The Vandemataram foundation has been on a drive to fight poverty, illiteracy and discrimination through their social outreach initiatives in hundreds of schools in Warangal and Mahbubnagar.
“Vandemataram is not an NGO, it’s a movement, a revolution,” says T Ravinder, introducing the foundation which is slowly but steadily transforming public education in villages and mandals across AP.
The foundation commenced operations in 2005, on the eve of the centenary celebrations of the national song, Vande Mataram.
Inspired by the teachings and philosophies of Vivekananda and APJ Abdul Kalam, the twelve-man team and 11,000 ground-level volunteers, have been working towards igniting young minds so they can lay the foundation for a better tomorrow.
“If we are able to successfully mould a classroom in a school today, we can mould the shape of the world,” believes journalist-turned-activist Ravinder, who’s the founder-trustee of the community development organisation.
Keeping true to their motto, the foundation has been on a drive to fight poverty, illiteracy and discrimination through their unique social outreach initiatives in hundreds of schools in Warangal and Mahbubnagar. The results are already showing — drop rates have fallen sharply, teacher absenteeism has slumped and student performance has improved drastically, in more than 120 schools in 10 mandals.
Recognising the problem of high-dropout rates among girls after high school, the foundation has adopted 600 girl children from these mandals, bearing all costs (including their bus pass, admission, tuition fees, study material) for their higher education. In return, these girls have an undertaking to return to their villages in the evening and conduct mentoring classes.
Another successful initiative of the organisation is their ‘Little Leaders’ programme aimed to help orphans and children of single-parents who constitute a majority of the student body in government schools. In the absence of established libraries, these kids serve as mobile libraries by carrying to school story books, moral studies tomes or any good literature provided by the foundation and make them available to the rest of their class. In the evening, they pack them up and bring them back. In turn, these children are rewarded by having a nominal amount of money added to their account for their future education. “Every person we help will help two in return. It will be a chain reaction so that everyone is affected,” the members say.
Despite a monthly expenditure of `4-5 lakh, the foundation says that they will not accept a rupee of government funding. The organisation was so far being funded by socially conscious businessmen from the City who shared its vision. “About 50-60 of us came together and wanted to help. So we started setting aside `1-2 lakh every year and giving it to support the foundation,” says Madhav Reddy, now the State secretary for Vandemataram. Recently, they have companies coming forward to sponsor programmes.
But they’re still only getting warmed up. Ahead they have clear development plan and specified goals. “We want to make Dr Kalam’s 2020 vision come true. Our aim is to create at least 1,00,000 responsible citizens in the country who will work towards change. And we intend to touch 1,000 government schools across the State. If we can achieve that, we can achieve full social justice,” explains Ravinder.
source: http://www.postnoon.com / Post Noon / Home> City / by Padmini Copparaju / June 14th, 2013