Help pay the teachers at a small school in Karnataka where most children have no home to return to.
Shree Shiva Shaikshanika Seva Ashrama is a residential school near Tumakuru. It houses, feeds and teaches children from 1st to 10th standard. About 90% of them have no parents or no safe home. The hardest bill to pay each month is the teachers’ salaries.
The school
Mr. Lepakshaiah worked as a forest guard near Tumakuru. He had no money and no standing to speak of, but he believed everyone owes something to the people around them. He wanted a place where children without a family could get food, a bed and an education.
Someone gave him a small plot of land and a modest building, free. In 1995 he opened a residential school in it with almost nothing else. It is still running.
The problem
- 10
- teachers, covering 1st to 10th standard
- ₹10,000
- a month is what each is paid. Government teachers earn ₹20,000 or more.
- 25 of 26
- students passed their exams last year
Even ₹10,000 a month is hard for the ashrama to find. If it can’t pay its teachers reliably, it loses them, and the children lose the one stable part of their schooling.
What a gift does
₹10,000, about $115, pays one teacher for one month. $1,400 pays one teacher for a year. Our goal is $14,000: a full year of salaries for all ten.
What we raise goes to teacher salaries at the ashrama.
About us
Upahar Giving is a small volunteer group in New Jersey. Upahar means “gift” in Hindi. We are forming a New Jersey nonprofit and have not yet received 501(c)(3) status, so donations are not tax-deductible for now. We’ll update this page when that changes.
Visit or write to the school
Shree Shiva Shaikshanika Seva AshramaK.N. Halli, Mydala Post
Tumakuru, Karnataka 572104, India
ssssashrama@gmail.com