With Hope in heart, spring in step

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 Pudupatinam Kuppam, 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.

Language skills

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.”

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.

Counselling parents

It has been close to eight years since the school started and it has now become part of the community, adopting a holistic approach towards educating the children and their families.

“This community faces various social issues — alcoholism among men and a high suicide rate among women, mainly due to ignorance,” says Santhosh. “The parents are emotional and want their children to study; this very passion sometimes drives them to do crazy things."

The PTA meetings for the children double as counselling session for the parents. Santhosh advises the parents to be more caring and less violent with their children.

We take a tour of the school to discover that it provides an ideal learning environment for young minds.

The equipment used for experiential learning for toddlers and the innovative and exciting teaching methods are all part of the regular curricula here.

“Our employees are amazed at the general awareness and intelligence of these kids, especially knowing these children don’t come from regular, well-to-do households,” says Ramaswamy.“ Many of them speak fluent English and their native intelligence is amazing.” He feels a visit to the school and spending time with the children works as a stress-buster and restores employee enthusiasm.

This small school near the sea-shore doesn’t dish out mid-day-meals or other government benefits but offers its students the sheer joy of learning. While it may be part of a multinational’s social responsibility agenda, it has nonetheless brought new hope to many young lives.