Barclays Singapore Funds 100 Scholarships for Impoverished Children in the Isha Vidhya Education Program

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. and COIMBATORE, India, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Barclays Bank in Singapore has donated funding for 100 scholarships to Isha Foundation's Isha Vidhya rural education program. The scholarships will provide quality education to impoverished children in the rural villages of Tamil Nadu, India. Most of the children who attend Isha Vidhya schools are the first in their families to receive a formal education.

Isha Vidhya offers village children a well-rounded education toward an employable future. According to Isha Vidhya program director, Vinod Hari, funding educational scholarships is one of the most effective ways that individuals and businesses can break the cycle of generations of poverty in rural communities.

Mr. Venkatesh Subramaniam's son Logesh is a student at Isha Vidhya Cuddalore. "As a laborer I never imagined this quality of education with computers and modern learning systems. Now I have hope for my son's future," he said. "I cannot begin to tell you the many ways the scholarship will assist my son's life."

The Cuddalore school is located on the recovering Tsunami-battered coastline. It is one in a chain of seven budding Isha Vidhya schools constructed in the last five years.

"Before opening the Isha Vidhya school, children as young as five years old were spending their days fishing with their fathers rather than receiving education," explained Mr. Hari. "Now that the parents see the impact of the schools on their children's development and capabilities, they are happily leaving them off at school before going to work."

Isha Vidhya provides computer-based education with an emphasis on math and science. The children become proficient in English to be employable in an ever-more global marketplace, while maintaining a rich connection with their own heritage through cultural festivals, art and music. According to Mr. Hari, future plans for the schools include such progressive learning tools as distance learning, whereby a teacher in California, for example, could teach a math class to children on the South Indian coastline.

Isha Vidhya is a part of Isha Outreach, a comprehensive set of community revitalization programs touching the lives of over seven million rural people to date. An Isha Foundation initiative, Isha Outreach inspires and empowers impoverished village people to restore healthy, vibrant rural life. Through its projects Action for Rural Rejuvenation, Isha Vidhya, and the award-winning environmental initiative, Project GreenHands, Isha Outreach provides holistic medical care, builds sustainable livelihoods, offers quality education, and helps regenerate natural resources within village communities.

Established in 1992 by world-renowned yogi and mystic, Sadhguru, Isha Foundation is a non-profit human service organization with its U.S. offices in McMinnville, TN. From its powerful yoga programs to its inspiring social projects, Isha activities are designed to create a gentler, more inclusive culture that is the basis for global harmony and progress, which is reflected in its special consultative status with the United Nations ECOSOC.

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For more information, visit http://www.ishafoundation.org

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SOURCE Isha Foundation, Inc.