ENVIKAL- A Social Service Initiative of IIT Madras alumni of 1970
ENVIKAL- Engineering Novel Volunteer Initiatives & Knowledge Alliances - is the banner under which Alumni of 1970 batch from IIT Madras have joined together to empower the less privileged through technology.
An offshoot of e-group interchanges between the alumni members, ENVIKAL was conceived in the year 2001 primarily to support self-sufficiency Initiatives, to promote Education & Literacy, and to supplement Public Health Services among the underprivileged masses.
As its first Project, ENVIKAL chose computer education and literacy support to rural students of Govt High School, Alamadhi with support of Divine Mother society, a NGO offering Health services to the villagers of Alamadhi since early 90’s.
Over the last 3 years, DMS-ENVIKAL computer center at Kamakshi Baba ashram at Alamadhi has trained more than 300 students of class X in Basic operations of computer. The students were also offered free tuition in Maths, Science and English, resulting in their improved performance in the Public examination.
About 25 unemployed or underemployed youth from the village with creative abilities were chosen for training in Graphics design, and many of them have been gainfully employed in DTP, Photo-imaging centers etc. Further, with a core group of good performers, ENVIKAL Web Services has recently been formed as an initiative for self-sustenance. EWS offers web design, development and content maintenance services to NGO and Corporate organizations.
The students are also taken on motivational trips to IIT campus, Planetarium and Children’s park on weekends. Two such trips were organized in the academic year 2003-04.
March 7, 2004 was a memorable day in the short history of ENVIKAL. Ram Krishnasamy from Sydney, a key member of ENVIKAL, organized a visit to Alamadhi for a motley group of 50 consisting of IIT & IIM alumni and their family members. The group also included a few Rotarians. They interacted with the Panchayat President of Alamadhi, and the Head Master, teachers and students of the school and had a first hand account from the beneficiaries of the ENVIKAL project. Ram distributed gifts to schoolchildren, exhorted them all to aspire for high goals and announced a scholarship for anyone from the village joining IIT. NT Nathan, Project coordinator, Raju from Colorado, Muthanna, General Manager ECC, and George Verghese were the other ENVIKAL members present.
It was generally felt that participation of global IITians augurs well for the bright future of ENVIKAL and signals a move towards broad-basing the movement so that its success may be replicated in many other places.
ENVIKAL- Engineering Novel Volunteer Initiatives & Knowledge Alliances - is the banner under which Alumni of 1970 batch from IIT Madras have joined together to empower the less privileged through technology.
An offshoot of e-group interchanges between the alumni members, ENVIKAL was conceived in the year 2001 primarily to support self-sufficiency Initiatives, to promote Education & Literacy, and to supplement Public Health Services among the underprivileged masses.
As its first Project, ENVIKAL chose computer education and literacy support to rural students of Govt High School, Alamadhi with support of Divine Mother society, a NGO offering Health services to the villagers of Alamadhi since early 90’s.
Over the last 3 years, DMS-ENVIKAL computer center at Kamakshi Baba ashram at Alamadhi has trained more than 300 students of class X in Basic operations of computer. The students were also offered free tuition in Maths, Science and English, resulting in their improved performance in the Public examination.
About 25 unemployed or underemployed youth from the village with creative abilities were chosen for training in Graphics design, and many of them have been gainfully employed in DTP, Photo-imaging centers etc. Further, with a core group of good performers, ENVIKAL Web Services has recently been formed as an initiative for self-sustenance. EWS offers web design, development and content maintenance services to NGO and Corporate organizations.
The students are also taken on motivational trips to IIT campus, Planetarium and Children’s park on weekends. Two such trips were organized in the academic year 2003-04.
March 7, 2004 was a memorable day in the short history of ENVIKAL. Ram Krishnasamy from Sydney, a key member of ENVIKAL, organized a visit to Alamadhi for a motley group of 50 consisting of IIT & IIM alumni and their family members. The group also included a few Rotarians. They interacted with the Panchayat President of Alamadhi, and the Head Master, teachers and students of the school and had a first hand account from the beneficiaries of the ENVIKAL project. Ram distributed gifts to schoolchildren, exhorted them all to aspire for high goals and announced a scholarship for anyone from the village joining IIT. NT Nathan, Project coordinator, Raju from Colorado, Muthanna, General Manager ECC, and George Verghese were the other ENVIKAL members present.
It was generally felt that participation of global IITians augurs well for the bright future of ENVIKAL and signals a move towards broad-basing the movement so that its success may be replicated in many other places.
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