24-June-2018
Shri Subhash Chandra delivered the address as the chief guest at the ‘Brick By Brick’ event in Dubai. Held at the Indian Consulate Hall on June 24, 2018 it celebrated the strides made by the Ekal movement across the globe and raised funds.
Addressing the gathering Shri Subhash Chandra gave his thanks to Dr. Harshad R Mehta and the Dubai Ekal team, and Shri Bajrang Bagra, “Such are the people who are the foundation of Ekal’s strength.”
Talking about the work Ekal has been doing he shared that of the 67,000 teachers about 55,000 are women teachers. He also added that, “We have taken the target of reaching 100,000 villages by 2020 and we will go fully ahead with the support of you all.”
“Ekal movement is no longer just education. Education is our base which brings Ekal into the villages, there we do not ask what is the caste or community, what is the religion? Everyone is welcomed. Every child is a child for us without discrimination. That makes it unique,” he explained urging people to come a see the good work being done by Ekal.
Subhash Ji also touched upon the benefits of Yoga. He said, “Yoga means yog that connects one to self.” He requested the audience to participate in a breathing exercise to demonstrate this. He said, “Yoga is only awareness about yourself. No religion in it.” He also spoke about his life mantra of living in the present.
Taking the subject back to Ekal and how it is educating rural India he said, “We too get to learn many things from the villagers. Often more than what we can teach them. One has to have the wish to absorb it.”
Hailing Ekal for running schools in just USD 500 per school he said, “More and more people are adopting them and we are confident that we will achieve our target. We will not only focus on education but also on other work that needs to be done in the village.”
Expressing how there is nothing greater than the joy of giving, Subhash Ji shares why he started the Subhash Chandra show. He spoke about how it is not always about sharing monetary wealth but about sharing the wealth of knowledge too. “Indians all over the world do something for giving back to the society, however small it may be. However, the impact of this increases manifold when it is done by coming together,” he added.
Subhash Ji also explained the different initiatives and efforts being undertaken by the Subhash Chandra foundation, “we are building capacity to face challenges, current and future, not just giving monetary support to those who need it.”
In conclusion, he thanked people for attending the fundraising event in large numbers and Dr. Harshad R Mehta and Ekal Dubai for supporting it.
Started in 1989, Ekal Abhiyan presently runs more than 69,000 schools across India and 1900 in Nepal. It has so far reached the lives of around 1.8 million children, especially in the Naxal hit areas. And, it envisions of starting 1,00,000 school by 2022.
Taking the concept overseas, Ekal has also spread its unique literacy program to ten other countries becoming the largest grass-root NGO literacy movement in the world.
