In October, Maranatha Volunteers International broke ground on a dormitory construction project at the Irvine Adventist English School in Northeast India. This structure will raise Irvine’s female dorm capacity from 25 to 100 residents and replace their current building, which threatens health and safety. Large cracks throughout its walls threaten structural integrity, and the space floods with roughly three feet of water during the yearly rainy season.
“The need for a new girls dorm became abundantly obvious upon seeing the old structure,” said Maranatha’s vice president of projects, Kyle Fiess. “Saying yes to this request from the Adventist Church in India was relatively easy because the need was so clear. We are eager to create a safer, more comfortable situation for female residents at the school.”
Dormitories are vital to the Irvine School’s ability to accommodate Seventh-day Adventist students. It’s the only Adventist school in the state of Assam, so many pupils travel far distances to attend and live on campus. Increased dorm space will make Irvine’s spiritually uplifting environment more widely accessible to these travelers.
But Adventist students are only 75 of Irvine’s 345 enrollment. The school also serves 90 Hindu students and 180 Muslims. These numbers are a testament to the quality curriculum the school is known for, which appeals to families living near the school, regardless of religious background. “Irvine is a school with limited resources, but one that maximizes what it has to bring impressive academics to its students,” explained Fiess. “However, one of the drawbacks that parents notice is the condition of the dorms.”
The Irvine School was started in 1974 by an Australian couple who were hired by the Indian government to teach animal husbandry. Maranatha began work at the campus in 2016, providing two classroom blocks. In addition to a new girls dormitory, Maranatha’s current effort at Irvine will provide a new, deeper water well for the campus.
Maranatha’s first project in India was in 1988. But the big push for mission trips to India began in 1998, when we opened offices in the country. Since then, Maranatha has steadily worked with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in India to complete more than 3,000 projects.