It's been nine years since the Smt Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust (SNSMT) has been working on its flagship social cause Project Nandini, which works for betterment of rural and semi-urban women in Odessa.
The project had been launched by the then Governor late Rameshwar Thakur on th Nandini Diwas on June 9, 2007. Besides working for youth and women development, the SNSMT has been working on environmental causes and advocating for several social reforms.
On April 8, 2016, a group of slum/street children gathered under a tree here, and it seemed like an open air school, where SNSMT chairman Suparno Satpathy taught the kids. No mediaperson or cameraman was invited.
On asking, Satpathy said, "I volunteer for two hours a day for three days a week to teach these kids. A team at the SNSMT has taken up the cause of these kids. None of us teachers are paid by the SNSMT. You shall be surprised to learn that our teachers consist of volunteers who are IIM and even Harvard graduates. Once we bring these kids to a particular standard, we shall help them get into mainstream schools for regular schooling and their education shall be funded by the SNSMT. For student enrolment into this programme, there are only two criteria, street/slum child and the child wanting to study".