When I saw this room, I thought it had been abandoned for some time. Instead, I was shocked to find it was an active classroom in use only one week before. Judging by the posters left on the wall, this is a science classroom.

As response to the immediate needs of Uttarakhand flood victims wraps up, Amma has asked us to focus on education to benefit the overall population. Our approach is four fold:

1) Using the labor of IVUSA volunteer students from Japan, we have demolished two old classroom buildings like the one above at Inter-colleges in Kandara and Chandrapuri. Other teams will then rebuild modern classrooms on the same sites.

2) Table and bench sets are being built to donate to many area schools. Japanese students helped complete 56 sets on days when rain prevented them from working outdoors.

3) Government schools are so bad that extra tutoring (tuition) is necessary for most students to pass exams. Amma provides after school tuition for free in the communities where we are involved. In Batwadi village, 25 students have regularly attended for more than a year now.

4) Morning kindergarten (angenvadi) is available in most villages. We support willing teachers with tablets full of educational games and apps from Amrita-Rite.

– Scotti