During one fine eveningon 1st January 2010 at the village side in Yernagudem, a handful of childhood friends sat together and brain stormed on the best way to give back to their communities in the village neighborhood. Every one agreed unanimously that “gifting education to the children who are challenged to have equal opportunities in the village” could be an excellentsocial cause that enables poverty-ridden children and their families to overcome their difficulties and control potential school dropouts and child labor.

This idea had taken shape to create a local voluntary organization,“Pragathi Association for Rural Development (PARD), " which led to registration as a Society on 13th January 2011, under the endurance and leadership of Mr. Bethala Veera Swami, to serve the needy only in Yernagudem village.It started withan Executive Committee that included mainlyall childhood friends, namely Bellapu Srinivas, Sali Kondala Rao, Bodapati Brahmaiah, Karra Brahmaih, Marapatla Murali, and others who had shown equal commitment to work for the social cause.Their inspiring determination has helped us make PARD INDIA what it is today.

The humble beginning of PARD started with the opening of the first “After School Education Program” on 6thAugust 2011 in the government MPP (Special) School, Yernagudem village,to provide free education to about 50 children studying 4th& 5th classes on a pilot project basis. We got a tremendous positive response and appreciation from the school administration and local communities. Such encouragement and positivity have driven us to expand various interventions to promote the quality of education among deprived children. Even today, we have been running this center without any interruption since 2011.

Within 2 years of our services' commencement, PARD's social causeinfluenced many like-minded volunteers from neighboring villages, expanded from village to mandals, then districts and states, and drawn directors and advisors across the globe. Its commitment, transparency, accountability, and innovative ideas of addressing social issues at the grassroots have touched many hearts, changed minds, and shapedour destinies.In 2017, all members agreed to rebrand “PARD” as “PARD INDIA”, as the then Executive President Ambati Srinivas Rao proposed, to expand the service base with PAN India presence.

In brief, PARD INDIA's journey started from one (1) village initially in 2011 as a local community organization and has now expanded, covering more than eighty (80) villages in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states in India, and transformed as a global NPO (a not-for-profit organization).