Chennai
This is one of the many initiatives taken by the NGO to provide financial assistance and material support in the form of school bags, notebooks and uniforms for Class 12 girl students. It also organises regular counselling and yoga sessions for these girls, to help them perform well.
Founded by Rajalingam Manickavasan in 2015, the trust has reached out to around 1,500 students. “I come from a sports background. After finishing my engineering, I started a sports venture. I decided to start a sports event exclusively for women but unfortunately, that didn’t take off,” says Rajalingam, who also the brain behind the Chennai Prink Run, aimed at spreading awareness about breast cancer.
He had also started looking into the issue of girls education deeply. “I wanted to do something that would make a difference. My mother always talked about my grandfather, who ensured that all his five daughters finished education. That was the beginning of actually making a difference. I started understanding the education system and found that most girls from underprivileged backgrounds go to school till Class 10. After that, they struggle to study further for various reasons,” he says.
To tackle the drop-out problem, he decided to focus on three factors. “First is to help them financially, and material needs. Some female students struggle to pay for the extra books or notebooks. Some of them have come to us saying they do not want to go to school because their uniform is torn. One can understand the trauma of the girls at that age. We help them deal with all these concerns,” he explains.
Secondly, they conduct counselling sessions for the students. “We know how vulnerable kids are during their teenage years. These children do not have the luxuries to go to a counsellor. We arrange for free counselling sessions wherein they can discuss their worries. The basic yoga session is to help them relax,” says Rajalingam. “The third factor is to help them with exam preparations. The idea is to get ready for the board exams, so that they finish school and gauge their future plans.”
The trust reaches out to students from different schools and help them perform well. “Our idea is to complement the work that the government does and ensure that more girls receive quality education.”
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