Coimbatore: Ten first-generation learners from the tribal community, supported by scholarships from Isha Foundation, became the first
graduates in their communities and also the very fist one to secure main stream employment opportunities.

This has given them a chance to lift their families out of generations of poverty and script a new destiny for themselves.

For over a decade now, Foundation has been supporting educational aspirations of these bright young students, who are disadvantaged by their socioeconomic status, neither had access to educational opportunities nor skill sets to make them employment ready, a Isha release said Tuesday.

Their determination to help themselves received a boost with Isha’s scholarships covering not only tuition fees but also transportation, uniforms and stationery.

The 10 youngsters have become role models in their community and created a sense of pride and aspiration in younger children.

Isha is assisting students of tribal communities located in the remote hilly
regions of Thondamuthur and its Tribal Welfare Program covers 15 such villages.

Poor connectivity and lack of educational and employment opportunities have ensured these communities remain poor over several generations. Most of them walk long distances to find daily work and almost all are unlettered.With no means to educate their children, most tribal children follow in their parents’ footsteps.

Isha Vidhya School in Sandekavundampalayam offers free education to tribal children in addition to a supportive ecosystem to keep them in school. The children are ferried to and from their homes. Merit-based full scholarships
encourage them to work hard, it said.

Those who graduate from high school are free to pursue college to enable them to compete for mainstream employment opportunities. Isha also invests in improving their communication and computer literacy skills with weekend courses.

With equal access to learning opportunities thanks to a supportive donor network, a new generation is emerging from these remote villages–one that is determined to pursue self-reliance and break the cycle of poverty to become productive citizens of their community, the release said.