Anuj Middle School

We’ve been running Anuj Middle School in the Hafeezpet area of Hyderabad for a good number of years now. It’s not one of those huge, shiny campuses you see in the new parts of the city. Instead, it’s a more modest building tucked into the neighborhood where the local families live. Every morning, the streets around here get pretty busy with kids in their uniforms heading towards the gate. You can hear the chatter and the sound of school bags long before the first bell even rings. Inside, the classrooms are fairly simple with old-style desks and ceiling fans that hum all day long. We have a small staff of teachers who really know the children and their parents. It’s the kind of place where things are a bit lived-in, you know? There are always some papers on the floor or a bit of chalk dust on the teacher's desk. During the lunch break, the kids head out to the small open area to eat their tiffins and play for a bit. It gets quite hot in this part of Hyderabad, so by the afternoon, everyone is moving a bit slower. We just show up and get through the syllabus every day. It’s hard work, but seeing the kids learn to read and write makes it feel okay. We’re just a regular part of Hafeezpet life. Most of the people around here know us and we know them too.