NGO mobilises volunteers to help teach, train underprivileged kids

Growing up in Arni village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district, Karthee Vidya saw many friends not being able to afford even a notebook to write. “I had a friend who could not buy a long notebook that was required to be brought to class because his family did not have much money. After a few years, my mother enrolled me at a private school in Chennai, where I received good education. It was disturbing to me that my friends in the village, on the other hand, could not get a good education because they couldn’t afford it. I understood how important education is, in allowing people to have opportunities,” says Karthee.

Soon after he finished his education, and landed a job at a multi-national tech firm in the city, he got together with a few colleagues to pool in some money that was used to buy school uniforms and books for children in Sirumoor village of Tiruvannamalai district. “That was how Team Everest took birth. We visited the villages and helped these children receive the books they needed. I believe that if everyone in our country can volunteer at least for one day in a month – we can all make a lot of difference to our education system, being a country of 1.3 billion people,” Karthee,the founder of Chennai-based Team Everest, stresses.

With a total of 15,000 volunteers – scattered across India and other countries — the NGO primarily works with government schools and colleges on digital literacy and helps students receive quality education. “Through a mobile application, we allow volunteers from any part of the world to teach students from government schools that we work with. We also have a fellowship programme called ‘I am the Change’, which currently helps 400 students from underprivileged backgrounds, who are parentless or have single parents, pursue undergraduate programmes,” he elaborates.

Volunteers from any part of the country get a choice to pick any mode of volunteering — from raising funds, working with children from government schools to contributing their time to the NGO’s ongoing initiatives. The volunteers include students, working professionals who give their timeafter office hours, and techies who want to contribute through various Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) initiatives.

Team Everest works with a total of 100 government schools across the country. “We also work on environment initiatives, making students a part of efforts to reduce waste, harvest rainwater, and run their own kitchen gardens. There are also programmes to equip the children with 21st century skills, like leadership, communication, etc.,” adds Karthee.

In 2020, the team wants to expand its ‘I am the Change’ fellowship programme to another 400 students in Coimbatore and Madurai. “Education has the power to impact not just an individual, but an entire generation. Our aim is to work more on our rural outreach programme and get to villages where no corporates or NGOs reach and help students through tuition centres and after-school programmes,” he remarks.