Dear friends, as many of you must be aware, Maths2Art also has a CSR initiative named ‘GivingBack@Maths2Art’. The underlying idea behind the initiative is to foster a sense of giving back to the community, focussing on children less fortunate than us, thereby serving the ultimate objective of TRUE education: Benefitting our world and the society around, and improving the conditions of the less well off.
As part of this, Maths2Art was searching for an appropriate cause/venue to kickstart this initiative, when I met Siddhit Prabhu Tamba, through a common friend’s reference. Siddhit is a Renewable Energy & Sustainability professional, originally hailing from Goa and has been working with a school called the Serkong School in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, for the past 4 years.
The school was established in 1999 by the local 1000 year old Tabo Buddhist monastery to ensure that the children from this remote part of the country get access to a quality, well-rounded & modern education, in conjunction with keeping their (fast dwindling) local culture alive. The emphasis is on children from economically constrained families of the Spiti region, who otherwise could not afford a quality education and hence would have to give up on their dreams of higher studies and a career of their choice.
Since then, we have been collaborating on a couple of education-related projects and also brainstorming all possible ways to improve the conditions at the Serkong school, and gradually in the surrounding region of Spiti Valley.
Our primary focus is on improving the Education, Healthcare and Energy & Communications infrastructure in the area.
The ultimate objective is to replicate such projects gradually in other remote, far-flung & impoverished regions of India as we grow and network with more like-minded and passionate individuals/organisations.
A tall ask certainly, but we believe at least getting started even with small, tangible, impactful projects is far valuable than empty homilies! Towards this objective, we are planning for our next project –
Meaningful Holidays: Giving Back In A Sustainable Way
We are planning a volunteering/exploring trip where participants can volunteer at the Serkong school for a few days and they get to explore the surroundings for the remaining days. The idea is to give the participants a taste of the tough geography and day to day living conditions in the area, so that they get a first hand glimpse of the cause they will get associated with, in addition to the local culture and issues.The program will tentatively run between June to mid-October of this year (weather permitting)
We are still working on our itinerary and we will update you with the details soon. Looking forward to arranging the first trip as part of our Meaningful Holidays initiative with some of you like-minded folks, who relate to the cause and would like to contribute in some meaningful fashion… Watch out for more details on the project soon.
To know more about this project, please take a look at the below links
For any further details/queries, please feel free to contact:
Priya Asthana (Singapore)
maths2art@gmail.com / +65 8189 3856
Siddhit Tamba (India)
siddhit_tamba@yahoo.co.in / +91 9850 462427
Maths2Art 