Shanthi's Podcast: Recent Episodes

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Today we are going to talk to an employee of public works department who keeps aside 50% of her salary for supporting a cause close to her heart. For the past ten years Jayanthi has been providing financial support to those who want to study but don’t have the means for it. She started by supporting 2 students. She eventually started an NGO that provides fees to interested children and is today supporting 120 students from 5th standard to engineering graduates. She does all this while continuing to work at PWD. Isn’t she amazing?

Interviewer: Welcome Ms. Jayanthi. You have been providing educational support to many. Can you elaborate on it?

Jayanthi: We started the organization ‘Udavum Manangal’ on 2002. When we started this organization there was this student who wanted to join SIT (Seshayee Institute of Technology). He had very good marks 464 out of 500 and had got centum in Mathematics. He was working as a night watchman in a department in PWD. At that time we helped him get enrolled in the institute. We took care of his fees for 3 years. A boy who was struggling to make his ends meet and working for Rs.1000/- when he finished the course with 94% was recruited by Larsen & Toubro (Hosur). This really motivated us.

Interviewer: What was the factor which made you to reach out to this person and start the organization in the first place?

Jayanthi: My father – 10 days before his death- asked me as to what my plans where for the future. To which I replied that I don’t have any specific goal. Hearing this, my father advised me to invest 50% of my earnings to support educational cause of children who were not related to me. At that time I felt it was enormous. But my father asked me ‘Isn’t half your earnings more than enough for an individual’s need?’ I agreed with him and since then been setting aside 50% of my salary to provide financial support to educate the needy children at government school who wanted to study. We consider each student individually and depending on his/her marks we decide on the course of action to be taken. If the child is extremely good at studies then we might even put the person through an engineering course else we enroll them in a polytechnic course. For those who score marks below average we at least aim to make him a skilled labour and join him in appropriate vocational course. But for engineering we look to support only those who get a seat through merit as we really cannot afford self-financing college. Per year around Rs.10, 000 we provide for engineering. For polytechnic we provide Rs.5, 000 and at the school level we provide around Rs.2,000 – 2,500 depending on the needs. We ensure that there are no drop outs.

Interviewer: Excellent. Drop out is a very challenging issue. How do you ensure that no one drops out?

When we screen the students, we consider their background and estimate to what level we will be able to educate the person. We then speak to parents, village officer or panchayat, headmaster. If anyone informs us of a student (whom we are supporting) drops out we meet various persons from the headmaster to panchayat leader and convince them to let the child continue with education

Interviewer: Till date, how many students would you have helped?

Jayanthi: We started with 2 students. Now we are supporting120 students. What I am really proud of is that there are 14 engineering students who got through to the government colleges on merit. All of them have a very high cut off of about 198. Getting such good marks by a student from rural areas is very difficult. This is a great achievement of the students. Example of this a girl named Janaki. She will soon be passing out as an engineer from the college. When she joined the course, she was suffering from stammering. The college principle took Janaki under her wings and provided her treatment for the same and will soon be making her a lecturer at the same. The credit goes to both her and the principle

Interviewer: Very nice. How do you select the students for whom you would be providing support?

Jayanthi: We initially accept the students referred by teachers and headmaster of the government school. In six months time, we will be able to properly gauge their status. Other than that students referred by my friends, colleagues will be accepted immediately for the first year of support. In six months time, we collect the data (we have 10 volunteers as our committee members) and prepare a report. I too personally visit and check out the candidate. If we are ok with it then support to the person automatically continues. Let us say he/she joins us in the 6th standard till the student completes education and secures a job we keep the support going

Interviewer: All this, would require a lot of effort and money. How much would you be spending annually for this initiative?

Just for education, we spend around Rs. 5,00,0000. I will be able to take care of the expenses up to 2.5 lakhs. The rest is provided by my friends and colleagues. They make up 100 permanent members and contribute the rest of the amount. I have never had trouble with sourcing fund. For these 120 students, funding is not at all a problem

Interviewer: Have you ever declined helping a candidate who has approached you for help?

