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How pencils inspired Indian expat to help 25,000 kids

Dubai - UAE's Pencilman now supports 25,000 underprivileged children every year across 44 charity schools in Tamil Nadu

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How do most of us celebrate our birthdays or anniversaries? The older we grow, the grandeur our parties get. But K. Venkatraman (fondly called Venkat) undertook a pledge of a different sort on his 50th birthday. The Dubai-based chartered accountant (CA) decided that it's time he should stop pursuing his self-serving goals and start giving back to the society.
And it is no ordinary feat what the man has achieved. He now supports almost 25,000 underprivileged children every year across 44 charity schools in Tamil Nadu, and many more such schools and non-government organisations (NGOs) across India.
"It needs just a small gesture to make a huge difference," says Venkat, who is also called the "Pencilman of UAE," as both he and his wife (also a CA), have been helping underprivileged children by assisting them with pen, pencils, note books and other stationery. He even achieved the world record for collecting the largest number of stationery for charity in 24 hours.
"For CAs money is everything and I knew I could help give the right advice when it comes to budgets. So I decided to advise two or three NGOs in India about how they could become self-sustained."
In the meantime, the couple also got in touch with some friends from India - Raghavan and Aruna - who ran a free charity school named Shikshayatan in a remote village in Tamil Nadu.
"One day I was discussing with Raghavan as to how I could get involved with his school and simply mentioned that I had a drawer full of pencils and stationery that my children were not using anymore since they moved to senior classes. 'This is a luxury for us,' Raghavan said promptly. And that made us realise that when a simple gesture like this can make such a difference in the lives of these kids then imagine what a whole community can do for the needy."
This led Venkat to create www.education4all.info from where he initiated the pencil collection drive that served two objectives. One of saving environment and second of giving underprivileged children educational tools.

Residents speak on pencilman > Ali Juma, Red Crescent official "A lot of people come to us with ideas but no one follows up the way Venkat does. When he first came to me and spoke about the project, I did not imagine he would ever reach that target. Apart from the projects, he still drops by to see if he could assist in any project or help us organise some campaign. I mean, he is like a family member of Red Crescent now. He makes things happen. He has a goal and he pursues it. We have worked in two projects with him - first one was the stationery collection and second one was the blanket collection drive." > Sabina Arulraj,Appa Kadai " know him from the last 25 years and I can say that he is one person who sticks to his word. He works so hard which motivated us to do our bit in giving back to the society. "So I decided to do my part by offering his team of volunteers free food for any initiative they do. I join all his initiatives and provide them with breakfast, lunch or dinner, whatever they require." > Aishwarya Joshi, a volunteer "I have known him for five years now and I must say that there are very few individuals like Venkat, who have the power to move mountains. What makes him different is that he simplifies the channels of giving for anybody and everybody who wants to give back to the society. And this comes from a very unconditional space. What started with a simple act of giving of pencils kept in his house has grown to this scale due to his simple, honest approach." > Mohan, volunteer and friend " I have seen him the last three years completely dedicated to charity events and its great to see him growing stronger day by day. The amount of contacts he has got in the community, especially with schools, itself speaks volumes about the kind of personality he is. He is not only doing a lot for the community but is inspiring many others around him to join in. In a nutshell, if anyone wants to do anything for the community, emulate Venkat, your role model.

In just two months, 80kg of pencils were collected by schools, corporates, his friends and like-minded individuals of Dubai. About 50 charity schools in India with around 3,000 children were given the first lot of stationery from Dubai.
Every quarter, Venkat and wife Neela visit India to see how the charity schools are faring and what more can be done for the economic uplift of the people in rural areas or those living below the poverty line.
Again when their daughter's school uniform changed, the couple collected 1,200 sets of the old uniforms and sent it to the villages in India where kids could not afford uniforms, books, shoes. And soon he started sending mixed cargo with assorted stationery items such as toys, shoes etc to more than 15 states in India.
Last year Venkat under the umbrella of Emirates Red Crescent and Engage Dubai, broke the Guinness World Record of the "largest collection of stationery for charity." The target was to collect 5,000 kg of stationery items and hand over to Emirates Red Crescent. Over 400 volunteers, corporates, Red Crescent staff, Al Diyafah School staff (where the collection was being held) gathered to help manage the collection.
"My brothers and relatives had also come from India to help us in this grand event that was a big success. On the first day itself we collected over 7,000 kg of items. By next day the items we collected weighed 11,900kg, of which 600kg were non stationery items such as water bottles, tiffins etc. At the end we had 10,975kg (four truck loads). And we handed it over to Red Crescent for distribution to needy people around the world."
Other initiatives
Soon other projects were added to the pencil initiative. "We started the Gift of Cow project where people could donate a cow as a gift to each school in the remote villages of India. The school was then asked to identify farmers or families living under the poverty line and handed over the cow to the family. The farmer's family would then manage the cow and share a part of its milk produce with the school at a subsidised rate. Today, due to this initiative, about 35 families have risen above the poverty line," Venkat told Khaleej Times.
Another initiative by Venkat is the Skype Teaching project wherein he roped in volunteer teachers and talented housewives from Dubai, Mumbai, Bangalore (Venkat's acquaintances) who could spare an hour every week to give online lessons on subjects they liked to teach to people in remote villages through Skype.
The couple's project titled Purna Shiksha was yet another initiative supporting 44 charity schools in India in improving facilities such as providing water filters, science kits, educational CD's books, toilet repairs, organic and inorganic dust bins, benches and sports items.
They also added a science project for the schools and called it Gyanavahanam project, where in a mobile van replete with laptop and internet connectivity helps a teacher visit various schools and impart computer education.
And his latest initiative was a blanket collection drive where in he along with Red Crescent, corporates, well-wishers and schools collected 3,796 new blankets to be distributed among the Syrian refugees.
Venkat's daughter has also joined her father in such initiatives and his son who is working in the US also hosts Skype sessions with students studying in remote villages to educate them on different topics.
"I don't want to stop. God has given us 24 hours so we must use them beautifully. It's not that I keep working all the time. I am also a painter and a poet and I am out and out a family person. Even if I am watching TV, I am sorting something out, or painting or making some arrangements as I do not believe in wasting time."
He has a motto in life, apart from joyful giving. "Be selfless and do not expect a recognition. This is the key to my happiness, my peace."
saman@khaleejtimes.com