Hi. My name is Raghu Nandhan. My first visit to YFS office in
Chetpet happened on a cloudy Saturday evening in the month of November. Unlike
the usual ‘hot, hotter, hottest’ climate of Chennai, the climate on that
particular day was more than welcoming with a cool and gentle breeze with
occasional yet heavy downpour of rain. I had gone over there to meet the YFS
members and have a discussion regarding the volunteering opportunities. The YFS
members were very warm and welcoming. After having a short discussion, I was
advised to join the YFS members in their NGO visit which was located in a slum
area at Vyasarpadi, in the Northern part of Chennai.
This particular
NGO called “ VIVEKANANDA EDUCATIONAL AND HUMAN
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT TRUST “ was started couple of years ago by a group of youngsters. This NGO is
primarily dedicated to teach Computer skills to the under-privileged. Here, we
were introduced to the NGO members - Naveen, Sathyapriyan and Ravi ji who were very hospitable and humble. The
guys who are teaching the Computer skills now were once students of the very
same organisation through which they had learnt the invaluable skills.
They have
designed the syllabus in a very interactive and understandable manner. The
syllabus has a Tamil translation beneath almost each and every word for easy
understanding. This syllabus has been wholly designed by them from scratch and without
any copy/paste or plagiarism. And they spoke in simple yet fluent English.
They now have 4
such centres in Northern Chennai
- Swami Vivekananda Training Centre, Sanjay Nagar, Vyasarpadi
- Sister Nivedita Training Centre, Vadivelu Street, Perambur
- Dr Ambedkar Training Centre, Kannigapuram, Pulianthope
- Sri Ramanujar Training Centre, Ayanavaram
Apart from dedicated Centres, they are also training students in 7 Government Corporation schools in and around North Chennai, Moral Training centres in another 3 different locations through Biweekly classes.
They have started a Data
Entry Company which has secured a project from an Australian Firm, which is not
a mean feat to achieve. Considering the limited resources and the monetary help
they have, they have grown big and have achieved a substantial growth in their
own terms. And they have created a meaningful impact in the lives of the
underprivileged by imparting Computer Skills, which has made them more
employable.
The following
day (i.e. Sunday), I attended a meeting where all the Chennai YFS members had
gathered along with 2 YFS volunteers from Hyderabad. The agenda of the meeting
was to discuss about the undergoing and future project plans of Chennai and
Hyderabad YFS. Introduction of the old and new members of YFS and also the
difficulties faced in implementing the projects were also a point of discussion
in the meeting. New ideas were put forth for the improvement of the functioning
of YFS.
On the whole,
these 2 days provided me an invaluable experience and am very glad to be a part
of YFS Chennai Chapter. I am looking forward to many more such experiences in
the future.
