Dear Friends,
It’s a tough situation to be in, when you lose someone really close to your heart. I have seen some of my friends shattered by the loss of their father, mother, brother or even friends. The grief of the loss is even more difficult to handle when the loss is not a natural one, but is a result of a malicious act of some individual who deems himself to be a warrior of god.
This is a heart touching and an inspiring documentary of a foundation in rural India. Dr. Sankurathri Chandra Sekhar garu was working as a government scientist in Ottawa, Canada when he lost his wife Manjari Sankurathri and his two kids Srikiran (7 Years) and Sarada (4 Years) in a plane crash due to a terrorist attack on June 23rd 1985. I am sure no one can even imagine what Mr. Chandra Sekhar garu might have gone through at that moment. It took him 3 years to come out of the grief only to light up the lives of many rural kids and families in India. In an interview to CBC news, Mr. Sankurathri said:
“I never seen their bodies also, so I didn’t know. I still think they’re still out there. I used to think that for many, many years. After three years, I said, what am I doing here?”
He started the Sankurathri Foundation in 1989 with the aim of providing good health and educational facilities to the impoverished rural in the outskirts of Kakinada Town in Andhra Pradesh. Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology are the two child organizations of the Manjari Sankurathri Memorial Foundation. The volunteers of the foundation conduct regular camps in the villages nearby to identify kids who are really economically backward (when I say really I mean it, because education is not provided free of cost on caste basis to those who are well off economically but use the reservations to gain advantage). Once the kid is admitted into the school, every facility is provided free of cost to the kids (Lunch, Transport, Books, Uniform, School Bags). They also conduct medical camps regularly to check the health related issues for villagers who do not have access to a good hospital close by. Many people do not know that they are suffering from a disease called Cataract until these volunteers educate them about the disease and henceforth admit them to the hospital and conduct surgery to cure the disease.
Sarada Vidyalayam is primarily focused on providing quality education to the rural kids and building them into good human beings more than trying to compete with this highly competitive world, where teachers hardly care about what the student is as a person. Moral ethics and discipline are built into the student’s everyday routine explaining them the importance of loving others. It was successful in providing education to 1300 students till date and a truly inspiring fact of the institute is the care taken on students who move on to get higher education. The institute continuously keeps track of the students and provides them any assistance in building their career. Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology is dedicated to help the poor with any medical attention needed to have a better vision by conducting training and educating people about the importance of quality eye care. It was successful in conducting close to 135,000 surgeries till date which is truly a generous act.
My visit to Sarada Vidyalayam and SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology:
I consider myself very lucky to visit a legendary institute like the Sarada Vidyalayam and Srikiran Institute of Ophthalmology. The moment I entered the campus, I was overwhelmed with the positive vibrations of the place. It reminded me of the Gurukul that’s shown in any of the mythological movies. I went to the administration office to meet Mr. B. Satyanarayana Garu. He welcomed me with a pleasant smile and asked me to be seated. He started explaining me about the activities conducted at the school and also methods of teaching used at the school. Few things that he mentioned caught my attention:
- The assignments given to the students not just help them but also help their parents. Example: The Students of class 2 or 3 have to teach their parents how to sign and get their report cards signed in a week.
- Class 3 student wrote Ramayana in a 20 pages including all the main events.
- High quality lunch is provided to the students.
- Handwriting is given the utmost importance.
- Students are taught variety of arts and crafts (Embroidery, Painting etc) nurturing the creative side of the kids.
Please find below some of the photographs of the visit. Kindly ignore the date on the pics.
Photographs Courtesy: Ms. Lakshmi who happened to visit the institute same time as I did.
Cute Girl with her art at Sarada Vidyalayam
Nurturing the creative side of the kids at Sarada Vidyalayam.
School Assembly
The school is now expanding itself to provide education to the class 10 students also and a new building is being constructed to provide excellent facilities to the students. Computer lab, physics and chemistry labs, every facility needed to get affiliation from the government of Andhra Pradesh is included in the new plan.
SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology has all the facilities necessary for it to be considered a world class institute. Four fully equipped and air conditioned operation theatres, resting wards for the patients before and after the surgery, specialty clinics for Glaucoma, Cornea, Retina, Pediatric Ophthalmology Microbiology Laboratory etc, are some of the facilities to mention. This eye care institute is expanding its circle of influence of reaching to people in the next levels i.e. by conducting camps in villages and towns which are farther from its base.
SriKiran Institute of Ophthalmology
Overall, it has been a fantastic experience to visit this prestigious institute and learn how one person supported with few of his friends can make wonders in improving the standards of thousands of people. The happiness was so evident on every person’s face working at these institutes and they take immense pride to say that they are working here. Why not? I feel they deserve to be proud than many of us as they see a life nurturing in front of them which would have been working in a tea stall or a cycle store otherwise.
As a responsible human being I promise that I would do my best to help this institute in whatever way I can and take the word forward about it. In many discussions with my friends I have noticed that many of them want to help the needy but just don’t know the right way or the best way to do it. I hope this blog might help them get a start if they are impressed by the work done by this organization. Some of them might come up with even modern ways to make this world a better place to live in.
Note: Your donation to MSMF in Canada, Kruti-dhata Inc. (P.O.Box 58186, Houston, Tx. 77258-8186. Federal Tax ID # 20-2411347) in the U.S. Please make checks payable to Kruti Dhata (Tax exempt organization under Section 501 (C)(3) of the Internal revenue Code) and SF in India qualifies for Tax exemption.
References:
2. MSMF Website
3. Sankurathri Foundation Website
4. News Letters of Manjari Sankurathri Foundation.
5. Special thanks to Ms. Lakshmi for sharing the photographs to put this blog together.
Please feel free to share your thought and leave comments. Thank you very much for reading the blog.
Love you all,
Krishna Chaitanya Emani
This is Chaitanya CRUISING your way. 