KANHANGAD: In an act of compassion, two schools have joined hands to build a house for two siblings whose home was destroyed last monsoon. Thirteen-year-old Sujith M, a student of Kelappaji Memorial Vocational Higher Secondary School (KMVHSS) at Kodakkad, and his sister Nivediya M, 11, who studies in Aided Lower Primary School, Podavur, were rendered homeless when a coconut tree fell on their tile-roofed house at Podavur last July.
The siblings’ mother Geeta, 41, kept knocking at the door of Kayyur-Cheemeni grama panchayat for assistance, only to be sent back over technicalities. When K M Anil Kumar -- headmaster of ALP School, Podavur -- visited Nivediya’s house last Onam, he was taken aback. He knew something has to be done immediately. For not only Nivediya, Geeta too was once a student of ALP school. He contacted the teachers of Kelappaji Memorial Vocational Higher Secondary School and they all were in agreement.
The students and teachers of KMVHSS raised `1.25 lakh and Geeta had `1.25 lakh with her. Satheesh, a former student of ALPS, Podavur, who is now in Australia, helped raise another `1 lakh. “In all, we collected `5 lakh to start the project,” said Anil Kumar. By December, the two schools have laid the foundation stone for the house. The initiative has caught the attention of Education Minister C Raveendranath. Taking to Facebook in a video post, he said: “This news makes us all happy and proud”.
“They are not just building a house. They are showing solidarity with their classmates. It is an expression of love. We expect public education to bring in such a change in children. Beyond ‘I’, we expect public education to inculcate the feeling of ‘us’ in children,” he said, adding that this should be replicated.
“Public education becomes a success when children realise that the pain and suffering of others are theirs too,” said Raveendranath. The video has been viewed around 10,000 times and shared around 315 times. The headmaster of Podavur school said the house would be ready by March. “We hope the minister will come to hand over the key of the house to the family,” he said.