Education Is The Answer To Poverty.

About Nirvana School

Why was Nirvana School started and what does it aim to achieve?

Nirvana Trust was formally launched by Mrs. Vinodini Samani (Vinumasi) in 1994 after the sudden death of her husband. The couple had been tutoring children in their house for some months, and had a shared vision to ensure that all children were given the opportunity to receive a good standard of education, regardless of their financial situation.  Nirvana School opened in December 1995.

With the support of people all over the world, the school has expanded tremendously, and currently holds 350 children. The children are aged between 3 and 10.  Since the inception of the project, Vinumasi has been running Nirvana School and fulfilling the vision that she shared with her late husband. She runs the school purely on a voluntary basis, taking no salary or payment for her efforts.

The project aims to give the future generation of this vastly impoverished area a chance in life, by providing them with the opportunity of an almost free education in a privately run school.

Nirvana Trust also aims to regenerate the local area and to support the community, providing employment opportunities in the school, providing cattle feed to the local farmers and providing eye care facilities on an ongoing basis.

A greeting-card making venture has been set up by a local youth, Elumalai, for Nirvana School. Elumalai studied at Nirvana school and has been supporting the school for the last 7 years. He has been given full time employment by the school and plays an integral role in this and other projects. To read the story of Elumalai click here.

How does Nirvana benefit the community?

Nirvana school provides employment opportunities at a competitive salary for quality teachers and nursery assistants. It also provides a unique opportunity for volunteers from around the world to teach at the school for short periods of time. This has a knock on effect on the wider community, as it increases employment opportunities as well as tourism in the surrounding area, and encourages others to take responsibility for all those around them.

The voluntary and charitable nature of the school only survives through the support of the local community, as well as international support through funds raised, or time spent at the school.

Nirvana Trust (which oversees the Nirvana school) supports poor children in other schools in the area with financial sponsorship and donations of clothing and stationery. It distributes clothing to poor families in surrounding villages, refugee camps and orphanages. On a monthly basis, Nirvana Trust holds an eye clinic session and finances eye operations where necessary.

The Trust supplies special high protein food to nourish local cows, thereby helping their owners with better milk production. On an ongoing basis, basic foodstuffs such as rice, sugar, bread and oil are distributed by the Trust to the poorest families around the school. Nirvana Trust has an ongoing project to rebuild huts in nearby villages to provide accommodation for the poorest groups.

Local cottage industries are also supported by Nirvana Trust; an example being the set up of a greeting-card making venture set up by local youths to support the school, which operates on Nirvana premises.

During the aftermath of the Tsunami in December 2004, Nirvana Trust helped by supplying household goods, food, clothes and medicine to the affected villages. Similarly, at the time of floods and earthquakes, Nirvana Trust engaged in aid activities within the areas struck by these disasters.

How does Nirvana school use environmental resources sustainably?

Water is scarce in India. Nirvana Trust has its own borehole facility which can sustain the school during the periods when there are water shortages. The water from the borehole is efficiently used for general cleaning purposes. The Trust is currently working on a project to purify and filter the water to make it safe for consumption.