A New Hope: Education for the Underprivileged

Sri Sri Seva Mandir Project has been initiated by volunteers in four districts in Andhra Pradesh - Guntur, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Kurnool.

Why the Project was initiated:

The inspiration to start the project came as a result of wanting to address situations arising in the following four categories

a) Naxals forcing parents to join and get trained for Guerrilla Warfare so once both the parents leave the kids , no one was there to take care of them.

b) Fathers would force children into child labour and use the money so earned to drink alcohol

c) Usually girl child is considered a burden and married of at age of 15 or 16

d) Socio Economic Factors. Education for Kindergarten in Andhra Pradesh is expensive so sending children for education was a huge financial burden for the parents. So they were sent to work to support the family financially from a Young Age

The Free School project was started so that disadvantaged children could get the opportunity to study in an environment which provided both advanced technology and spirituality too. 

Simultaneous Teacher Training happened as teachers were selected as young students and were encouraged to complete their B.Ed. through distance education, later to be absorbed in the same school;

This motivated the teachers to give their best and ensured quality in the education being imparted. Coaches trained at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) come on weekend and also week days to train in games like Carrom, Chess ,Volleyball etc.

The teachers are also encouraged to do Advanced level courses of the Art of Living thereby learning Meditation and breathing techniques. This enables all round growth of the teachers which has a direct impact on the quality of their teaching and values they impart to the children. In Hyderabad school, they have advanced learning concepts

More than 500 kids have benefited from the project in the past 5 years.