Without Seva Mandir’s help, Nisha would probably have remained illiterate and partially sighted
Nisha, who is 11, had never been to school – not that she didn’t want to go, but there wasn’t one close to her home in a rural village and her parents were unable to send her to school outside the village. They heard about Seva Mandir’s Residential Learning Camp at a village meeting, and as other children they knew were going they decided to send Nisha. She soon settled into this environment (very different from the government schools) with ten pupils to one encouraging and supportive teacher, and several hours of enjoyable lessons every day. Like the other children at the camp, she was given two sets of clothes, good meals every day and lessons in basic arithmetic and Hindi, some English, science and hygiene, and a chance to play as children do. It was during one of the weekly health checks by a doctor that it was discovered that Nisha had a cataract in one eye, the result of an earlier injury. Seva Mandir arranged for her to have an operation to remove the cataract, free of charge, and her father came with her. Now her sight is returning and she just has to wear sunglasses while her eye fully recovers. She is in her third successive two month camp, anxious to make up for lost time. She hopes that she will be able to go to school near her home so that she can continue her education a little longer.