Education is integral to the development of every community and culture. The access to education and educational institutions play an important role in taking education forward.The rural areas of Jharkhand is one such area which provides a unique opportunity to create large-scale impact on children’s lives through education. Also, the development indicators for children and adolescents across literacy and child marriage indicated a need for immediate action here.

ESAF started with building community schools and to no surprise, students started attending these schools for their education. Once the community schools started running successfully in the villages, it was a necessity to think beyond and hence, slowly and with available resources the Lower Primary Schools and High Schools were built by PDS. Many children joined this journey for a better education.

Seven Soren is one such child who started his education in one of our community schools and later on continued till high school with the Lahanti Public School. He has seen many of his peers drop out and join the workforce to support their family, for many see education as a huge investment. It wasn’t easy for him either. But with the confidence shown in him and the right guidance, he made it to the college being the first generation to do so in his family. Very few make it to graduation and very rarely to universities outside their town. It is a pride for the Prachodhan family when this child - Seven Soren, who started his journey from the community school is now enrolled into BA honours in the central university, Hyderabad. The educational journey of Seven is indeed a story to be celebrated. Building engaging learning environments and strong relationships between teachers and students to make schools a joyful learning space is seen to motivate children to stay in school. Seven leads the way and instils the spark of hope in many more children from his community.