A teacher's unfinished journey.

To us, Avtar was Dad, Grandad, teacher, storyteller and the person at the centre of so many family memories.

Long before school began, cursive writing lessons had already started at home. Carpentry was learned by building things together. Even changing gears in the car became a lesson in teamwork.

Family remembers the laughter just as much as the teaching: stories of growing up in India, the mischief of childhood, late-night raids on the fridge, his love of Punjabi culture, poetry and bringing people together.

Teaching was not simply his profession. It was part of the way he lived.

After a lifetime teaching in Kenya and the United Kingdom, early retirement following heart surgery gave Avtar the chance to begin planning something deeply personal: a return to India to teach children who had been given far fewer opportunities than his own family.

Plans were already taking shape. Destinations were researched, travel costs considered and even arrangements for covering the mortgage discussed.

Sadly, deteriorating health meant the journey never happened.

Today, his family is trying to make sure that part of his story does not remain unfinished.

More than twenty years ago, AVCF funded its first project: a minibus for Prayas, an organisation in Jaipur supporting children growing up in some of the city's poorest slum communities.

For many families, poverty is crowded and immediate.

Several people may share a single small room. Parents often rely on irregular daily wages. There can be little privacy, limited sanitation and nowhere quiet for a child to study.

Education is not guaranteed.

For some children, simply reaching school every day is a challenge. Without organisations such as Prayas, many may never receive a meaningful education at all.

Prayas offers not only schooling, but also practical and vocational training that can help young people build skills, earn an income and support their families.

AVCF's minibus helped children travel safely and consistently between their communities and school.

It was one vehicle.

But for the children sitting inside it, it meant something much bigger: a route out of the slum, into a classroom, and towards a different future.