I used to teach Spoken English at BBMP School in Malleshwaram for students from std 8 to std 10, sometimes after the school hours. There was this girl, in std 7, named Harshitha, who was very bright and keen on learning English. She used to often attend my classes though it was not meant for her. And I naturally took notice of her since she knew more English than her seniors who sat in my class. That year, Harshita topped her class, and distributed toffees to all of us; her parents being really pleased with her academic performance. I remember her as a very pleasant, bright and cheerful young girl.
I stopped teaching when I took up the Health initiatives in YFS full-time. But, this gave me an opportunity to visit the same school as a health volunteer to do a health pre-screening. You know, when you are a health volunteer, whether you like it or not, you end up learning so much more about each child. Besides learning about their daily health habits and ailments, you also come to understand their family history and background. You get a glimpse into that side of the child which you would may not have seen when you just teach them for an hour or so.
Harshitha was really excited to see me, just as I was to see her, and co-incidence or nor, she landed up in the queue which led up to me (there were other volunteers also who were doing the screening that day). So I began asking her the usual pre-screening questions about any problems with her hearing or skin or sight. She immediately said that she has a vision problem, and has difficulty seeing the board, and reading books. I wrote her name down to be seen by an eye specialist. But, to my surprise, she told me that she's already been to a doctor and was prescribed spectacles. I asked an obvious "Then?"
"Well, miss, my parents don't have the money for buying Spectacles"
Without a second thought, I told myself, I will sponsor her spectacles. At that time, we had just begun school screenings and had no funds readily available, and honestly, we didn't really think about where the money for follow-ups will come from! So fine, Harshitha would have got her spectacles because I knew her and knew she deserved it. But how many children could I sponsor? Surely, the other children too are likely to be deserving and might be needy; where'll their spectacles come from?
Sometime around then, we had just started a google group for the Health team, which had about 30-40 registered volunteers. I posted a simple message on the group, requesting volunteers to come forward to donate for spectacles, saying that I pledge to donate for at least one child myself.
The response was really overwhelming - within 2 weeks, we received enough donation for 42 spectacles! And we hadn't even planned to cover that many children. That got us going, and we thought - lets just go ahead and screen more children, the money will come. By the end of the academic year, we had screened 2901 children, of which 92 children needed spectacles, and we got a group of employees from a particular company (who wished to be anonymous) to donate for the spectacles.
And this year, we've screened 12,000 odd children, and have Philips willing to sponsor spectacles for all the children who may need it!
Dear little Harshitha, I need to tell her some day what she started.
I stopped teaching when I took up the Health initiatives in YFS full-time. But, this gave me an opportunity to visit the same school as a health volunteer to do a health pre-screening. You know, when you are a health volunteer, whether you like it or not, you end up learning so much more about each child. Besides learning about their daily health habits and ailments, you also come to understand their family history and background. You get a glimpse into that side of the child which you would may not have seen when you just teach them for an hour or so.
Harshitha was really excited to see me, just as I was to see her, and co-incidence or nor, she landed up in the queue which led up to me (there were other volunteers also who were doing the screening that day). So I began asking her the usual pre-screening questions about any problems with her hearing or skin or sight. She immediately said that she has a vision problem, and has difficulty seeing the board, and reading books. I wrote her name down to be seen by an eye specialist. But, to my surprise, she told me that she's already been to a doctor and was prescribed spectacles. I asked an obvious "Then?"
"Well, miss, my parents don't have the money for buying Spectacles"
Without a second thought, I told myself, I will sponsor her spectacles. At that time, we had just begun school screenings and had no funds readily available, and honestly, we didn't really think about where the money for follow-ups will come from! So fine, Harshitha would have got her spectacles because I knew her and knew she deserved it. But how many children could I sponsor? Surely, the other children too are likely to be deserving and might be needy; where'll their spectacles come from?
Sometime around then, we had just started a google group for the Health team, which had about 30-40 registered volunteers. I posted a simple message on the group, requesting volunteers to come forward to donate for spectacles, saying that I pledge to donate for at least one child myself.
The response was really overwhelming - within 2 weeks, we received enough donation for 42 spectacles! And we hadn't even planned to cover that many children. That got us going, and we thought - lets just go ahead and screen more children, the money will come. By the end of the academic year, we had screened 2901 children, of which 92 children needed spectacles, and we got a group of employees from a particular company (who wished to be anonymous) to donate for the spectacles.
And this year, we've screened 12,000 odd children, and have Philips willing to sponsor spectacles for all the children who may need it!
Dear little Harshitha, I need to tell her some day what she started.
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