Washington, Nov 21: Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, a non-governmental organisation working in the field of rural education in various parts of India, has raised over USD4 million, according to a media release.
The substantial amount was raised during a star-studded virtual Gala, called ‘Future of India’, on November 13.
Ekal, as it is popularly known, currently has presence in over 102,000 rural-tribal areas all across India with a reach to over 300,000 such clusters of habitants.
Co-chaired by Mohan Wanchoo and Kamlesh Shah, both successful entrepreneurs and philanthropist, a galaxy of Bollywood personalities — from Hema Malini, Boney Kapoor, Subhash Ghai and Varun Dhavan to Udit Narayan and Alia Bhatt — provided glitz with their support for Ekal.
The funds raised at the Gala were for specific projects, such as tailoring training centers, E-shiksha, Ekal-on-Wheels, Telemedicine, Gramotthan Research Centers, and Integrated Village Development.
Mohan Wanchoo, who pioneered Gala events at Ekal, regaled viewers with a personal story of how hospitable tribal villagers were in the midst of a horrific tragedy that they had endured earlier.
In her remarks. Kiran Mozumdar Shaw, founder of Biocon and recipient of ‘Padma Bhushan’, emphasied the need for digital tracking of patients by the tech-savvy nursing caretakers, as the core point for managing the pandemic.
Renu Khator, President of University of Houston system chancellor, stressed on the important role the education has played throughout her Steller career. She lauded EVF’s efforts towards women empowerment.
Naren Chaudhary, CEO of ‘Panera Bread’ brand, explained how his daughter – ‘Aisha’ – was the central motivating factor in whatever he did in his life. He expressed unequivocal passion for his country – India – where he had witnessed ‘spirit of humanity’ in his own time of acute need to save Aisha, a press release said.
Ranjani Saigal, the executive director of Ekal-USA assured him that his daughter’s legacy lives through what Ekal does best. For every USD1 a donor invests in Ekal activities, Ekal volunteers provides USD8 worth of selfless volunteer efforts, a media release said. (PTI)
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