Soni is an 11th grade student at Prerna Girls School in Lucknow. Her father is a daily-wage earner. Even before COVID-19 struck, her family was under considerable financial strain. “The pandemic added to all the problems we were facing,” she said. “Suddenly, our source of income was gone and we were left with nothing. We were only able to feed ourselves with help from our school and the government community kitchen.”

“I was afraid that neither my siblings or I would be able to continue our education. We had no books, no phone to access study materials, and financial pressure to sustain ourselves.” - Soni

With so many students like Soni, SHEF launched “Digital Saathi” (partner) to facilitate greater access to online learning during the pandemic. In this program, the school loans smartphones to selected students so they can access online classes and also facilitate learning for other students in their neighborhoods.

When Soni learned that SHEF had chosen her to be a Digital Saathi, she felt a huge sense of relief. “Once the strict lockdown ended, the school provided us with smartphones, which helped me and the girls living nearby.” Now she studies at home with other girls using uses her phone to get daily lessons and information from their teacher. She also reports back to the teacher about their progress.