ABOUT US

Padhaai Trust ® is a Registered Public Charitable Trust whose social activism focus is to provide educational assistance to children who desire to study but lack the economic resources. Padhaai® advocates the concept of inclusive education as propagated by UNESCO.  Inclusive education is based on the right of all learners to a quality education that meets basic learning needs and enriches lives.   The initial geographical focus is Bangalore and surrounding villages and semi-urban areas.

The educational assistance offered can be in the form of scholarships, sponsoring school fees, help in procuring notebooks, textbooks, uniforms, school stationery and help set up libraries.

Padhaai’s aim is to bring together like-minded individuals and organizations who want to contribute to the educational upliftment of economically challenged children and channel their energy and resources to the truly deserving and needy children. Padhaai’s role is to identify the recipients, disburse the resources and monitor the students’ progress.

FOUNDER

Madhavi Lokhande

Founder Dr. Madhavi Lokhande holds a PhD in “Micro Credit for...

Featured Programs

Stationery and Uniforms

Despite the help with scholarships (in the form of school fees) and providing books, economically challenged parents hesitate to send their children to school due to reasons like lack of uniform, other school stationery like compass box, school bag etc. Padhaai will support the cause of education by providing financial help to these children for purchase of their school uniform and other stationery needed.

 

Notebook Donation

Padhaai’s initial endeavor was to provide notebooks (used and new) to those students who were unable to buy them.

The donations now include other stationery material like pens, pencils, geometry boxes etc. The notebooks are either directly sourced by the donors or Padhaai can source them. Padhaai conducts field study by visiting the municipal/corporation/government/orphanage schools. The books and other material are distributed based on the need identified.

 

Libraries

Field studies have revealed that most of the schools in villages around Bangalore lack a library.

Padhaai wil help to initiate the opening of libraries in a secondary school in any of the Zilla Parishad, government or municipal schools with more than 200 children. Padhaai will provide a starter kit of 100-150 books in the local language and English covering various subjects to kickstart the library. To instill a sense of ownership, students will be encouraged to donate books, (regardless of their value) for ‘their’ library on their birthday.

 

Scholarships

Padhaai’s scholarships are targeted at those families who are planning to take their children out of school due to lack of financial resources.

Financial assistance in the form of scholarships (for paying fees) have been given for children right from Nursery till high school. The activism is more oriented towards helping the children in high school starting from class 8 onwards, as it was observed during the field study that children of age group of 13 years are above are forced to quit school. Families that are economically backward seem to look at these children as an additional working hand that can contribute to family income.

Padhaai identified several children who were desirous of studying but were forced to quit high school. In order to encourage these kids there are special scholarships for those in the 8th/9th standard who show promise of continuing their education if they are supported financially. Donors typically make commitments for at least two years to support the student.

There are also instances of donors pledging support to children till graduation.