Chip-In: Make a Difference - Part 2

As soon as we were done loading the books, one guy came up to us and asked us which school we were headed too. We showed him the list and he pointed to another guy standing in a red shirt and told us in Kannada that he would be our guide. We greeted the other guy and he told us that the first school was about 8 kms from where we were standing and the other two schools were within 3 km radius of the the first. We were to follow him on his motorbike as he would lead us to our destinations. Later, we found out that this gentleman was actually managing a few schools, representing the Government, in the district including the three schools where we were headed.

We followed him and some 15 minutes later were being assisted by boys of the first school in unloading the sets of books that were stacked up in the boot of my car. As we made our way into the school, we were again greeted by an elderly lady who also happened to be the Headmistress of this school. She lead us into what was probably the largest classroom in the complex where we were welcomed by a large group of smiling students who were seated in a neat formation on the ground. 

We took about 5 minutes to arrange the books in order on a large table placed at the head of the room, while I cross-checked the number of students in each class with the Headmistress - 5 in Class1, 9 in Class2, 14 in Class3, etc etc....till Class8 which had around 12 students. 

Let me take some time and give you a history of how Government Schools work, especially in Karnataka. These are schools found in almost every nook and corner of our villages and also quite a few in Bangalore which are fully funded by the State Government. The students are provided with a uniform, text books, picture cards, chalk and other stationery. A pictorial form of education is imparted in the earlier years and hence, note books are not provided. 

However, there is a limit upto which pictorial education is good. Beyond that a student needs to write stuff and the notebooks required for this are unfortunately not available, free of cost. This is where we corporates 'chip in' and make sure these students get the books they require. The sad thing is that if we don't contribute, these students will go the entire year without text books and you can only imagine the kind of learning that would actually gain.

We started to distribute the books through the hands' of my colleagues daughter Mishka. The students lined up one by one from Class 1 to Class 8, collected their set of books, posed for a picture and returned to their places while the rest of the class applauded. 

I think the happiness and smiles on the face of the students and the pride with which they held onto their set of notebooks is something that cannot be easily described using words. It needs to be experienced first-hand!

Around 1000 books were distributed in the first school - Shettykotinaadu, but the other two schools were far far smaller. The second one infact had only 17 students in total from Class1 and Class5, which included 2 handicapped students. In another hour, we had completed out quota and as we were about to leave the Manager came and shook our hands and said in his broken English - "Come next year also, please!" 

"Sure", we replied,and spent some more time with the children clicking photos.

Donating for a noble cause is really good, but if you get to see the fruits of your philanthropy it provides you with a totally different perspective towards life, so I would recommend all of you to volunteer whenever you can for a social cause.

It may cost you one Saturday of your life, which you would have rather wasted away sleeping or watching TV, but for these children it makes a real big difference - and this was exactly the theme that was printed on the back of our purple t-shirts which read 'Chip-In: Make a Difference!'