A group of people, many from the State University of New York College at Oneonta and led by SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Ashok K Malhotra, visited Dundlod in Rajasthan and inaugurated the fourth Indo-International School for poor children there.

The high school will allow those studying at the lower-grade school founded there in 1996 by the SUNY-Oneonta Learn and Serve in India program and the Ninash Foundation, to continue their studies.

The high school consists of 10 rooms, on the second story of the original Indo-International School. This includes a three-room science wing dedicated to Susan Van Cott of Unadilla, whose husband Craig provided funding for the rooms.

The Ninash Foundation is a charitable organization, formed in 1996 in memory of Malhotra's wife Nina, who died of cancer. She was passionate about education and children abroad.

Dundlod had been declared the sister city of Oneonta and many Oneonta residents participated in the efforts to establish the school.

Besides the two schools in Dundlod, the Foundation has established two other Indo-International Schools in India  -- one in Mahapura, also in Rajasthan, and one in Kuran, Gujarat -- in the past 10 years. The four schools now serve 650 children and employ more than 20 teachers.

The one inaugurated recently by the Oneonta team was the Foundation's first high school. Joining the inauguration were Linda Drake, director of the SUNY-Oneonta Center for Social Responsibility and Community; Suzanne Miller of the college's Elementary Education and Reading Department; Walter vom Saal of the college's Psychology Department; 2005 SUNY-Oneonta graduate Mike Whelan and his wife Tunde, filmmakers from the Albany area making a documentary about the Indo-International Schools; Ravi Malhotra and Erica Epic from the University of Rochester; and Rita Dasgupta and Ranjit Dasgupta of Calcutta University.

At the school in Kuran, constructed after the devastating earthquake of 2001, Malhotra and Drake dedicated a new science museum, a novelty in the village. They also promised to provide assistance in establishing a library and supplying it with books and a computer. In Mahapura, with funding from Mimi Koller and John Koller of New York City, a new artisan's wing is being added to the school to train villagers.

Students and teachers from three schools in Oneonta and one in Arizona have been raising funds to help support the Indo-International Schools. The Mahapura school has displayed brass plates to recognize the support provided by these schools: the Riverside Elementary School, Center Street Elementary School, Cooperstown Elementary School, all in Oneonta, and the Gavilan Peak School in Arizona.

During its 21-day visit to India, the Ninash team also explored the possibility of assisting five other established schools that are functioning with minimal resources. The Ninash Foundation adopted the Asha Ka Jharna school, which provides education to handicapped children in the village of Nawalgarh.

The Foundation will fund a vocational center for the children, according to Malhotra.

It also plans to help other schools by raising funds for a library, a computer room, a playground, school supplies, a Project Hunger site, and regular doctor's visits, according to Malhotra.

The Foundation aims to promote literacy among children and adults in India and elsewhere. In addition to building schools in India, it awards children in Oneonta schools and college students who participate in the annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at SUNY-Oneonta.

Malhotra has been a member of the SUNY-Oneonta philosophy department since 1967. He received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994 and was promoted to distinguished teaching professor in 2001. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Rajasthan and a doctorate from the University of Hawaii.