After the wonderful conversation with Pruthvik and his mother, we were more than delighted and excited to meet the next child to speak about his experience and aspirations in life.

That is when we headed to Chethan’s house. A short but sharp boy with dreams to reach out, he was excited and looking forward as much as we were. In conversation with him we realised that, it is not about the destination but the journey, the journey of this little boy walking towards his dreams. We met him and started the conversation about his education, career and asked him how helpful our foundation was. That is when we understood, Chethan is an enthusiastic and eager child. 

He has finished his 10^th and looking forward to join Pre University. Further talking to, the situation with him was similar to that of the other children we spoke to, he vaguely had knowledge about the career choices he could make, what suited him best and what choices would help him shape his career. Chethan was counselled by Mr. Santhosh, for him to understand his strengths and weaknesses for which he could choose his further path in career. That is when Chethan decided on taking up commerce stream. Beyond this vagueness one thing was for sure the spark in his eye to know more, study and overcome it. He lacked guidance, someone to explain him the choices that he had. His parents do their best to provide him education but they too lag behind in knowing the current opportunities. His father is a Tailor and Mother, a home maker. He has a younger brother who is very intelligent and bright in his studies. They want their children to study well and reach greater heights for which they are ready to work hard, to meet the expenses of their Children’s education. What really caught my mind was the fact that they were so supportive and willing to do the best for their children. They said that they want their children to lead a better and secure life, which is the dream of every parents.   

What difference has Spoorthi foundation done? The reply was that it has done wonders by both Chethan and his mother.He had switched from Kannada medium to English medium school, which was a great challenge for him, coping with subjects and in addition to that was the English language. He shared with us some of his initial day incidents at school which he can never forget. On the first day of his school his first class was mathematics. When the teacher took the class, everything was alien to him, he was worried and scared. But then he met the team of Spoorthi foundation, who promised to help him. He wanted study and understand all the subjects, which is why he showed interest and attended all the sessions conducted by Spoorthi foundation where some of the other children of his class would make excuses to not attend the classes. 

As time passed he started picking up and understanding the lessons being thought in class, with the help of his mentors of the foundation. He very well recalls how Mr. Santhosh made mathematics fun, and how history lessons by Mr. Kushal turned the battles and dynasties of history into stories that could easily be understood and the dates could be well remembered.

His mother throughout the conversation had a broad smile on her face reflecting how she felt contended by his son’s improvement. Her mother said that the reason for his progress is Spoorthi foundation team. She said all the areas which he found it difficult to cope. She also told the team that she wants to see her son converse fluently in English. For which we suggested him to start practicing and attend classes in the weekend which we conduct for improving the speaking skills.

The short fall from our side, which Chethan pointed out just like Pruthvik and his mom was that the foundation should have stretched their hand out for help a little earlier, which could have made a better impact for them.

The whole conversation ended on a happy note, motivating us to do more and keeping up to their expectations. When the children’s eye look up to us with expectations, wanting us to be their guides or mentors it really becomes a great responsibility from our side. Eventually that is was inspires us to keep going and do more for the children.    

Article written by Sahaja Bhargavi
Photos by Faizan Baksh

I once knew a man who talked about ideals, values, principles and kept telling me not to compromise with them. Integrity is everything. No matter what the situation you are in, do not bow down to the circumstances. They test you and you should not lose to them.

I believe time has come a full circle. The man once I knew is a transformed man now. He talks about making money, and believes ideals are bullshit. For a moment I agreed to him. But then my conscience would not let me fall prey to such thoughts. I always believed Money is a valuable entity only if it's doing good for the humanity. Otherwise its just a piece of paper.

Last year when we started Teach & Learn in association with Project ReachOut, we were very sure that it will work and we would make difference in the lives of the students of two schools. To some extent, it did. Last week we got results of SSLC and they were pretty good. Our work didn't reflect on the marks they scored but in the confidence that they want to study told us a very different story.

As promised in the beginning of our program we wanted to make sure that those kids do not dropout and get quality education to fulfill their dreams. So we made two teams to visit the homes of those children and interact with the parents.

On Saturday, 16th May, it was around 5 PM when I reached Pruthvik's home near Terressian College, Mysuru and I was drenched in rain. I was warmly welcomed by his mother and a plate full of sweet. Then I interacted with her for 20 mins. Pruthvik's father is an auto driver and he is in Bengaluru. His mom takes care of his education and his father is least bothered about it.  Then after counselling his interests they decided he would join for Diploma in Mechanical or Electronics.

Later that day , I visited five more students and interacted with their parents. The parents were very happy that we are investing our time in doing good for their children. The affection with which they talk to us gives a proud feeling to all of us.

On Sunday, our team members, Sandeep and Akash, visited three students and met their parents.

