Sixteen-yearold 12th graders Agni Bhattacharya and Arjun Gandhi are leaving no stone unturned to bridge the IT divide in the rural areas especially in schools.
The two, who are the founders of Ouroboros, an NGO, have identified government schools in the city which lack computers and ensured that they will be supplied computers in a self-sustaining manner.
The team noticed that excess computers in reasonably good condition were thrown away by IT companies while there is a huge demand for computers in the rural schools.
Ouroboros identified three government schools - Government Middle School Garudacharpalya, Government High School, Krishnarajapuram, and Government High School Kaikondanahalli in the city - and extended assistance to spread computer literacy.
“What started as a visit to the native, soon turned out to be an opportunity to extend help and assistance to these village schools. The so called computer labs in these schools were unfit to impart education,” Arjun pointed.
Agni Bhattacharya, cofounder of Ouroboros, said that their organisation first identifies the institutes that need computers, especially in rural areas, and then visits corporate companies, which under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, assure assistance by donating computers.
“These computers are upgraded and then supplied to the government schools. We sometimes take the peripheral equipment offered by the corporate companies and give them to schools where there is a requirement,” Agni explained. As their name, Ouroboros, depicts an ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail, both Agni and Arjun aim to create a self -sustaining system by evolving in a cycle.