Founded on 5^th May 2015, Sadhana Vidyalaya is run by Lok Biradari Prakalp for educating those primitive tribal kids who are located in very deep forests and suffer to get even the basic needs in today's modern world.

In February 2015, people from about 18 villages came to Lok Biradari Prakalp and requested for a school and medical center. Each of these villages has Zilla Parishad (government) school. But, the teachers never show up. Lok Biradari Prakalp formatted a team lead by Mrs. Samiksha Amte. The team visited few schools run by NGOs. Nelgunda was proposed as the school location by villagers only since it has weekly market. So, it's convenient to surrounding villages. Two acres land was taken from a local tribal on lease for 30 years. First building for the school was built by locals.

"Sadhana Vidyalaya" has been approved by the State Government but do not receive any aid, grant etc. (कायमस्वरूपी विनाअनुदानित)

Sadhana Vidyalaya is at about 25 km from the Prakalp. There is no road available to the school. Getting to the school, even if you have a bike or a car, is a very challenging task. But, a dedicated team of 7 teachers with 4 support staff, take on this challenge every day for the sake of children who come from even deeper parts of the forests. These kids come from the surrounding villages of Nelgunda like Mahakapadi, Morometta, Midadapalli, Gongwada, Kavande, Bhatpur, Parainar etc.

The school has 5 classrooms right now. We also have a small playground with a running track around it. Nelgunda village has neither electricity nor cellular network. So, the power needs of the school are taken care by a solar panel provided by the Prakalp. We have a borewell and 40 feet deep well. This takes care of the water needs of increasing number of students.

The school runs on weekdays and timing is 7AM to 2PM. The timings vary slightly according to the season. 2 sets of school uniform are provided to each student every year. Unlimited breakfast and lunch are given every day. Each class gets a chance to watch 30 minute animation movie on a projector once a week. In 2018, we have introduced computer training. On every Saturday, a batch of 3-4 students gets half an hour to operate a laptop and works on applications like MS Word, MS Paint etc. This activity is conducted between 9AM to 12PM.

Initially, all kids had to walk all the way to the school. So, we decided to provide bicycles for ease of travelling. One time charge of Rs. 300 is taken for a 20 inches bicycle and Rs. 500 for 26 inches bicycle. This creates a sense of ownership and responsibility into the kids.

Students of Sadhana Vidyalaya also perform at the annual day of Lok Biradari Aashram Shala, Hemalkasa. Same performance is conducted at Nelgunda school too for the parents of these kids.

When the school started in 2015, the concept of "books" or "reading" was completely new for kids. We kept few National Geographic magazines in the school. Kids tore them to pieces. But, later on, their attention was taken up by the photographs and they started liking books. The experience was similar when we showed them movies on projector. The younger kids got scared and started shouting when they saw big size animals and heard loud voices.

We have regular parent meetings at the school. The first meeting was a nice experience when we saw that parents from this region were as interested in their kids' progress as any other parent around the world. They insisted to teach writing first and give notebook-pen to kids as soon as possible. They were even ready to pay the expenses. It was really difficult to convince them. Finally, they agreed to wait for couple of months.

We have 3-4 parent meetings in a year. We also have 2-3 meetings of SMC (School Management Committee) per year. This committee consists of 13 members which include Headmistress, teachers, nurse from local health center, village head and parents.

We also try to cultivate gender equality in the school. As an effort to this part, all students wear t-shirt and half pant as school uniform and "boy cut" is accepted as haircut style.

Cooking is a common practice for kids in the school, supervised by teachers. Gulabjams, jam made from Ambadi flowers, cake, laddoos, chikki, pulaav, biryaani are some of the items on our menu list.

To create a mutual relationship between school and village, on last Tuesday of each month, all students participate in a cleaning campaign, termed as Gilli Peka. We clean up plastic items. All kids are very enthusiastic for this activity. They appeal villagers to put plastic in boxes placed by the school and everyone listens to the kids without asking any further questions !!

Sadhana Vidyalaya's Open Day was held on 30^th March 2019. On this day, students' cultural programme was held and for parents, different games and sports were conducted. Parents participated enthusiastically in this program. On the same day, three new wooden classrooms were inaugurated in the school campus.

The team has 7 teachers. They are from local tribal community (The support staff of 4 people is also from local tribal community). Mrs. Samiksha Amte is Headmistress. They have a team meeting every Saturday where they discuss the lessons covered in previous week and the tasks to be covered in next week. Even if the school is closed in core months of rainy season, the month of September always has good rains when the school opens again. Just like the students, teachers also find it difficult sometimes to reach the school due to heavy flooded water on road. But, they do not skip a single day in spite of such difficulties.

The first team of teachers from the Prakalp in 2015 had Sanket Joshi and Prafulla Gundecha, fresh engineers, who were from Satara. Both of them worked at the school for 1 year. Since Marathi and English languages were alien to kids, Sanket and Prafulla were given 2 months' training at Lok Biradari Aashram Shala, Hemalkasa. There were few more volunteers who worked as teachers during these years. Ujjwala Bharati worked for 1 year. Ruby Saptarshi from Pune worked for 3 months. Aseema from Uttar Pradesh worked for 3 months. Vaibhavi Pokale from Dombivali (Mumbai) worked for 2 years. She has got Anantya Zameer fellowship.

The team of local teachers have Shilpa Vachami and Maalu Majji, who are working with the school from day one. Maalu dada is a brilliant artist who creates sculptures from tree trunk pieces or stones lying on road. He is also a proficient story teller.

However, we still face challenges like extreme environmental conditions, sensitive socio-political situation, superstitions of parents, lack of exposure to kids due to absence of roads, electricity etc.

We must say, Sadhana Vidyalaya has put forward a true example for the "Right to Education" initiative taken up by the Government of India !!

To know more about Sadhana Vidyalya, please check "News" link on the home page.