“A good teacher can inspire hope,
ignite the imagination,
and instil a love of learning.” – Brad Henry Love

As a token of respect, care, regards, affection, gratitude, and honour, Teacher’s Day is celebrated across India and world. We too believe that teachers are no less than an architect or a designer of our society as a whole. Teachers, gurus and mentors play a major role in shaping the young minds of the society. Akshaya Patra bows down to pay a heartfelt respect to those makers of the society, called – Teachers.

We bring you an example of a teacher who went against the wind in her life so that little school children can create their own success stories someday.

Age doesn’t matter with being an epitome of inspiration. Smt. G. Chandrakala, a teacher from Government Model Primary School, Jigani, Karnataka is one such example.

This middle-aged lady encourages her students in school to sharpen their skills, has elders in the village approaching her to solve issues, and has been navigating change in her own family too. But the actual course of change began with her— eighteen years back when she became a Teacher in a Government School.

Elders say, ‘Decisions Determine Destiny.’ These words proved to be true for Chandrakala Miss (as is lovingly referred to by students) and her family. Instead of keeping aside her certificates and cornering skills at an early age, she decided to pursue her studies further. Despite of economically challenged background, with her unparalleled will-power, she cracked through all the tests and finally joined the school.

“I knew I had to do well in academics and for that I was ready to sacrifice all the little happy moments of my growing up phase, extend my study hours leaving behind all the household chores including offering help to my mother. All these paid off when I see myself within the gates of the school every day, teaching children for their bright future,” says Chandrakala.

Chandrakala further mentions that most of the children coming to the school belong to an economically challenged background. They look forward to the support from Non-Government Organisation (NGO) like The Akshaya Patra Foundation. Being in the school, she has closely noticed the fact that mid-day meals tremendously enhance the enrolment rate of students. And the increasing number of students in the attendance register has been a testimony to this.

Share the most delightful moment with your favourite teacher in the comments section below. Relive your sweet childhood that still lasts in your memories and make you smile, even today!

Well-fed, well-read, well-achieved – that’s the kind of generation Akshaya Patra dreams of! And to make this dream come true, we started concerting all our efforts to support education by providing nutrition-rich mid-day meals since 2000.

The 18-year journey has been exciting and action-packed. With years of rich learning, the Foundation has evolved from serving 1500 mid-day meal to 1.8 million children in 16,856 schools across 12 states & 2 Union Territories of India. Take a closer look:

So, what inspires us to expand our reach more?

We feel immensely blessed to witness countless hope stories of children and their transformation in the past eighteen years. Today, Akshaya Patra’s beneficiary children along with their parents stand as motivating examples of the extraordinary change that mid-day meal programme is capable of bringing in their lives. We are humbled to be a part of their incredible journey.

This is one of the hope stories, which stirs our heart and inspires us to make new beginnings possible for children.

Introducing Muskan Salim Malik. She is a Standard VII Akshaya Patra beneficiary from Gujarat.

Muskan has always been keen on learning languages and aspires to be a professor someday. She feels grateful that in spite of the social stigma surrounding educating a girl child in her community; her father advocates and supports her schooling.

Expressing her concern, Muskan says, “Just because I attend school, we have had to face strong criticism from the elder members of my family. Indeed, my father has not surrendered and accepted the situation.” By becoming an academician, she wants to see her father’s head held high and be an example to other families who have daughters.

Muskan hails from a family of eight – mother, father, three sisters, two brothers and herself. Her siblings also study in the same school. She says, “It becomes tougher for my parents to arrange for wholesome square meals a day. So, I am indebted to Akshaya Patra, for providing us the tasty mid-day meals which I get to relish with my friends.”

Upholding the hope stories of children like Muskan, we try to make their aspirations achievable.

With thousands of hands reaching out to us in support of school children,
we strengthen our belief that together we can build a nation
where every child has an easy access to
‘unlimited food for education.’

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