A wistful journey of change: Ramesh Chaudhary

Seventy children stand in lines as they say their morning prayers, their singing is surely not the coordination of lyrics, base and chorus but the loud, cheerful voices of the children definitely reflect the happiness that they feel while going to school. However, three years in retrospect it was a different story as the 'Udasipur village' of Kailiali did not have any school and education for many was a farfetched dream.  

Ramesh Chaudhary, President of 'Sahan-Shilata Saathi Sanga Manka Kura Youth club' reminisces his bygone days of the endless hassles that he was ascribed to in order to reach school to study  "We did not have any school here as our village is very far from the town. My brothers and I had to walk three hours to reach the nearby school. It was a very tiring journey by foot for us and everyday when we reached our school we used to be exhausted and the herculean journey returning home used to scare us!" It was surely a test of patience and perseverance for Ramesh and his brothers but the hassles attached to education soon became a demoralizing factor for Ramesh's brothers who chose to stay home and work instead of walking three hours to school. "Even when my brothers thought education was not for them I did not give up!" Ramesh proudly states and continues "I was quiet aware of the fact that in the absence of proper education I would be writing  a chapter of my poverty which I did not want … and I knew how important education was  by listening to radio program Saathi Sanga Manka Kura!" 

Ramesh Chaudhary from the very start was an ardent listener of radio program Saathi Sanga Manka Kura, impressed by the success stories of other generic SSMK listener club he decided to open a listener club in his own community "We would group up regularly and listen to the meaningful episodes and after the completion of the program we used to indulge ourselves in discussing whether the issue raised was significant to our community. But, we did not want to limit ourselves in just mere discussions but we wanted to do something concrete!" eagerly he recites the event that heralded an essence of change inside him "One day we were talking about the burning issue of our village when many of the club members vouched that it was the lack of accessibility to schools. Then an idea hit me! If we could establish a small school in our own community then it would surely ease the education problem that our community members had been facing for a longtime. I kept forward this idea in the listener club but my brain-child received mixed reaction!"

Ramesh Chaudhary profoundly debated on the practicality of his idea and stressed that the plan would only materialize if they could garner the support of the community members. Finally after meticulous discussions he was able to convince the club members. A group of like-minded youngsters grouped together and started planning on how they were going to materialize their dream project. However, their CHANGE project though regarded as a revolutionary step forward also met with its own share of hindrance, further elaborating on the difficulties they had to face in the initial period as Ramesh Chaudhary shares "We invited members of the community in our club meetings and we presented our ideas to them. They were people who were unsupportive towards our cause and some even ridiculed us by saying that to establish a school was no 'Child's play'! Nevertheless amongst them were a handful of people who shared our vision and treated our idea with respect. One of the villagers offered us his old cowshed so that we could operate the school and that was the beginning of our CHANGE project- Nobel Academy School, the first school of our village"

The Sahan-Shilta SSMK youth club members scrupulously lobbied around the village in order to request the community members to send their children to the newly formed community school. In order to entice the villagers to send their children to the newly opened school the club members also introduced scholarship packages for children belonging to deprived and underprivileged families. Furthermore, elaborating about the scholarship packages Ramesh Chaudhary shares "These educational scholarships indeed worked wonders as parent's wistfully admitted their children to the community school; the school surely spelled freedom from the 'marathon' that the children had to go through before!" 

But as the saying goes "it is always challenging for amateurs to build titanic's" Ramesh and his gang of Change makers also faced numerous obstacles "We faced a lot of management hassles as we did not know what it was like running a school but still we were under the belief that the school was the property of the community and everyone should feel a sense of belonging; Therefore, we invited the community members to chair the board and take lead". Ramesh contentedly continues "Today, the school is jointly functioned by the community elders and the members of the listeners club. Listener club members who have passed grade 10 are appointed as teachers, thus by doing that we are also creating opportunity!" 

So, does this youngster with an unwavering idea of 'CHANGE' have any new project in line? Ramesh beams and answers "Every time I visit the school, I am greeted by the encouraging smile of the villagers and I feel that there is still much to do for the village. But 'Saathi Sanga Manka Kura' has taught me the power of endurance therefore, I wish to conclude what we started and then only we will think about other changes that needs to be made in our community!". Today, the school runs up to class five but Ramesh and his friends have big plans in store for the school; they plan to upgrade the teaching methods of the community school and upgrade it till secondary level. The 'Sahan-Shilta Saathi Sanga Manka Kura Youth club' has also branched their proficiency by establishing the 'Sahan-Shilta savings and cooperation' where they sanction small-scale loans to farmers and local businesspersons. This venture has also been seen as a step forward to proving opportunity for local youths, as well as a stepping-stone to uplift their living standards. 

This inspiring story of change will surely make one feel guilty as in the era where young people desecrate their energy just complaining about the fragile condition of the country; young people like Ramesh have proven that complaining does not help! But the need of the hour is to jointly work forward to eradicate problems that surface in the society. Chaudhary's story also echoes a valuable lesson of patience and perseverance; as former delivers success and latter delivers change in behest of which Ramesh and his friends succeeded to materialize their dream of establishing a school in their village, a dream that was once predicted impossible!