, he partnered with FLūME and passionately worked for the under-served in Northeast India. There, Mark helped to build a school, now educating ~250 children and he was working to bring sustainable dentistry to the people of this community. This golf tournament, now bearing Mark's name, was in the planning phases when he was tragically killed in a motor vehicle accident in 2019.https://www.flumefoundation.org/
16 women successfully completed their tailoring course in the previous academic year. When Kolkata City Mission started this tailoring center with the help of Partnership World Wide 2017- 18, many women living in the slums had no idea that this institution would one day grow up and that they would get a certified course which would add value to conduct their own business. Sumi is one among these women who completed the course successfully and entered into the marketplace for her business. She took fabric from the wholesale market and began to produce night gowns to sell in the market. Soon her husband joined her to help take these products to the market. Right now she has four markets where she sells her products regularly. She also gets retail customers who come to her home to pick up these products. Within a year she managed to employ four more people to manage her business. Now Sumi is a proud owner of a business through which she can make a decent income. Sumi is one among the four ladies who started her business right after the tailoring school. The rest of them have similar stories to tell. Most of the women who went through the tailoring course are self-employed and work from their homes. 2019 -20 batch has already started with 12 women who have been really inspired by the women who have already finished their course. They have decided to study with us with a goal to achieve financial freedom. These projects will surely set people free from financial constraints.
Kiran Social Enterprises is a small company for poor women who seek to come out of financial burden which would otherwise force them to be a slave for many odd jobs. The women who work with us are really happy for the dignity they earn from this work place. They make various products out of used materials. They are very skilled in turning old sarees into jewelries, Old newspaper into beautiful gift bags, or eco friendly pens for daily use. Some companies from Mumbai and Denver have placed orders for various products and these women are working hard to meet their targets. We expect to employ more women as the market expands. Please visit our website for placing an order or for any further queries www.kiranse.com
Biswarpara slum is built directly on water, yet they face a drinking water problem. This slum is situated on the land taken over by a pool of dirty water. During the monsoon season it is very difficult to live under these conditions. Providing the slum with drinking water would bring about a change in the community. So, Kolkata City Mission and Compassion Service Society of India joined together to provide this community with three wells for clean drinking water. From these wells at least over 70 families can now enjoy clean drinking water.
The Academic year for 2019-2020 has officially started. All of our students were provided with Texts books, Notebooks, Pencil boxes and brand new school bags. The team has worked very hard to ensure that everything was in order to deliver these items to the 168 children in our school. The community is really happy and excited for the new academic year! Sponsor a child today and help us eliminate poverty through education. This school is completely run by the generous sponsorship of our friends without whom it would have been impossible to run a school in a remote village such as this.
Amazing things are happening with KCM. The village school project is in the midst of building a second floor in order to accommodate more students. KCM currently educates 136 students. We are up to 2 buses to transport these students from their homes to the school (see photo below). In Kolkata, KCM is working to build the first well in one of the informal communities (slums) with which we partner. KCM is empowering women in all of the communities thru vocational training and small groups. All of this is in thanks to your generous donations. Thanks in advance for your continued and additional support, Ryan and Amy Paterson The FLūME Foundation
Dear Kolkata City Mission child sponsor, Thank you for your ongoing, faithful support of Kolkata City Mission (KCM) and of its work to provide education for the children in and around Kolkata, India. We want to update you on a small change in the organizational structure leading to how your money arrives at KCM effective June 11, 2018. We want to assure you that 100% of your monthly, child sponsorship donations will continue to be wired directly to KCM and the child/children that you sponsor. Wire fees and other costs will be covered by the FLUME foundation or donations specifically designated for these purposes. We are excited to announce The FLUME foundation (The Foundation for Lasting, United Movements and Endeavors). The FLUME foundation is a newly registered, USA based, non-profit (501c3 status). The scope of the FLUME foundation is to support the organizational structure and the fundraising efforts of KCM with a specific focus towards the child sponsorship program and more generally, the World Health Organization's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) https://unstats-undesa.opendata.arcgis.com. Any receipts for donation will continued to be labeled Kolkata City Mission, but the bank details will be listed as: "the FLUME foundation”. All gifts continue to be fully tax-deductible. For more information please contact us at: info@flumefoundation.org or visit our website at: http://www.flumefoundation.org Thank you for your giving. Sincerely, Ryan Paterson, MD; DTM&H And Amy Paterson
Hello and Happy Spring! As you may remember from our most recent newsletter update, we have a student sponsorship program at Manthano Modern School, the school that Kolkata City Mission started in the rural village area outside Kolkata. We started this school as a way to reach a marginalized and impoverished community of people and provide their children with a quality English education with no cost to them. Good education in India costs a lot of money and often weighs heavily on families. In communities like the ones that we serve, education is something that usually cannot be afforded. Lack of education is one of the things fueling the perpetual cycle of generational poverty, but we are passionately moving to change that! We are able to offer free education to these children because of the student sponsorship program. Here are the basics:-An individual or family can choose to sponsor one of our students for $25 a month. This involves going onto our website, choosing a child, setting up an account, and setting up a payment. To make it even easier, you can select automatic monthly payments so you don't have to worry about missing one. All donations are tax deductible. -The child you sponsor will attend classes at our school and receive the things they need for their schooling and health care needs. They will send you a letter or picture twice a year and are able to receive letter communication from you as often as you send it.-Because we believe that the money you generously give should go exactly where you allot it to go, we have very low overhead and administration costs, so almost the entirety of your donation goes directly to support the child you are sponsoring. We aren't just sponsoring academic education, we are supporting the healthy growth and development of these children, pouring into them deeply, and sending them out into the world with confidence and success, putting an end to their family's story of poverty!
We at Kolkata City Mission are thankful for Bryan Anton Rose for partnering with us, for promoting and coaching of these village boys and girls for a greater purpose. Great article published by Danville Commercial newspaper. Mr. Byran Anton Rose "In America, I've witnessed first hand how Basketball is used to build better lives and also build self worth amongst communities. India is prime for the game of Basketball to be used as a tool for positive change, but also a bridge builder to the rest of the world." Read entire article here. Please consider donation to our project to build Basketball courts and teams. Article: http://www.commercial-news.com/news/local_news/basketball-fever/article_07c41feb-a1c0-5746-8910-2152d180413f.html
We are so excited to be moving to a better platform that will allow us to better support our monthly donations, manage communications and send updates to all donors as well as create more fundraising opportunities! We had been using the other platform since 2013 so thanks for your patience in advance as we migrate to the new system. Our goal is to be fully migrated by end of January 2018. We have to do some manual work to get all the accounts transferred. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. ~ Valeria Miller, KCM Website Admin - valeria@kolkatacitymission.org - 720-291-6680.