From "I Should Help" to Assistant Manager: Poonam's Story
August 04, 2026
It started with a thought most people have and let pass. Watching younger children in her village struggle with schoolwork nobody had time to explain twice, Poonam, then in 11th grade thought: I should help
She didn’t wait to be asked. In 2016, she started teaching 1st to 4th grade students at a Sunday school run by Samanvay Social Organization, in a village where educational support was thin on the ground. Somewhere in those Sunday sessions, she found out something that would shape the next decade: she loved teaching.
Filling In What the School Day Left Out
In Poonam’s village, there were no extra classes. If a child didn’t follow something in school, there was no second explanation waiting for them, that was just how it was.
When Seva Sahayog Foundation’s team, including Akshay Dada, began working in the village, Poonam saw a way to be part of something bigger than her own effort. When the Abhyasika (Study Center) later started in Saphale, she stepped into a harder problem: 10th-grade students who were failing Mathematics, subject by subject, year after year.
Under focused, structured teaching, interest in the subject started to turn around. That same year, the Abhyasika posted a 100% result. Responsibility had followed results and then results followed responsibility right back.
When the World Shut Down, Her Classroom Didn’t
In 2019, Poonam took on the role of Kishori Pramukh in Dahivale village for three months. Then 2020 arrived, and with it, a pandemic that shut almost everything else down.
Not her teaching. For three months, she ran classes for 8th and 9th graders over Google Meet, keeping their education moving through a year when so much else simply stopped.
From there, her role widened under the Gram Vikas (Village Development) Initiative. She started connecting with women across Saphale and Boisar, helping organize training in beauty parlor skills, Annapurna food-based enterprise, and tailoring. More than 500 women have now been trained through this work, and many run home-based businesses today because of it.
Skill turned into livelihood. Livelihood turned into dignity.
The Karyakarta Who Never Says “Not My Job”
What sets Poonam apart isn’t really the list of programs she’s touched. It’s a mindset she’s held onto through all of them: as a Karyakarta, or field worker, she doesn’t draw lines around what counts as her responsibility.
If a social issue comes up, involving a girl, a family, the wider village, she doesn’t wait for it to land on someone else’s desk. She talks it through openly, thinks through what might actually solve it, and stays with it until it’s resolved. Understand deeply. Communicate openly. Think collectively. Act consistently. It’s a simple approach, repeated often enough that it’s become how she works, full stop
Today her reach extends well past Palghar, she supports girls across Karjat, Khopoli, Mangaon, and other parts of Raigad district too.
The Volunteer Who Became Assistant Manager
That consistency, over years, turned into leadership almost on its own. As Assistant Manager of the project now, Poonam works shoulder-to-shoulder with senior team members, taking ownership of initiatives rather than simply carrying them out.
Her path is close to a working definition of what Seva Sahayog Foundation tries to build: empower from within, grow leaders from the grassroots up. Watching her lead today, after watching her start with a handful of children in a Sunday classroom, is exactly the kind of story that reminds the team why this work matters.
Because often, the people who go furthest are the ones who started by simply deciding to help.
#SevaSahayogFoundation #GramVikasPrakalp #WomenLeadership #RuralEducation #GrassrootsLeadership #SocialImpact
YouTube Video:- https://youtu.be/0jUwRcWA3Dc?si=8ggWV_8WPlDSN3ti
