SRI RAMACHANDRA GRAMEENA VIDYA VIKASA KENDRA TRUST
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Mission Statement
Mission Statement of the Sri Ramachandra Grameena Vidya Vikas Kendra Trust To run a charitable school catering to the poor and underprivileged sections of society, particularly, children belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the backward amongst OBC castes and to any poor minorities. To impart quality education so that these deprived children are able to compete and perform as well as their counterparts from well to do families and well-funded schools. By finding suitable donors, to help the children complete their education till at least high school. To help the children become financially independent by arranging vocational training. To impact the larger community, by spreading the message that education is paramount, even for adults, and that it is education that would eradicate the evils of child marriage and family destroying habits such as alcoholism and domestic violence. To attract good Samaritans from the medical community to conduct medical camps so that these children and their families would benefit. To give special emphasis for the counseling of the children as they face huge difficulties due to their poverty and social circumstances. To give special emphasis on girls counseling as they mature. To enhance the learning capacity of these children and lay the foundations to make them good citizens. To provide them nutritious food and supplements and to ensure holistic education, for mind and body, through activities such as yoga, meditation and sports.
About This Cause
This is a story of a unique school which caters to the poor and underprivileged sections of society, started in an originally rural environment. All the children belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the backward amongst OBC castes. The parents have very low income as they are mostly unskilled construction labour, auto-rikshaw drivers, maids, masons, brick makers, coolies, etc. Some of the families are beset by problems often associated with these strata of society, such as illiteracy, ill health, domestic violence and alcoholism. That the children come from such deprived backgrounds is difficult to imagine when we see the smiles and ebullience all around in the school. The evidence is writ large on their faces that they love the school and the teachers and want to learn. Truly the school has made a big impact on the local environment evident when one speaks to the parents. They make the point that the Trust school has given their wards a significant fillip in education helping them to grow out of the mire of poverty and deprivation. The Government recognized school has been set up by the Sri Ramachandra Grameena Vidya Vikas Kendra Trust (SRGVVK) in 1991. Grameena refers to rural and Vidya is education. Hence the name reflects their motto, which is - enabling rural poor children to the same level of opportunity and competence as their better off urban counterparts. Behind these happy phenomena, lies an organization run by a committed family who have dedicated more than two and a half decades of their lives to this cause. The story of the family’s 27 years’ effort is amazing because: o The school was started in a then remote village without public transport, electricity & water supply facilities. o There were no other schools in the vicinity and the area was wilderness with only village habitation. o The founder’s family was lower middle class with only one bread earner and they had their own two children’s future to think about. o They had no donors when they started the school. And yet, they opened their hearts and shared from their own family’s meagre savings for the sake of these children. o Today there are some donors but the donations are not adequate to make up for the shortfall. The family unhesitatingly part with their limited earnings, which continues even today. o When the Trustees noticed the need, they did not hesitate to start a day care center for tiny tots of the labour class women who had to go out to earn. o The family have parted with a large part of their own property for the school building, retaining only a small portion for their humble dwelling. o In keeping with the traditional Indian family that they are, they are a joint family – it is heartening that all members of the family young to old, children to grandparents contribute their mite to running the school and handling the myriad issues connected with small children. The school is located in a village called Vaddarapalya which was, till recently, classified as a rural pocket outside Bangalore. The school is located about 30 kms from the city and now has nearly 200 children. It caters to the children of Vadarapalya along with those of nearby villages, namely, Jambusavari Dinne, Ragavanapalya, Ashraya Colony (Free Site), Gollahalli, etc. The school was built up little by little over the years, starting only with 10 children and till recently had facilities only till 5th standard. It was commenced in a small shed. Once the children completed the 5th standard, they had to move out to other schools. Recently, after much effort, classes 6th to 7th have been started. But what about the children when they grow beyond these classes? Once again the commitment of the Trustees stands out. They do not abandon the children to their fates once they pass out from the school. The Trustees start speaking to other schools to absorb the children for higher classes. In fact, the quality of the education imparted in the SRGVVK Trust school is of such high quality that, as reputed and high standing institution, such as Vijay High School in Jayanagar Bangalore accepts these children. The reputation of the SRGVVK and the respect earned by the teachers is such that Vijay High School does