Your Monday Morning Mood Enhancer
In 2003, Sriram Sankaran was approached by a govern ment school's staff in Chennai to help them construct a room in which they could cook midday meals. The school received food provisions from the government but had no place to cook or store it and that led to a massive wastage.
Sankaran and other likeminded individuals approached local nonprofits but realised that they were embroiled in their own red tape. “We decided to do something on our own instead of complaining about how no one is coming forward to help,“ Sankaran said.
The vice president of telecom company , Affirmed Networks India, decided to launch something formally and that was the birth of the Open India Charitable Trust. Started in Bengaluru in 2006, it soon expanded to Chennai.
“There are different social problems but instead of getting distracted with too many things, we decided to focus on education,“ the 45-year-old Sankaran said.
Through the Foundation, he involves himself in finding partner schools where teachers and principals are encouraged to involve children in activity-based learning. Along with providing infrastructure and books to students in elementary schools, he also includes yoga, music, dance and other art forms. Local educators who can manage day-today operations are also found.“We use teachers as tools, identify talented children and groom them accordingly ,“ Sankaran said. An important component of Open India's work is to build necessary infrastructure and toilets, especially in girls' schools.
At the graduate level, 60-70 most talented children are selected for scholarships and voca tional training. Sankaran conducts counselling sessions up to three times a year to interact with students and understand them better. Six personality development and English speaking sessions are also included.“We help them find internships through our networks and ensure some work experience while they are in college,“ he said, explaining how a labourer's son landing a job in the IT or automobile industry means changing the fortunes of an entire family and not that of the student alone.
Sankaran has partnered with four schools in Bengaluru, located in Devarabisanahalli, Ramamurthy Nagar, Malleswaram and Sarjapur.There are five in Chennai, apart from schools where need-based grants are made. He has reached out to over 23,000 children as of 2015.
Shoma Bakre, founder of Let's Do Some Good Foundation, which also works in the education space, has seen Sankaran's work for the past six years. She said: “He does amazing work to raise funds and make a difference. A huge amount of personal time is spent on this. I have seen him work nights and take on a lot of responsibility . This has had a strong impact on the lives of many children.“
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