I am currently an active contributor to OSAAT (One School At A Time), an NGO that identifies schools in dire need of infrastructure in rural India and raises funds to help schools build/rebuild the environment needed to encourage education. I passionately identify with this cause and hence have joined people who are involved in OSAAT. All contributors work full-time somewhere else: venture capitalists, managers/architects/directors in leading technology firms, studying for their PhD (☺), or are retired professionals from banking, civil engineering or IT background. That makes this NGO very unique, our overhead cost is zero, zilch.
Why OSAAT?
I hail from a town called Belthangady. There was just one school that imparted lectures in English in the whole of Belthangady Taluk(county) until my high-school. School busses were more of an exception than a norm (atleast back then) and if anyone missed the public shuttle, they had to walk 1 mile from the nearest town (Ujire) to school. This happened almost everyday so walking was an extremely common event.
Yet, easily I fall under Top 10% when it comes to access to education in India. Hence there is this strong desire to contribute back to the society and I believe contributing to primary and secondary education is the best way to do so. I joined OSAAT in 2014 because all members share the same belief. We just built our 27th school !! Click here to know more.
I have previously been a part of Community Development Project (CDP) during my undergrad days and School Adoption Program at Cisco Systems, both of which focused on improving teaching and learning activities in some of the underprivileged schools in surrounding communities.