Back after 60 years 🔔Six decades after it fell silent, Dr Graham’s famous clocktower is ringing out again thanks to a fundraising campaignWhat does it feel like to visit Dr Graham's Homes for the first time?
For Rev Caroline Taylor, the thing that really strikes you is the extraordinary location. The campus where our sponsored pupils live and study is nestled on the edge of the Himalayas. Some of the loftiest mountains on Earth, including Mount Everest, are just a few dozen miles from the school.
Caroline - who serves as our charity's Minutes Secretary - recently travelled out to Kalimpong for her first ever visit. She wanted to meet the child she sponsors at DGH - and join in the school's 126th birthday celebrations.
We asked her to record her experiences in a diary. Here's Part 1 of her journey through Dr Graham's Homes...
View from the school campus across the lush hills and valleys
I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Rev Caroline is the DGHUK Minutes Secretary ✍️
These words form the beginning of Psalm 121, which was read at the service in the school chapel celebrating the 126th birthday of Dr Graham’s Homes.
Kalimpong is built between the ridges of two hills, Deolo and Durgan. The streets are steep and the road up to the Homes is a series of hairpin bends taking the traveller ever higher. The icing on the cake, however, is the mountains. A selling point for any travel agent is that Mount Kanchenjunga, the third highest peak of the Himalayas (and the world!), can be viewed from this very part of West Bengal.
Mount Kanchenjunga is about 50 miles north of the Homes
A magnificent hillscape
Like the school’s pupils, who might be walking in sedate groups near classrooms or running energetically through the woodland, views of the natural world are ever changing. From blue sky to grey, clouds to sunshine, clear definition to images barely visible through the haze, our eyes are drawn upwards in wonder at this magnificent hillscape.
Finding faith in the hills
Some biblical scholars would tell you that, when the people of the Bible lifted their eyes to the hills, their hearts were filled with fear, for it was there that danger lurked in the form of robbers waiting to prey on unsuspecting travellers. So imagine them, as they set out, putting one foot fearfully in front of another, while constantly reminding themselves that God was watching over them. As the psalm continues: “He will not let your foot slip… The Lord will keep you from all harm…”
For many today, the mountains are not so much frightening as a source of challenge: to prove themselves, to raise money for charity, to explore nature’s bounty.
Scaling personal heights
I hope they provide inspiration for the girls and boys of the Homes, a visible (sometimes invisible!) presence that they too can scale the heights. That might be physically through sport, or in terms of their academic achievement setting them on a career path, or a trade, or somewhere on the artistic spectrum.
As today’s pupils will have heard in the various speeches during the Birthday Celebrations, yesterday’s graduates have proved that the world is their oyster!
💡 With a DGHUK sponsorship, you can transform the life of a vulnerable child by supporting their accommodation and education at Dr Graham's Homes. Find out how to start a sponsorship today - or send us a message with your thoughts and questions. We'll be delighted to help.
Some of the photos Caroline snapped while she was visiting the campus
Back after 60 years 🔔Six decades after it fell silent, Dr Graham’s famous clocktower is ringing out again thanks to a fundraising campaign
