Success Stories: Arpana Gives Wings! (pt 1)
The Arpana Centre in Molar Bund, New Delhi, provides tuition support to 1500 underprivileged children of slum resettlement colonies, Gautampuri I and II.
Assistance not only for academic progress, but for developing well-rounded personalities in cultural programs, life skills, a library and vocational training in computers, nursery teachers training, beauty culture and craft and tailoring.
Dedicated volunteers, caring teachers and compassionate counsellors also assist in family matters, career anxieties and financial difficulties.
Neelam
Neelam had studied in Arpana’s tuition program for six years. She credits Arpana for not only enabling her to excel in academics, but in giving her self-confidence by participating in dance, drama, music, computer and life skills classes.
Although no one else in her family has even completed Class 12, Arpana counselled her to continue her studies. Arpana supported her financially when she was admitted in Delhi University where she graduated in Political Science.
She is now pursuing an MA in International studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University and plans to pursue an M.Phil., do civil services and become an IAS officer.
Neelam says, “I am very grateful to Arpana and all the teachers, because of whom I could perform well in studies.”
Komal
Komal has an alcoholic father and dropped out of school in Class 8 to help meet family expenses. She and her sister started performing in ‘Jhaki’ (dramas of mythological stories mainly related to Gods and Goddesses) for Rs.500 per show. It was a precarious situation as the evening shows kept them out till about 1 am.
One day she heard about Arpana’s beauty culture course and enrolled. After completing the course, she obtained a job with a beauty parlour for Rs.15,000 per month.
She says, “I am now supporting my family all by myself. I thank Arpana for making me stand tall in life.”
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Lalita
Lalita was in Class 12 at Arpana’s Tuition Support Centre, facing her vital 12th CBSE Board Exams. However, due to her bed-ridden father, the long hours spent by her mother working as a domestic help, all the household work devolved upon her and she was unable to study for her Board Exams.
Arpana’s Sushma Agarwal learned of her difficulty and motivated Lalita’s parents to support her studies. She also had a straight talk with her brother, who was a topper at Arpana Centre and was getting a scholarship, about the importance of Lalita’s goals in life being no less than his own. She said she would have to withdraw his scholarship if he did not support his sister and help her with the domestic chores as well as help her with her homework.
Lalita was able to study again at home and cleared her 12th Board Exams with First Division marks. She is now employed with a local KFC outlet as a senior team member, drawing Rs.11,000 per month as salary and Rs.3,000 on an average as incentive. She now says proudly, “Today I am the bread winner of my family.”
Archana
Archana, from the time she was a little girl, dreamt of becoming an air hostess, but her parents could not afford the training fees.
She studied at Arpana Centre from class 6 to 12. She was never very interested in studies, describing herself as “very naughty,” and credits her teacher, Shakuntala madam, for her good marks in her Class 12 CBSE Board Exams.
Due to guidance from her teachers and counsellors and financial help from Arpana scholarship fund, she was able to take the Air Hostess course.
She says, “It is a very great feeling that I am a student of Arpana Trust and they have supported me always. I am thankful to Mrs. Sharda; she has been very helpful to me. I also thank Mrs. Agarwal mam. She is a very kind person and helps all the children.
“I have now realized the value of becoming disciplined in life and am most grateful to all the teachers at Arpana for helping me achieve my goal.”
