The Yadala Seshagiri Memorial School is a new program that REAL has started supporting in 2019. It is a non-government school located in Vallur village in the Kadapa district, which is about 425 km south of Hyderabad. Satyanarayana Rao uncle decided to found the Yadala Seshagiri school so that the kids in rural villages in the Kadapa districts only have to travel 1 to 4 km every day to get to school. Since the Yadala Seshagiri school is a lot closer to the students than previous schools, they are more motivated to go to school and receive an education.

There is a total number of 2,884,524 people in the Kadapa district, and about half of the population lives in rural areas. The average literacy rate in the district is 67.88%, but a lot of the kids in rural areas had to travel very far to go to the nearest school.

The Yadala Seshagiri school is made up of students in preschool all the way up to 7th graders, has 155 students that come from 15 villages, and 15 staff members. About 95 of the students come from other villages and the rest come from Vallur. As part of the curriculum, the school also focuses on making sure their students get physical exercise. The students do various different stretches, and they also take time to meditate.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yadala Seshagiri Memorial School closed in the last week of March and is trying to open back up this month. Unfortunately, the school does not have the supplies to conduct remote learning, so the students haven’t been able to continue with their learning curriculum. The school is waiting for more information from the government regarding the pandemic, but until then they are looking for sanitizing equipment to take precautions against the coronavirus. REAL plans to support the Yadala Seshagiri Memorial School in meeting their needs!

–Adithi Mahankali