HYDERABAD: Pooja Agarwal is a 2016-17 Bachelors of Business Management (BMS) graduate from St. Francis College for Women, Begumpet, and has set her philosophy of idealism straight. She has brought her dream of creating a little world of justice and equal opportunities by following her passion with Aikaarthya in July, 2016. When the 21-year-old studied the reasons for downfall in participants of the social outreach fair conducted by the college through a survey, she found out that the students were reluctant to take part in an activity that did not benefit the students in return.
Pooja decided to convert the problem into an opportunity when she established her team consisting of students and teachers from the department of BMS to form Aikaarthya, which implies ‘the unity of an idea’ in Sanskrit. “Aikaarthya aims to work on the ripple effect that is sustainable and can be measured through sufficient data with the vision of transforming communities,” informs Pooja.
The platform connects passionate workers from various fields to the students of orphanages and low-income schools to inculcate a set of skills in the students with relation to an activity. There are about 100 volunteers who work for the organisation currently and 200 volunteers have previously worked with Aikaarthya, partnered with St. Francis College for Women and Teach for India. Over 950 children from various schools and orphanages are benefited by the structured social initiative.
The volunteers educate the children in a wide range of verticals including dance, personality development, fitness and sports, gardening, art and craft, upcycling waste, baking, theatre and body dynamics. A group of five volunteers cater to a classroom whose strength ranges from 25-60 students. A structured programme is created by the volunteers in a way that suits the interest of every child with the mentor’s guidance. The method of teaching is left to the volunteer’s liberty and innovativeness.
There are four phases that Aikaarthya undergoes. The ‘DeBrief’ occurs when the mentor poses a set of questions to the volunteers where it helps the volunteers in improving the planning and execution of their program by reflecting on their experience. The second phase is the Aikaarthya celebrations where the children exhibit their learning through multiple modes. The volunteers visit the children’s community in the third phase and talk to their families. After scanning the community’s problems, the volunteer gets a deeper insight on a single issue and builds a plan to eradicate the issue. The last phase is where the volunteer presents the plan to investors and stakeholders to bring the plan into action.