A School worthy of support

I feel that education is a must for a change of the future of India. And hence education is one topic which is close to me in relation to development of India and of every person.
With all the negative news around, listening to one Ted talk has made me feel hopeful.

It was the talk of Shukla Bose, the founder of Parikrma Humanity Foundation in Ted. She says how they have started a school for children of slumdwellers. They teach them from KG till PUC, so that they can build the future of each child without caring about the numbers. They will give them meals three times, they will help if there are any problems in the family of the student. If all that is not enough, they teach these people in English medium in ICSE syllabus, the best syllabus in India. What made me feel so happy was that the children speaking English so fluently better than what I could speak at that time. It gives me so much hope that if the mode successfully replicated can do a lot to improve education in India.

Go watch the video here



They teach arts, music and sports too. There is a report done by Neilsen saying that the students have done a lot better compared to normal students in other government schools.

Their model is end to end education with emphasis on circle of life, education, healthcare, family care and nutrition. Not only regular teachers, but professors and other countries and universities like Stanford also give guest lectures here. Due to this the students grow in confidence that they are no way underprivileged compared to students in other schools. Also their activities are supported by many Corporates but I am sure, they could use your donations. To teach their method to other schools, they have started anEducation Transformation Center. I wish them all the best and just imagine if there are more schools like this all over the country. If you are interested in contributing to a better India, surely this would be a great avenue.
Head over here to contribute. Parikrma has made India a lot better by educating just 'one child at a time.'

This is another step in the direction where real leaders will be hailed and people who earn hundreds of crores illegally and splash a crore on various populist schemes will be rightly nailed. Long way to go but a step in the right direction... Long live parikrma


I feel that education is one of the best things which we can support. If you are as interested as me, then you can go and support the foundation here.

Survey Results and Next Steps

Hi friends,

Its been two weeks since the survey was launched to see how many were interested in contributing to charity from our fund. Out of the 50 students in our class, only 7 people have taken the time to respond. Congrats to you guys for taking the time to at least go through and vote your response. Out of those six people have expressed interest in contributing to the fund.

1. Though the importance of amount of money that we would provide will not be of a lesser value, the monetary help that we provide will not be enough; ours is just a contribution.
   a. If our effort fails because of reasons external to us, the sense of satisfaction will not be complete, which is very well required for us to continue in our endeavours.
   b. On the other hand, if, at any time, we feel that our efforts are not going to bring fruits, that very sense would lessen our drive to help.
2. This needs to be a long term activity, which needs patience and continuous monitoring for the activity to succeed. (Patience of a group is different from that of an individual.)
3. On a different plane, I feel that such ‘groups’ have their voices heard / are being represented one way or the other, in the current society, with many NGOs coming up. Many ‘enlightened’ individuals are doing their bit through these NGOs. Why not represent somebody who still remains unrepresented?

What do you say guys ??

And I really feel that if we want to give through traditional means, I don't think we should start a separate fund as such and we can just form a list of avenues to donate and then donate directly to them. Now a days all the famous NGO's accept donations online. So except if we want to donate as 'JNTUCEA - EEE 02' batch, we need not form a separate fund and with just 6 people supporting, it is not really inclusive of the whole batch to say that.

And the next thoughts of unconventional donation are really impressive

1. A committed but struggling startup, which employs (or which could employ) many people. If that startup is trying to find solutions to societal/environmental problems, then its case would be doubly appealing.
2. A young mind unable to continue his studies because of poverty.
3. A brilliant mind with ideas for providing low cost solutions to existing problems, but lacking funds to put ideas into action.
4. Or, in the above case, lacking in enough contacts/information to implement his ideas (please note, in this instance, no monetary help is being provided).

I really like all these ideas and as he has rightly mentioned the problem becomes identifying the right people to donate in these channels. And the solution of finding someone in our network who needs it is also good. I have couple of people in mind who would really use the help provided.

There is one issue if we donate this way. We lack accountability, not that the accountability is clear if we donate via other means, but in this we really know if the money has been utilized well or not. So at least we can put some safeguards while donating regarding how our money will be utilized.

What are your thoughts on it?

If you know people who can be ideal recipients of our fund, please let us know.

Only 6 people have expressed a positive opinion.. If you didn't have time to respond to this due to any reason please leave a comment to this post as the survey is now closed.

It just takes a leap of faith to trust regarding what we can do and then we will amazed with the results.

A different view point

My first blog post ever!

I appreciate Soujanya’s eagerness in giving a helping hand. But, it looks like many don’t share that enthusiasm, going by the number of followers of this blog. I thought I will add my views here. Be prepared to hear some radical view points, as radical as I am. But, I think this post will help people in deciding what to do.

The current idea of charity goes by its literal meaning. Some examples are:

1. Visit orphanages – give children clothes/books, spend time with them, teach them something.
2. Child Rescue and Rehabilitation – A programme to identify child labourers in Chennai and free them from their master’s clutches. This programme is being run by a HCLite and being actively supported by Community Service Council of HCL.
3. Visit old age homes – give them lots of love along with money and clothes.
   On a bigger stage – support, monetary or otherwise, to victims of natural disasters such as the recent floods; victims of man-made disasters such as those displaced by a dam.

