Youth is a time of fulfilling one’s dreams. While most people in this phase of their lives aspire for a satisfying life by working for themselves, few such men, Surender Yadav, Akash Mishra, and his teammate Lucky, Shyam, Deepak, Yogender, vouched to do the same by working for the future of the society.
They made their service a great source of satisfaction, making themselves stand out from the rest. Surender, one of the founders and the visionary, is an engineer by qualification. He did his B.Tech from the Vellore Institute of Technology. Akash did his social management at the Central University of Gujarat.
How did it all start?
Surender and Akash are both Gandhi fellowship alumni. Lucky and Shyam are also engineers and associated part-time with SRI and are core team members of SRI. Two stalwarts of the organization, Deepak and Yogender, contribute as the program coordinator and program admin. This organization manifests progress and education that will unfold into a bright future through their tireless efforts.
Akash Mishra and Surender Yadav started Self Reliant India in Rewari, district of Haryana.
Self-Reliant India operates in three districts Rewari, Jhajjar, and Nuh(Mewat) of Haryana. Their organization has two innovative programs: Nanhe Kalam and Whole School Transformation. Nanhe Kalam is an initiative that aims to empower the students through exceptional help and training in government schools. Children are provided with additional classes of two hours to help them prepare for admission into Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
They are prestigious residential schools providing quality education and are financed by the Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development). In Nanhe Kalam, children learn Mathematics, Reasoning (Mental Ability), and Hindi as a part of their curriculum for writing the entrance exam to gain them access to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
Workshops by Self Reliant India
Many aspiring teachers are also gifted with the opportunity to express their skills while they prepare for JBT and B.ED. These young educators (SRI Fellows) working for the organization are primarily volunteers (significantly less stipend) who are giving their all to uplift the many deprived children in the villages. Monthly workshops are painstakingly organized for the teachers in which the different ways of capacity building are taught.
These workshops are training grounds for them to build strong careers in education. Moreover, as the teachers are primarily women, there’s no hesitation in saying that the workshops are crystal reflections of women’s empowerment.
It also conducts classroom transactions and other activities during monthly fellow capacity-building workshops.
Weekly Assessment
Under the organization’s programs, it conducts weekly assessments to measure the students’ progress. The results of the assessments are discussed and analyzed during parent-teacher meetings. It helps them to understand the weaknesses and strengths of the student.
Surender Yadav also considers his organization a harmonious family, where everyone looks after each other and propels ahead on the wheels of mutual trust, love and friendship. The organization’s core has been molded from the soil of Gandhian principles of believing that there is no greater policy than honesty in self-reliant India. The organization has quite a few remarkable achievements to share as well. In 2018, twenty-one students benefited by getting admission into Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
Talking of the past comparative, only 8-10% of the government school students could clear the admission for the prestigious school. While talking of the present situation, from Rewari district itself, 35% and above students, who are continuing from Government Schools, got selected to the Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya.
It was like a dream come true for the villagers. All credit for the same goes to the team of Self-Reliant India. Their consistent efforts are changing the face of rural India. Ninety percent of students in Government Primary School Raliawas (One of the SRI Intervention Schools) have enrolled in government schools due to the efforts of Surender Yadav and his team.
What’s the aim??
The Whole School Transformation program aims to transform the very system of government schools in Haryana. The aim is to make the system at par with the Jawahar Navodaya system. They have improved the face and state of government schools as well. The organization members also motivate the community to collect funds. It then contribute them to the infrastructure and beautification of government schools.
Repair of toilets, the revival of the dull walls of the schools with fresh paint, installation of green boards and whiteboards in every classroom are some of the infrastructure works. A spurt of lush vegetation is also visible as organization has planted trees extensively within the walls of the schools. Although, there was a time when insurmountable administrative hurdles pushed their organization to the brink of collapse. Today, they are helping countless lives to make a difference.
3 Years Journey
Self-Reliant India has progressed for three years now and has led to creating fifty-two Nanhe Kalams. These Nanhe Kalams are now getting a chance to become self-reliant individuals. Also, SRI has created fifty-plus Community Learning Centers, reaching more than thousands of students and building the capacity of seventy-plus youth. This year the organization has become partners with Barefoot college Tiloniya to help them create role models from Tiloniya and surrounding villages.
Self-Reliant India also conducts the Weekly assessments to measure the progress of the students.
One appeal Self-Reliant India has for the citizens, in general, is that they take an interest in the improvement of government schools. If anyone is passionate enough to fulfil this purpose then do contact +91 8295023543 (Surender Yadav). SRI is currently organizing crowdfunding as a part of its 2020-21 plan to benefit 750+ children in three districts of Haryana. You can follow them over Facebook
With an aim to change more lives in rural India. SRI Team is doing a fundraising campaign. It will also help them in adding more funds to enable better and educated children from the rural part of state Haryana.
Team SRI would love to have more supporters with them,so you can share this link, to support more and more kids in the times to come.
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