After a two-hour drive down East Coast Road and about 66 km out of Chennai, past the narrow lanes of Pudupattinam Kuppam, a fishing village at Kalpakkam near the temple town of Mamallapuram, we take a right turn and see the modest structure that houses a primary school.

As we step inside the wide gates of Hope Foundation Nursery & Primary School, a group of children is waiting for us, holding up a welcome sign. A few of them approach with garlands made of green paper links.

Tiny hands garland us and the kids retreat shyly. P.K. Santhosh, the Hope Foundation Programme Director at the hamlet, welcomes us with a smile and says: “It’s part of KPMG’s Environment Initiative, hence the green garlands.” Santhosh tells us the school was started for the children of tsunami victims after the 2004 catastrophe.

Santosh came to the village with his team (from Hope Foundation) and helped the villagers rebuild their lives. The village Panchayat wanted an English-medium school and the NGO agreed, he adds. “The villagers don’t want their kids to be just fishermen, they want them to get a good education, learn English,” says Santhosh. Soon, a primary school building was put up on two acres which used to be a burial ground. A Delhi-based NGO, Hope Foundation, and consultants KPMG helped put the structure together. Santhosh and his wife Nalini run the school now.

The NGO looks after the school’s operations and is involved in community building through its secondary projects. KPMG, on its part, adopted the school, funding its operations and providing basic amenities and infrastructure.

Water and electricity are scarce in this village. “After the school was built, we suffered 10-2 hours of power cuts,” says Santosh. “We could not use the computer lab, and drinking water and sanitation were a daily challenge.”

Green energy

KPMG extended a helping hand under its environmental sustainability programme and installed a 3KW solar module at the Hope School in 2012. The module generates enough electricity to power the entire school. The firm recently installed another 1.5KW solar module, used to run the computer lab.

“The entire school runs on solar power and we have an UPS back-up, in case solar power runs out,” a Santhosh says. “And the water problem is solved by rainwater harvesting.”

The new panel cost around Rs 5 lakh and the UPS back-up is worth Rs 60,000. KPMG has also set up a rainwater harvesting unit capable of storing up to 6,000 litres of water. KPMG is involved in training young women from the area as teachers through its comprehensive teacher development programme. Venilla, who teaches at the Hope School, lives in the same village.

“These are very small children and I have to be very patient with them but I love working here,” she says. The teachers are trained to use modern teaching techniques and technology.

“While Hope runs the school, we take care of their all requirements,” says Narayanan Ramaswamy, Head of Education Advisory, KPMG. “The most important asset we try to provide is our time; our employees regularly visit the school and spend time with students.” Ramaswamy believes such visits uplift the children’s morale and help them gain confidence, while also helping the employees de-stress. Ramaswamy, a regular visitor at the school, feels the people who run the school are immensely motivated and self-driven.

“We are amazed at how they find means to improve by using simple methods,” he adds.

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