Spreading Internet Awareness Among Rural Students
In the summers of 2013 and 2014, I visited my homeland India. During my previous visit to this place I had felt very distressed on seeing the condition of the street children. This time I desired to learn about the ground realities of poverty in my country and their reasons. Once I visited the slums and poor households, I realised the problem was inheritance of underprivileged lifestyle.
My heart ached on listening to narrations by the people in those households and I realised how deprived their children were from educational opportunities. It was extremely painful to hear that those unfortunate people couldn’t afford the fundamental human right of education and were isolated from career opportunities offered worldwide. Those soulful conversations triggered my interest to help the poor and needy. I wished to reach out to such unfortunate children to the best of my ability and recognised their schools as the perfect medium for assisstance.Consequentially I approached Rotary Club of Rajkot, Gujarat to support my initiative that was aimed at connecting the neighbouring rural populations to rest of the world through internet. I then searched for villages in Rajkot’s neighbourhood. Finally, villages in Kotda, Sangani, Nyara and Khambada were selected for the awareness program which was to be carried out 12-22 miles from my residence in the city. The project’s objective was to raise awareness about internet and its endless applications that could be useful for the rural population. I wanted the people to be aware about the opportunities they could utilize for financial and social benefits. The transport and presentation arrangements were made once Rotary Club of Rajkot affirmed my initiative to educate over 500 rural children.
In August of the same year, I visited the above mentioned villages and had a tearful journey as I noticed the rural infrastructure. I couldn’t help but notice the bare feet of the children walking to school, the lack of sanitation facilities and hardships faced by the village residents. I felt extremely grateful to my parents for providing me the opportunities that sharply contrast with those received by the children around me in the villages. The village schools of those children happily welcomed my efforts and were very supportive in making the transport arrangements to remote sections in the area. Now with even greater determination, I aimed to contribute towards the upliftment of those children by helping them realise the educational and career resources offered online. Through a power point presentation the rural school children were introduced to the history of internet, basic requirements to attain an internet connection, online information sharing and services available on the net.
To aid their comprehension I spoke in Hindi along with the slideshow in English and Gujarati. They were also informed about the SWAGAT system (State Wide Attention on Grievances through Application of Technology) in Gujarat; I wanted those children to know the means to call for government attention on their local complaints and requests.
They were also amazed to learn about the online railway bookings and the applications offered by Google. I discerned the audience’s eagerness to attain new information once its members started taking notes during my presentation. Meanwhile, I felt like the only person uncomfortable with the cooling facilities that included a single table fan for over 60 people in the hall. It was quiet surprising to notice how accustomed the children were to those abnormal conditions and equally amazing to see their interest despite the surroundings. Not only the high school children but also their teachers adjusted their schedules to attend the sessions. I tried my best to reciprocate to their kindness by making the seminar as informative and entertaining as possible. The children too responded with their generous applauses during the presentation. Their hospitality was also highlighted by the prayers they offered to god before and after my presentations. Their school’s curriculum gave additional importance to religious practices.
Hence, my visit to Nyara and Khambada was also a great learning experience for me about local beliefs and lifestyle. Later, I even tried to make the school headmaster realise the need to inculcate scientific education in the school curriculum along with their daily religious preaching.
Finally, before the conclusion of my project in those villages, I distributed stationary goods and food packets to mark my friendship with those school children. The smiles on their faces, after receiving the gifts, were emotionally touching and provided me a sense of satisfaction.
In the next trip to the villages of Kotda Sangani, I was joined by Rotary Club members and their club president. This time the presentation was addressed to a larger audience of 400 people, including 9th-12th grade students, their instructors and staff members, in the prayer hall of “Shree Maharana Pratap Vidhyalaya” (school name). Even though the school children studied with imperfect infrastructure, which even lacked benches in some classrooms, their discipline and moral values were perfect. They welcomed me as a guest and generously respected the elders in the hall. They even helped me set up the projector, screen and the audio system. This time I distributed printouts of the presentation in Gujarati to help the students comprehend the content easily.
The presentation was the same with alternative English and Gujarati slides and the response from the students was very encouraging. The only hitch faced during the seminar was the power cut that paused the presentation for a few minutes. The school staff helped me continue the presentation after the undesired halt.
After the session I made donations to the Rotary Club that looked to provide more classroom benches to the school. It was very motivating to see the eagerness and the interest that the students expressed in learning about internet utilities.
This response underscores that the problem in the rural educational system is the deficiency of proper guidance, finances and resources for the children and not their desire to learn. I believe that if every citizen contributes to strengthen the educational system for the children, our country can dream of being a global superpower. In my opinion, educational awareness is a basic human right and should be made available to every person regardless of race, gender and age. We should encourage the school children to gain knowledge from the classrooms and not just the midday meals offered in government schools. Only if the following generation is aware and educated, can our nation realise its true potential. This vacation I tried to contribute a little from my side to educate the grassroots of our society and aspire to continue my efforts…
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