Bengaluru: NGO Spandana, making poor students realise their dreams

Bengaluru: What would you do if you see schoolchildren going to school barefoot, without proper textbooks and stationery? Some of us might just donate a few things, while others might discuss it over dinner and forget about it.

But this group has taken their empathy towards schoolchildren to the next level and is trying to make proper education a reality for many such underprivileged students.

Fifteen years ago, Prashanth Banbagadde and Vinay were moved to see a few schoolchildren without proper shoes and books, making their way to a government school.

“That was it! We said why not start now? Why wait,” says Prashanth, cofounder and currently managing trustee of Spandana NGO Trust. “We started with borrowing books from friends and opened a small library at the Government Middle School in J.P. Nagar and this marked the beginning of Spandana," he says.

They collected books from likeminded individuals and set up the library with 125 books of all genres. A humble beginning in 2001 with one school has now grown to four government schools with various programmes and a dozen core members contributing to the noble cause.

The key members – Prashant, Vinay, Madhusudhan Aithal, Krishna Bhargava and Manoranjan Aithal – keep aside a part of their salary to educating students.
Though the beginning was made over 15 years ago, the NGO was registered only in August 2016.

“We took up the registration process as we realised the need for more funds. We have applied for Section 12A and 80G exemption from the Income Tax Department," he adds.

Till date, more than 600 students have received scholarships after Classes VII and X. Some 1,800 children from Standard V onwards have received geometry boxes, atlases and dictionaries as well.

“We have also helped some schools with computers and computer labs. Close to 45 computers have been installed and teachers have also been trained," says Prashanth. Over 3,500 students studying in four government schools have benefitted under various initiatives run by the Trust.

On February 11 this year, Spandana, in collaboration with Innovative design Educational kits (IDEK), donated educational mathematics kits and conducted a training workshop for the teachers at Puttenahalli Government School in South Bengaluru.

Twenty teachers took part in the training programme and 180 primary schoolchildren benefited from the kits donated. The Trust conducted a free medical camp at Sakalavaara Government School in the city where over 75 children underwent general, eye and dental check-up.

The team has already won Chiguru Scholarship, Ekalavya and Kala Samrat awards. “Two things remain the same with Spandana then and now. It still operates with no external monetary aid with the core members contributing a percentage of their salary and the programmes remain dedicated to benefiting the children," says Prashanth.

The dedicated core team has also provided scholarships to children to pursue their professional education. “Over time, Spandana has expanded its services to help the needy and worthy students. We provide interest-free education loans to students with decent to good academic records to pursue their professional courses. The students have to clear the minimum criteria to get the scholarship. Over the years, Spandana has been instrumental in a small way in realising the dreams of a few individuals who are now successful professionals in their work and life," Prashanth says.