Reconnecting With Children, One Voice at a Time
After two long years of COVID-19 lockdowns and uncertainty, February 2022 marked the slow reopening of life in rural Maharashtra. Schools were not fully functional yet, but restrictions were easing; people were cautiously stepping out; routines were returning, though hesitantly. It was during this fragile transition that Lakshya Foundation stepped back into the tribal belt—not with programs, but with presence.
On 06 February 2022, a small team from Lakshya Foundation quietly visited villages like Kuderan, Varyachi Vadi, Boradpada, and Dharol. There were no banners, no announcements, and no photographs. We carried nothing in our hands except time, attention, and the willingness to listen.
A Visit Without Events, Yet Full of Meaning
We gathered with children and families in open courtyards, near wells, and under trees. Instead of speeches, we asked gentle questions. Instead of distributing things, we listened to their worries.
COVID had not just closed schools; it had shaken confidence, especially among tribal children.
What we heard stayed with us.
- Some children whispered, “I think I forgot how to learn…”
- A boy stared at the ground and said, “I don’t remember my tables now.”
- Parents, who had seen their children drifting into idle routine, asked nervously,“When school starts, will you help again? Don’t leave them halfway.”
- Teachers admitted softly,“We can bring them back, but not without help now.”
The silence between sentences revealed more than their words. Two years of educational pause had left behind fear, guilt, and uncertainty. Children felt as if they had “lost education,” without ever knowing it wasn’t their fault.
Hope Found in Small Voices
But there was also hope—tender, raw, and honest.
- One child tugged at our trustee’s shirt and said, “I want to study again, but where do I begin?”
- A mother, balancing pots of water, asked, “If they try again, will someone guide them like last time?”
- A teacher’s eyes lit up with belief when she said, “We can rebuild… but let’s rebuild together.”
In those voices, we didn’t hear loss.
We heard a request to begin again.
Why This Visit Mattered
In cities, online teaching had stepped in. But in tribal villages, children bore the full weight of lockdowns in silence. They had:
- no digital access
- no school routine
- no guidance at home
- no sense of where to restart
Had we waited for schools to reopen fully, many children would have slipped away—possibly forever. Our presence in February was not symbolic. It was intervention at the most vulnerable moment, when minds were doubting themselves and hope could still be resurrected.
What This Day Taught Us
Lakshya Foundation did not arrive that day as a charity or a visitor.
We arrived as someone saying:
“You can start again. We will walk with you.”
Sometimes, the most important phase in a child’s education is not teaching them math or reading—it is making them believe they can learn again at all.
06 February 2022 was not a day of activity.
It was a day of reassurance, a day when children realized they had not been forgotten.
And in their eyes, we saw the most important lesson of the post-pandemic era:
Education survives not because schools reopen.
It survives because someone shows up to listen, before they start to teach.
