“Jo Desh ke kaam na aaye wo bekar jawani hai” These lines from Rang De Basanti still echo in my ears. Whenever I see someone especially someone of my age or someone younger than me doing something good for the society, I cannot stop myself from congratulating them.

Ashwin Udupa, an engineering student from Mysore with whom I had some of the best moments of my life. I met this guy when I was in final year engineering. He was my junior. I remember him as a guy, who always gets slapped by girls in a short film and for his infamous Gangnam dance during our college fest.

Ashrith G N is also one of my junior but I never personally met him. One day I got a call from him informing that they have started a website and have listed my book for the visitors. I just thanked him and forgot about it. Some days later I got a notification in Facebook asking me to like a page e-mysore.com. I liked it and went through the page and their website. It is a decent website showing news about local events happening in Mysore, promoting music bands, short films etc.

Now the same team has come up with a web portal for blood donation where the donors can be directly contacted. All one has to do is visit http://blooddonors.e-mysore.com/ and search for the blood groups. We get customized results depending on the blood group required. If one wants to register as a donor, all he/she has to do is just register in their portal and their details will be published in the website. Three days back, I found their work featured in Star of Mysore, an evening daily of Mysore and that made me to write this.

When I look up to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as inspiration I realize that the biggest thing we need to do in our life is to believe in our dreams and work slowly towards making them true. While doing that if we can return something back to the society that we are a part of, will be a great achievement. Instead of cribbing about the problems around, let’s be the answers. Let us be the trendsetters.

I congratulate the entire team of e-mysore.com lot more success in future and hope to work together in making our country a beautiful place to live. If you are a donor willing to donate blood, please register in their website and be a part of the new wave. Your small step may save a life of someone. Share the website among your friends and encourage them to register.

Santhosh S V

CEO

Spoorthi Foundation

On 9^th of November 2013, I was standing in front of around 35 students at Yeliyuru Government School Mandya. We had visited there as a part of our event JOY OF TEACHING WEEK and we were just starting our classes. Before beginning, we asked the children about what they want to become in future. Promptly most of them replied with “I want to become a doctor”, “I want to become a police officer”, “I want to become an engineer” and so on. We were happy that the kids from villages have such big dreams. But while interacting with the school officials, we came to know that most of the students will not even continue their education after 10^th standard. At that point of time I decided we need to do something.

While we read some success stories of the students of government schools occasionally, large number of children especially Girls drop out after 10^th standard. So I put forward an idea in front of my team. We were meeting to decide the plans for 2014. We would select two schools, Yeliyuru High School and another school in Mysore and will be taking free classes during our weekends for one whole year. And we will be guiding them till the exams get over. After discussing, we finalized on two schools in Mysore itself and to visit Yeliyuru during December.

On January 12 we visited Chayadevi Trust Orphanage in Mysore to celebrate National Youth Day. We also invited our seniors Kushal and Sandeep to join us and spend some time with the kids. They joined us and even sponsored the prizes for the drawing competition winners. While going back, Kushal addressed the group of 10^th and 12^th standard students and advised them about how important it is to follow their dreams rather than following the herd. That is when I decided to have Kushal on board for our future works.

So, on March 16^th, we created a post on facebook about what we are going to do and asked interested individuals to attend the meeting and we also sent emails to our college alumni’s. The first meeting was conducted at Banumaiha’s  College and around 12 people attended it including our team members. We decided on having a demo class to see the presentation skills and confidence. Then we started worrying about the place to conduct demo classes.

My mind flashed upon my high school teacher A G Nanjappa Swamy and immediately I called him asking to provide a classroom for taking demo classes in their coaching center. He was more than happy to give a nod and wished us good luck.

We invited M V Tulasi Prasad, Hindi Teacher, Government School, Hunsur and also my high school Kannada Teacher to give us feedback. After two weeks, we have made a team of 26 people who will be actually taking classes from June 30.

