I strongly believe that education is a very powerful instrument to social empowerment. Unfortunately, many children are being denied the right to education because of socio-economic issues. As a consequence, we have NGOs like Literacy India who tirelessly works to uplift underprivileged women and children by providing them that opportunity to develop their capacity to grow to be self-reliant. In all honesty, I feel really lucky to have been part of the Literacy India family. Once part of the family one has to contribute in any way to demonstrate their sensitivity to the family values that one aspires to uphold. So, when I heard about the opportunity to fund raise for Literacy India in Toronto, I was very excited yet nervous. I was excited because having been part of Literacy India for two months before heading back to Toronto for my fall semester to showcase the products made by the women in Toronto would create a much bigger platform. Nervous because I was the only one who was carrying out the fund-raising event, nevertheless, it turned to be one of those best learning experiences. Thanks to Indraani Maam, Satya Sir and Vikas Sir that I was able to carry out such a project abroad. If it had not been their faith on me and support, today I would never have had such a desire to work in the developmental field. Certainly, it was one of those challenging yet satisfying projects. Challenging because of the time, having been a full time student and worked part-time on campus in university, I had to ensure that I did a certain number of sales within a week. Satisfying on the other hand, because I pushed myself to a great extent where I discovered effective ways to fund-raise which ultimately became my greatest strengths. Part of the process was talking to professors and students who were passionate about education, girl’s rights, development and human rights and India where I got to learn about other NGOs in Africa and Asia and development models in the field of education. It was wonderful to see the humbling appreciation by the students and professors of the products, not only were they interested in the products, I was able to engage them in a discussion about Literacy India’s work and their method of imparting education and finding means to achieve livelihood. In 3 semesters, I was able to fund-raise CND $ 2965.
This experience by far has been one the greatest one and I urge everyone to support organizations like Literacy India who tirelessly works towards their cause to generate educated and self-reliant Indians.
Written by
Harparamjot Hans (Remy)
