The ‘Orupidi Nanma’ initiative wherein school students play an important role in uplifting families living in extreme poverty has completed one year.
The voluntary programme involves school children contributing food and other essentials, except rice and cash, within their capacities to economically disadvantaged families.
After the initiative was launched last year, students of some 800 schools, including government, aided, unaided, CBSE and ICSE, chipped into uplift 3,613 extremely poor families identified in a government survey in the district. “Though some of the schools have backed out over the course of time, a good number of institutions continue to be part of the initiative. The families continue to be provided with kits containing essential items,” said an official of Local Self-Government department.
As part of the project, the first Monday of every month is observed as ‘community service day’ in schools. Essentials, including food items, soap, and toothpaste among others, brought by students were segregated in the respective schools before being packed and distributed to their ‘adopted’ families.
A kit is designed to meet the needs of a family for one month. For the success of the programme, one teacher in each school has been given the additional charge of community service coordinator.
The programme was initiated by V.R. Krishna Teja during his stint as the District Collector of Alappuzha.
