Students get creative to help needy kids
dubai — Over 1,000 students of the UAE have geared up to make a difference in the lives of thousands of kindergarten students in rural India by providing them educational aid made by their very own hands.
Dubai-based philanthropist K Venkatraman has started a project involving students, teachers and volunteers from the UAE wherein they will be making innovative flash cards, charts, puzzles and other innovative educational aids for about a 1,000 pre-schools in remote areas of India.
“When I visited these schools in rural areas of India, I saw that they needed more support in terms of education aid and teaching materials such as flash cards, charts, puzzles etc. Every school here in the UAE has different innovative ways to teach in kindergarten so why not expand and use those resources for the less privileged. This is when I decided that education aid in these remote areas should be augmented.”
Bringing together schools, teachers, students and volunteers, Venkat spoke with companies such as Reprotronics and Al Ghurair printing to supply their waste cardboard cards and other papers that could be used in making educational aid for students.
Teams of students and teachers from Gems Our Own Indian school, JSS International School, Our Own English High School, Sharjah and The Westminster School have taken up the task of making innovative flashcards of alphabets, puzzles, other educational material to be supplied to rural India.
“I give about 500 cut cards to each school and give them the freedom to apply their mind for creative education aid for the underprivileged kids in Indian villages. We will be making these cards not only in English but in different languages used in India as well as some in Arabic for the Mena region too,” Venkat told Khaleej Times.
Volunteers from various groups such as Pink Mango project, Eco Warriors are helping with the creativity and are bringing in the ‘best out of waste’ approach where they have reused last year’s table calenders to make creative educational aid.
“Up till now, I have supplied about 3,000 cut cards to schools and volunteers and about 1,000 cards have been sent back to the schools. I am aiming to supply such education aid to about 1,000 preschools and for this, we need more support from the UAE schools.”
Rohit from the Pink Mango project said: “No child should be deprived of the basic right to education, so why not use our resources and make a big difference in the lives of thousands of underprivileged kids in rural India. This project targets various educational
Every school here in the UAE has different innovative ways to teach in kindergarten so why not expand and use those resources for the less privileged.”
K Venkatraman, Dubai-based philanthropist
sketches and toys to facilitate various rural schools in India and we are happy to be part of this.”
Lalitha Suresh, principal and CEO of Gems Our Own Indian School, said: “About 150 senior students, under the guidance of over 15 kindergarten teachers, have created educational resources for the pre-schools similar to those we use in our school. These include counting resources, flashcards for teaching English alphabets and three-lettered words, among others. For this project, we chose students who are good at artistic work and interested in charity. Some were created at school after school hours, while others were done at home and submitted later.”
Urging other schools to join the drive, Venkat said: “I believe in longlasting transfer of knowledge which should be an ongoing process. This project will be an ongoing one and we invite many more schools and well-wishers to join and contribute with their innovative skills because your small gesture can make a big difference in the lives of many underprivileged children.”