Ms. Chitra Nandan
Chitra Nandan is an artist and is a very enthusiastic and lively person. She has deep interest in paintings. She is extraordinarily passionate for trees and nature in general. She has organized a number of exhibitions of her paintings in different parts of India. Though she is based at Almora, but she undertakes extensive travel across India.

She was invited to the school for a month long in October 2007. She taught painting, story telling and also the skits to the students of Achyut Patwardhan School. She promoted the use of natural colours obtained from varieties of flowers in all her works with children. The children learnt skills in painting and drama. Children presented a skit focused on conservation of natural world.

Very recently, in Feb-2009, Chitra was invited again. This time she worked with children on creating pictures from natural materials such as, leaves, flowers, stems, paper, etc. Children produced beautiful pictures on the theme of 'Nature'. Chitra also began a wall painting on the theme "We shall overcome……… "by Marin Luther Kind Jr. She could not complete it due to paucity of time. However children were guided to complete the work. The children have now completed it.

Dr. Krishnan
Dr. Krishnan is medical doctor by profession. He is an NRI and lives in United States. Apart from studying the teachings of Krishnamurti, he has passion for folk dances and songs. He has deep concern for reviving and rejuvenating the folk art forms. He is also very compassionate towards rural children. He is supporting rural children in number of ways. He has donated sweaters to the children and dress materials for the folk dance that he taught them.

Earlier in Feb 2008, Dr. Krishnan had also visited the Foundation and taught folk dances to 16 children. The children enjoyed learning the new art form.

Painting Competition

Bureau of Energy Enterprises, Lucknow, had organized a painting competition for the children on the theme of "Energy Conservation" in October 2008. The students of Achyut Patwardhan School belonging to 4th and 5th Standard participated in the painting competition. The best painting from each class was sent to Lucknow. The children got the participation certificate from the Bureau of Energy Enterprises.

Kids Call Campaign

It was an initiative by NAVDANYA (a Delhi based NGO) with the theme "Save Life on Earth". This was aimed at collecting messages (audio, video, letters, posters etc.) from kids from all over the world between the ages of 7 and 21 and presenting them to the world's political leaders at the G-8 +5 summit. Important objective of this was to draw media attention to influence policy makers towards making wise decisions for future generations. The summit was held in Japan during the month of June-2008.

As a part of this initiative the Students of Achyut Patwardhan School Participated in a 2-day workshop organized by NAVDANYA in April 2008. Ms. Shreya facilitated the workshop and requested the children to write to the Prime Minister of India emphasizing the importance of protecting the planet for the future generation. The students wrote 50 letters in their own handwriting and they were sent to the Prime Minister in May 2008 with a request to include 'the saving of the planet' as an agenda in the G8 summmit.

Ms.Kalpana
Ms. Kalpana is United States. She expressed her desire to teach spoken English to the rural children. She stayed in Rural Centre Campus for about a month in March 2008 along with her aunt Ms.Chellamma. Ms.Chellamma helped Ms.Kalpana in translating the lessons into Hindi. The middle school students who were studying in 7th to 8th standards learnt a bit of foreign language.

Mr. Rodney
He is middle aged person and was studying Law in US when he had visited the Foundation in winter 2007. He stayed in the Rural Centre Campus guest house for more than a month and he was preparing for his law examination. During his free time he used to teach Spoken English to the students of the Rural School. The students studying in higher standards got the benefit from his classes.

Mr. Siddarth Rajgarhiya
Mr.Siddarth Rajgariya is a student studying in an engineering college at Bangalore. He is interested I teaching young children and relive the childhood. While he was on his vacation during August 2008 in Varanasi, his home town, he told stories to the 6th standard students for a brief period. And at the end of this session he took them to an excursion to Saranath, a Buddhist pilgrimage cetntre situated close to Varanasi. He also brought mementoes for them during his next visit.

Ms.Seema Bajaj
Ms.Seema Bajaj hails from princely city of Gwalior. All though she is a banker by profession, her heart is with young children. She is interested in education, particularly engaging the rural children in dialogue on varieties of issues which are close to children's lives. She devoted her 10 days of holidays with the students discussing on various subjects of interest.

Ms. Kamini Puri
An educationist from Gwalior, Ms.Kamini Puri, visited the Rural School in Nov.2008 and interacted with the children, especially girls, for a fortnight. She held discussions and had long conversations with teenaged girls. Ms.Kamini Puri also runs a reputed school at Gwalior. She was kind enough to spend some time with rural children.

Ms. Pradip Bharadwaj
Mr. Pradip Bharadwaj is from Dehra Dun. Presently he runs an Institute of Technology in his place. But he is also interested in working with young children from village communities. He dedicated 15 days of precious time to teach Science to the higher classes in the school during Nov-2008.

Mr. Jaspal
Mr. Jaspal was invited to work with children during Sept-07. He hails from a place called Phagwada in Punjab. He works with the children from slum dwellers. He and his associates run a school for them and they manage it from their own resources. Mr. Jaspal is a postgraduate in Punjabi Literature. During his short stay, the students learnt Punjabi dance from him. He was so affectionate and loving; the children couldn't control their emotions and wept at the time of his departure. He left an indelible mark in the minds of these young ones.

Student-Teachers from Lakshmi Ashram, Kausani

Lakshmi Ashram school runs on Gandhian Philosophy. Three student-Teachers, Ms. Nandini, Ms. Pooja, and Ms. Gowri and a Central school teacher, Ms. Gayatri, visited Rural Centre in January 2008. They worked with children for about a fortnight. During their stay, they taught children songs and shared about how their school was running by the students and teachers together. There is no master-servant culture existed in the Ashram school. All the students and teachers work together in all areas such as cooking, cleaning, washing etc. These students were given an idea about self reliance.

Quiz and Painting competition- Conservation of Water

Central Water Commission in Uttar Pradesh, organizes various programmes across U.P. State for the students to create awareness on water conservation. In the year Dec-2007 students of 6th, 7th and 8th standard participated in Quiz and Painting competition organized by Central Water Commission, Varanasi on "Conservation of Water". 50 participants from 10 and odd schools participated in this competition. The Achyut Patwardhan School bagged three prizes. Kum. Ankita Mishra and Kum. Ankita Sahani of 6th and 7thstandard students got 1st and 3rd prizes in quiz competition. Kum. Sadhana of 8th standard won a consolation prize for painting.