Navya Nagothu, an 11th-grade student at the International School of Hyderabad, raised ₹68,500 for children who needed developmental therapy but whose families could not afford it. That number sits at 113% of her original goal. Twenty-nine donors backed her. Eighteen children, most of them with autism, cerebral palsy, or global developmental delay, now have access to trained therapists.
For most of those children, the Sobati Project was the first time they had ever been seen by a developmental professional. Not because their conditions were mild. Because no one had ever come looking.
This is a spotlight on how that changed, and why the model behind it is built to keep working long after any one campaign ends.
Meet Dr. Shivani Pandit and Saamarthya Foundation
Saamarthya Foundation provides developmental therapy to children from low-income families across Hyderabad. The conditions they work with, autism, cerebral palsy, global developmental delay, are conditions that most healthcare systems miss entirely when families have no time or money to seek them out. Saamarthya does not wait for families to come. It goes to them.
Dr. Shivani built a model that relies on something most organisations try to replicate and cannot: genuine community trust. Saamarthya works through Anganwadis, the government-run early childhood centres that are already woven into the fabric of low-income neighbourhoods. The workers there are not strangers. Families let them in.
"For many of the 18 children this campaign supported, the Sobati Project was the first time they had ever received professional developmental care."
Why the Anganwadi model makes this sustainable
Before the Sobati campaign launched, Saamarthya's Anganwadi partners went door to door across Hyderabad. Months of relationship-building. Parents who had never had a reason to trust a professional. Children who had never been screened. Workers who already knew which families were struggling and which children were different in ways no one had named yet.
That groundwork is what produced the 18 children in this campaign. A poster or a social media post does not do that. Years of presence in a community does.
Community outreach
Anganwadi workers identify children door to door, months before a campaign launches.
Developmental screening
Families attend Saamarthya-organised screenings. Conditions are diagnosed by trained professionals, free of charge.
Free therapy delivery
All sessions are completely free to families. Speech, motor, occupational, and cognitive therapy at ₹800 per session.
Parent training
The Open Door Policy brings parents into each session so they can reinforce therapy skills at home between appointments.
That last step is what separates this from a one-time donation to a clinic. Seventy-nine funded sessions do not end at seventy-nine. Every session trains a parent who applies what they learned every day.
What Navya's campaign paid for
Of the ₹68,500 raised on Udayaa, ₹63,362 reached Saamarthya Foundation directly after Udayaa's 5% platform fee and Razorpay's 2.5% payment processing fee were deducted. That funded approximately 79 therapy sessions at ₹800 per session covering speech therapy, motor and occupational therapy, and cognitive development support.
Navya built this campaign as an 11th-grade student. No registered organisation. No bank account for donations. Just a cause she could not ignore and a platform that handled the infrastructure. That is what Udayaa is built for.
18 children received developmental therapy for the first time. 79 sessions funded. 18 families learned to reinforce therapy at home. All care delivered completely free to families who could not otherwise afford it.
Saamarthya is open to student campaigns through Udayaa
The Sobati campaign worked because the cause was specific, the need was verified, and the organisation behind it had already done the hard work of finding the children who needed support. That combination is exactly what Udayaa connects.
Saamarthya Foundation is open to further student campaigns through Udayaa. If you are a student who wants to support developmental therapy for children with autism and other conditions in Hyderabad, or a school looking for a verified, high-impact CAS partnership, this is a cause with the infrastructure to absorb and deliver on what you raise.
A campaign with Saamarthya does not require a year of planning. You bring the drive. They bring the impact framework. Udayaa handles the compliance, the receipts, and the reporting.
Run a campaign. Make it count.
Udayaa connects student changemakers with vetted NGO partners like Saamarthya Foundation. You raise the funds. We handle 80G receipts, compliance, and donor reporting.
Start your campaign Want to partner as an NGO? Get in touch with usMore from Dr. Shivani Pandit · All 9 clips
Impact data sourced from Saamarthya Foundation field reports and Udayaa's Sobati campaign records. All figures confirmed prior to publication.
