During the E-Day celebrations, among the colorful stalls, dance, music and fireworks I came across Karuna. An inititaive that is as old as I am on this campus. And yet, somehow, I had never heard about their inspiring work. And I am sure there are many like me. Here is what Karuna is all about. The following is a reconstruction of the text sent by Enginium's Smruti Ranjan.
Karuna was formed last year and initially it had 12 members. Two members have dropped out. They came together initially to help the children of all the labourers who were working on the various construction sites inside the campus. These were migrant workers and looked as if they did not know what to do with their kids. Most of these children ended up doing nothing except eating dirt and a lot of other un-eatables found around the construction site.
Giving them something worthwhile to do and also to eat became Karuna's first assignment. The Karuna volunteers provided the children something to eat- snacks, biscuits, fruits. But that was not enough. They then started searching for schools where they could enrol these children. They searched a lot of schools in the tehsil and after a lot of searching they came across Bal Seva Sadan, a school attended by kids from the villages around. The school has 60 children. It does not take any fees and is supported by three NGOs which give them an annual income of rs.30,000. What started as an attempt just to help the workers' kids turned into a full fledged engagement with the school. we distribute snacks, teach the kids and have also conducted a drawing competition in the school.
The Karuna team thought of printing the children's drawings as greeting cards but that went beyond their budget. But they plan to do it later. Their engagement with the school has increased.
And their efforts have been helped by the fact that nearly 100 people have registered for Karuna. Now they plan to arrange our entire workforce and start proper classes for the school. The principal has requested the Karuna team to prepare special lessons in English, Mathematics and Environmental Sciences. One of the very obvious handicaps for the school is a sad lack of teachers, they have four of them and they too are not equipped enough. there is also a language barrier that the Karuna volunteers face.
They are currently working on preparing the entire course for the school including screening of certain movies and if possible certain lessons on the laptop. And their Diwali gift for the kids is notebooks, pens and pencils and sweets for the entire school.
The website for Karuna is almost ready and the team has furthered the the procedure for registering Karuna as a cooperative. They are also working towards joining hands with Kasturba, an orphanage in Sikar.
The Karuna girls want to start an evening school for all the child labourers around the campus but for that they need support from all of us. I request all of you to help these wonderful girls in whatever way/capacity you can.
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