Focus on Primary Education
In Karnataka there are around 45,000 such schools. Many of them are unable to ensure minimum reading/writing/scholastic levels. As primary education is one of our main charters, Sikshana who are in the space of Education reached out to us. Sikshana is addressing this at a systemic level by augmenting what is already being done by the government, through innovative management, training and resources that are helping to make a visible change in these schools. Sikshana supports around 400 schools.
MindTree has joined hands with Sikshana and we support 10 schools in and around Kanakapura taluk, catering for a total of 1000+ children at a cost of Rs. 500 per child per year. This initiative helps us to strengthen our Primary Education charter.
Dream To Reality
The primary motto of this initiative is to help the children dream big and achieve their dreams without worrying about the feasibility of the same. It is the endeavour of this program to support these children financially, morally, emotionally and in all respects until their dreams are achieved.
About Somanahalli:
Somanahalli, a village 110 kilometers away from Bangalore, is in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. A good samaritan of this place, who was deprived of higher education due to lack of facilities at the local Village School, took it upon himself to address this problem. He dropped a letter to Mr. Moses asking for help and thus was born the Somanahalli Village Project.
- Starting with an initial fund of Rs. 2.5 lakh that Mr.Ashok Soota received for endorsing Deutsch Bank, it has come a long way. Some of the improvements carried out as part of this initiative are as follows:
- Providing school building to house all the students. Earlier, only 2 classes were conducted in proper classrooms and the other six were under the trees.
- Appointing more teachers and paying their salaries
- Providing toilets for the girl students
- Conducted an awareness camp to educate the people against female foeticide
- Streamlined the energies and efforts of the various groups and formed a youth social welfare organization - VYSWO which is responsible for the upkeep and regular execution of these initiatives
- Made the village a liquor free zone
- Set up a tailoring institute to impart training to the women who could then use their skills to find themselves jobs in garment factories.
- Have set up computer education in the school and have appointed a teacher for the same. The teacher was trained in Bangalore.
The students of eighth standard were brought over to our facility for an educational tour. They were introduced to computers and were also entertained with some skits to convey the importance of education, hard work, commitment, dreaming big etc.
Currently, 15 children from the Somanahalli village school are continuing their secondary school at boarding schools in nearby districts. Their educational expenses are being borne by 15 MindTree employees who are identified as the blessed parents. These children are visited by their MindTree siblings at regular intervals to help keep the strong emotional bond in tact. The first batch has already moved to the 11th Standard, with just one drop out till date. Our recent visit to these schools and interaction with the school officials has given us the confidence that we can achieve our motto.
It is our dream that Somanahalli becomes a “ Model Village” that can set an example for the growth path other villages in the country can adopt.