The Rotary Club of Ojai is helping to develop Prashanti International School (PIS) in Puri, Odisha, India. PIS is a non-profit school in a poor village area providing quality education focused on English language competency for 310 students K-10. Tuition is kept low for local poor families. PIS is adding grades 11 and 12 to prepare students for university and vocational training. PIS program includes a residential children’s home for 40 students from the most deeply impoverished backgrounds providing full scholarship with housing, food, clothing, medical care, books, education, and daily tutoring.
Since 2016, we have completed district grants, club grants, and a global grant, totaling over $115,000 to benefit the students of PIS. These grants have funded drinking water, computers, septic systems, restrooms, water storage tanks, flood mitigation, roads & boundary walls, security gates, a playground, classroom furnishings, plus teacher training in advanced English instruction, class management, and Education in Human Values. Our club has provided thousands of pounds of emergency food for families experiencing extreme food insecurity. We have a new 2023-24 District Grant to provide a backup diesel generator for PIS.
Our club has developed a strong sustainable relationship with the school and with local host Rotary Club Srikshetra, Puri, that will benefit the students for generations to come, and Ojai Rotarians have visited PIS on a yearly basis. The relationship between RC Ojai and PIS remains vibrant into the future, giving impoverished students better childhoods, brighter futures, and the opportunity to become leaders of their communities.
Prashanti International School Students
Ojai Rotarians Mike Weaver, Kay Bliss and Leslie Bouche meeting with Srikshetra Puri Rotarians Rabi Mohapatra and Biraja Dhal to create our Global Grant
Two PIS students with their mother who sells fish by the side of the road. These students come from very poor village families.