Launch of “Shala Aplya Dari” (School at Your Doorstep)

Date: 26 September 2020

Location: Nambarwadi, Taluka Ambernath

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life across the globe, but few communities felt its educational impact as severely as the remote tribal villages of Maharashtra. While urban India transitioned almost overnight to online work and digital classrooms, tribal regions found themselves cut off not only from mobility, but also from learning, structure, and the hope that education brings.

In places like Nambarwadi, school had been closed for six long months. There was no internet connectivity, no smartphones, and not even a nearby mobile tower to attempt digital schooling. A generation of children stood on the brink of educational abandonment.

Lakshya Foundation, which had been working in Nambarwadi since 2010, knew that if we didn’t intervene, many children might never return to school.

We had to act—and act fast.

A Problem That Needed a Ground-Level Solution

When the nationwide lockdown was first announced in March 2020, the tribal community believed it would last only a few weeks. But as the lockdown extended month after month, education in tribal areas slipped into complete silence.

Tribal livelihoods suffered, but the children suffered more. In communities already vulnerable to dropout cycles, even temporary hurdles often convince families to discontinue schooling. Teachers like Vijay Chavan repeatedly shared their concern with the Lakshya Foundation team—

children who had once overcome poverty, lack of infrastructure, and family pressure to attend school were now losing touch with learning entirely.

With physical schools closed and digital schooling impossible, Lakshya Foundation needed a solution grounded in reality, not technology.

After multiple discussions and brainstorming sessions, one idea emerged stronger than everything else:

If students cannot come to the school, the school must go to the students.

And thus was born a unique, hyper-local, human-centered model:

“Shala Aplya Dari” — School at Your Doorstep

26 September 2020: The Day the Initiative Began

Representing Lakshya Foundation,

Shirish Patil, Lalita Patil, and Hitesh Thakare,

reached Nambarwadi early morning, carrying educational material, sanitizers, masks, and a renewed sense of purpose.

They were joined by the highly respected:

Teacher: Mr. Vijay Chavan
Volunteers / Community Associates: Ms. Punjara Darki and Ms. Vanita Bhasma

These two volunteers were selected from the village itself—educated, capable, and fiercely committed to helping their own children restart learning.

1. The First Assembly During the Pandemic

Before the teaching began, safety had to be established.

Standing on the narrow village road that leads to Nambarwadi’s central open area, the team instructed the students—many of whom were seeing their classmates after months—to form a line with strict distancing.

One full arm’s distance between each student.

It was a simple act, but profound.

For six months, the concepts of masks, sanitization, and spacing had been distant ideas for the tribal children. Now, for the first time, they were learning not just academics, but survival protocols.

2. Introduction to COVID-19 Safety Practices

Here, Shirish took the lead.

He demonstrated the correct way to use hand sanitizers.
He explained how the virus spreads, how hygiene protects them, and why they must keep distance even from their friends while learning.
Each child was given sanitizer, and masks were adjusted where needed.
Teacher Vijay and the volunteers supported every step, ensuring all protocols were followed.

The children listened with curiosity and seriousness. For many, this was their first proper introduction to pandemic safety.

It was not just the start of a teaching program.

It was the beginning of awareness.

3. Students Sent Back Home – A Unique Learning Structure Begins

After the safety orientation, the students dispersed and returned to their respective homes.

This was intentional.

The teaching model was designed to occur at each doorstep, keeping gatherings minimal and risk-free.

4. House-to-House Teaching Begins

The team—Shirish, Vijay, Punjara, and Vanita—began visiting every student’s home.

At each household:

The student sat outside, often on a small stool or mat.
The teacher/volunteer stood at a distance.
A 5–10 minute lesson was conducted from the official textbook—covering one important concept per day.
Immediately afterward, the student was given homework.
The next day, the homework would be checked before starting the new day’s lesson.

This ensured daily continuity, discipline, and engagement—without breaking safety norms.

