Who pays and what does it cost ?
Bonami Primary School, with its eight classes from Nursery to Class V, is free.
Secondary schooling is not, so Albella pays the fees for its residents: a one-off admission fee to a secondary school of about 850/- rupees (say £11); books and stationery Rs. 400/- ; two sets of uniforms Rs.800/-; shoes, socks and ties Rs.600/- . The monthly school fee for class VI is Rs.60/- (Rs.720/- pa) and much more for the top classes XI & XII. This totals about £42 per annum per secondary pupil (year VI) but thereafter, without admission fees, is nearer to £31 p.a.
The resident big boys are given pocket money of about Rs.100/- per month (just over £1), the medium boys get around Rs.50/- and the rest get Rs.30/- & Rs.20/-, with extra for Independence Day 15th August.
For food Heshron budgets on Rs.600/- (£8) per month per person. Cooking is now by gas and this has reduced costs greatly. Many vegetables are grown in the garden, supervised by Ebi who is a keen gardener. Albella’s two cows give each person a share of milk two or three times a week. With tea it is always powdered milk.
Albella has always been run on faith that God will provide the money. There are three main sources of income: regular sponsors of individual boys; an agency in Denmark; and occasional donors, recently including a very generous contribution from Canada. Sponsors are mainly people in the UK, as individuals, churches/chapels/assemblies, schools, or Rotary groups.
Denmark has helped with both sponsorship (almost £10 per month per child) and capital projects including the Vocational Training Centre on the Bonami site. There the trainees, (a few of them Albella boys who had become school drop-outs), can learn plumbing, electrical wiring and TV repairs from two paid instructors.