Grace and Sachith's Wedding Fundraiser for Shanti Bhavan

We're grateful for your love and support and appreciate all the effort and expense required to travel to our wedding -- your presence is more than gift enough!

If you still want to give something, we're collecting donations for Shanti Bhavan, a boarding school near Bangalore that provides a free, holistic, world-class education to children from the most impoverished and marginalized sections of Indian society, all coming from families earning less than $2/day. Their goal is not only to educate children, but to empower them to uplift their families and bring change to their communities.

We first learned about the school from watching the Netflix documentary Daughters of Destiny, which follows four students throughout their years at Shanti Bhavan and beyond -- Sachith then realized that some of his colleagues at Rippling had attended the school and gone on to excel in their careers! Grace decided to spend five weeks this year volunteering there -- here's a note from her about her experience.

"Kids enter the school at 4 years of age and are supported throughout and even following their college years. Their education unfailingly lands every single one at some of the best colleges in Bangalore (a few even head to colleges in the US — this year: Wharton, Princeton, Duke, Claremont McKenna, and Davidson). More importantly, virtues and social values are embedded throughout their education. A daily “Virtue Talk” features a public reading of a virtue, like “humility” or “flexibility,” from a 4th grade student and a group discussion led by a head of the school. Four 11th graders report from memory on daily world news and are peppered with questions from fellow students that assess their understanding and knowledge of the broader context. At the school, they are not permitted to have phones and have limited access to any technology - imagine that in this world!

It’s hard to encapsulate how amazing a place this is in just a few short paragraphs. The students are spunky, silly, creative, energetic, quick-witted, hilarious people. And they are thoughtful, sweet, and considerate, guided from a young age about the importance of taking care of each other and the world around them."

In lieu of gifts or a registry, we would so appreciate it if you were willing to support our wedding fundraiser for Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, for which all funds will go directly to supporting students at Shanti Bhavan.