History

The main objective of establishing NayiRaahein was to reach out to children coming from below-poverty-line families which could not afford a decent education, to enable their children to lead a dignified life and to grow up into responsible citizens of the country. The first key challenge was identifying and reaching out to the genuinely needy population.

Hence the NayiRaahein Team followed a stringent background verification protocol for each application that was received. The team verified applicants’ backgrounds in terms of family conditions, monthly income, living standard etc through personal visits, document verification and neighborhood surveys. Per capita income of these families was less than INR 1000/- per month. Alcoholism heavily plagued most families, resulting in depletion and unavailability of funds for children’s education. Among others was medical condition of one of the family members due to which all the money was consumed in treatment. Illiteracy also affected the families in that due to lack of awareness and family planning, the family sizes were large and the income was inadequate to cater to education needs of children. A mere 8 children were enrolled in the first batch of NayiRaahein.

Next in line was the challenge of hiring the right staff.

We wanted to recruit teachers who could empathize rather than discriminate, as these children came from poorly educated of uneducated poor families. Hence, the NayiRaahein Team searched for teachers who had risen from poor families, struggled to attain education and employment, and so, were motivated enough to work zealously for the cause. Eventually, we came across Bhateri Devi, the first staff hired for NayiRaahein. She is a very passionate and motivated lady who has seen struggle in life and has been diligently working for the better tomorrow of children at NayiRaahein since the beginning of the institution. At present, NayiRaahein caters to education of 70 children, employs 3 teachers, is well connected to schools, societies and media in the region and is poised to impact a larger population. We plan campaigns to generate sensitivity and funds, and organize activities like educational tours, interschool competitions, cultural events etc to ensure all round development of our children.