A new school in India

In the South of India we support HEAL, a UK registered charity that is committed to providing shelter, support, education and healthcare for needy children.

Heal, now in its 17th year, was established in 1992 by Dr Koneru Satya Prasad, a UK based family doctor originally from Vijayawada in India. It began with the donation - by Dr Prasad - of his family home in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. It was to be a home for young orphaned children.

Since then HEAL has successfully launched a number of new projects.

Despite the recent news stories highlighting the growth in India's economy, and the new wealth this is creating, the need to help India's children is becoming even more important. Child labour is a massive problem in India and in Andhra Pradesh in particular. Economic deprivation and an inadequate educational infrastructure means sending a child out to work from as young as six years of age is an all too acceptable option for some rural families in particular.

HEAL is committed to helping as many children as possible escape the poverty trap in Andhra Pradesh. They currently help educate over 1,000 children. Their goal is to expand over the coming years with further projects in Andhra Pradesh. It is still only a small percentage of the overall child population, but very important nevertheless.

HEAL is looking to build and develop a new residential school and village to cater for 1,000 orphaned and destitute children. The land has been purchased upon which to build the village and school. Construction of the buildings will take place on a phased basis in line with the ability to raise the necessary funding.

‘Paradise’, as the new village will be known, will house a residential school for 1,000 orphaned and destitute children and all facilities that come with it.

“It will have classes right from nursery to junior college level. Materials used for construction of the village will be generated from waste. We plan to make the village self- sustaining and we will harness solar and wind energies. Apart from collecting rain water, we will treat waste water in a sewerage treatment plant for recycling purposes. We want to demonstrate we can enjoy life without causing any damage to the environment.” said Dr Prasad, founder of Heal UK.

Matthew and Anniek, co-founders of Inspired By People have visited all of the projects HEAL has set up in South India and Matthew, as a trustee of Heal is involved with fundraising for all these projects. We fully support their inspiring work and we hope you will too, by joining us on fundraising activities that we organise or by donating on our website.