Importance of Basic Resources in Educational institutions

It was just around a week ago when the thought first crossed my mind. What are the basic facilities every school, including the ones in rural areas, should have? I remember it clearly because my friend Rohit and I had met up in the college cafeteria when we started our discussion on the topic. We were awaiting our TS Inter Results at the time.

 

Rohit was telling me about this documentary movie called ‘Dreams Choked’. A half-hour long movie, released in 2017, that throws light on the condition of government-run schools in the state of Telangana. It really made me step out of my shoes and realize how grateful we should be. While on the topic, I told Rohit about this organization I had read about called ‘100 Smiles Charity Foundation’. An NGO that was based in Telangana. 

 

Sitting in that cafeteria, we started to read up more on the organization that gave us the relief that someone out there was working to make a difference.

Coincidently, the founder Manoj Kumar Chittimalla, claims he came up with the idea with his friends in the cafeteria they used to meet at. They discussed and concluded that they wanted to take a step towards improving the quality of education in government schools, help them with educational resources, and provide equal benefits for the underprivileged students in the state as the private school children.

 

So he established the foundation ‘100 Smiles Charity Foundation’ in 2016, and as someone who was born and raised in a village called Cherlapalem, Mr. Manoj Kumar very well understood the situation and the need for improvements in the schools in the rural areas.

 

With a clear vision, the foundation started their work where they take up one school for a few months and work to provide it with the facilities it would require. Keeping that in mind, they provide basic educational resources like a blackboard, chairs, stationery, sanitation, first aid kits, etc. Along with all this, they also help clean the school surrounding, provide an unlimited internet connection, set up a clean water facility and digitize all paperwork.

 

To learn about schools that were responsible for educating a number of children from the area, but not having these basic facilities were disheartening. But then to learn that there were people out there who were working towards creating a solution was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

The organization along with helping with the basic resources also helps provide moral support for the students, and Manoj himself travels to each designated school on the weekends to work with the locals to accomplish their common goal.

 

The Foundation having worked on more than 24 schools, currently, have around 150 members, all working towards the goal of providing a better future for these children

 

As Manoj said, “The government, public, public figures — everyone knows education is important, but no one really cares. We want to focus on strengthening the education sector.”

 

That last really line really hit us with Me and Rohit almost in tears. But while we were still on the topic, another friend of ours Rakesh joined us, letting us know that the TS Inter Results were out. We rejoiced for two reasons at that moment. We rejoiced knowing about our positive result and then we rejoiced again because we understood the value of education.