Bengaluru:

The Aashayein Foun­dation, a completely volu­nteer— run organisation has reached out to thousands of children since it was first formed in 2007. Chandan Raj, Ashwin B.M., Sunil Kumar, Somaiah M.P. and Ashish are software engineers brought together by an indomitable altruism. They bicker and laugh with each other as we talk in their ‘official’ meeting place, which doubles as a storage area, stacked with notebooks and whiteboards. With over 2000 volunteers in their network now, the Aashayein Foundation is a refreshingly low key, extremely driven organisation.

The foundation, which was registered as an NGO in mid 2007, runs four major programmes. Access to education is the primary focus, addressed by the Bachhe Mann ke Sachhe project. Pustaka Abhiyana creates an environment conducive for lea­r­ning by improving infrastructure in schools and providing children with basic needs like notebooks. The third programme, Shikshana Abhiyana has had the widest reach and focuses on the quality of education through spoken English classes and extra curricular activities.

Aashayein began with a New Year resolution made for 2007. “We were all just out of college, earning money for the first time and we thought we might as well be responsible about it,” said Chandan. So in the first week of January that year, they did what would become the first prong of the Aashayein Foundation — serve breakfast at the Karnataka Association for the Blind.
“Sunil’s uncle was serving breakfast on the street and we thought we’d go to an orphanage or blind school instead,” said Chandran. That Sunday morning proved so immensely satisfying that they decided to do it every week, roping in 150 volunteers in a little under two months.

A few weeks later, it was clear that serving breakfast wasn’t enough. “We wanted something that would have a greater impact,” said Sunil Kumar. The problems in India are many — health, sanitation, nutrition — that social workers are usually spoilt for choice.

Education, however, seemed the key to turning society around. “Even with education, there was plenty to deal with; we didn’t want to flounder in that ocean,” said Somaiah, who works at Cisco. Access to education was clearly the fundamental issue. “Our first project was bringing kids to schools,” he said. “It meant identifying kids who didn’t go to schools and enrolling them.”

The erstwhile Shivajina­gar slum, Jayanagar, Koramangala and later Whitefield became the haunts for the Aashayein Foundation where they encountered all sorts of issues. There are parents who can’t afford to send heir kids to school, but would like to. Sometimes the kids and the parents simply aren’t interested and “in these cases, we don’t force them,” interjected Chandan, “They are happy with the fifty rupees a day the children bring home.”

School fees are taken care of for the children who do enrol — the foundation has a budget of Rs 2,500 per child. “We pay 75% of the cost and ask the parents to contribute the rest, so that the whole family feels involved and committed,” said Somaiah.

This programme was limited to urban schools, but the scope was later widen­ed. Rural government-run schools became the new focus. “Logistics were a huge problem for us,” said Somaiah. That’s how the Gift your Village programme was born, to take advantage of the vast influx into Bengaluru from the rural parts of the state. “We ask people to conduct surveys in their own villages. Then we make them project coordinators for the work we do there.”

An official MoU is signed with the government and the foundation sets about providing the schools with infrastructure. There are currently 24 developmental programmes running in rural schools.
The pitiful state of so many government run schools runs far deeper than physical infrastructure. Teachers slack off, and many are not equipped with the skills to handle or teach a class of children. “This is where our volunteer programme took off,” said Sunil. Shikshana Abhiyana runs special classes on Saturdays — ranging from spoken English lessons to creating awareness on issues like cruelty to animals. This extends to summer camps, where the children get yoga, dance, music and even cooking lessons, all run by volunteers.

The Sunday breakfast serving programme, whi­ch started it all, remains the hallmark of the foundation. It is used as a way to initiate volunteers, so they see first hand the philosophy of the Aashayein Foun­dation. “We exist on commitment,” said Ashwin, one of the quieter members of the group. The volunteers are not paid and they don’t have to pay to volunteer, either.
Word-of-mouth has proved immensely successful for the organisation and an annual walkathon is their major fundraising event. Is that enough? “We get about 700 people who actually walk with us,” said Ashwin, “along with about 2000 ticket sales.” This is ample, they say.

A wonderfully simple method — an unshakeable faith in the innate goodness of humanity, has done wonders for the less privileged. Many, myself included, might raise a sceptical eyebrow at this very lofty notion, but the Aashayein Foundation seems to have hit upon something. “What has really changed is our perception of people,” said Somaiah. “We thought we would have to convince them to volunteer, but it turns out, we just had to give them a chance to do something they were only too happy to do!”

source:  http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / March 11th, 2013