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Just close your eyes
Close your eyes and think back to the person who believed in you before you'd proven anything. A teacher who stayed back an extra hour. A parent who went without so you wouldn't have to. A neighbour who simply noticed you and made sure you were okay. A ecosystem of support you had long after the closing school bell rang!
That quiet, invisible support system is what carried you from where you started to where you are today — likely thousands of miles from home, building a life your younger self might not have imagined.
Now picture a child growing up without any of that.
In India today, 75% of children who start Grade 1 will never make it to college. Not because they aren't capable — but because no one had the time, or means, to walk with them. An average child spends over 80% of their waking hours outside school, and in underserved communities, those hours are often unsupervised, unsafe, or simply empty. Parents are working every hour they have just to keep a roof overhead. Someone has to raise the children while their parents are busy raising ours.
This is the quiet unfairness that decides so many futures before they've even begun.
This is the quiet unfairness that decides so many futures before they've even begun.
We decided to do something about it.
Since 2018, Shifting Orbits Foundation has been building After-School Learning Centres — we call them Vriksha, or Banyan Trees — in underserved communities across Bengaluru, Coimbatore, and rural Kerala. Each centre is an extended home: safe, powered, connected, stocked with books and resources, and staffed by mentors who quite literally become a second set of parents to the children who walk through the door.
Every year, 15–20 new students join each centre in Grade 8. And then we don't let go. Tuition, scholarships, life skills, financial literacy, mental wellness, mentorship — everything a child needs, for as long as they need it, until they've completed college and found meaningful work.
Not a single year of support. A decade of it.
This is where you come in.
Vriksha means tree. Daan means giving. Vrikshadaan isn't about planting a sapling and walking away — it's about nurturing something that will go on giving shade to an entire community long after your contribution is made.
You know, better than most, what it feels like to be given a real chance. This is your opportunity to be that chance for a child who's still waiting for one.
Right now, we're working to fund the year ahead — the rent that keeps a centre's doors open, the mentors who show up daily, the scholarships that carry students to college. Every centre we sustain, every mentor we retain, depends on rounds of support like this one closing on time. We'd love for you to be part of this round, while it's still open.
- Rentals of premises
- Internet / Utility Charges
- Salaries of Learning Center Coordinators (whom we employ from same community) and Learning Facilitators (Expert pool of teachers paid on hourly basis)
- Learning Aids (Books, subscriptions to EdTech solutions)
- Nutritional Snacks every day
- Scholarships for students for their college education
🌳 What your contribution can do:
If not you, who? If not now, when?
- $150 (₹14,000) — supports one child for a full year
- $250 (₹23,250) — supports 1–2 children for a year
- $500 (₹46,500) — supports 3–4 children for a year
- $1,000 (₹93,000) — supports 6–8 children for a year
If "Life" gave you your beginning, this is one honest way to give someone else theirs.
Pledge your support. Donate now.
If not you, who? If not now, when?
