Light House International Academy (LIA) is a school for underprivileged children hailing from difficult backgrounds. We are a team of passionate social adventurers who have embarked on a journey to change the world one student at a time. We are focused on a niche area where we are working with children who have a compromised educational journey due to poverty and trauma. We are different from a special school as well as a regular school. Our children come with baggage’s of the past that have altered their chemistry such that they have attention deficit, dyslexia, inability to focus, language disabilities etc. Our teaching methodology encompasses the impartation of knowledge leading to the development of wisdom as we engage our students from their traumatic past. We help them heal by giving them a very nurturing environment where teachers are also friends who they can depend on.
We do not have a classical class ranking system that emphasises competition, but we encourage our students to compete only with their last recorded performance. We never ever compare the performance of our children with each other as they all never had the same starting line and hence cannot have the same finish line. Our classrooms are equipped with state of the art furniture and media kits. We see it to that our classroom activities are fun play based learning environments. The students are allowed to explore the world and themselves. A holistic approach is at the heart of all that we do.
We have built a system where each child has an Individual Education Plan because everyone of our children has a unique educational journey, and we have a rich curriculum. Our professors are qualified to evaluate our students using this approach, so each student receives the personalised attention they require to succeed in the learning process. Because our students deal with very low self-esteem and have evolved coping mechanisms that can be challenging to handle, no teacher is permitted to speak down to or insult a student in any way. Our educators work with the kids to help them overcome their trauma concerns and the low confidence that comes with them since they have been trained to deal with emotional trauma.
Our Principal, Vice Principal, Senior Coordinator, Dean of Students, and Management Coordinator make up our school management team. Given the nature of the people we serve, we are collectively referred to as the organization’s “Conscience” since we think that our school should be led by a conscience rather than merely policies. We all provide diverse perspectives that help us come to very wise decisions that help create a holistic atmosphere that is best suited for all of our kids.
Who we are
Reaching Hand started in the year of 1996 by a group of passionate men and women with a desire to bring transformation to the community with a prime focus on children, youth, and women in crisis. The board members serve as honorary members, donating time, efforts, and money to see the vision fulfilled. Because Reaching Hand is a child-‐centric organization, its vision is to empower the whole community, thereby bringing about positive and measurable social change in the lives of children, youth, and women. We partner with Government schools and the Department of Public Instruction to improve the quality of education by providing students and teachers with infrastructure, facility, training, and learning equipment.
Reaching Hand is a charitable trust, registered under the Trust Act Vide No. 8456/95-‐96, Bangalore, India-‐-‐to carry out our mission in compliance with Indian laws. The organization is registered under 12A(a) of the Income Tax Act 1961 and recognized under 80 (G) to avail 50% of tax exemption for Donors. RH is also registered under FCRA to receive funds from foreign donors. Our operations are managed out of the corporate office in Bangalore with programs in different states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, etc. The operational decisions are made by the Management Team in alignment with the Board of Trustees and the Vision and Mission.