Indo American News

Tag: Pratham USA annual Readathon

  • A Readathon Let’s Houston Kids Support Pratham’s Kids

    A Readathon Let’s Houston Kids Support Pratham’s Kids

    Participants of the Readathon 2018 with Bimla and Swatantra Jain and Readathon organizer Manjit Soni and 8-year-old Ayan Nadkarni narrated his reading experience. Not pictured are Divya Khatri who played the violin in Etude Number 3 in G Major by Franz Wohlfahrt and Sharon Thind who sang the National Anthems of USA and India.

    BY RITU NADKARNI

    HOUSTON: The 2018 Pratham Houston Readathon Award Ceremony was held at Dalip and Manjit Soni’s residence on Sunday, January 27. It was an inspirational evening and showed what a community of readers, parents and supportive adults can do in elevating the confidence of young readers.

    Manjit Soni welcomed and thanked all the young readers and their parents for their efforts and support by raising $5,600. Further motivating the team was a generous dollar-for-dollar match by Swatantra Jain, CFO of Pratham, USA, which doubled this amount and will help educate over 400 kids in India.

    The famous Houston based author of books for children and teens, Varsha Bajaj, shared her journey. She kept it conversational, involved the kids by asking them to share their favorite books, encouraged them to ask her questions and shared how she tries to incorporate Indian cultural elements in her picture books and stories.

    One young author (and my son), Ayan Nadkarni shared how he got on the path of writing from his deep love for reading and learning. “Don’t you learn something new every time you read?” he asked. “I write, because I want to put my thoughts together but also because I hope to help somebody learn something new in the process”, said the 8-year-old, eloquently.

    Throughout the evening the kids interacted and were encouraged by community leaders Swatantra and Bimla Jain about the importance of reading and giving back. Jain shared how he visited a school in India, which reminded him of his school growing up, leading him to commit to Pratham. They inspired the kids with their journey and graciously pledged, yet again, to match dollar-for-dollar any amount raised by these kids.

    The Pratham Readathon Houston Chapter is led by Manjit Soni, an active community educator who has worked at the Houston’s prestigious Village School which has held the Readathon for four years. She was untiring in encouraging the kids in WhatsApp groups, recognizing every small contribution they make and in her commitment to make the kids better readers while helping educate kids in India. She was helped by student readers/volunteers Armman Katarya, Diyesh Khatri, and Vanni Gupta.

    The real stars of the evening were the kids who dazzled the adults with their talents and unlimited potential with a private concert featuring Ajit Nagi, playing the tabla, Neil Bose and Sharan Thind singing and Divya Khatri playing the violin. Divya’s brother, Divyesh Khatri, had just returned the morning of the award ceremony from Qatar, where he presented in Model UNO meetings representing the Village School.

    Pratham USA aims to raise awareness and funds to support Pratham, one of India’s largest educational non- profit organization focused on eradicating child illiteracy in India. Prathan USA hosts an annual Readathon program all across USA to encourage children to commit to reading certain number of books and find sponsors who would contribute funds on their pages. The program also offers opportunities for essay writing and other creative expressions whereby readers win money on their pages.

  • Children in Houston Awarded for Helping Children in India

    Children in Houston Awarded for Helping Children in India

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    (Back row, from left): Manjit Soni, Bimla Jain, Swatantra Jain, Asha Dhume, Tegh Thind, Ajeet Nagi, and Vikas Bahl. (Middle row, from left): Arrman Katarya, Ezra Douglas, Divya Khatri, and Sharron Thind. (Front row, from left): Yash Katarya, Neil Bose, and Aaryaa Joshi. Readers Not Pictured: Jay Semlani and Adrian Chew.

    SUGAR LAND: On February 11, at the Madras Pavilion in Sugar Land, eleven children from the Houston area were recognized for helping children in India get a better education. How exactly were these local kids able to help children on the other side of the world? It is actually a lot simpler than you might think: They were participants in Pratham USA’s annual Readathon program.

    Pratham USA aims to raise awareness and funds to support Pratham, one of India’s largest education non-profits focused on eradicating child illiteracy. Pratham USA hosts an annual Readathon program across the United States to encourage children to read with a purpose. Supporters sponsor the children as they read a target number of books to raise funds for Pratham’s mission of “Every Child in School and Learning Well.”

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    From left: Manjit Soni, Vaani Gupta, Swatantra Jain, and Divyesh Khatri.

    The 2017 Readathon program spotlighted at this award ceremony ran from May to December and raised $3,151, according to Manjit Soni, the Pratham Readathon Mentor in the Houston Area. The online campaign sites show that Pratham USA Readathons raised $65,723 nationally in 2017, with the program generating $560,546 for Pratham’s mission since its inception in 2012.

    The award ceremony was sponsored by Pratham USA’s Houston Chapter President, Asha Dhume, with Manjit Soni organizing the event. “Volunteering with Pratham has been very rewarding,” expressed Manjit Soni, as she shared about her background as a teacher.

    Before the awards were presented, Vikas Bahl, a Pratham USA Director of Development, shared how Pratham develops low cost solutions that address gaps in the education system to improve learning outcomes and influence education policy. He stated that Pratham has reached over 50 million children since its inception in 1995.

    Bahl also shared about Pratham’s vocational training program for young adults that boasts a 75% job placement rate for its participants. He added that Pratham’s Second Chance program helps young girls that have dropped out of school receive a second chance at getting an education, resulting in an impressive 85% pass rate.

    Children closed the ceremony by singing “Happy Birthday” to Swatantra Jain, Pratham USA CFO and Houston Advisory Board member, after he presented the children with their awards. Jain then promised to match the children’s sponsorships dollar for dollar in 2018. He also encouraged the children to read double the amount of books they read in 2017 once the 2018 Readathon launches in May.

    While any outside observer can see the positives to this initiative, the strongest cases are made by the ones closest to the program. “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” stated Vaani Gupta, a sophomore at Village High School and a volunteer with Pratham USA’s Readathon program. She chose this quote from Ernest Hemingway to express how books played an integral part of her life growing up as an only child.

    One award recipient also shared her experience with the program: Hello, my name is Aaryaa Joshi. I am a fourth grader and a reader of Pratham USA Readathon. First and foremost I would like to thank Pratham and Ms. Manjit Soni for providing us such a wonderful platform. Reading is one of [my] favorite hobbies and what is more fun than pursuing your hobby for raising money [for] a good cause[?] It gives me immense pleasure to raise money for the underprivileged kids back in India. I would really appreciate it if each one of us can make sure that we influence our friends to participate in this program. Today I would like to raise a toast for all wonderful readers and the Pratham USA Program.

    Let’s spread the word to make more Readathon readers in America, so we can ultimately make more readers in India too.

    Article by Peace Cowen, Development Associate at Pratham USA