From several villages and tribal hamlets over 1,000 children of Bangarupalem with their parents thronged the Moghileeswara Swamy Temple at Moghili village. The temple is located 35 km from Chittoor.

Rural Organisation for Poverty Eradication Services (ROPES) organised ‘Aksharabhyasam’ in which Children's took part. The Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) sponsored slates, pencils and notebooks to the participating children.

The teachers from various government schools, after performing special pujas in the temple premises, commenced the ‘Aksharabhyasam’ ritual. They helped the children to write Telugu alphabets on slates and rice spread on the floor.

ROPES chairman K. Dhanasekaran said that “the annual ‘Aksharabhyasam’ event played a crucial role in the backwards western mandals of Chittoor district, which register growing incidence of school dropouts and child marriages.”

He said that “the efforts of the teachers and the ROPES team members were giving positive results each year in creating awareness among the parents in remote areas that they should send their children to schools to give them bright future.”

20 water filters were distributed by ROPES to primary schools and Anganwadi centres in Bangarupalem mandal on this occasion. They also provided safe drinking water to the children. Deputy DEO Vasudeva Naidu, MEO (Bangarupalem) Subramanyam Naidu, Agriculture Market Committee chairman Jayachandra Naidu, school headmasters and parents also took part in the event.

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By M. Divya Shri