St. Andrew High School, Bandra was pleased to present the seventh edition of Yeh-lo Santa in December 2023. While the Red Santa gives gifts to children at Christmas time, the Yellow (Yeh-Lo) Santa collects gifts from children after Christmas and distributes these gifts to the underprivileged in the community. Every year, the programme showcases a current and relevant theme. While in 2017 (Yeh-lo Santa) and 2018 (Santa Car-a-van) focussed on underprivileged children, 2019 (Santa SurpRice) saw sacks of rice generously given to the poor, 2020 (Santa Kaun-spiracy) had students and their families reaching out to the community to ensure basic necessities for all during a COVID Christmas, 2021 (Save Yeh-lo Santa! Zero Out Carbon!) taught schoolchildren strategies to reduce their carbon footprint and 2022 (Souper Santa) ensured that no child went hungry.

The theme for 2023 was Backpack Santa. For an economically challenged family, spending on a good quality backpack for their school going child means huge sacrifices being made. In this season of giving, Fr. Magi Murzello (Principal of St. Andrew High School) invited everyone to help lighten their financial load by gifting each child a LovePack – a brand new sturdy backpack that would carry the weight of hope for these disadvantaged children.

The response from the students and the community far exceeded Fr. Magi’s expectations. Donors readily came forward to sponsor the backpacks allowing the School to gift more than originally planned. Six centres were covered: Shraddha Vihar (Andheri West), Mt. Mary School boarders (Bandra West), Montfort Home for Boys (Gorai), Dilkhush (Gorai), Kundi village in Ratnagiri district, and Naya Jeevan (Asangaon) – a home for HIV+ girls. School parents and community members were happy to visit these centres, interact with the children and personally hand over the backpacks. The children were delighted particularly the girls as their backpacks were “Barbie” pink.

The Backpack Santa campaign was also extended to the January 2024 cohort of JoyFuellers – the in-service training programme for Pre-primary teachers of ABE schools. While some teachers generously sponsored backpacks, others chose to take up the JoyFuellers Challenge – they could gift a backpack to an underprivileged girlchild known to them.

We hope that the new academic year 2024 – 25 will see several little ones happily trotting off to school with their shiny new backpacks.