Chennai youth nurture underprivileged children for 9 months, become heroes

With Chennai having six such learning centers across the city, a base of over 200 volunteers consisting of professionals and college students spend their weekend imparting essential life skills, teaching subjects, as well as instilling a sense of confidence in the kids. 

Talking about the intiative, Sowmya Seshadri, a student, said that her campaign to raise funds has already been fulfilled, thanks to the impressive response on social media. 

“For instance, the center I volunteer at is Kalaiselvi Karunalaya, which meets the academic needs of 28 underprivileged girls. These students are from hugely disadvantaged backgrounds. I’ve personally seen how education can be a game changer in their lives. I’ve seen shy and inhibited children not only gaining knowledge but also getting better grades and a boost in their confidence. We are an all-women group of volunteers full of working women and students at this particular centre, and it really helps the children look at us like role models,” she said.

Sowmya even travels from her hometown Bengaluru to Chennai every weekend when she’s on vacation to interact with the kids. “The kind of teaching methods everyone uses is very different, and there is a creative way of learning at play. So, we all make an effort to keep the #HeroUp campaign going strong.”

R Akash, one of the Chapter Fellows for Chennai said that they have been active for around for years in the city. 

“We have around 200 volunteers here who raise money with this #HeroUp campaign from November to January, and the funds are used across centres to help the kids. We have our very own curriculum. We are hoping to expand to ten centres soon and continue the progress here.”