Launching Ekal _ ATFS BEE inititaive

Transcribed by Divya Mendiratta

Gauri : Welcome to Foundations TV everybody, our guest today is none other than Ranjani Saigal. Ranjani welcome to Foundations TV.

Ranjani : Thank you.

Gauri : Ranjani is representing  Ekal Vidhyalaya USA. She is the Executive Director. So Ranjani why don’t we start right off with an introduction about Ekal. Tell us something about Ekal.

Ranjani: Thank you very much Gauri for this opportunity to be here. Ekal Vidhyalaya is an organization that brings education to very remote rural and tribal areas in India. But for Ekal, the children in this areas will have no access to education, and will live in darkness of illiteracy. We run these schools at the very low cost of just a dollar a day. Thus for $365 a year an entire village is educated and transformed. We are in about 54,000 villages, reaching out to about to 1.5 million children, in India and in Nepal. And Gauri it really is a pleasure to be here with you, because you are also an educationist. Could you tell me a little bit about your initiative, in the Boston are?

Gauri : Absolutely, that is what I am representing here today, which is our center ‘ATFS learning center’. We have been around for more than 12 years, and we take pride in building the education foundation in this area. We have a lot of students. And right now actually, we have so many students who I meet every day, who have made it into excellent colleges. We take so much pride in being part of the education of those students.  And speaking of that, when I heard Ekal, and what Ekal does, and the infrastructure that Ekal has built over the 25 years, it completely resonates with my philosophy of running this center here. And I think it was such a logical step of partnering with Ekal Vidhyalaya. And today we are very excited to launch the partnership between ATFS learning center and Ekal Vidhyalaya. So Ranjani why don’t you tell us something about this really exciting initiative.

Ranjani : Fantastic Gauri. I can not tell you how excited I am for it. Because what you are doing is improving the lives of children in the Boston area, by providing them with a better way to learn. And then there is Ekal that is doing the same for very poor children, very underprivileged children. What better way there is than to run a competition, an opportunity for students in the New England area to showcase their talent in something like Math, English, or anything else that we can provide through the BEE. And yet at the same time be impacting the lives of some of the very underprivileged children. Thus it is really about children helping children. And I’m very excited about that Gauri.

Gauri : That is super exciting. I think there could have not been a better fit, than ATFS and Ekal working together towards this goal. I think we already set a goal of educating 900 students.

Ranjani : Yes, and we don’t mind going to a thousand.

Gauri : We don’t mind going beyond that. So that is only the beginning. And our first initiative or first contest, under this huge umbrella of Ekal – ATFS BEE Initiative is going to be the ‘Math BEE Contest’ coming up on May 3^rd. So that’s where we need a lot of our community members involved.

Ranjani : Absolutely. It is a chance for your child to really shine. And at the same time, while they are doing their homework they know that they are transforming the life of an underprivileged child. So I hope you will consider participating in this, to not only enhance your own intellectual and your mathematical abilities, but also support a young child far away from here.

Gauri : And this is only the beginning. We have something really exciting coming up as we move forward as well. But for now enrollment are open for Math BEE, on the ATFS website, which is www.aftsonline.com. And we are already taking enrollments and we are giving out sample papers. We have enough time for kids to prepare for their tests. And also go in very noble cause in mind to actually be helping out the underprivileged children, in rural and tribal India, through the infrastructure that Ekal is providing. Thank you so much Rajani for this huge beginning, I would say.

Ranjani: Absolutely. Thank you Gauri for coming in with a compassionate heart to help our children. Thank you and may education go forward in New England and in India.