Once struggling with Cancer, she’s now giving ‘Shaktii’ to many young girls
A juvenile with myriads of dreams and hopes in her heart trying to pencil her thoughts, unaware of her innocent spelling errors, has a yearning to become a Mechanical Engineer. There are many girls like Kanthika who have ambitions and aspirations, which unfortunately never see the light of the day.
In India, only three out of ten girls graduate class tenth and five out of ten are ‘married off’ before they turn eighteen! These are frightening numbers and yet that’s the reality of our society today. Our education system and the society at large does not support or give it’s women an opportunity to unleash their full potential. One inspirational educationalist has taken a stand to bring about a change.
Meet Mrs. Vimala Nandakumar, who initiated ‘Shaktii’, an after-school program for girls, focused not only on academics but also life and leadership skills. She believes that the girls should be empowered to take their own decisions and be prepared to handle different circumstances in life.
Mrs. Nandakumar’s prior experience spanned over four decades as a teacher, consultant and principal in India and abroad, where she initiated several activities focused on children’s all-rounded development. A few years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer and her entire world collapsed in a fraction of a second. But she emerged out as a much stronger and evolved person.
“After fighting against cancer, I decided to dedicate the second innings of my life for a greater cause above any materialistic aspirations”, she said.
Shaktii started in July 2015, with 20 girls, with a simple objective to groom and prepare them for the challenges that they may have to face, which our current education system does not address. The program consists of three after-school sessions- two academic and one non-academic. These interactive and fun-filled sessions involve games, experiments, short-films and guest lectures or workshops by artists, doctors, entrepreneurs, engineers, counsellors etc.
Mrs. Nandakumar got the inspiration to start ‘Shaktii Girls’ Education Trust’ from Roopa Purushothaman — the founder of Avasara Academy. The initiative started in two classrooms, with the support of ‘Satish Haware Junior College’ and Mrs. Ujjwala Haware, trustee of New City International School.
Mrs. Nandakumar, in her sixties, is effervescing with enthusiasm and hope. She goes the extra mile to ensure that the girls enrolled in Shaktii program receive maximum value. She used to drop the girls home, when the sessions got late. She regularly interacts with many parents to convince them to keep their daughters enrolled in the program and continue with education, as far as possible.
“Many parents questioned my motive since the program was completely free. There were many who never thought of higher education for their daughters. And there were few students who used to do odd jobs after school.” she shared.
The Trust also started a scholarship for the financially weaker students, to ensure that they are not forced to drop out of school.
The initial expenses of the Trust were covered completely by Mr. and Mrs. Nandakumar. Upon recognizing their efforts, many colleagues, friends, relatives and former students have been offering monetary support. But still the major part of funding is coming out of their personal savings. Another challenge is availability of dedicated volunteers.
“If enough educated and affluent people started doing constructive social work, the impact could be tremendous.” she concludes.
We’ve been fortunate to know and interact with Mrs. Nandakumar and would appeal to you to contribute to this great cause.
(One of our amazing interns Siddharth Sharma captured and coauthored this story)
