Eye-Opening Incident Pushed Him to Quit Job & Pull Millions of Children Out of Trauma

Watch this video to find out why Sriram V Ayer left the comforts of a corporate job to launch his organization NalandaWay, which uses art to educate and empower millions of children from low-income families.

In 2002, Sriram V Ayer from Chennai was comfortably working for a company that was paying him well. But within a few months, everything changed. He witnessed the effects of the Gujarat riots, especially the devastating effect they had on children.

During the same period, he came across a boy named Vinod who was selling agarbattis to make a living. Iyer knew that like Vinod, hundreds of other children were forced to provide for their families, and as a result they were unable to pursue their education.

In 2003, after quitting his job, Sriram set up a foundation called NalandaWay to educate and empower children from low-income backgrounds, as well as those who have experienced the trauma of child labor, disasters, violence, HIV, trafficking, and more. .

NalandaWay is different in several ways. Other than just providing education, the organization works with children to “Achieve Achievement Through the Arts” (ATA) and make learning fun.

“When I asked a group of kids why they weren’t interested in school and classes, the answers I got were all standard—I’m tired of the way things are taught, the rudeness of the teachers, the general lack of any motivation to study and do well,” he says. Sriram took notes from them and built the organisation.

Here children learn about theatre, dance, music, photography, creative writing, storytelling and film based on their interests. To date, the institution has worked with more than 10 million students across Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir.

Watch how Ayer transforms millions of lives the Nalanda way:

Edited by Divya Sethu