Pondicherry

Another friend from DC came to India last month to volunteer for a few weeks in a city not too far away. So on Easter weekend, I met up with her, and then we headed to Pondicherry, a former French colony on the coast of the state of Tamil Nadu. It is a quaint, quiet town, with many French-speaking residents and tourists. We also checked out the utopian community of Auroville nearby, which contrasts greatly with the Indian countryside surrounding it. Here are a few photos of what we saw that weekend -- enjoy!

School Meals

The bulk of my work in India involves assessing the impact of Akshaya Patra's free school lunch program on its student beneficiaries. With hundreds of schools spread out over several Indian states, we hired a research firm to conduct the surveys at schools and students' homes over the past few months. Here are photos of the team working in Jaipur (Rajasthan) and other photos of students with their free lunches in Bangalore (Karnataka).

Jaipur Again

My work trip up north last month took me to Jaipur (in the state of Rajasthan) again. My colleagues from the U.S. had not been there before, and luckily we had a Sunday to play tourists, as you can see in these photos. Enjoy!

Vrindavan Schools

During our trip up north last month, my colleagues and I did manage to fit in some work: these photos are of our visit to Akshaya Patra's centralized kitchen facility in Vrindavan, which prepares over 80,000 free school meals every day, and to rural schools that are not easily accessible by road. In these more remote areas, local women are provided valuable employment cooking meals at schools every day.