English medium education, maximum of 30 students per class, large ground... This might sound like a school with fees in thousands and donations in lakhs! But education is free here!
Vemireddy Prabhakara Reddy who belongs to Nellore District in Andhra Pradesh is an international businessman in Mining who reached great heights with immense hardwork. He was striked by the thought "I earned so much wealth... How much did I give back to the society..?" Having decided to do something to the society, with the support of his family members, he created the 'VPR Foundation'.
He started 'VPR Vidya' in Kanuparthipadu near to Nellore town with modern facilities. Corporate Education is given free over there. Initially, they joined students from 6-8 classes in the academic year 2016-17. Since they received thousands of applications, they conducted an exam and selected 90 students with 30 per class. Increasing one class per year, they are planning to provide free education for 6-12 classes with total of 210 students.
The main qualification of a student is their education and financial background of their family. Only children from poor families get admission here. Ration Card and Aadhaar card details of the students are taken during the application stage itself. Financial scrutiny of the students who passed through the entrance exam is done and then the final list is announced. Priority is given to orphan children, single parent children and children having both parents but are living in poverty. For class 6th admission of 30 seats, 300 candidates have appeared for the entrance exam. Once a student joins the school, they are looked after by the foundation. Students are picked up from their houses in buses and dropped back in the evening in the same buses. A student is given 4 pairs of uniform and one pair of shoes. Education is given in English medium only. Students are provided lunch in the school premises. All the food items served to students are from the Foundation's 26 acres farmland where paddy, vegetables and leafy vegetables are cultivated in organic manner. For change in the mindset of students, firstly the parents should change their mindset. Parents are given special counselling in this aspect.
VPR foundation has spread its wings to other areas as well. It opened a hospital near to the school. In addition to doctors providing Out-Patient services, doctors related to women health problems are also available. To provide health service across the district, a mobile hospital 'Medicine on Wheels' was started. They organized eye checkup camps in villages and arranged free surgeries for the required. They are setting up drinking water plants in villages across the district. Their goal is to setup 100 plants with Rs.3.5 crores of which 31 villages are fulfilled so far. Villages who come forward with land for constructing the plant and who can take care of the maintenance of the plants are considered in setting up these plants. They charge nominally from the consumers for power bills and repair works. They formed Youth societies in villages and provided them with sports equipment. Dustbins were arranged in the villages and youth have been given responsibility to make sure villagers won't throw garbage in front of houses.
Inspite of being busy in his business, Prabhakar keeps checking about the foundation activities through his staff. He alongwith his wife Prasanthi often visit the school and mingle with the students. Both of them serve lunch to the kids and ask their well-being. Prabhakar says "There is no equal to satisfaction received through social service."
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