The UUCF Partner Church Circle had an hour-long conversation with Ditol Mylliemngap, headmaster of the Puriang Unitarian School and a member of the board of the Puriang Unitarian Church, UUCF’s partner congregation in northeast India. Ditol inquired about everyone’s health and what is happening at UUCF and wished everyone at UUCF good health in the new year. Ditol’s church is preparing for the annual Unitarian Youth Conference. About 5,000 young people will attend from all around the Khasi/Jaintia Hills and as far away as Assam. Most attendees will be able to commute each day, but 1,000 will be hosted by congregation members. Each participant will bring food to share. A group form First Unitarian Dallas will also be there. (The Dallas church partners with the Children’s Village [orphanage] co-founded by former UUCF members Dee Idnani and Rev. Catie Scudera.) Ditol invited the UUCF youth choir to come to Puriang to sing and interact with the Puriang Unitarian Church youth choir. He noted the value of in-person interaction and said it is important for the young people of our two congregations to get to know each other.
The vocational education program at the school, started in the 2024 school year, has been very successful. Ditol wrote a grant application to the Member of Indian Parliament representing Puriang to build new classrooms for the music and tailoring classes and just received word that it had been approved, He is awaiting confirmation from the member of the state legislature that funds will be provided to build a fence around the building. Ditol has also invited the state minister of education to inspect the school in hope that this may lead to greater operational support to meet new state and national educational requirements and more timely payment of teacher salaries. Two Puriang Unitarian School students have been selected to participate in a national science and technology workshop in Chennai and Bangalore. Three other students in the school’s National Cadet Corps program have been selected for a special training program offered by the Indian army’s elite Assam Rifles unit. Ditol said that these achievements reflect the school’s “spirit of competition for improvement.”