Kiwanis helps improve schools in India
learning space and desks to sit in during the school day.
Research professor Raja Reddy works at the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Mississippi State University and is in charge of International Understanding at Kiwanis Club of Starkville. In this role, he works connecting international students and Kiwanis Club members and helping to showcase the cultures of both local and international people.
Reddy grew up attending one of the schools the Kiwanis Club helped — Mandal Parishad Primary School in Marella Village in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh, India.
When Reddy attended the school in the 1950s, the school did not have desks, and only met in a
building when one was loaned to them. The children would walk to lessons barefooted and sit on the ground, often meeting beneath a tree.
Additionally, the Kiwanis Club is giving money to help buy the children supplies.
For the school Reddy attended as a child, the Kiwanis Club bought notebooks for each student, one steel plate for each student to use at
lunch, and a 1,000-liter water tank to store clean water for the children.
The Kiwanis Club has helped two other schools in India. In Zilla Parishad High School from Marella Village, India, the Kiwanis donations provided five desks for each class, with a total of 25 desks for the whole school of 65 students. They also provided desks for Zilla Parishad High School from Sorakayala Pet Village.
Reddy was able to visit the
schools helped by Kiwanis on a recent trip to India.
“During that time, they had the worst ever hurricane close to their homes,” Reddy said. “I can see those kids smile and walk into the class rooms with shoes on. If not from the support from the Kiwanis Club and Starkville community, those kids should have been walking into the classrooms with muddy shoes and sitting on the floor with all mud or dirt and water.”