Nireekshe Center, Mysore

As a young girl, Ms Angela D-Cruz Ponnappa was passionate about serving the disadvantaged children. From an early age, she used to tutor slum children, buy them stationery with her pocket money and nurse their wounds with her mother's first aid kit.

In 2010, along with her husband, Joel Ponappa, Ms Angela started Nireekshe (Agape Trust), in Mysore. The organization aims to influence the slum children in the area to a better living and to pursue their education. It does so through a nutrition and training programme conducted at the Nireekshe Center. The SPAN Trust joined hands with Nireekshe in 2011.

The centre offers tuition for children from the 1st grade to 10th grade. We have seven people working here. From Monday to Friday, every week, the children come to the centre at 5:00 pm. They have a glass of milk and then start doing their homework. From 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm, the teachers take time to address each student's week subjects. They leave the premises by 8:00 pm after having a vegetarian meal.

On Saturdays, being a half-day school, they come to the centre at 2.00 pm. The children play games and engage in various extracurricular activities. After this, we share on essential topics such as character building, discipline, mannerism etc. The centre is open during vacations to train the children in their weak subjects. We call a doctor, once in three months, for children's general health checkup.

Please visit Agape Nireekshe for more information.