Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Visakhapatnam

Started in 1938 and taken over by the Ramakrishna Mission in 1939, this ashrama is situated very close to the sea (Ramakrishna Beach).

Activities:

• An English-medium high school, a little away from the ashrama, with 409 boys and 423 girls. The attached library had 1710 books.
• A public library and a free reading room with 18,593 books and 84 newspapers and periodicals.
• A dispensary (having a special department for the treatment of cerebral-palsied children, with facilities like physiotherapy, special education, speech therapy, counselling of parents, etc): 3204 patients were treated. Besides, 50 free medical camps were conducted in which 1929 patients were treated. 100 patients underwent cataract surgery in eye camps.
• An exhibition on the lives of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda.
• Fifteen values education programmes were conducted in schools and colleges benefitting 3945 students.
• Religious activities: Daily worship, weekly scriptural discourses, occasional retreats, and celebration of the birthdays of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and other spiritual luminaries.
• Welfare work by way of distribution of solar lights, clothes, installation of water supply pipes and sintex tanks in villages, and providing scholarships to poor students.