Akshaya Patra Giving Wings to the Dreams of Young Girls

There is a spark in her voice and her eyes gleam with confidence. Raising her head high she says that she wants to join Police Force when she grows up. She is Bindushree, studying in Grade 7 of Government Primary School, Mahalaxmi Puram, Bangalore. She is eldest of the three sisters. Her two sisters Deepika and Kusuma are studying in Grade 5 and Grade 1 respectively in the same school.

Her mother is a house wife and father works as a construction labour. Her father is the only earning member of the family of five. Bindushree’s parents want all the three daughters to get educated. At this point Bindushree thanks all those who played the role of a catalyst in bringing mid-day meal to her school. She has heard her mother saying that the burden of managing one nutritious meal is shared by The Akshaya Patra Foundation. This meal also gives her the hope and the feeling that her studies will not be discontinued and she can fulfil her dreams, and alongside motivate her sisters to do the same makes her elated and self assured.

With an unwavering faith she says, “I am confident that I will be a Police Officer one day and will help enforcing discipline everywhere”.  Her teachers also reflect in a very positive manner about her ambition and feel that she will become what she wants to be as she is good at studies, hard working and well behaved.

Bindushree is happy child with a sense of responsibility. Being the eldest she owns the responsibility of guiding her younger sisters- Deepika and Kusuma. She helps them in their studies and for them she is the real source of motivation. Being motivated by her sister’s strong desire, Deepika also wants to be a Police Officer. They also have one more similarity and that is their love for dishes served by Akshaya Patra as part of its mid-day meal programme. Bisibele bhath, Tomato rice, Pulao and Sopasaru is the favourite of all the three.

Akshaya Patra through its mid-day meal programme serves 1.3 million children in 19 locations across 9 states of India. It gives differentiation to its menu catering to the regional tastes keeping intact the nutritional needs of the children. This healthy and nutritious food becomes an incentive which attracts many parents to send their children to school in the absence of adequate resource to feed their children.  Besides providing nutritious food it also acts as a positive measure especially for girl child by enabling them to continue their education.

On this day of National Girl Child Day and on behalf of all the girl beneficiaries, The Akshaya Patra Foundation expresses its sincere gratitude to all its supporters. It is your continuous support which has enabled feeding these children and motivating them to stay in school to continue their education. Thank you for aiding to build an atmosphere where education of girl child is considered equally important and they are given equal opportunity to rise up in life.