Bathinda’s Kewal Krishna operates six learning centres in the city to educate children who beg on streets. His lessons for two hours a day help these children build dreams to better their lives. Kewal manages all the expenses from their school uniforms to educational resources.
Bathinda: Kewal Krishna of Bathinda wakes up each morning with a single aim of helping the children in need. He formed a society called ‘Appu Society’ to help poor kids who beg and collect trash from the streets. In this NGO, Kewal teaches these children and enrols them in schools.
Forming the NGO
Kewal always wished to do something in the service of the society. He decided there wouldn’t be a better way than to make education available to all the young poor kids.
In 1997, Kewal visited Patiala where he found a little girl at the station. Her stop was only an hour away. Kewal made a conversation with her and the other children. He learned about their poor financial background and their parents’ inability to send them to schools. From thereon, he firmed upon the idea of making education accessible to these children.
Kewal formed his non-profit organization in 2001, and named it after that girl’s name, Appu.
No support from the others
When Kewal shared his plans with his family members and friends, they thought that it was a tremendous task and Kewal would fail at it. They called his purpose a pipe dream. They made fun of him to try to attempt to run his NGO among these illiterate children. But Kewal was determined.
As of now, Kewal runs six teaching centres in the local areas. He is not only responsible for their teaching, but he also strives to provide them with all the essential educational resources; he arranges their school expenses, distributes stationary items, and takes care of their school uniforms.
Through years of his social service, Kewal has earned their trust as they continue to attend his evening schools even after being admitted to regular government schools. 15 to 20 percent of children who fail to enrol themselves in school, continue learning at Kewal’s evening schools.
Selling the house for the NGO
Kewal’s earnings were not enough to run the NGO schools. He needed to invest in his centres; in 2011, he sold half of his land property in order to pay the expenses of the NGO. 5-7 lakhs were invested in the school centres.
Kewal’s sister was married off and his father passed away soon after that. He did not marry as he was the only person left to carry on the responsibility of the centres.
Making lives better
Kewal shares that he opens his school centres near places where he finds young children begging on the roads. He prepares hostels for these children to give them the right environment. There are some dedicated parents and students who willingly request Kewal to give them lessons. He covers all the expenses for these kids and educates them.
Kewal hopes to improve lives of his students so that they would go on to become better citizens of the country. He believes that someday, one of these children would break the vicious circle of poverty and would become source of inspiration for other kids.
Government aid
Punjab government asked Kewal Krishna to run a social service project with them; they wanted to construct more such hostels and school centres for the poor kids. According to his study, Kewal submitted an estimate of Rs 82 lakh for the construction of the hostels.
The government only provided him with Rs 2.25 lakh. The amount received was absurdly low so, Kewal rejected the government’s proposal and refused to accept any monetary help on account that the construction cannot be completed with this sum of money. Kewal was fairly capable of collecting that much fund on his own.
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