Nithin Kamath’s Weblog

India is said to be the land of Villages with a large percentage of Indian population living in the villages. Education is difficult in these villages with most of the schools lacking the very basic facilities, hence the children have a hard time being in school.

On the other end of the spectrum we all know the urban lifestyle, where the school going children want new bags, books, uniforms, etc every year. Quite stunning right, So what do you do with the old but good items which the urban kids throw out every year? This is where the SCHOOL to SCHOOL initiative by Goonj steps in, it is a concept of turning someone’s wastage into a resource for another. Normally school children in far off villages don’t even have a pencil or a book to write on forget the chairs and tables. So the idea is to motivate the urban school children to donate the material they discard annually at the beginning of a new term. The site mentions:

The best example is 32 plates given by a corporate and we reached it to a small primary school in Uttranchal. Earlier for the midday meals half of the students used to wait for the rest to finish as there weren’t enough plates. This was really tough as most students walked almost six kilometres not only for studies but also for the midday meal, a dream for them, given their financial conditions.

More information about this initiative can be had by visiting http://www.goonj.info/schooltoschool.php

Zee News Reports:

A little village in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district has done something unique, the entire population has pledged to donate their eyes.

It all started with an eye hospital near the village of Bheemavaram. The staff at the hospital decided to educate a couple of villagers on the need for eye donors. However they couldn’t possibly have expected that in a matter of weeks not less than 700 villagers
would turn up to pledge their eyes. That isn’t all, the enrollment drive continues as the number of donors steadily increases.

Read the complete article @ http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=328511&sid=ZNS

Firstly it is nice to see more news coverage coming from Indian villages, its where we will find many amazing things, after all the maximum news one can get from cities is who killed who, who inaugurated what, what one politician said about the other. So this news is a breath of fresh air. Also, we need this type of coverage from the news channel which most of the type try for hot news, and once they get it, repeat the same thing for over a day putting a exclusive tag even though other channels are covering the very same thing.

As for the action of the villagers, it is how villages are, every one cares about one another and want to help out in every possible manner. It is all how the Indian Culture is, and we are losing our roots fast and quick. Keep the Indian Spirit alive. Long Live the Villages of India and its inhabitants.