By God’s grace we have not rejected a single candidate till date. Sometimes what we do is that the support is not provided by our organization. It is taken up by any of our volunteer who then sponsors the candidates’ fee. The entire course fee is taken care of by the individual. We just link the candidate with the sponsor.

Interviewer: How many students have completed education and have got into a job?

22 students have joined work force. They are all diploma students. Soon Janaki (the engineering student I was talking about earlier) will be joining their ranks too. From now on, there will be 4 engineering graduates who will be getting into a job every year.

Interviewer: What do you get out of doing all this?

Contentment. I feel happy doing this. Making a person independent and capable of taking care of himself and his family is very satisfying. Such a person will somehow manage in life and will definitely help a few more individuals.

Interviewer: Many persons want to help but don’t know what to do. Do you have any suggestions for them?

Not just what to do. But also is it right to help this NGO. It is not just money that is required. There is this person in GH (at Trichi) who distributes hot water to patients and attendant at 6:30 AM. At first I thought why someone is providing hot water. We tend to think that one should give money or certain types of in-kind donation to be of service to others. That is not true. Persons in GH (General Hospital) need hot water in the morning. So when someone brings that to them it is useful. Noticing it, (within a month’s time) someone else started distributing porridge outside GH for persons in GH

Interviewer: If someone wants to support you/ contact you how can they go about it?

I could be contacted on my email jayaimti@yahoo.co.in.

Thanks a lot

We would like to thank Mr. J. Prabhakaran for putting us in touch with Ms. Jayanthi

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Anusha is a software engineer who works for a living*. But what sets her apart from the likes of us is her spirit of volunteerism. Apart from slogging it out at office, she makes time to be there for those who need her support.

Ekam (NGO working on child healthcare) and Disha (NGO focusing on education) cannot stop talking about her. They are very grateful and appreciative of her contribution. Anusha seems to have donned many hats. According to the need, she becomes a fundraiser, relationship manager, partnership developer, proposal writer, etc. Not just these two organizations, but many have benefited from her enthusiasm, perseverance, and dedication

We @ Chaintherapy have been fortunate enough to have interacted with her. One can't but be amazed at the positive energy she brings to the table. Her ‘can do’ attitude is very infectious. She truly embodies the 'power of individual' _________________________________________________________________________

*She is now doing a fellowship programme which has made it possible for her to live with the villagers and look at life from their point of view - which is something she really wanted to do.

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Jeyalakshmi is a headmistress in a government school in Chennai. She has been providing free coaching classes in the evening at her house for the poor students. Working tirelessly at this initiative for many many years she has managed impacting the lives of 1000's of individuals. This is truly due to the power of the Individual 'Jeyalakshmi'

This episode is our conversation with Jeyalakshmi. She truly embodies the spirit of 'pay it forward'

Interview Trancript

Interviewer: Welcome Jeyalakshmi Madam

Jeyalakshmi: Welcome

Interviewer: Thanks a lot for giving us time and for agreeing to talk to us

Jeyalakshmi: With Pleasure

Interviewer: For the last 15 years you have provided education support to the needy right? Could you elaborate on it?

Jeyalkashmi: In 1974 I got appointed as a teacher in management school. If you look at my background, I struggled a lot and have come up the hard way. A teacher named “Manogaramma’ helped me. I thought about it. I felt that God has helped and I should do the same too. That is how I started. I do whatever I can to support the educational cause. I allocate at least 10% of my income for helping poor students in whatever manner I can.

Interviewer: What kind of educational support do you provide?

Jeyalakshmi: I have started “Mannika Mannavar Thitam” through which I select poor students from 9th – 12th in the neighbourhood and provide them with a place in my house for them to study (from 6.00 to 9.00). I also provide them with food because they are in the study class for a long time. Also many of these children do not get adequate food. I feel providing education is the best form of support as that will help them change their lives. Like me, they too can in turn help others .