Kushal and Dushyanth, both my seniors helped us in getting permissions from DDPI to conduct classes on Saturday and Sunday’s. And we will be having an interactive session about teaching skills by Mr DayaPrasad, Faculty, RIMSE, Mysore and A G Nanjappa Swamy, Teacher, Marimallappa’s High School.

This teaching program will go on for 8 months starting from June 30 till February end. Our teachers will be helping them in their academics and guiding them through their exams.

We even got blessings of elders when Mrs. Shakuntala and Kushal’s mother joined us in our work. This would be the first work we will be doing with the government and we are all excited about it. We need your blessings and advices.

Recently we opened bank account to raise funds for our future works. One of the important work included in our plan is to financially support two students to continue their education. If you wish to make a donation, Please help us. Find the bank details below.

Name: SPOORTHI FOUNDATION

Acc No: 065900101005454

IFSC: CORP0000659

Bank: Corporation Bank, Vijayanagar, Mysore.

To know more about us

Web: www.spoorthifoundation.org

Fb: facebook.com/Spoorthi.ngo

Twitter: @spoorthi_ngo

In my next post, I will be writing about the people who will be taking classes and the people who helped us reach here.

Thank You

Santhosh S V

CEO, Spoorthi Foundation

As the new year began, and the days started rolling trying to keep up the promises and resolutions running, We would like to remind a quote by Mother Teresa. Here it goes

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” — Mother Teresa

On this note, We present to you our new beginnings and big announcements Spoorthi is coming up with in 2014.       

Spoorthi Foundation is officially starting its operations in Bangalore on Republic day of India - January 26^th.     

And the activities are visiting orphanages and old age homes to celebrate life, Special events like national youth and national festivals and the process of partnering with schools is going on and will be announced soon.

As we are spread our wings, we want many more wings to join us in reaching out to more people. Anyone interested in volunteering with us.

Kindly contact us in any of the following ways
Volunteer enrolment form : http://bit.ly/1hlWLgw 
Email: spoorthifoundationmysore@gmail.com 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/spoorthi.ngo
Twitter: www.twitter.com/spoorthi_ngo

Happy New year! 

The best gift of life, I believe, is life itself. And I am very happy to be born in this age!

We are living in such times when sky is not the limit. The wonderful possibilities of life never cease to amaze us. The world, in reality, has become a global village. Science and technology have thrived and made our lives more comfortable and exciting. Life IS beautiful.

But…

We tend to keep in mind the small sect of the society that is availing all these outcomes of modern day life. In a country like India, where about 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, girls and women like me would not even have the slightest idea of the very existence of these joys, opportunities. This write up is a contemplation on one such wonderful opportunity that women are missing or not being on the receiving edge as they deserve – education.

There have been a lot of haunting questions I would like to address that go beyond gender, religion, region, economical status etc. but this is an attempt to ponder upon one thing at a time.

Why aren’t our women allowed to live their lives as ‘they’ want?

Kalpana Chavla, Indian Astronaut

I mean, I know that times have changed. Women are reaching the pinnacle of success in a lot of fields that were once untouched by them. They are national leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate women, writers, media personnel. There are women who party 9 days a week!!! There are ladies who spend half their lives in beauty salons! It’s all kind of cute in a way, actually. And there are some inspiring women around us – Kalpana Chawla went to space (It’s sad that she couldn’t make it back…)

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw heads Biocon; Sudha Murthy is “simplicity Personified”… there is one Chaavi (MBA gold medalist) who resigned a job that paid lakhs together every month and is now serving a village called ‘Sodhaa’ in Rajasthan as a ‘Gram Sarpanch’; there is a Sampath Pal Devi who is like a moral police – who has not even the basic education and was a victim of child marriage – She now has thousands of women for support who just go and literally thrash men who assault women in any way!

Sudha Murthy, Infosys Foundation

I have just mentioned some names that occurred to me right now. There are still many examples out there. But I would call them “exceptions” rather than “examples”, because their number is so small. There is a whole other sector of our kind which is in absolute darkness – completely unaware of all the above mentioned “exceptions”. That sector is still plagued by superstition, ignorance, child labour, child marriage, sexual assault and what not!

