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Project June 27, 2013

KISS: Fighting Poverty with School and Sport to Keep Maoists at Bay

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Media file: kisslunch.jpg
KISS has grown to have about 18,000 pupils Image by Fred de Sam Lazaro. India, 2013.

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, started by an ascetic social entrepreneur named Achutya Samanta, offers a rare alternative path. In less than two decades KISS has grown into a spectacular residential campus for 18,000 pupils. The school ensures that the children, who attend at no cost, maintain their language, culture and religion while providing the opportunity for discipline, confidence and team building through a rigorous sports program.

KISS has become well known for its embrace of rugby, including an unlikely journey and championship victory in a youth tournament in London. This report looks at footage of that heady event, visits again with the youth on that team and others, and tells the story of this unusual effort to support some of India's most neglected and impoverished citizens.

KISS founder, a man everyone calls Dr. Samanta, is a powerful character with a story as unusual as the business model for his enterprise.

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