In Uttar Pradesh’s Lathira village along the Ganga river, The Satsang Foundation runs the Chanda Satsang Vidyalaya (CSVL) for primary school children of farm workers, manual labour and small vendors. After a strict lockdown was imposed in the country to halt the march of the virus, the children could no longer come to school and their health also suffered as the meals provided in school took care of their nutrition needs.

SSM NCR volunteers, devised worksheets and ration food packets for the children, calling in parents once a week to collect and submit the sheets for the children to remain connected with their education as well as to take care of their nutrition needs.

The worksheets were also shared with SSM volunteers in Coimbatore who provided them along with stationary to 150 plus students across four Panchayat schools in the sparsely populated Anaikatty region inhabited by tribal communities. The schools were shut but the dedicated teachers travelled for miles to visit these remote areas, especially where the fourth school is located among dense forests and moving elephant herds. Both the teachers and the students turned up to share the sheets and stationary and hope to be able to continue the education of their children with their aid.

In Nashik meanwhile, volunteers distributed FM radios to children in a rural/tribal school to enable them to learn remotely. At The Satsang Vidyalaya in Madanapalle, teachers devised worksheets and recorded lessons that were dispersed through whatsapp and other mobile based technologies.