These “traditional routes” require time, money, patience and hands from the individuals. You have to be dedicated to a single cause. There are certain aspects which need to be considered:

1. Though the importance of amount of money that we would provide will not be of a lesser value, the monetary help that we provide will not be enough; ours is just a contribution.
   a. If our effort fails because of reasons external to us, the sense of satisfaction will not be complete, which is very well required for us to continue in our endeavours.
   b. On the other hand, if, at any time, we feel that our efforts are not going to bring fruits, that very sense would lessen our drive to help.
2. This needs to be a long term activity, which needs patience and continuous monitoring for the activity to succeed. (Patience of a group is different from that of an individual.)
3. On a different plane, I feel that such ‘groups’ have their voices heard / are being represented one way or the other, in the current society, with many NGOs coming up. Many ‘enlightened’ individuals are doing their bit through these NGOs. Why not represent somebody who still remains unrepresented?

I support these activities. But, as my points above would have given you a peek in my mind, my idea of this ‘charity’ is very different. May be, I should not call it ‘charity’ at all... And, may be, yes.

My activities are driven by the following two touchstones:

1. Is my little effort making maximum impact w.r.t to social and/or environmental considerations?
2. Is it making lasting impact? If it is solving a long existing problem; if it is curing the problem rather than its symptoms...

May be, I can give some examples to help you understand my view better:

1. A committed but struggling startup, which employs (or which could employ) many people. If that startup is trying to find solutions to societal/environmental problems, then its case would be doubly appealing.
2. A young mind unable to continue his studies because of poverty.
3. A brilliant mind with ideas for providing low cost solutions to existing problems, but lacking funds to put ideas into action.
4. Or, in the above case, lacking in enough contacts/information to implement his ideas (please note, in this instance, no monetary help is being provided).

And, I am not limiting myself to a single cause. Some kind of ‘freelancing’, ‘traditional routes’ inclusive...

The biggest problem with such an approach is that the process of deciding who needs help, if not everybody is involved, may seem to be arbitrary. But, this concept also has advantages, made important by the fact that we are a group. Most importantly, it relieves of our current dilemma on whether we can be together or not. Each individual would drive the cause closest to his/her heart, and others providing support in whichever way they can – monetary or otherwise.

If this concept is accepted, the question now turns into: whether each one of us want to do “it” or not?

This post warrants comments..!

Are you Interested?

hi Friends,

Official emails are not a good forum for discussion, but the topic of charity is not something which we can decide without any discussion, that too with a batch of 50 people. Reverting the discussion from emails to here, Let us first decide who all are interested in contributing their time or money for charity.

We may not bring a big change but surely our bit helps. Neither are we going to resign our jobs and work with an NGO nor are we going to start an NGO. This is just going to be a small forum for contributing whatever we can. The fact that we are relatively in a comfortable position where we are not having to struggle for our daily food is making us live with gratitude. Our efforts might be something which can give people who are struggling in life a chance to make their lives.

Please fill this short survey to make your opinion known. Then based on the responses and who all are interested, we can take it forward.




It is fine if you want to contribute separately, Swathi has introduced to us AID which she is already a volunteer for. Read that and encourage her with comments.

Feel free to voice your thoughts, opinions and comments in the comments. Here you need not fear chastising from any one.. :)

-Thanks,
Ananth.

AID

Hey All !

Hope everyone is in good spirits ! I do not want to spam your emails, so thought of sharing my views on this blog. Thanks for the idea !

The discussion which started as contribution towards wedding gifts turned into a serious topic of donating to the community. It's good.

Coming to the point directly....

Here in USA, I work for Association for India's Development (AID, www.aidindia.org ). Let me explain the way it works. We collect funds here by organizing fund raiser events and send the money back to developmental projects in India. Out of a pool of projects available, we identify 2-3 needy projects based on the social impact of project, beneficiaries, the expenses they are going to incur on the project. Believe me.. we discuss these for hours together and I know the effort it goes into raising funds. We make sure that the money is going into the right hands and we rely mostly on NGOs for the purpose.

Other organizations like CRY, ASHA, SMILE foundation etc also work in the same way in USA. Just that I work for AID and I know the processes here. These are AID chapters in India: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi. I do not know of other branches. We being in a different country, cannot do anything directly except for raising funds, but you can do...

I am not sure if our plan of setting up a fund consolidates, but if anyone is interested in charity, you can volunteer by yourself. I can give you more details regarding AID if you want. Whatever organization you choose, please be consistent and diligent as the meetings can turn out into steaming hot discussions sometimes or ultra boring sometimes.

If this post looks like a ridiculous advertisement, please ignore it!

Otherwise, comments/views are most welcome!

Thanks,

Swathi

Hi All

Hi Friends,

This is our brand new blog. Anyone of our class can post in this. You can write anything worth sharing. More than that this a good place of discussion of anything we can to do together.

Will consolidate all the post on the charity fund here soon.