Here is what Sandeep says,

  "It was a very good experience when we meet the students and their parents. I just felt their thankfulness in their words and the way they talked and greeted us. Some parents don't have any idea about higher education and they have left to their children wish regarding the higher studies. Some have big dreams that they wanted to see them in a good position. And they have full hopes on our decision regarding their children's higher education and they were seeking our suggestions and they have full hopes in our decision or suggestions. Totally it was a nice experience"

Here is Akash's words

"It was a new experience to me. It felt really good when we get positive response from the parents. And more than the proud feeling that we got, it encouraged us to not to stop doing good work. And It was a great feeling to see the children and parents happy"

We are on a journey now. Chasing our dreams and helping the children chase theirs. In the next post, we will be sharing about 14 children we are supporting.

We need you support in supporting these children. If you wish to make a donation, Please click HERE

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Santhosh S V
Spoorthi Foundation
www.spoorthifoundation.org

BIMBA – is the reflection of our “Spoorthi Foundation”.

It was the first ever thought of fund raising Photography Exhibition by our team through which we can reach the public, tell them about our cause, enlighten the thought in them about how important is right to education for each and every child in this society, spend every single rupee in doing our bit in providing education to children, encouraging them to get educated by supporting them financially and morally.

It was three wonderful days with beautiful photographs, with the Spoorthi team who were working day and night to make the event a success, with friends and family who came to support us, with the press and the public who came to encourage us and help us to reach more people.

I was literally overwhelmed and very thankful by the response and support that we received by ALL for Bimba.

When we say, this is a fund raising event, the first thought that will hit the public is, are they raising the fund for their wellness or is it really for the good cause. This is the actual scenario in the present society. People around us will have concern about what we are doing but when it comes to involvement the response is very minimal. It is both the concern and involvement is all it takes to build every child’s dream that they may have in life. In all its fullness!

I believe that every child has the right to shine and has the right to live life in all its fullness that respects and develops their personality and abilities. Don’t you think so?

Let us all join hands together in caring for others children as well than always caring our own family; Let us show our love to them and we will be thrilled by the unconditional love that we get in return from those little children; Let’s share our knowledge, teach them, guide them, spend some time with them; Let’s support and encourage them to join the mainstream of society as educated and productive citizens.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”

                                                                                                 -Nelson Mandela

Let’s do it!

Anvitha Anand

President,

Spoorthi Foundation

She completed her engineering degree in Computer Science from Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore.

Currently she works for Cerner Corporation as Software Engineer in Bengaluru.

Someone truly said Learning never ends. May be that’s the reason why Goddess Saraswathi still has a book in her hand. But we always confuse education with degrees. We need to understand that getting a degree is not equal to getting educated. Remember professionals built Titanic while amateurs created Microsoft and Apple.

We humans evolved learning from our mistakes. And the knowledge that we have now is because of our ancestors who passed on their knowledge by sharing with their next generation.  Ideally in order to grow and prosper as a community, we have to share the little knowledge we have with our fellow human beings.

With this motive of sharing the knowledge with the students of government schools, we conducted a unique event called JOY OF TEACHING WEEK from Nov 6 – Nov 12, 2013. You can read the report here

We just wanted people to come to the government schools, interact with the kids and make them feel that society cares for them. And we succeeded in inspiring some people to take up social cause. We will bring you these people in front of you soon.

Enough said. We will be having second edition of Joy of Teaching week from Nov 3 – Nov 8, 2014.  We proudly invite you to be a part of it and discover the teacher in you. If you have a heart that beats for the nation, make use of this opportunity. Let this be the beginning of a great journey that you always wanted to take and never took because of various reasons.

Goal: 

1. Inspire kids

2. To make people realize the lives of students in govt. schools and Spoorthi’s efforts in working for a cause to give better education and encouraging people to contribute in terms of funds, time, sponsoring etc.

How it works:

• Have you ever dreamt of becoming a teacher? Or given a chance, would you want to teach the kids? Here is your chance. Irrespective of your age and career, spend time with kids in schools and share what you know.
• Are you a sportsman willing to spend some time with kids? Visit us, explain how that game is played, what is meant by team player, share your experience, good and hard times, inspire kids.
• Are you a science enthusiast? Come and share with kids a few interesting experiments. 
• Are you a doctor? Share few health tips.
• Are you a Musician? Teach them a song, see the vibrancy in them.
• Are you a craft maker? Teach kids the art of cutting and pasting paper. You know kids will love that.
• Are you a traveler? Share your experience about places you have visited.
• Mysore/Bangalore is a place where people from different parts of the world come and live. Share with kids the importance of your place/city/village, culture, festivals and what you learnt.

Have no clue on what to share? We are there to help you. Spend some time with kids, play with them. They are a bundle of love. They make you laugh, jump and run.

Who can be part of it: Anyone! Everyone! We feel anyone is not worth missing the joy of seeing the spark in the kid’s eye as they learn how to draw a perfect circle for the first time or when they learnt a new game.

COME, SHARE, ENJOY, INSPIRE and BE A PART OF THE JOY OF TEACHING WEEK!

Ways to contact us for enrollment,queries or

You can email us: spoorthifoundationmysore@gmail.com

Message us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/spoorthi.ngo  or RSVP here