DIGIKIDS FOUNDER - JAI NAIDU
During my 10th grade summer, I decided that I wanted to do something more than just visiting family in India. This year I had plans to do something different. Before we left, my dad had introduced me to a non-profit organization by the name of Agastya. Every year, they take in several hundred children, and educate them in the several different aspects of science. Their central goal is to kindle an interest in science, in each child that comes to their facilities. After a few hours of looking into their website, I had decided that I wanted to volunteer there that summer.
In fact, during the beginning of my summer break I had attended a one month computer engineering course, in the DigiPen Institute of Technology. During my time there I attended college level introductory classes in the fields of, math, computer engineering, programming, and electrical engineering. I wanted to some apply this knowledge to my time in Agastya’s facilities. I decided I would teach a week long course based of my work in DigiPen.
After spending a week in Agastya’s facilities, and teaching a few classes, I decided that there wasn’t much more I could do to contribute. They were doing a phenomenal job educating hundreds of rural children, and their future looked very bright already. Nevertheless, the experience was fantastic, working with the kids was fantastic. Given their respective struggles, financial, social, whatever it may be, they were some of the most enthusiastic kids I have ever met. They showed a great deal of interest towards my class. This experience really sparked the socially responsible part of me. At this point, I really wanted to make a difference, and it had to be in India. After meeting the kids in Agastya, I couldn't resist helping children like these to the best of my ability.
I had a call with Dr Anand Kumar, Chairman of the Board and managing Trustee of CHILD. CHILD is an orphanage that supports several children, by providing them with basic necessities such as shelter, food and water, education, and a healthy environment. I had known about CHILD for about a year by then. The year before, I went to the orphanage to teach the kids the basic operations of a computer. I introduced them to Microsoft office as well. I based the brief curriculum off of SAI CLAPS, a computer literacy course developed by the Sai Organization in California. However, during the call, Dr. Anand Kumar told me that the computer lab had seen a lot of success for the past year. The children had been using the computers for school: for homework help, and for projects. I was ecstatic to know that the children were enjoying the technology. After a few minutes of talking we began to talk about affect the local community in some way. I introduced the idea of a computer literacy program.
This sounded great. We knew that we wanted to implement this as soon as possible. In a few short months, we had put together a small team that could dedicate their time and efforts to the CLAPS project. We began to contact a few government schools to see where we could pilot the program. We eventually found a school willing to try out this new program: Government Girls HSS, Villivakkam, Chennai. Unfortunately, their school was severely damaged by the flood. Due to delays in obtaining permissions and appropriate approvals from local government authorities we will be conducting the pilot in Sri Kanaga Durga Telgu Higher Secondary School.
That brings us to the present. After months of work, the program is coming together. We have the beginnings of a great community service opportunity. Now I can really see the true potential of the program. The scalability is unimaginable. We could bring this program all over the country. I truly believe that we can get there, if get support in the pilot we can reach greater heights than we ever thought. But, I want to take it a bit further; that is where the Digikids initiative comes in. The CLAPS project has been and will be a fantastic experience. Now, the Digikids initiative enables me to partake in the digital empowerment of not just kids in India, but hopefully, all around the world. As of now, I will be fully dedicating myself to the CLAPS program, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. However, after things have settled, and we have reached a level of sustainability, I want to extend my reach, to digitally empower many more children.
For more information about my trips to Agastya and CHILD, please visit the Blog page.