Meet Our Partners
ABOUT
TEAM
ADVISOR
VOLUNTEER
PARTNERS
ABOUT
Founding Story
It was 7th August, 1991 when the world fell apart for me. My father was fatally injured by some miscreants at Udala while working as an engineer with the Minor Irrigation Department. I was only 16 years old and the eldest one in the family. That same night my mother took me and my four siblings away from the luxury of the government quarter and returned to our village where we faced an uncertain future.
Our relatives helped in the initial stages, but we knew their sympathy would not last forever. How would we survive without my father’s income?

It was at our lowest point that life once again took an unexpected turn. This time, the intervention came from the then Chief Minister, Shri Biju Patnaik, who arranged support for us from the CM’s Office in the amount of Rs. 50,000. It was a lifeline that kept us afloat. Eventually, I was able to complete my engineering studies from NIT, Rourkela and landed in the USA in 1999. But I never forgot the generosity we were shown, and I vowed one day to give back.
After coming to the US, I began building my professional career. Like many ambitious young people, I spent the next ten years helping my family: educating my siblings, building a house for my mother, and getting my sisters married. However, the 50K INR debt was never far from my thoughts, and I made plans to return the favor to my village in some meaningful way one day.
It took 14 years to act, but eventually I returned to my village ( which gave me a lot) in 2014 and started a tuition center to help kids. My objective at the time was to do a small intervention and then go back to my normal life. But as I’ve seen, life takes many unexpected turns. It’s been 7 years since that first center was founded and today, I continue this work, expanding centers and outreach to more than 120,000 students all across Odisha.
Better India did a great job telling my story here
None of this would have been possible without the generosity and support we received from the CMO office now 30 years ago. I remain to this day thankful for the help I and my family received back then. It was the seed and ultimately the inspiration for my organization Aveti Learning, now changing lives all across the state. As I’ve seen in my own work and as I know in my own life, small interventions at the right time can change the course of history.
With sincere gratitude,
Biswajit Nayak
Biswajit Nayak
TEAM
Biswajit Nayak
Co-Founder, CEO

Sushant Mahapatra
Co-Founder, CAO

Sibabrata Choudhury
Co-Founder, COO

Jyoti Mishra
Co-Founder, CAO

Bana Bihari Kar
Implementation Manager

ADVISOR
Omkar Deshpande
Advisor

Satu Korhonen
Learning Strategist

Himanshu Asnani
Founding Advisor

Goga Nicolae
Advisor

VOLUNTEER
Arushi Agarwal
Senior ESL Trainer

Maria Goga
Advisor

Makena Naegele
US Director of Growth/Brand Strategy

Ramona Popa
ICT Advisor

Rupesh Dash
Senior ESL Trainer

Lea Gabay
Cheer leading at Senegal

Rachel La Russo
Cheer leading at Guinea

Ritik Patnaik
Maker education curriculum Developer

PARTNERS














