Equip 600 Disadvantaged Girls with Digital Skills

Pooja, 25, grew up in a low-income neighbourhood of Nagpur, in a family that knew how to work hard through hardship. Her father earned a living as a labourer, and her mother taught herself to sew on a machine to bring in extra income. Life was steady enough — until the pandemic arrived, and her father's work disappeared along with it.

For around six months, the family lived off their savings and government grain rations, waiting out the lockdown. Pooja kept her studies going with the help of a scholarship and support from her brother, even as the household strained to get by. Not long after things began to recover, her elder sister's wedding brought a fresh financial pressure — a cost the family felt they had to meet, whatever it took.

It was around this time, at 23, that Pooja learned about Aryaloka Computer Education, which had come to survey families in her area, Indora, in search of young people who could benefit from its programme. She joined, determined to turn her circumstances around.

She started with an MSCIT computer course in March 2024, and passed her exams that July with top marks. Rather than stop there, she went on to learn Tally, then completed her health examination, and later took up English and Marathi typing. Course after course, she kept building her skills — not entirely sure, at times, what would come next, but trusting the process.

That trust paid off. Aryaloka didn't just teach; it also pointed its students towards their futures, helping them understand which courses to pursue and, crucially, connecting them to real job opportunities through a WhatsApp community set up for exactly this purpose. It was through this network that Pooja found her current role as a Junior Accountant.

Pooja holds a postgraduate degree in Social Work, and her ambitions haven't stood still. With a steady income now behind her, she's able to contribute to her family — including the upcoming wedding costs for her brother — while still holding onto her long-term dream of working as a Social Worker.

Her family's situation looks different today than it did during the pandemic's hardest months. Her father is back in regular work, her mother continues sewing, and her brother now works as a bank clerk. As Pooja put it herself: "I want to help my family."

Thank you for helping make journeys like Pooja's possible.