Taking children back to school

HYDERABAD: In an effort to reach out to under-privileged students dropping out of school, Youth For Seva (YFS) is starting an initiative called the School Kit Drive, where a school kit will be provided to children. Talking about the drive, K Sesha Aditya, coordinator for YSF, Hyderabad chapter, said, “The kit includes one school bag, five long note books, two pens, one geometry box, 20 labels and one steel plate. The point is to give children an incentive to stay in school. Due to financial difficulties, many kids cannot afford even the most basic requirements, which forces them to drop out of school. Our hope to is to encourage them otherwise.”The school kits which will be packed from June 3 onwards will be distributed to students in government schools across eight districts in the State.Pointing out the significance of the contents of the kit, Swathi Ram, the oral coordinator, explained, “Things like a book and a pencil are basic necessities that a child needs at school. On every note book there is a picture of Swami Vivekananda and on the first page the national anthem is printed. The idea behind the steel plate is that many government schools feed children the mid day meal but do not provide plates. So children eat their food on paper or sometimes even take it in their hands which is very unhygienic.” An initiative that began in 2007, YFS distributed 2000 bags in the year 2010, and increased the number by a 1000 in 2011. This year however, the group plans on going all out by distributing 10,000 bags. In a bid to raise awareness, and thereby funds, YSF has also extended invites to all interested for the packing of the kits, which begins on June 3 from 4pm to 7 pm at Vivekananda Degree College in Kukatpally.YFS is an orgaisation that was started in Bengaluru in 2007 by Venkatesh Murthy. His idea was to serve people in need through four initiatives - YFS Shiksha (teaching and training), YFS Aarogya (health and counselling), YFS Viklang (serving the disabled) and YFS Prakriti  (environment protection).  The Hyderabad chapter was started by Shobhit Mathur on Swami Vivekananda’s birthday in January 2010. There are five main YFS organisations in India - Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bhopal, with  and sub-offices in Karnataka and Maharashtra.