The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a NGO that was started in Bangalore in June 2000. It implements the mid-day meal programme in Government schools under the aegis of Central Government and various State Governments. Akshaya Patra serves around 1.3million school children every day.
Though the primary role of Akshaya Patra as an NGO is to provide mid-day meal to school children, it greatly emphasizes on education too. “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger”- the vision statement of the Foundation makes it evident too. Given that the medium of education in most of the government schools is not English, the students lag in basic communication and hence their confidence suffers. The volunteership programme for teaching aims at developing English speaking ability in kids and help them get rid of their fear, gain confidence and acquire good communication skills. Apart from that, the programme also focuses on improving the understanding of the students in subjects like mathematics, social studies, science etc.
In accordance to the goal, the mode of teaching is kept interactive, activity-based rather than conventional. The students were taught English and communication through a series of role plays and were taught Social studies, science and mathematics through a series of simple video tutorials. They were also taught basic computers.
Apart from that, the financial statements, accounting procedures of Akshaya Patra were scrutinized for any misrepresentations. A thorough inspection of the software systems used by the organization was also performed.
It was a good learning experience for us as well. The internship with Akshaya Patra taught us how to manage time effectively, how to resolve conflicts with level headedness, sensitivity to the less privileged.