not even insist in reassessing the children and allows them to walk into the next standards. The poverty of the children makes it impossible to take up higher education. Once again the heart of the SGRVVK Trust shows. They toil to find donors who will support the child till completion of education. Very heartening is the fact that some of the children have now passed out of Polytechnics and one of them is even doing engineering in a reputed college called AMC College of Engineering. Some even got into premier institutions such as Wipro. Knowing the very humble backgrounds of these children, this is equivalent to climbing the highest mountains. The hearts of the Trustees is pure love incarnate evident when one looks at the school operations. The Managing Trustee, Rohini is like a matriarch who is the driving soul behind the daily operations fussing about the children and ensuring that they are taken care of as if they were her own. Initially, the Trustees did not even ask donations as they felt that they should give off their own savings. Gradually as the school size got bigger and more parents were convinced that sending their children to SGRVVK Trust school was beneficial, the Trustees faced serious funds crunch. But as the village was so remote to even attract donors to visit the school, getting donations was difficult. However, the Trustees persisted and some donations started trickling in from well wishers and good Samaritans such as Jindal group, Inner Wheel of Rotary club and World Teachers’ Trust. Some of the donors give notebooks and others, school uniforms and shoes. The accounts of the Trust, which are audited, however always showed a significant gap between income and expenditure. Often times, the Trustees had to borrow to keep the school running! Overall though, the school survives thanks to the contribution of the donors. Thanks to other well wishers from public sector bank employees and other institutions, the Trust could finally build a pucca building for the classes, albeit with sheet roof and short partitions to separate the classes. The latest additions are a few toilets for the children & play equipment, which was contributed by another group of well wishers. However, the financial wolf is always at the door – running expenses are always a challenge. Since they could not afford to pay teachers’ salaries, for many years, the Trustees themselves taught the children sharing the teaching load amongst themselves. But as the school class size grew and more classes were added, the Trust had to hire teachers. Sadly, the school is able to pay only very small salaries to the hired teachers; the amounts are as small as are earned by house maids in the cities! Being a public serving institution using public donations, the Trustees have realized that they should be clean and evidence should show that. Hence, the books of the Trust are audited regularly, their accounts are submitted to the Charity commissioner and the Government of Karnataka, who have recognized the school. While the school per se is not an aided institution by the Government, the day care center receives limited funding from the Child and Welfare department of the Govt. The Income Tax Dept. of the Government of India have recognized the school as a charitable institution and provided 80G exemption to the donors. The efforts of the Trust got a fillip everytime a major newspaper did a voluntary article on the school. The New Indian Express Sunday City Express Bangalore published an article with photo about the Trust school entitled “No fees, school runs on just toil” by their correspondent Dhanya Lakshmanan. On 3rd January, 2006, reputed Kannada news paper, PRAJAVANI published an article about Trust school activities written by Ms. M. Bhanumathi, correspondent (who incidentally, was a student of the Trust school!). More recently, on August 10th, 2009, The Times of India Bangalore Edition, under the grouping `Sunshine Schemes’ written by Ms.Arpita Misra correspondent. She concluded the article with the words’ “The no-frills-attached school wears the most rustic look. Yet the beaming smiles speak volumes of the service it offers.” The main driver of the institution, Mr. Venugopal, who is the Executive Trustee, has had a long history of social service. In fact, his father, who was a priest, put much effort into pushing the Government to start a school in a village near Mysore. Venugopal himself, in his younger days, lead the Yuvak Kendra to spread the message of family planning. He also commenced adult education classes. In fact, when the SGVVK Trust school was started, the parents, being illiterate themselves, refused to send their children to the school, pointing out to the ability of the children to be able to add to the family coffers, albeit in limited amounts or explaining that the nearest government school was a few kilometers away with no public transport available. Some of the parents, had turned into anti social elements for want of employment & education. In such a milieu, Venugopal and his wife Rohini went house to house convincing the parents of the benefits of structured institutional education for the children. Facing huge resistance, they finally offered mid day meals to the children to incentivize the parents to part with their wards! To further incentivize the villagers, the Trustees started adult education camp in and around the villages and organized Medical camps with the help of well wisher doctors and the Government primary health care center in Konankunte, a nearly by rural area. In 1996, with the help of Women and Child Development Dept, the Trust opened a unit under the Govt. scheme ‘Swashakthi’ and gave training to down trodden and widow women in Agarbatthi rolling. 25 Women were benefited and are earning their livelihood after getting training. This scheme ran for 2 years.