IIM-A's fund-rasing drive: Sponsor a kid's education

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AHMEDABAD: As long as the 'prayas' (attempt) was to help children of nearby slums get formal education, small-time donations from within IIM-A campus were enough. But, as activities of this student group have grown, so has need for funds. Supporting 26 children in a private school, the group is on a major fund-raising drive.

"We are paying for a child's complete education - cost per student comes to Rs 12,000 a year," says Sameer Gandhi. Till now, the group was managing with donations from students, faculty members and staff of IIM-A. Prayas has a scheme where you can adopt a child and sponsor his or her education for a year. It will be interactive -the sponsor will get to know the child and be sent progress reports regularly, says Ashutosh Agarwal.

"Many students have shown interest, but can't donate enough money. People can also support schooling in partnership, or give a fixed amount every month," he adds.

Times of India article (Ahmedabad Edition)

A Prayas that has borne fruit: IIM-A students touch lives

AHMEDABAD: It was a simple class project that could easily have ended right there. But, in the last four years, Prayas has not only grown to become a passionate activity for students of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), but has also touched many lives along the way. The group was set up to help students of a municipal school near IIM-A campus with their studies, extra learning, homework and, even nutrition.

The endeavour moved to another level last year when 17 students from Vastrapur municipal school were shifted to Sahajanand Vidyamandir near Panjrapole.

This year, another 14 kids are studying in that private school. Of 55 students under the Prayas umbrella, 26 are enjoying benefits of better education.

Schooling for them is completely free. The group pays tuition fees, funds purchase of books and uniforms, transport to and fro, extra lessons and even snacks and milk for children at the end of a tiring day.

"Of the 17 children shifted last year, five left because their parents moved out of the city. This was a learning experience for us. While picking this year's batch we kept stability factor in mind," says Ashutosh Agarwal, IIM-A student and active member of the group. Shifting kids to a private school started as an experiment.

The group spoke to teachers of Sahajanand Vidyamandir , its own teachers and parents. Students who were shifted last year have shown considerable improvement, says Sameer Gandhi, another student member. "Both their grades and behaviour have improved.

This time, we interviewed parents too, because their willingness and appreciation of the opportunity their child is getting is important. We are charging a token fee of Rs 100 from parents now, so that efforts of Prayas are not taken for granted," he adds.

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Cartoons and more

Taking a break from the usual Prayaas activities, this Sunday, we organized a Cartoons screening session for the children in one of our classrooms. We are very happy with the way things went. The kids had a nice time and it was an opportunity for them to get away from studies and have fun with their friends. After a couple of hours of Tom and Jerry and the Hanuman animated movie (which us PGP2s, FPMs enjoyed as much as the children), on the children's demand, we played them a couple of Bollywood songs to which they were ever so eager to jump around and dance to.

And we were delighted to see that they still remember the steps we taught them for the Chaos performance. This was followed by us holding off the kids as they tried grabbing the camera which was intended to be used to capture a few images of the event, but instead turned into a full-fledged photography session.

We were also able to use to opportunity to distribute to the children the generous donations made towards Prayaas in the form of clothes and stationery by the PGP-X batch of last year.

We would also like to express our gratitude to CIIE and the Entre club for their help and for providing the children snacks and lunch. Thank you for contributing to the cause and helping make the occasion more special.

Also thanks to everyone who helped us with our effort.