Building Bridges of Understanding and celebrating our journey of 37 years from 1987 to 2024

Keeping language and culture alive has been important for immigrants to Australia. All communities have a history of schools started by parents and community members to pass on their language and culture to the next generation.

For us the journey began with establishing the Indo-Aust Bal Bharathi Vidyalaya (IABBV) Hindi School in June 1987, a non-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. It is the first structured Hindi-language institution in Sydney NSW Australia dedicated to the teaching of Hindi and has been operating ever since with support from the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Communities' Community Languages Schools Program.

At IABBV Hindi School, we incorporate the principles of modern language teaching in Australia. Although classes are primarily for school-going children (K-12), we also offer classes for adults at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. As an outside tutor we prepare students for 2-Unit Hindi Continuers (only at Thornleigh West PS on Sundays) and cover the entire spectrum of formal general Hindi education in Sydney, having more than 225 students each year, from Pre-Primary to Pre-University (ages 4 and up).

Classes are run every Sunday morning at Thornleigh West Public School and Monday to Friday after school at Epping Public School, Hornsby South PS, Epping West PS, John Purchase Public School, Carlingford PS and Chatswood PS. We also provide students online delivery of Hindi lessons on Sun morning and Tuesday after school, so that distance does not impact those who are unable to come to any of the centers for Hindi.