Students at Isha schools get a free lunch!

Thank you for your generous contribution to Isha Vidhya, an organization in Tamil Nadu, India that runs seven English-medium schools in rural villages, teaching computer skills and raising educational standards for children there, particularly girls. Your donations helped Isha provide a nutritious lunch to 350 unprivileged rural children at one of the schools.

The Children of Isha Vidhya schools come from families where both parents need to leave for work early in the morning. Consequently, the lunch these children bring from home is severely lacking in nutrition. Usually, these families cook once a day for dinner, a portion of which is kept aside for the children as breakfast and lunch as well. In the absence of any vegetables, fruit or proteins, the nutritional content of their food is very poor. This severely impedes the physical and mental growth of the children. By providing at least one tasty and nutritious meal to these kids, two issues are addressed — the health of the children and incentivizing the parent to send their child to school.

We are happy to see our children enjoying a nutritious lunch. By providing a school lunch, these children are also developing the habit of eating vegetables, which was not in place earlier.

Recently, Isha officials were able to prove the importance of these school meals through a medical camp conducted on campus. The children that received these meals at at school showed improvement in their health. Isha officials have also called the parents to stress the importance of a balanced meal, and many parents came forward to put their children in the school’s noon meal scheme.

By supporting this lunch for 350 children per day in Cuddalore, a village in the southern state of Tamil Nadu you have given them an opportunity to enjoy having at least one good meal per day. Thank you William, Louis, Theodore, Kandaswamy, Microsoft, Adeline, and Phoebe for your kindness!