My Story

Intro

Children from well-to-do families in India are able to speak English from a very young age. Mostly surrounded by educated people, they get an opportunity to learn, improve and speak the language with minimal or no flaws. Unfortunately, the under-privileged do not get such an environment at home or school and therefore often lack perspective to develop their own potential and to enter  various career options suited to them. Dr.Prahalathan and volunteers from his organisation Bhumi are providing opportunities for those children to discover and develop their potential regardless of their background.

About Me

I am a resident Ophthalmologist working at a leading tertiary care, eye hospital in Chennai, India. The socio, economic and political conditions of my country have compelled me to wonder if a group of committed people can bring about change. When I began volunteering to teach at an orphanage and a slum community with my friends, we found several glaring deficiencies in their knowledge and the ways of learning these children were adopting. Most of the children were eager to learn computers since they had never ‘touched’ one. They also wanted to speak good English, though quite a few had not progressed beyond alphabets even after primary school. We saw the interest in the children which made us think hard about how we, the youth, can help them.

This spurred us to form Bhumi and do something; the motives were strong enough so, we  didn’t require further inspiration. We assembled a computer by salvaging parts from two old computers at our homes and started teaching computers at one orphanage nearby. Slowly our friends came up with old computers lying unused at their homes and the program started expanding. This small inkling evolved into an idea of establishing a non-profit through which young, like-minded individuals can touch lives of many underprivileged children and empower them through education.

Bhumi has also taken us to lesser-known remote areas, bringing to our attention the number of children who need exposure to the brighter side of this world. We’ve understood the need to expand and reach out to as many children as possible, without compromising on quality.

My Venture

I started the non-profit Bhumi with a few of my friends; we’ve grown from an organization of a handful to one with a 1000+ memberhip. Bhumi, my profession, friends and family keep me going.

The drive to create a progressive society and transform India into a socially, culturally and economically developed nation led to the birth of my organisation. I believe that the under-privileged children whom we work with, are the latent potential India will need for the future and it's the responsibility of today's youth to empower them.

Mission of Bhumi si to bridge the social gap through quality education to the under-privileged by providing a platform for socially conscious youth who want to contribute towards the nation's progress. This enables us to further mold the youth into tomorrow's leaders.

We run various program including computer training for children and teaching English or scientific and mathematical concepts through live experiments, games and puzzles. Bhumi has been successful in directly reaching out to over 500 children between the ages 6-16 around Chennai, India. Another 250 children benefit indirectly through our initiatives. Our work currently extends to six children’s homes (orphanages), two schools, three slum community centres and three community centres catering to six villages.

Children from the lower stratum often lack perspective about their own potential and the various career options suited to them. Such children need to see their peers from better backgrounds as tough competition and not as threats! To eliminate this fear and motivate them to perform better in life, our ‘career counseling’ team puts together academic and career options these children can take to after school/college. We hope our supplementary education programs would bridge the gap between these children and those from better schools, contributing to the nation’s progress.

We at Bhumi also want the volunteers working with these children to gain perspective about the actual needs of the society and go on to become the leaders of tomorrow. The objective is to impact at least 5,000 children through, our various educational programs in next five years.