The school yards at RDT’s inclusive schools are filled with shouts of excitement. Friends who haven’t seen each other in over a year rush to embrace each other, chatting and signing about their time in quarantine.

Today, over 60 ninth- and tenth-class students at RDT’s inclusive schools returned to the classroom after months of online learning.

Lockdown was hard on these students. When their schools were forced to shut down during the second wave, classes moved online. Distance learning is difficult in the best of times, but in rural India, not every family has access to the necessary technology and devices necessary for online learning and the internet in remote villages can be erratic.

The situation is even more challenging for the 415 students with disabilities enrolled in RDT’s inclusive schools.

To help them continue their education, RDT provided each student with a tablet, headphones, a SIM card with data, and specialized software to help them learn. RDT also sent tutors specializing in education for the hearing and sight impaired to their homes to ensure that students were not falling behind.

Thanks to RDT’s efforts, inclusive school students were able to keep up with their lessons, but the isolation of the lockdown was much harder to remedy.

“I really missed my friends at school,” says Harika. “I have no friends in my village.” Harika was born with a visual impairment and is enrolled in RDT’s inclusive high school. She returned to the classroom today and was able to see her friends in the ninth class for the first time in many months.

“I wish I could go back to school soon,” says Rashmi, Harika’s younger sister who was also born with a visual impairment. “It has been over a year and I haven’t gotten a chance to meet my best friend Maneshwari.”

It may be some time before Rashmi and Maneshwari are reunited. Students from sixth, seventh, and eighth classes are scheduled to return to the classroom in September, but it is still unclear when students from the second class, like Rashmi, will head back to school.

In the meantime, they will continue learning online with all the support RDT has to offer.