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'Vidya', in Hindi, means Education. This
NGO (Non-Governmental Organization), founded in 1998 by a young
energetic couple (Supriya and Rahul), tries to initiate a child into
the educational process and prepare the child for a formalized
schooling system.
Over the weekends, I go to teach and mentor
the kids here and cherish every moment of it. An article by
Outlook India.com gives the
complete picture in a very succinct way and hence I quote it here.
Making a Difference
"Every year, whenever they can sneak out of
busy city schedules, Supriya and Rahul Akhaury love to fill up the
tank, take their car and go places, visiting friends and family. The
extra miles on their odometer is always a relief. Just that it
happens only rarely. But it isn‘t the driving or talk of their trips
that brings a sparkle to this couple‘s eyes. Nor are they excited
about their professional pedigrees−Supriya is a chartered accountant
and Rahul an engineer and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore.
Talk of happy marriages and the couple claims the secret of marital
bliss is something else. They believe in reaching out, reaching out
to those who need education but have no access to it.
They are zealots, they say, when it comes to making a difference in
the lives of the
60-odd children of Ambedkar Vihar, a harijan basti in Noida, near
Delhi. Call them surrogate parents to the children of domestic
servants, rickshaw pullers and street vendors, and the couple starts
off on a never-ending monologue on Vidya and Child, a two-room
school set up in the area under the auspices of the Jai Prakash
Narayan Memorial Trust in July 1998.
Says 30-year-old Supriya: "It‘s all about preparing the child for a
formalised schooling system. Our objective is to initiate a child
into the educational process, which is then carried forward to
supporting him in a formal school till Class XII. Both parent and
child are motivated into visualizing a purposeful future and a
meaningful role in our society." Since its inception, Vidya and
Child has got thirteen students admitted to some of the reputed
schools in Noida. All of them appeared for the admission tests and
cleared it.
There was no obvious immediate catalyst to the beginning of Vidya
and Child. It all started with informal tuitions to Supriya‘s
maidservant‘s daughter about three years ago. The number of children
just kept growing−to a situation when the couple started feeling the
space crunch. As she says: "My mother runs a school for blind girls
in Ranchi, and I grew up in a similar atmosphere. So it was nothing
new for me to start something like this... and Rahul was only too
willing to be there and help me out. We soon realized the school
gave us much more satisfaction than what we could have possibly
achieved, working in a multinational company or any other place." Buoyed by the idea
of starting something of their own, the couple didn‘t think twice
before chucking a promising professional future.
Vidya and Child‘s philosophy is simple. After counseling the
parents about the importance of education, a committed group of
about nine teachers hold preparatory classes for the children in
groups of six or seven. In the second phase, the child is admitted
to a recognized school and his educational expenses are aided by the
project. "The parents contribute a marginal amount in order to
ensure that they too acquire a sense of commitment and involvement
in their child‘s education," says Rahul. Each child again attends
classes in the evening at the project centre so that they are
monitored on a daily basis. They are guided here in their homework
and exams, apart from working on extra-curricular skills like
dancing, painting etc.
Says Rahul: "The experience has been very fulfilling. The children‘s
eagerness to learn is of course the contributing factor." Adds
Supriya: "They are much more aware of their situation than our
children who live a sheltered life. They are also street-smart,
acknowledging the fact that someone is caring for them. I would say
they are perhaps much more intelligent than what we were." Take for
instance five-year-old Tumpa Biswas, a housemaid‘s daughter, and
six-year-old Ankit Sarkar, a street-vendor‘s son. Ankit was a
rag-picker before joining Vidya and Child a year ago. Both of them
have got out-of-turn promotions to the next class, thanks to
excellent performances at the regular school."
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