It’s St Valentine’s Day – the patron saint of love.

Come to Latika Vihar today and stand and watch. There’s this child who will arrive alone (eager, dropped off by a fond, anxious Mom who leaves him here in the hope that he will make friends, have fun, fit in . . . )

and then there are the self-propelled hordes, the ones who turn up confident of their place, their welcome, their names:

Our job is to bring them together. Our job is to make sure that every child who walks through our gates feels important, accepted, understood: loved.

It’s a tall order, and we have to do it F-A-S-T.

Because childhood goes by like a meteor, in a flash, like a shooting star.

Every child walking through our gate, climbing up that ladder, hurtling down that slide has to know in her bones that she is precious and loved and unrepeatable and that there will be friends at the top cheering her on and someone waiting at the bottom to gather her up and bless her on her way.

It’s what we are here for. It’s the only thing that matters, the only thing we will leave behind.

The Feast Day of Love! Roses are such beautiful, transitory flowers; chocolates melt like a dream in your mouth – children? Children are our future – every single one of them. Gather them up. Remember their names. Bless them on their way.