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Change is important. Change is now.
If you were ever at a point in your life where you felt the need to help someone, we feel you. The world is broken and its our job to fix it. However, things do seem too big to handle at times. But one must not lose hope, especially in the internet age where we get countless inspirational stories of change. And Mumbai’s Sanjana Shastri’s tale is definitely a great example of that!
When Sanjana witnessed the poor condition of the local Zila Parishad school in Vikramgadh, Maharashtra, it weighed on her mind. A victim of the usual false promises of progress by the governmental bodies, the girls school was not in a particularly conducive state for the children’s progress. So Sanjana felt the need to take the correct action.
Even though she used her 2017’s birthday money to give the school fans and light, the thought of the state of the toilets in the school haunted her. One of the primary reasons why girls drop out of school is lack of access to clean toilets especially in girls who are in 6th std and above. I spoke to the school and found out that many students missed days at school in the monsoon and for reasons of basic hygiene. They also told me that the students had to get water to drink and wash and use in the bathroom from village wells that were quite far away. So while I wanted to rebuild the toilets for the girls”, says Sanjana. And so, her quest began.
First step was to get access to the village well. Sanjana is pursuing pharmacy in Manipal, Karnataka, so her parents helped out the communication in this entire endeavour. Her mother went along with the some of the teachers and met the village panchayat and got permission to use the water. They then set up a pump and a pipe line to the school. With that water the children could wash their hands in running water and didn’t need to carry water from the well.
Now that water came it was important to rebuild the whole block which included 7 latrines for the girls and 3 WC toilets - two Indian style and one western Style. For funding the toilet block, while Sanjana did think of asking her parents for help, she was overwhelmed by the support from her friends and family after they saw the pipeline and the fans being installed. She then decided to start a crowdfunding campaign for it allows a larger number of people to make a difference to these young girls.
“My goal was to raise 3 lakhs in a span of 45 days and so far, it’s on track to make the required amount of money”, says Sanjana. The work has started. They’ve a contractor with quotations and the tank has to be raised and there is a new septic tank to be build. The entrance has to be changed too as the class room looked directly into the toilet. With the help of the school principal and it’s staff work is now underway and should be completed by this June.
While she has almost reached her crowdfunding campaign goal, you can still help the effort by donating here.
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