What looked simple on the surface was, in reality, a carefully designed pedagogical structure created to sustain learning through crisis.

House by house, child by child, learning restarted in Nambarwadi.

Results That Surpassed Expectations

The model worked better than anyone anticipated.

60–80 students participated fully.
Not a single student dropped out.
Parents were relieved and grateful.
Teacher Vijay received structured support after months of uncertainty.
The volunteers emerged as pillars of the community.
Children regained their learning rhythm, confidence, and daily discipline.

The initiative continued consistently until the government officially ended lockdown restrictions and schools reopened physically.

“Shala Aplya Dari” became a lifeline.

Community Response & Larger Vision

Lakshya Foundation launched a video appeal featuring President Shirish Patil, encouraging donations for expanding this model to more remote tribal hamlets.

The initiative reaffirmed Lakshya Foundation’s belief:

Education doesn’t depend on buildings or technology.
Education survives on intent, community, and human connection.

Reflection

The day of 26 September 2020 became a defining moment in Lakshya Foundation’s journey. What began as a crisis response evolved into a model of educational resilience—one that demonstrated how deeply a community can transform when guided with care, creativity, and compassion.

On a day when fear, isolation, and uncertainty surrounded the world, Nambarwadi chose a different path—

the path of learning, hope, and togetherness.

The greatest achievement:

Every child of Nambarwadi remained connected to education.

Not one was lost to the pandemic.

For Lakshya Foundation, that remains the most fulfilling metric of all.

Lakshya Foundation Annual Report 2020

Learning Through Crisis: When Schools Crossed Every Doorstep

Chief Trustee’s Note

Dear Friends, Partners, and Tribal Changemakers,

If ever a year tested the spirit and ingenuity of Lakshya Foundation, it was 2020. For a decade, we threaded dusty roads to bring the joy of learning to children in the tribal belt of Maharashtra—never imagining that these roads would one day be closed, not by distance or resources, but by an invisible illness. And yet, what began as a year of immense uncertainty became a living testament to the power of community—a year in which education refused to retreat, quietly crossing thresholds and boundaries, finding new ways to belong.

Our annual journey is captured here not only in celebrations and outreach, but in the everyday triumphs of togetherness, improvisation, and faith: the kind that hums in drawing competitions and parades, and roars in moments when school itself comes to the doorstep.

We thank everyone who walked with us, not just in festivals, but in silence and solidarity through the most testing months.

With enduring hope,

Shirish Patil

Chief Trustee

January Sunlight: Republic Day at Mandvyachi Vadi

The day began like any other—clear, cold, and quietly magical—save for the knowledge of fragility that often accompanies journeys into the tribal pockets of Ambernath. Our team traveled before dawn, winding through sleepy hills and rough paths where each step reminds you why so many children are left behind.

Mandvyachi Vadi, a small hamlet of hopes tucked far from city frenzy, came alive when our team marched with schoolchildren, teachers, and villagers. The parade spilled through the heart of the village—barefoot children waving paper flags, elders stepping slowly alongside beams of sunlight. There was pride in every chant, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai!” and “Jai Hind!” echoing not only in the air, but in the cautious optimism of those watching from doorstep and field.

In the schoolyard, as the National Anthem rose, you felt the bond forged over years—teachers, once strangers, now anchored the school with real affection, and children sat with posture straight and spirits high.

Chief Trustee Shirish Patil spoke not of statistics, but of story—reminding the crowd that freedom is not truly lived unless every child learns to question, imagine, and build a new future.

When the shift to the community hall was announced—because the school building itself had become unsafe—a new kind of learning was born. Children spilled into the hall for a drawing competition, pencils and colours in hand, showing their Dream India through crayon hills, tricolour flags, and smiling faces.

The day’s gifts—books, toys, laughter—were cherished not for their novelty, but for the promise of hope they carried.