Is it really “development” when only one group of the population flourishes?!

I’m NOT disputing the fact that a lot of women are doing great. But who are to be blamed for millions of voices that go unheard? What about those dried out, tired eyes that have given up on hoping and seeking help?

Kiran Mazumdar Shah, Founder, Biocon India

Swami Vivekananda had once said that our nation needs women who can be Indians inside their homes and who can be Europeans once they step out of them.  But many well educated women give up on their careers for a marriage unwillingly. Don’t they want to be successful as professionals too? Why is it that a woman alone has to make sacrifices for a marriage? This is another dimension to the status of education and women in this country, unlike in the West.

Some women ARE let to live the lives they want. And that’s the reason I say I am very happy to be born in this age. But this write-up is for those thousands of women whose faces have lost that grace and essence of being a woman, fighting and fighting and fighting all their lives for some happiness. I just hope life turns out fair for at least those who deserve.

Women in our country are beyond wives, mothers, daughters… they are home-makers. If the world looks at India as a country where family values are preserved and given the utmost importance to, then the credit goes more to these women who keep it all together with every bit of their strength.

Every person, they say, is a book by himself. Our women are from a line of legacy that still keeps our society saner than a lot other nations and communities. When every other woman could do this, most of them who are deprived of even elementary education, just imagine how much better a society we could be – if they are formally educated. Most women who are deserted by their husbands or families would still be able to take care of themselves and if needed, their children too.

The Central government and all the State governments have taken up some appreciative measures in this course. It is welcoming. But they must be implemented better than they are now; better than how they are drafted on paper. Although it is hard to accomplish this in the context of our societal superstitions, unscientific religious dogmas, lack of basic amenities which makes education a far-fetched idea. There is one more concern I would like to bring out here. The unfortunate ignorance: most women ‘choose’ to remain silent when it comes to a fundamental right they deserve! A lot of them accept that it is their ‘fate’ and nobody can do anything about it. Some of them deny having keen longings for so many wonderful pleasures of life and just bury them deep within and build concrete graves on them.

It is not impossible.

Volumes could be written about any discussion, any issue. But certain things deserve ‘work’ more than just ‘lip-service’. On that note, I take this opportunity to thank every single soul that does its bit in trying to make this dream a reality.

Our ancient epics say “Yatra naaryastu poojyante ramante tatra devataaha”. It means that where women are worshipped, the Gods (Should we say Goddesses, as this is about women?! I know not of the gender, if there exist any) reside there. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But our women are made of substance rather than phony ideologies. They face far worse issues with grit and valor and do not even make a big deal out of it. They are soldiers who fight demons inside four walls. Their biggest problem is not to choose between a Gucci bag and a Prada; but to choose between basic necessities – if they can afford any.

I would like to end this earnest attempt by remembering one of the most moving ads – a one liner from ITC (the books we have all been blessed to buy in schools and colleges! An irony!):

There are millions of them who still just dream of school…

About the Author

Sourabha Rao, aged 23, currently working at Unisys Global Services, India, Bengaluru is an Engineering Graduate from Mysore. She likes writing, singing and has been a constant supporter of our organization

Please visit her blog at wheremindsmeet.wordpress.com

All the good things have to come to an end, they say. I believe they start but never end. When we started SPOORTHI, We were a bunch of engineering lads hoping to be the change we wanted to see. Every journey begins with small steps. We managed to conduct few sessions of computer basics and basics of English grammar in the one year. We had limited resources, limited number of volunteers, and limited amount of time. But, we had something that kept us marching forward, BELIEF! That we can inspire others to take a step and make them to think of doing their little for the country.  With that hope, we kept working.

