Back To Our Roots

Computer Classes

During our interaction with the village kids, they started showing a lot of interest in acquiring computer skills. They were hearing about the importance of computers in the modern world but being in a village, they didn't have proper facilities to learn such skills, either in their schools or anywhere nearby.

So we thought of giving them an introduction by starting free computer classes for them, right in their neighborhood. When we announced this plan, there was tremendous positive response from the children as well as their parents. It is like a dream come true for them!!

So, we tried hard and located a good instructor in Guntur, who was willing to travel to the village five days a week, and teach them one hour per day, during the after-school hours. We also bought a used desktop for this purpose and got it installed in the home of a village family who came forward to help. With God's grace and support from friends and family, we first started a three week workshop on 13th March 2014. This initial session was meant for only 7th, 8th and 9th graders. In those three weeks, those kids learned Introduction to Computers, An overview of the Hardware and Software aspects of a Computer, Introduction to WINDOWS operating system and also a few features of MS WORD. They also got to do some simple lab exercises on the desktop.

It was so rewarding to see their happy faces and excitement as they kept attending these classes eagerly to learn and gain knowledge day by day.

We would like to continue to hold more such workshops periodically and keep encouraging the
children to reach for the stars!!

Computer Classes-This Year

After the successful completion of basic computer education workshop last year, children in our Brahmana Kodur village have shown a lot of interest to learn more this year. So in March 2015, we started a five session workshop for 7th, 8th and 9th graders to teach them more advanced concepts. The classes are being held every Sunday for five weeks, with each session being two hours, covering both theory and practical exercises.

Two used computers, a teacher willing to travel to our village every Sunday, a village family nice enough to host classes in their front room and last but not the least, children eager to discover the wonders of computers - All these came together to make these level 2 computer classes as successful as last year's basic education classes (if not more)!

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Water Project

As we continued our work with the village children, their parents and other members of the village community also started to form a bond with us. During our weekly visits, they would give us flowers from their backyard or home-grown vegetables etc as a sign of appreciation for our service to their community.

Then during 2013 summer, both the village ponds got totally dried up and no water was being released by the government in the canals either. The villagers were going through a severe shortage of water as the only remaining sources were a few borewells in some parts of the village. So many of them had to walk a long distance and wait for long periods of time in lines, to be able to catch a few buckets of water per day.

One Sunday when we went there for our Balvikas class, some of the villagers approached us and shared their difficulties with us. They have requested for support to dig a new borewell opposite our Rama Mandiram, to help resolve some of their water shortage issues.

Ram and I have immediately promised help but said it had to be a joint effort between them and us (sharing of finances). With timely support from one of our close friends, we were able to get the project done within a week and by God's grace the water that was struck underground was pure and sweet drinkable water :)

To this day, this borewell has been continuously serving the domestic water needs of the farmers and this whole effort had served as a small step for us to get closer to their community as a whole!

Many of our village Balvikas children study in the local Govt high school in Brahmana Kodur. So we took some time to visit the school once and find out if they needed any help. To our dismay we found out that the teachers in the school don't have proper tables and chairs in the classrooms! They have no furniture to place their books while teaching the kids!! With the kind support of some close friends, we were able to donate the required furniture to the school and also took the opportunity to present a Ball Badminton set to enhance their Sports department. On the day of presentation, the look of happiness and gratitude on the faces of teachers and children was amazing!