Exactly a month ago, Filter Kaapi had reported on how a six-year-old had secured admission to the Government Deval Jhamsingh Primary school in Navodaya colony in Mehdipatnam in Hyderabad. It was heartening because Divya (in pic above) used to otherwise come to the school everyday around lunch time, to collect in her bowl whatever was left over of the mid-day meal after it was served to the regular students. In fact, everyone at the school had turned a blind eye to her routine provoked by hunger, till an Eenadu photographer clicked her picture and an NGO stepped in to help her. 

Read the Divya story here.

Divya has acted like a good luck charm for this school, which for years has been in a run-down state with dull looking classrooms and located amidst squalor. Moved by her story, Aathma, a Hyderabad-based NGO founded by Ragalaya Ramesh collected close to Rs one lakh through a `Watch for Cause’ initiative. Close to 2000 students from different schools from a more privileged background watched children’s movies screened through this initiative, enabling the NGO to collect funds. That money has been used to paint the classrooms in bright colours with children-friendly themes and provide benches. 

“In the first phase, four of the eight classrooms and the front and back end portion of the school have been painted. With help from the Rotary club, Aathma wants to construct a new wash room for the students,” says Ramesh who is also a music composer for Telugu films.