In January 2008, I got an opportunity to visit the Vivekananda Tribal Vidhyalaya, a school run by the non-profit society called Wayanad Girijana Seva Trust (WGST). Though I have volunteered for ROSE activities in various ways in the past, this was the first time that I was going in person to see for myself a project that ROSE had decided to take up. Together with my friend and ROSE member, Dr Sridevi, I reached the project site which was nestled inside the plantation hills of Wayand, a district in the picturesque South-Indian state of Kerala. As our vehicle rolled and leaped through the roughly-cut mud road in the mountains, I wondered how one can expect an educational institution to exist in such wilderness. Soon enough, we arrived at a large open area which had been cleared in the hill-side and drew up in front of a couple of buildings that seemed to be recently constructed.Mr Baburaj and Mr Rajeev, who are in charge of running the school, received us warmly and started showing us around the buildings explaining their little school and their mission to us. As Baburaj continued explaining the difficulties in the lives of the tribals who worked in the plantations and lived in the forests around, a story of dedication emerged. We saw many children of various ages going about their multifarious activities. All of them came from families who had themselves never been to school nor had any hopes of going. Since there was no school existing in the near vicinity of these hills, the parents of these tribal children had no idea of what they were missing. Disease and malnutrition was rampant in these areas and urban amenities were unheard of. Baburaj and his team of dedicated workers had pain-stakingly gone from home to home beseeching the parents to send their children to school, often luring them with incentives of free food and clothes. What struck me was the fact that I could see happiness in every child's face inspite of staying away from home. Agreed, they may not reel out hi-fi terms like the 21st century urban geek, but the joy of learning and feeling of importance could be seen in many of these kids. Many of the teachers in the school are people who have resigned from their regular jobs to educate these tribal children. None of them had received their salaries for many months, since they had voluntarily put it back into the school for improving the facilities for the children. It is inspiring and heart-warming to note that the whole outfit runs on donations, and they plan to become self-sustainable in course of time as the first crop of the children moves out to the outside world. I could not help but reflect that progress and development in the broadest sense should still include progress and development for the poorest and least privileged sections of our fellow beings.
-Sandeep Sangameswaran

I was visiting Siragu Montesorri School as a regular site visit by ROSE to Suyam's school Siragu which is a few kilometers from Avadi, Chennai, India. I was generally reviewing the children's workbooks at the different classes. Then I met a girl from class four! She still brings tears to my eyes, even as I write this piece of text. The basic idea of the workbook was to write your free ideas. The title of the workbook by the young 10 year old girl from a rural, poor family who did not have enough even for daily food, was Human Values! What more indication or proof does one need to realize what right education can do to our community. All you need to convince you is a 10 year old talking about patience, sharing, faithfulness and other human values as the core principles for human society!
-Praveen Raghavan

In the year 2006, I visited Agragamee, an NGO placed in Kashipur, Orissa. Orissa has a lot of mineral and natural resources, one of the reasons for the vast interest from the foreign companies, such as POSCO, Arcelor Mittal including others like TATA and Birla. As every development, this has had its own boons and banes. To feed the appetite of the growing economy, more resources are needed. Mainly, Tribes have lived in this place for a long time and they are far from the current high-tech revolutions. They don’t have any paper or document, which the government needs to prove your ownership. Such people get displaced from the main land especially since they also lack skills needed to accommodate with the industries.
Agragamee runs a school for tribal girls in Kashipur and their head office is also situated here. I got an opportunity to interact with the students, I found motivation and could see their desire towards education. I went to another place further from Kashipur called Adari, a remote place where you need to travel at least for 3 hours by Jeep to cover a short distance, no proper roads or infrastructure. ROSE has contributed 3 new class rooms and furniture. After talking to the teachers and students, I could feel the enthusiasm inside the students for the a new improved way of learning. Their school had better facilities than the villages near-by. Teachers were happy with the increased number of students and their parents' positive approach towards girls' education. I was surprised to see that the students and teachers are able to grow some vegetables for their midday meals. They were also constructing a Bio-gas plant for their energy requirements. At the end of the day you feel that even your small help can generate a big hope and motivation for many others. I wish to go back and visit them again.
-Akhilesh Swarnakar