Four ladies from the Inner Wheel literally walked the talk in building bridges with the slum children of a city municipal primary school. The school with around 50 students from poor socio and economic background at Pushpaleela Nagar in Tangellamudi area on the city outskirts beckoned the ladies from the well-to-do families to lend helping hand.
Sarita Lunani, past national president of Inner Wheel in India, P. Subbalakshmi, E.N. Sarada and Vani Gopal, all retired teachers, adopted the school some nine months ago. When they first visited the school, the children were seen sitting on the floor for want of furniture, attending nature’s calls in open places due to lack of toilets inside the school, leave alone computers for e-learning.
Now the school changed its face, thanks to a slew of donors who responded to the call of the Inner Wheel ladies. A toilet block has been built, library adorning a range of books came up and the school is also equipped with benches and dustbins.
In the process, the students got access to safe drinking water with the donation of a water purifier by a philanthropist.
A computer was donated by a Non Resident Indian Naresh Lunani enabling students to undergo e-learning. With all these facilities, the school was declared a ‘happy school’ by city Mayor Sk. Nurjahan at a function on Monday.
A Class-II girl student spoke in elation how they all enjoyed their outing at a swimming pool recently away from the academic routine with the Inner Wheel’s initiative.
Ms. Saritha said they were also planning to take all the schoolchildren to the airport at Gannavaram shortly.
She said the four ladies would visit the school on every week-end and spend their time with students as part of the Inner Wheel’s outreach programme. “We are able to initiate the children into the faculties of mental maths, arts and crafts, general knowledge, health and hygiene,” she said. Impressed by the initiative, Kamal Sanghvi, vice-chair, Rotary Literacy Mission, India, offered financial assistance to engage a teacher in the school on a regular basis.
The teacher would receive Rs. 180 per day from the Rotary Literacy Mission. Municipal Commissioner Saisrikanth requested the Inner Wheel to extend its activities to the other less-privileged municipal schools also in the city.
Sarita Lunani, past national president of Inner Wheel in India, P. Subbalakshmi, E.N. Sarada and Vani Gopal, all retired teachers, adopted the municipal primary school at Pushpaleela Nagar in Eluru