I have been running this initiative for the past five years. Prior to that, I used to help students (up to 8th Standard) from my school. Only then it struck me why not provide them with coaching facilities for free. Parents normally end up spending Rs.3,000 – 4,000 on tuition. Teachers known to me came forward to help me. Got teachers for Science, Maths, etc. Now, students who have passed out from here are taking classes. College going students who studied here three years back are now teaching various courses.

As many have come forward to take the class sessions, I have now set up two rooms in the terrace of my house. This is specially helpful for those who do not have conducive study environment at home. Some students stay back and go home early in the morning.

Interviewer: Excellent. Students who studied here, are they well placed in life now?

Many. Just don’t want students education to be disrupted. In my own life, I had to struggle to continue my studies. In those days not much emphasis was given to female education but I was adamant. I was not very keen on being a teacher. I wanted to take up another profession. Since there was lot of opposition for that, I took up teaching. But once I got into it, I gave it my all. I decided that I would do my best. Till date I have been doing it. I teach in primary school (teaching only up to 8th standard). To prevent students dropping out of school beyond this standard I personally enrol students them in other schools for further education. If parent’s have some problems, I try to find out about it and help them out. I make the parents aware of the importance of education.

Many students who have been supported this way have done very well. Some have become physiotherapists, some work in offices, and some are now studying in college

Interviewer: Wonderful to know how their lives have changed. You started with providing coaching to students, what made you involve the parents?

Jeyalakshmi: There was this girl Buwaneswari. I still can’t forget her. She is no longer alive because of her parents. She studied with me till 8th standard. She was a very talented child. She died when she was in 12th standard. That was when cricket world cup was also happening. As they were watching the world cup matches, she could not study for her 12th board exam. Because of which she fought with her parents. They did not think her education was important enough as she was anyway going to be married to her uncle. She studied late into the night and in the morning dig not get up early enough to do the household chores. She had rush to the exam centre. Upon which her parents shouted at her stating that she is too busy studying to take care of house hold work. She got very depressed and ended up committing suicide. She called me up before committing suicide and narrated this incident. I did ask her to not bother about it and just concentrate on her studies. But… She wrote three papers and got a very good score of 590. She had three more papers to go when she committed suicide. I have just not been able to forget it. Only then did I decided, that I should speak to the parents as well. Parents too need to be counselled. I have supported parent’s for medical treatment, blood donation, etc

Speaking of blood donation, I must tell you the about this girl Padma. She was my student and her mother was being operated in the General Hospital. It was festival time and holiday season, I did not have my usual support system (Meenakshi College provides me with a lot of support). Padma was crying because her mother was in need of blood. I contacted blood bank in United India Colony. I was willing to pay for it. They charged me Rs.1,600 for two units of blood. When I paid the amount, Padma thanked me for it. It was then the person at the blood bank enquired as to how I was related to the girl. When he came to know that she was my student, he was amazed at the extent of support a teacher is providing to a student. He returned my money and ensured that the blood was delivered at the hospital promptly.

Interviewer: Like this, have many persons come forward to help you?

Jeyalakshmi: Yes. Definitely. Seeing the work, many have come forward to support. Some have given books. Even for culturals, there is this person, who composes songs for these children. There are many such kind hearted souls. They just know how to go about providing support

Interviewer: Yes. There are many who want to help but don’t know how to go about it. What would be your suggestion to them?

Jeyalakshmi: They should find those who are doing good job. There are some who are not doing a genuine job. These individuals should go in person and check for themselves the work that has been undertaken Interviewer: You have accomplished so much as an individual; do you plan on setting up an organization?

No. I work with organizations but I would just like to do how much ever I can as an individual

Interviewer: Thank you. It is inspiring to speak to persons such as you.

Jeyalakshmi: Thank you _____________________________________________________________________ If you would like to support Jeyalakshmi send us an e-mail at info@chaintherapy.org

We would like to thank Mr. J. Prabhakaran for putting us in touch with Ms. Jeyalakshmi