Sweedal Bonita D’Souza

Daijiworld Media Network- Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jun 29: Three friends, inspired by their teachers, have come together to distribute free umbrellas to the students of 11 government schools in three districts.

Sukesh S Poojary along with his friends Ashrith Shetty and Roopesh Naik have distributed over 500 umbrellas to school-going children of 11 government schools of Beltangady, Sringeri, Koppa, Harihara and Hassan. The motivation behind this charitable act is a teacher hailing from B C Road. When asked if he could donate umbrellas to the students of her school, Sukesh willingly agreed to do so and this motivated the trio to help the students of government schools.

Sukesh, along with his school friends Ashrith and Rupesh, who work as software engineers in Bengaluru, had come up with an idea of setting up libraries in government schools. Sukesh, who is a volunteer at Akansha Charitable Trust, had visited various government schools and noticed that the libraries were very poorly set up, with access to limited number of books and poorly functioning computers. He and his friends took the matter into their hands to resolve the issue. They contributed racks, books and had also reinstalled the computers. Books worth Rs 80000-Rs 90000 were donated for this purpose. They had started this work in 2017 and have set up libraries in government schools at Balanja, Beltangady and Belanje, Hebri. Social worker the late Anil Naiga, brother of Vinu Balanja, director of Kannada movie Bera, wanted to renovate the library of Balanja school. As per what he had desired, the three friends took up the initiative to renovate the library with the help of Vinu Balanja and other donors.

They also visit schools and conduct science experiments for students as they do not have laboratories to carry out their practical assignments.

“On our visit to these government schools, we had noticed that the student strength was very poor. The highest number of students in a school was 96 and the lowest was six. With such acts, we aim to draw many more students to enrol in government schools,” says Sukesh.

Currently in June, they have distributed 500 umbrellas to students of 11 schools studying in grade 1-8. They had received a fund worth Rs 1.35 lac and had spent Rs 1.25 lac for this purpose. With the remaining money, they donated books to the students of Bhadravati school.

Sukesh said that they have received a very good response from the umbrella drive and several other schools have contacted them to donate umbrellas.

“In the coming days, we have planned to hire a vehicle, especially in remote areas where children are unable to go to school due to lack of transportation. Hence, we have plans of plying a rented vehicle to transport those children to the school,” says Sukesh.