Aug. 27: Eva Katherina Kleekamm was staying in a house on Sudder Street in the summer of 2004 when a seven-year-old girl's face peeped out from behind her mother and said: "I want to go to school."

Eva, then a banker in Munich, never forgot those words. She got the child, the daughter of a domestic help, admitted to an English-medium school in the neighbourhood. The girl is now a second-year student at the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM).

Eva, 42, has become godmother to 20 other children in the years since she found her new calling in Calcutta, not letting even cancer deter her from her mission. She was felicitated at the 22nd edition of The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence 2017, presented by IIHM in association with Adamas University.

The first girl that Eva had helped educate could not attend the event because she is currently interning in a five-star hotel in Hyderabad. IIHM chairman Suborno Bose, who was present at the Science City auditorium, offered to waive the girl's course fee after he heard her story.

"I was so surprised, and deeply touched," Eva said later of the gesture.

Besides being felicitated, Eva had been called on stage to hand The Surrendra Paul Memorial Award for Courage to six students, including teenagers Rajasi Chakraborty and Hrishita Bera, both of whom have fought cancer.

Eva said she felt overwhelmed by the experience. "I am proud of every single person who stood on that stage. Every single person who received an award and who gave an award told me that I am surrounded by many people who believe in the same thing."

Meeting Rajasi and Hrishita gave Eva a new perspective. "The girls with cancer and I are in the same boat.... They did so well and that gives me the energy to keep on fighting and doing what I am doing."

Eva's philanthropy is mostly from her own savings and the rest through her friends in Germany. "I am allergic to money, so I give it away all the time. That is the side effect of having been associated with a bank for 11 years!" said the German, who lives in Karim Bux Lane.

It was in March last year that Eva was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had surgery in April, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy and 19 rounds of radiation till October. Going back to Munich for good never occurred to her even during that trying period.

Eva had first come to Calcutta in 2000 because she wanted to work for Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. She shuttled between Calcutta and Munich for a few years before deciding to stay back. That was in 2005. "I like the craziness and the adventure of the city, where no day is same as the other, contrary to a German who plans his every day and hour," smiled Eva.

A day in Eva's life includes visiting Chowringhee High School, where she helps the children with their English after school and teaches art and craft to nursery kids. "Whenever we approach Eva for help, she comes forward without any kind of hesitation," said Perminder Dasani, administrator and secretary of Chowringhee High School.

Eva does visit her family in Germany twice a year, but her extended family allows her to leave only when they know she has booked a return ticket.

When the convener of The Telegraph School Awards, Barry O'Brien, asked Eva when she was planning to go back home, her reply from the Science City stage was: "I am home."