08/04/2026
🏔️ "It felt like a dream come true," Rajkumar told us — one of 61 kids from the village outreach schools we partner with who just got back from the trip of their lives.
Udavi, Isai Ambalam, and Aikiyam are three of our project partners — village outreach schools that give children from Alankupam, Irumbai, and other villages around Auroville access to quality, subsidized education they might not otherwise have. These schools go through 8th standard, so for their oldest students, this trip is also a send-off. This year, 61 of those students made a 15-day journey from the villages around Auroville, Tamil Nadu, all the way to Van Nivas, the Himalayan Center of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Nainital.
For most of them, it was the first time they'd left their home state — trading a familiar village for train platforms, mountain trails, and a level of independence many hadn't had the chance to practice before. A send-off like that does more than mark an ending: it gives kids who might never have pictured themselves this far from home a taste of just how much of the world is actually theirs to take on.
They saw the Taj Mahal. They navigated train stations and city streets on their own. They rock-scrambled, river-crossed, and rappelled their way through the mountains around Nainital.
Sudhir, an executive at Udavi School who's coordinated this trip for years, says it every time: what these kids gain in confidence and independence stays with them long after they're home.
Thank you to everyone who made this happen for these 61 kids. Learn more or help fund the 2027 trip — link in the comments 👇
