Page 64 - Education World September 2021

Special Report

A similarly highly-driven and res-
olute education missionary who has
made the challenging terrain of the
Himalayas her social development
laboratory is Sujata Sahu, founder
of the 17000 ft Foundation, an NGO
committed to improving the quality of
education dispensed in 900 govern-
ment schools in the remotest areas of
Ladakh. “I started 17000 ft Founda-
tion in 2012 with 25 horses, 1,500 kg of
school furniture and 100 eager, smiling
children in one of the far-flung schools
of rural Ladakh. Today, we work di-
rectly with over 220 schools and have
impacted 50,000 children in Leh and
Kargil districts and hope to reach
500,000 children by 2025 across the
Indian Himalayan region,” says Sahu,
Shiksharth’s Shrivastava: community-led education model often described as Ladakh’s Iron Lady.
For Sahu, an alum of Delhi and Sa-
(pop. 29.4 million), the epicentre of a rebels and have few reasons to look to vitribai Phule, Pune universities who
long-festering left-wing Naxal move- the future with optimism. Our objective worked in the IT sector in the US for
ment, Ashish Kumar Shrivastava, at Shiksharth is to mentor them aca- nine years before returning to India in
founder of Shiksharth (estb.2015), an demically and emotionally. Through a 2002, and was teaching maths/com-
NGO working to improve the quality of community-led model of education, we puter science at the high-ranked The
school education in rural areas through are developing and implementing local Shri Ram School, Gurugram, a solo
“action-based research, design and contextualised curriculums and child- trekking expedition awakened her to
implementation”, and wife, Shalini, centred pedagogies to realise the latent the dismal condition of government
along with two friends, Neeraj and Vi- potential of tribal and rural children,” schools in Ladakh. She was struck by
kas, are working overtime to positively says Shrivastava, whose NGO has thus stories of extreme challenges narrated
impact the lives of tribal children, many far impacted 30,000 children in the by her trekking guide, who was sent at
of whom bear scars of witnessing pro- Sukma district. However, given that an early age by his family to live in a
longed civic violence. Shiksharth works in collaboration with faraway dorm for education, and even-
A University, Bhopal (for- 3.5 lakh children have been impacted schools had prompted many families
tually dropped out.
several other NGOs across the country,
N ALUM OF Barkatullah
“The unavailability of quality
positively by its programmes during
merly, Bhopal Univer-
young as four years to boarding schools.
Given the volatile location of his
sity) who gave up a high- the pandemic. in the region to send their children as
paying job with Infosys Technologies work, Shrivastava and his colleagues It was gut-wrenching to meet these
to enrol as a Teach for India fellow, are often caught in the crossfire be- children separated from their families.
Shrivastava switched tracks to enter tween Naxals and police forces and That’s when I decided to ensure that
the development sector in 2009, and have faced many life-threatening situ- no young child is separated from her
has been working on education de- ations. “I have survived a bomb blast; family due to lack of good local schools.
velopment projects in the Naxal-hit my co-founders have often been in- The mission of 17000 ft Foundation is
Sukma-Dantewada areas for almost a volved in hazardous situations when to equip village government schools in
decade. He recalls an incident when he they ventured to teach children in the inaccessible regions of Ladakh with all
requested a group of six-eight-year-old deep interiors. Moreover, the almost resources needed to provide good qual-
children in Sukma village to draw any total deficit of medical services nearby ity education,” says Sahu.
scene of their choice. has made it difficult for us in some per- Since then over the past decade, the
“Most drew violent combat scenes sonal, trying situations. But our belief foundation has upgraded 140 govern-
of people injured in bomb blasts and and determination that we can improve ment schools with playgrounds, furni-
suffering violence. These children are the lives of these neglected children ture, painting and carpeting of class-
emotionally scarred by prolonged strife through provision of quality education rooms and other areas; established
between paramilitary forces and Naxal keeps us going,” says Shrivastava. 220 libraries; set up 110 DigiLabs and

64 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2021