On February 24, 2013, I came across an NGO called Akanksha which had same motives as us. While going through their website I ended up watching a beautiful video of one of their initiative. Recently concluded JOY OF TEACHING WEEK (JOTW) was inspired by them. Only difference being that Akanksha took school to the public; we took public to the schools.

Preparations for JOTW started in the month of September. We first decided on the schools to visit, made a schedule and posted in our blog. Then we invited public to be part of the event. Sri Lakshmi, a BCA student was the first one to approach us. Then few more people started joining hands. We approached PROJECT REACH OUT , an initiative by the students of SJCE Mysore. They played a very important role in making JOTW a success. Next in the line was Revion, a startup by the students of MIT Mysore. Owing to our resources constraint, they managed a session without projector, which earlier was promised by us. We thank both the teams for coming together with us in our little effort to inspire people.

On the first day, we visited Manasa High School and Revion team visited Metagalli High School. Next day, our team went to Banumaiah’s Girls High School. Bhavana, an M.Sc student, did science experiments to increase the curiosity of the students and later taught Origami, paper folding art. Ashwin, a student of MIT Mysore, explained about the hardware part of a computer. On the third day, PROJECT REACH OUT joined the event. They visited Metagalli High School with their team. India’s freedom struggle, photography, inspirational stories, mathematics, English, computer were covered in their session.

9^th November, Our team went to Yeliyuru, a village near Mandya and took classes for the High school students. It was an amazing experience to interact with the students as it was the first time we were visiting a school outside Mysore. Moving on to fifth day, our team visited Banumaiah’s Boys High School. We concluded our event at Paduvarahalli School along with, PROJECT REACH OUT.

During the course of the event, live update on Facebook and twitter were carried out by the volunteers, which got a good response from the people all over the Globe.

It would be very unfair if I don’t mention the actual people behind the event’s success. Heart felt congratulations to Akash, Sachin, Sahana, Sowjanya, Apeksha, Shreyas, Chirag, Varsha, Pooja, Sudarshan and Supriya. Special thanks to PROJECT REACH OUT, Revion and Prof. KrishneGowda, Secretary, MET, Mysore.

6 days 

7 schools 
25 classes 60 volunteers 1000 students1 mission: Inspiring the Future.

The Joy of Teaching Week Inspired tens of people to teach, hundreds of students to learn better and thousands of people to believe that Yes, education can make a difference in shaping our country better. 

We are planning for many more things from the next academic year. If interested, get in touch with us!

Volunteers Words

"First I want to congratulate all the coordinators of spoorthi for letting me to take part in the event "joy of teaching week”. I am very glad that the students got to know about different subjects which would help them to build their career in future. So I consider myself to be lucky for being a part of it . it was a great experience . Let’s hope these kind of activities will go on in the future and wishing spoorthi and all my co-members a great success."

Chirag M.S

"Spoorthi came to existence on 12th April 2012 since then I have attended almost all the events which took place till now , but I haven't teach the kids. In JOTW I started teaching the kids about Personality Development and Career Guidance in Banumaiah’s Girls High School, Mysore. It was my 1st teaching experience. After that I took classes in Yeliyuru High school, Mandya and also in Banumaiah’s Boys High School. It was really a great experience in teaching kids and to learn something from them, had a great time with kids."

Akash V

"Had an awesome experience teaching the students of govt schools. Teaching something which was new to them. Showing them a better future. Never thought even I could do something helpful to this society. Spoorthi gave me an opportunity to make it possible. Keep up the good work..!!  I wish it continues n reaches each and every child who is in need of it."

Pooja D T

"I thank Spoorthi Foundation for organizing the Joy of Teaching Week.It really was a great experience and we sure learnt a lot more than we taught "

Roshni, SJCE, Mysore

"Thank you Spoorthi for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this wonderful event. Had a great time with the kids  keep up this good work!

Vijay Ravi

'Thanks for conducting the wonderful event. I really had a great time teaching and learning from the kids"

with regards

Varun S, SJCE, Mysore

Thank you, Spoorthi for giving us the opportunity to be an integral part of the Joy Of  eaching Week. Hope we continue to keep working together and hope that we will try to inspire as many people as possible. 