In those hours, the gap between city and village blurred; everyone sat together, sharing stories and aspirations over tea and poha. Progress was not a headline—it was a chorus of encouragement echoing against mud walls.

September: The School That Refused to Shut—“Shala Aplya Dari” in Nambarwadi

When the world retreated behind doors and dim screens in March, rural Maharashtra found itself more cut off than ever. School closures swept through the tribal belt, but where cities found digital fixes, villages like Nambarwadi faced total silence—no signal, no device, no distant lifeline.

Lakshya Foundation did not wait for a miracle; instead, we stitched together one ourselves. In a series of urgent calls and open dialogues with teacher Vijay Chavan and trusted village volunteers, the idea emerged: if children cannot come to school, we will bring school to every door.

Thus was born “Shala Aplya Dari”—school at your doorstep.

On 26 September, Shirish Patil, Lalita Patil, and Hitesh Thakare reached Nambarwadi, armed not with tablets, but with sanitizers, masks, and the raw conviction that human touch, precaution, and discipline could rescue a generation from educational loss.

Before learning began, the day became a lesson in survival—children learned about distancing, hygiene, and the meaning of the strange months their families had survived. Each child was shown how to use sanitizer and mask—practices previously as foreign as algebra. The Foundation’s team and local volunteers, Punjara and Vanita, explained patiently, guiding the community from confusion to care.

What followed was a slow revolution:

The teachers and volunteers walked to every house—greeting children on verandahs, taking lessons outdoors, spaced arm’s length apart.
Every student received a tailored, 5–10 minute lesson: just enough to learn, never enough to risk health.
Homework was handed out, and checked the next day, giving routine back to children who hadn’t seen a classroom in months.
No screens. No waiting. Just the intimate, determined cadence of learning, one home at a time.

What began that morning became the heartbeat of the village for weeks. Not a single child dropped out; parents grew confident, reassured by the gentle persistence of the Foundation. The volunteers emerged as the new mentors—familiar faces now fueling a rhythm of engagement as vital as any textbook.

For children, this was more than lessons. It was the reunion with hope, the refusal to disappear, the joy of seeing education as something worth fighting for.

Videos spread, appeals were made—and more support followed. Families understood, for perhaps the first time, that education was not bounded by walls or WiFi: it is an act of community, of resilience, of believing that every lesson matters enough to walk it to your threshold.

Threads Woven in the Dark: The Power of Presence

2020 was not lived through events alone. In the shadow of the pandemic, every small act gained meaning:

The drawing competition in a borrowed hall reflected ingenuity, adaptability, and the refusal to be daunted by crumbling infrastructure.
The persistent messaging about hygiene and care was not just a response to COVID, but a lesson in collective responsibility and citizenship.
The choice to recruit local volunteers for “Shala Aplya Dari” turned risk into ownership—giving mothers, sisters, and neighbors the role of teachers, healers, and guardians.
Laughter shared between Foundation members and elders, reassurance given to anxious families, and the pride in seeing homework completed became the signposts of progress.

The year showed that sometimes, perseverance means less about endurance and more about invention. It’s not enough to want change—you have to remake the map when the old roads disappear.

The Lasting Lesson: Education as a Living Promise

As lockdowns eased and schools began to reopen, the children of Nambarwadi did not return as strangers. They came as students who had survived the storm—held together by the stubborn will of their teachers, the devotion of their volunteers, and the faith of a Foundation that refused to let go.

Through it all, not one child was lost to dropout. The learning continued. The spirit endured.

For Lakshya Foundation, this remains the greatest accomplishment of the year—not a number in a balance sheet, but the living pulse of a community that chose learning over surrender, togetherness over isolation, possibility over fear.

Lakshya Foundation

Badlapur, Maharashtra

Registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950

Registration No. E-6205 (Thane)

“Progress means not letting any crisis eclipse our promise to every child—school will always find you, wherever you are, in hope or hardship.”