Aakaar Skills Initiative Foundation

If you go to the Dhanshree Commercial Complex in Nagpur, you’ll find us at Shop No. 9 on the first floor. It’s right there near Nagjibhai. The stairs are a bit steep, so watch your step when you come up. Aakaar Skills Initiative Foundation is basically just a room where we try to teach people things that actually matter for getting a job. We’ve got some old computers and a lot of chairs that we’ve gathered over time. Nagpur gets really hot in the summer, and our cooling system isn’t the best, so we drink a lot of cold water and keep the windows shut. We don't have a professional setup with glass walls or uniform-wearing staff. It's just us in our regular clothes, sitting around and figuring out how to help the next person who walks through the door. Sometimes the internet is slow and we all just have to wait around. We talk to a lot of young people who are looking for a break. We show them how to handle tools or use software. It’s practical stuff. There’s always someone coming in to ask a question or drop off a form. The walls are a bit yellowed and we have some old posters hanging up. It’s a humble place, but it’s where we spend most of our waking hours. We just want people to leave with a bit more knowledge than they had before.