Thank you very much 

Adarsh, SJCE, Mysore

Please visit www.spoorthifoundation.org to know more about us

With Love,

Veer Santhosh

CEO

Spoorthi Foundation

My name is Sowjanya.K.R and I did my Engineering in Electronics and Communication in Maharaja Institute of Technology,India. I started my professional career as a trustee of Non - Profit Organizations (NGOs) Spoorthi Foundation. 

Reasons for choosing SPOORTHI FOUNDATION are:

-Teaching which helps me in fulfillment of contributing knowledge to the younger generation which is essential for the development of a society/culture/country etc.
- Working in an NGO regardless of the task, shows how serious you are on helping the society, in turn building my nation because NGO doesn't pay much or it's a pro bono job. 

- Usually, people with great passion to help the society works with an NGO. Thus this could be a strong point.

Our NGO has step in stamping the thoughts in building a super power India

- We used our skills in a productive way to make a difference, connect with our community and help poor children to contribute to a cause that we are caring about.
-  Accept each new experience as a chance to discover more about ourself while gaining valuable insight and knowledge. If we don't know how to do something, this is one of the best environments in which we can learn. 
- Personal development, especially in such areas as self-fulfillment, self-confidence and self-esteem often flourish in such programs. As we trained to do more tasks. We tried our best in making children more skilled and feel better about their self. .
-  We planned to make our self to be able to adapt and modify the theoretical constructs as required in order to meet my Country's needs. We fully recognized that our political, economic, and technological environments are constantly changing, and thus management needs to be able to adapt quickly and accurately to the new conditions with team prosper. 
- In fact successful improvement requires establishing a clear educational vision, seeking from new cultures, shared institutional mission, knowing and identifying areas for improvement, developing and designing strategic plans and implementing those plans for new programs in building a better nation. 

As being one of the trustees of SPOORTHI FOUNDATION, I believe my chosen profession will enable me to fulfill all of my desires to help people of my nation, who live in poority and will bring

positive changes in their way of life.

By Ayesha Iftiqhar

A few days back, I was asked to write an article emphasising the importance of education and that’s when I realised how little I know about the topic. I took a pen and a sheet of paper and sat down to write and after an hour I found myself staring at a blank sheet of paper. Disappointed with myself, I gave up. Luckily, I stumbled across an amazing article by Sam Harris- “No ordinary violence” and that’s when I read about this dauntless young girl- MALALA YOUSAFZI. Surely I was familiar with her story, but today I was drawn to learn more about her and was instantly inspired.

Malala began her fight against the ban on girl education by the Taliban at the age of 11, when she started blogging under the pseudonym Gul Makai in which she discussed life (specifically education) under the Taliban. This was later published by BBC Urdu. If her identity was ever revealed it was obvious that she would suffer grave consequences. Yet she continued to write and educate other individuals about the conditions in Pakistan and her views on promoting education for girls. She soon rose in prominence, a documentary of her life was filmed and she began giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize. A year ago, she was shot in the head in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home in a school bus after taking an exam, as a result of her non-compliance.

But the bullet intended to kill the 15 year old girl, only made her stronger and made her realise the power of a girl with a book. She continued advocating education for children, even while she was aware that the Taliban had reiterated its intent to kill her. She later started the Malala petition, which was signed by 3 million people. She believes that- One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.

The UN launched a petition in her name, using the slogan “I am Malala” and demanded that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. The UN also knighted 12^th of July as Malala day, to which she responded that Malala day is not her day, but instead is the day of all those people who have raised their voice for their rights. She was featured as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” and was nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala is now recognised as a universal face for children’s education, a winner of numerous prestigious awards and mostly as a winner of millions of hearts. She is an inspiration beyond measure and a role model who showed us all that we should never give up on a cause we believe in. But to me, she is the girl who re-educated the world about the importance and the power of education.