REACHING OUT

This is the story of an experience, and I would like to share it with the people all around us.

Staying in the middle of nowhere in Pilani as we do, the world for us often begins and ends with the walls of the institute. Venturing outside to the seemingly primitive village outside is definitely out of our comfort zone. So, when we did decide to step out of the cocoon of the Institute to do something for the local students of Gyan-Bodh, a few nervous glances and weird looks were not exactly out of order.

But before I go any further, what is Gyan-Bodh?

Gyan-Bodh. Like most BITS-ians, we used to have a rather vague idea about it. Maintained by some of the most down-to-earth and modest people in this campus, it has never truly been publicized for what it is. So, I guess I’ll be all the better if I began with introducing everyone to Gyan-Bodh.

Gyan-Bodh was the first venture by the NGO started by BITS-ians called NIRMAAN. It was started in 2005 with a view of tutoring the under-privileged local school kids in their studies and sometimes in skill oriented subjects. The other aims of this initiative was to reduce the school drop-out rates in the region (which are very high, especially among the local slum-kids) and popularize studies among the local children. This school began with an aim of catering to students of third to twelfth standard. It was started with an initial investment of only Rs.900 in a park just outside the BITS campus with the students as teachers. It was a rather unique model of education. At times it was to support the students who already went to school, but were weak in academics due to lack of proper support. At other times it was just to entice the non-school going children back to the realms of education, albeit in a rather informal way.

It was a thundering success. The children flocked like bees to this open-air school with its young teachers and friendly smiles. Suddenly, studies were fun again. The volunteers from NIRMAAN tireless in their efforts as usual created a structure of Project Leads, Assisstant Project Leads and volunteers so that there would be teachers to teach the kids on all the days. They also started going to the slums at a regular intervals to make sure more of the drop-outs at least came to the evening classes in Gyan-Bodh. For the school going children, a regular check-up with the school reports is a necessity. Surprisingly, as the concept gained popularity among the villagers, small brothers and sisters could be seen tagging along with the regular students to the classes.

And so we stand at the end of 4 years of the initiative. We were just onlookers, and as I said, till recently we were not even well aware of what Gyan-Bodh truly was. Today we know. It means change, it means sacrifice, it means patriotism, all in the shadow of the Bodhi tree of Education.

We salute these change makers.

For more information on Gyan-Bodh and the other activities of NIRMAAN, please log on to - http://www.nirmaan.org/page/Gyanbodh.aspx