SECTOR-21 AASRA- AN EPITOME OF MAGNANIMITY

SECTOR-21 AASRA- 

AN EPITOME OF MAGNANIMITY

    There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.

                                                                                                – Woodrow Wilson

      Each time a man stands up for an ideal, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. So did AASRA, established in the year 2005 by a group of five young enthusiasts, this club congregated with time, to become a huge family of hundreds of students and an extensive alumni network. It was set in motion with a maxim to reach out to the underprivileged sections of the society, providing educational opportunities to students and employment opportunities to the elders. Presently, AASRA has enormously grown to spread over eight workplaces and sector 21 is one among these.

         

       The workplace of AASRA in sector 21 is the leprosy colony. The slum is named so because the people living there suffer from an incurable illness which may also spread. There are instances when the children of the slum concealed their address to be accepted by the general public or be allowed to attend school and tuitions. 

    “Why do you look sad today?” I asked a 6th class student of sector 21, on a day of our regular visits. “My father broke my little money bank, stole my coins, and went to drink, my mother works as a domestic servant. Now I can’t buy a pen for which I had been saving since months,” she replied trying to hide her tears.

        This child won’t accept a pen for free from me such is her self-respect, this child smiles even when she lacks basic resources, lives in chaos and misery such is her courage, this child dreams of getting educated, rise and inspire the children of the slums such is her ignited spirit.

This instance clearly shows the gloom that the children of the slum dread.

 “The happiest people, are those who lose themselves in social service”.

 

 Therefore, the members of sector-21working collectively with members of other workplaces of AASRA not only visit the workplace regularly to teach the children for free but also celebrate festivals, inspire and support the people of the slum, enlighten them about employment opportunities, basic cleanliness, etc., provide seasonal employment through Diya project, train the slum dwellers for various competitions like TET, Navodaya Entrance Exam, etc., organize various events and competitions for the children in NITR in LSY (Little Science Yard)- held during Innovision and AASRA Foundation Day on January 26th every year.

      This academic session Sector 21 has bagged first prize both in skit and dance (junior group) on Aasra Foundation Day, two awards in LSY, and distributed rupees forty thousand five hundred to unprivileged women of the colony through Diya Project.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”

      Due to constant motivation and support many people have broken barriers and set idols for the leprosy colony to look up to. Following are some of those success stories of sector-21: -

1. Maithili a girl of leprosy colony conquered child marriage, completed her BCA, and now serves as a teacher in a college in Rourkela.

2. Padmini proved her mettle by getting trained under PMKVY and placed in Café Uddupi Ruchi, Chennai

3. Women in the workplace are successfully working in an SHG.

The club envisions to make the workplace self-sufficient. The dream that the club strives to achieve is making each slum dweller of sector-21 employed, each child educated and the slum upgraded so that the slum shall no longer need any social service but become an inspiration for all other impoverished areas.

     “We rise by lifting others.”

 This is not just a quote but what sector-21 of AASRA family proves by its service.

                                                                                      Content by Mahamaya Mishra