Schools are about to reopen after summer vacation and it is time for the children to come back to school and learn. The empty corridors will soon be filled with hustle and bustle of the children. As for The Akshaya Patra Foundation, we will be resuming our journey of feeding children with hot, tasty and nutritious meals, which will improve their health and keep them focused on studies.
Going beyond the school feeding programme, this year we thought of doing something different to welcome children back to school. So, we initiated the ‘Clean Slate Carnival’, a pilot project for revamping the schools in collaboration with our corporate partners – Cargill, LSEG, Swiss Re and Happiest Minds. We shortlisted 18 government schools across Bengaluru for the project. The goal was to get these schools ready to welcome children for the new academic year by cleaning the entire premises and painting the blackboard and walls wherever necessary.
The project was completed in 10 days with the help of 500 volunteers who took up all the tasks with great energy and enthusiasm. The aspiration was to create an engaging and conducive environment to children when they come back to school and experience new joy and contentment.
Even our CEO, Shridhar Venkat, took time from his busy schedule and came forward to volunteer for this noble deed by joining one of the teams in revamping the school. Speaking about the project, he said, “Akshaya Patra has always undertaken initiatives for the betterment of the society, especially children. The ‘Clean Slate Carnival’ is one such initiative which focuses on students. The aim was to welcome children back to the schools after summer vacation and provide them a clean environment for studying. Already eager to return to school after the summer break, we knew they would be happy to see newly painted blackboards, clean benches, etc. We are confident that these factors will add to their excitement and enthusiasm for the new academic year. I want to thank our corporate partners for supporting this initiative through their active participation.”
Our corporate volunteers were immensely happy to be a part of the initiative. Pralayanath, one of the volunteers from LESG’s team, said that, “We have been partners with Akshaya Patra for various relief programmes and are aware about their dedication to provide school children with mid-day meal (MDM) on a day-to-day basis. The ‘Clean Slate Carnival is a new approach they have taken towards the betterment of the students and society. We are glad to be a part of it. It was indeed an amazing experience and we are looking forward to partnering with them for other such initiatives in the future.”
Besides welcoming children back to school, the Clean Slate Carnival was aimed at providing our corporate volunteers an avenue to do their bit to put a smile of children’s face. We can proudly say that this was indeed a successful step. We hope to expand this project in Akshaya Patra beneficiary schools across India.
