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French Samaritan repays India's hospitality debt
Published on Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 17:17 in 
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Mumbai Everyone makes plans for after their retirement. Some take up a hobby, some spend time with their grandchildren. Others take time teaching slum children how to read and write, and that’s exactly what a real life hero did.
When 64-year-old Pierre Pean retired as a travel agent in France, he decided to return to India, but not as a tourist. Pierre had an agenda — to reach out to as many slum children as possible and to provide them with an education.
"When I came here as a tourist 20 years ago, I met this little girl who was working as a maid in a friend's house. She was illiterate. We became fast friends. I couldn’t help her then, but I promised myself that I would come back and help others," says he.
He had very little money and no contacts, but managed to set up the Indo-French school in Bandra east.
Today, the trust has set up two more schools, one in Malad east, and the other for rehabilitated slum dwellers in Chandivili. It offers additional courses such as English speaking, computers, and toy making. The trust decided to focus on girls, who usually are the first casualty of poverty.
And parents who were suspicious of his intentions at the beginning are now completely won over.
The mother of one of his students says,” He teaches our children to read and write so that they wont have to suffer like us.”
There are many challenges but the biggest one so far is money. Totally dependent on donations, Pierre often makes do with any location he can find and the enthusiasm and love of the children whose lives he touches.
Armed with a rickety old bus and large generous heart, this Frenchman is on his way to repaying his debt of hospitality to the country he loves so much.
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