Twenty-five years ago, a door opened. Five-year-old Lokesh, who had a developmental disorder, stepped into a space created with a purpose — into a world that would change the one he had known until then.
He was among the 11 children to enter an institution at its nascent stage. V-Excel Educational Trust, a unit of Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham Charitable Trust, had begun as a small educational premise in RA Puram, on August 29, 2001. Within three months, the number had climbed to 35 — an indication of a need that had remained largely invisible.
At 13, Lokesh stepped out to join an inclusive school and later a diploma programme. His journey mirrors the evolution of V-Excel itself. What began as an attempt to create a safe space for children with special needs grew into an umbrella organisation that recognised that education could not end at the school gate.
As V-Excel Educational Trust is set to mark 25 years, its story is one of an organisation that kept evolving and adapting because the lives and needs of the people it served kept changing and wanting more.
For a larger purpose
For founder-director Vasudha Prakash, the journey began unexpectedly. A graduate in clinical psychology, she naturally began her career as a clinical psychologist. Among her first set of clients were two young boys with learning disabilities. “At that time, there was not enough information or access to help them,” she recalls.
The experience, however, proved to be a precursor to what came next. After completing her doctorate and working in the US for six years, Vasudha, who always wanted to work in India, returned to Chennai with a mission to start a teacher-training programme that would equip educators to work with students with special needs. But it soon became clear that training teachers alone would not be enough. A school was needed. Hence, V-Excel was established.
The need was immediate and growing. Within months, more families began knocking on their doors. And to help each one of them, the trust adopted a no-turnaway policy. “We found that even within the field, if we kept turning away, there weren’t so many options for them (children with special needs) to move through,” Vasudha notes.
V-Excel was therefore conceived as an organisation, addressing the uncertainty and lack of opportunities experienced by families.
The early years were also those of learning and unlearning for the founder and the organisation. Vasudha brought techniques and approaches from her experience in the US, but soon understood that they could not simply be placed into the Indian context. “I realised that you have to develop something indigenously because culturally, India and the US are poles apart. And the environment there supported and did not challenge autism or any other disability,” she says.
The search for approaches rooted in India eventually led the organisation to their mentor, Lakshmi Prasanna, who introduced the concept of anthroposophy and the work of Rudolf Steiner to V-Excel. Anthroposophic curative education (a holistic learning method focusing on individuality and combining education, arts, and medical care to support whole-life development), with its specialised approach to individuals with special needs, became one of the influences that shaped the trust’s work.
Over time, the organisation developed its own approaches, programmes, and practices, but kept returning to one question — what does this particular child, and this particular family, need?
Inclusion, a way of life
As the children of V-Excel grew older, their requirements widened, resulting in the organisation growing with them.
Its work ranges from early intervention and schooling to vocational training, teacher education, independent living, cultural programmes, and community inclusion.
The expansion continued geographically as well. But V-Excel chose not to follow the conventional path of opening centres primarily in major cities or rural villages. “We don’t expand in cities, because here accessibility is more. We don’t do villages either because they are benefited by many listed government schemes. We only expand in tier-2 cities, where awareness lacks,” she says.
The first centres outside Tamil Nadu came up in Maharasthra — in Nashik in 2012, followed by Solapur in 2013, and Pandharpur in 2023. In Tamil Nadu, centres were established in Tirunelveli, Erode, Srirangam, Pollachi, Thiruvannamalai, and Kolapakkam over the years.
Beyond its campus, V-Excel has worked significantly towards inclusion. The trust, so far, has partnered with around 120 schools, conducting teacher-training programmes to help mainstream institutions understand and implement inclusion. It has also been working with the Sundaram Educational Trust on a nine-day programme aimed at helping regular schools create more inclusive environments.
Besides these programmes, a highlight is the annual day. For months, students work on stories, costumes, props, and music, culminating in a production that Vasudha describes as almost like a Broadway show. “We once staged The Lion King, and then sent it to Disney; they wrote us a letter back,” she recalls.
Another important aspect that the trust acknowledges is the experiences that come with age. Vasudha shares, “After a certain age, people with disabilities want to meet people of the opposite gender, interact, and have fun parties. So we used to have a party day.”
The work goes on…
When the first batch of students walked out the doors of V-Excel, the organisation had already begun to understand that its responsibility could not end when a child left its campus. That has shaped much of what V-Excel does today. Its programmes now reach children, young adults, and families across locations, impacting more than a lakh people.
The body of work that Vasudha and the team have built here is enormous. She claims, “After working in the US for many years, I think they’re way behind us. Except for the fact that they have money for better facilities, their understanding or acceptance is not customised enough.”
However, even here, there are still some gaps. Awareness and acceptance have improved overall, but Vasudha notes that progress is slower in smaller towns. Funding remains a persistent constraint, even as the ambition grows. “There are so many things I want to do. But my hands are tied in some ways because funding is always a problem,” she rues, expressing, “I want to start hundreds of centres everywhere. So people don’t have to migrate to the cities to gain access.”
The school’s song, Blue Blue Sky, captures the idea Vasudha wants the organisation to represent — a place where a person can be themselves, meet themselves as they truly are, and feel safe. That’s what is home for everyone who walked through the doors of V-Excel.
Vasudha concludes, "We’ve done a small fraction of what is meant to be done. We still have miles to go."
Inclusion beyond classrooms
Vasudha wanted children with special needs to have access to the cultural life around them — something that was often inaccessible because of the practical difficulties of taking them into conventional auditoriums. So they conduct:
Tarang, a monthly concert that has been running for nearly two decades at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Tattva, an annual art exhibition that invites artwork from across Tamil Nadu, and the proceeds from sales go towards supporting the artists.
Choirs — Blue Blue Sky and Sargam — that perform at public events, including marathon inaugurals and Christmas programmes. Christmas bazaars where products made by the students are sold.
Keeping up with the needs
2003: An after school programme for children from mainstream schools who needed additional academic or conceptual support
2005: An early intervention unit was set up for children from birth to seven years
2006: An association with ESVI Sarada Foundation helped establish a vocational training unit to train young adults with special needs
2026: Vikasith, a finishing school for young adults, where they are trained for communication and social skills