Pauline is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is a retired primary school teacher. Since her retirement she has spent a lot of time travelling and doing volunteer teaching in remote village schools in West Bengal.
Pauline's first trip was to Nepal in 1999, when she visited one of her daughters who was working there with the VSO. She became so interested in the work that her daughter was doing that, after her second visit, she decided to volunteer, through Mondo Challenge, to go to Nepal to teach. This happened in 2004 when political conditions in Nepal were volatile. Because of the political situation in Nepal, Pauline opted to volunteer in West Bengal instead, and worked in a school in the Kalimpong Hill Region.
In a small village in the Mungsung area Pauline met Father Felix d'Souza who is the Director of five schools in the Gitdubling area. He invited her to return to West Bengal to continue working in their schools, so, in 2006 she returned to India to work in the Gitdubling Area.
Whilst in the Gitdubling area in 2006 Pauline realised that some of the schools needed financial help to ensure that all the children in the area could get the chance of an education. It is a very poor area, with inadequate infrastructure, poor access, and few means for the residents to generate income. The people of Gitdubling use a barter system as money is in such short supply.
In 2007 Pauline set up the HCET with the help of a friend. After consultation with those concerned with education in the area as well as in put from local families, it was decided that the financial priority of the charity should be to help pay teachers wages. This was deemed to be of more long term benefit to the area than sponsoring individual children.
