Giving sight to the blind is the best act of leading them towards light, vision and knowledge. Restoring the lost eyesight of the visually impaired is the best humanitarian deed one could do to others. This is what keeps Indian American Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli motivated for and dedicated to his mission of helping the blind in India and other developing countries.

The founder of ‘The I Mission’ initiative for the welfare of blind children, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli from Oregon finds vision the most important of all human senses. A sophomore at Westview High School in Portland, he founded The I Mission in 2016, aiming to help the blind cope with learning difficulties and get them blessed with sight.

Since the inception of The I Mission in Oregon, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli has organized several eye-health screening camps in the rural backwaters of India. He has collaborated with two ophthalmological organizations in India to reach out to the visually challenged people from underprivileged backgrounds.

India is the first place of his choice to work the welfare of the visually impaired there. In October 2017, the Times of India reported, “India is now home to the world’s largest number of blind people.” A whopping 15 million out of the 37 million visually challenged people all over the world are in India. 75% of India’s total blind populace can be cured, but the dire shortage of eye donations and the acute dearth of optometrists are some of the critical hindrances to the cure.

Indian American teen Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli takes flights to India for an annual service trip every year. On his first trip to India in 2016, The I Mission conducted cataract surgeries to eight elderly patients with a critical vision problem. Postsurgical support was given to the patients so that they did not complain of any discomfort after the surgery. Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli’s The I Mission also donated two Perkins mechanical braillers to a rural south Indian school in a bid to help the school’s visually impaired girl students with reading.

Oregon-based Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli’s efforts towards restoring the lost vision of the blind in India were amplified during his second trip. On his next trip to India, The I Mission arranged for 48 cataract surgeries to the poor, one retinal surgery, and adopted three blind schools there. At first, those who require a cataract or retina surgery are identified through a screening test at the eye-checking camps.

Also Check: Indian Student’s Solution for Parking Problems in USA

Apart from arranging for eye-health checkups and surgical treatment for the blind in rural India, The I Mission conducts academic workshops to help students prepare for competitive platforms including MathCounts by developing their cognition in math, public speaking and comprehension. The workshops comprise of fun and engaging activities for students with different receptivity levels.

At The I Mission, Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli organizes cultural events for both young students and adults to express themselves and thereby overcoming their inhibitions. Several conglomerates, including Nike and Intel have joined The I Mission and contributed to the cause that Indian American Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli espouses wholeheartedly.

Sai Hitesh Vavilapalli is also the Vice President of leadership at HOSA in Oregon, a professional student organization offering a unique leadership development and motivation program to students in health care. Oregon HOSA is endorsed by the US Department of Education.

This story is part of our continued series of inspiring stories about young Indians in USA, at Travel Beats, an Indian American community portal by Indian Eagle Travel. Indian Eagle is a leading air-ticketing partner of Indian Americans, booking their cheap flights to India from USA throughout the year.    

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Gleaming diyas, glittering lamps, colorful rangoli, succulent sweets, firecrackers and likes – these all make a composite picture of extravagant Diwali celebration in urban India. But, you will find absolutely different pictures of the festival in the rural backwaters of the country where tribal communities live. Indian Eagle explores the rural interiors of India to collect the striking glimpses of Diwali celebration by the tribal people whose multi-ethnic identity and culture are distinctly defined in contrast to the harmony of various cultures in a cosmopolitan society. Lets see how tribal India celebrates the Festival of Lights…

Diwali celebration is synonymous with simplicity for the tribal communities of Jharkhand. They celebrate the festival of lights, known as “Sohrai”, in a more realistic way associated with the means of sustenance in daily life. This festive occasion marks the harvest of rice, and the worship of cattle is part of the celebration in the tribal villages of the state. Harvest and cattle are the main sources of livelihood for them. The women in countryside decorate the mud walls of their houses (mainly huts) with art murals, which is unique to their culture. Also, domestic animals are adorned for the celebration.

The way of Diwali celebration in the state of Odisha is different from the ways the other states of India celebrate the festival in. The tribal folks of Odisha, on the occasion of Diwali, seek the blessings of their ancestors who are believed to be living somewhere in the heaven after the demise of their mortal bodies on earth. The ritualistic manner of worshiping ancestors is unique to their cultural heritage. “Kaunria Kathi” is one of the rituals that they perform during the festivity. As per the ritual, they burn jute stems to create fire as a signal to summon the ancestors and request for their blessings.

Also Check: India Owes Its Safety to These Military Villages

The people of the Sindhi community in the states of India have developed their own way of Diwali celebration, which is unique to their cultural identity in the social fabric of the country. This regional community of India refers to the celebration of Diwali as “Diyari”. Like most of the other communities, they worship Goddess Lakshmi. They clean silver and gold coins using raw milk during the worship. Once the puja is over, they take gold or silver coins and tap the coins lightly against their teeth while chanting “Lakshmi aayi, danat vaai” (When Lakshmi arrives, poverty departs).

The way the tribal communities in Narmada and Baruch districts of Gujarat celebrate defines their traditions in contrast to the common socio-cultural milieu of the country. The tribal people of these two provinces in Gujarat celebrate the festival of lights as a harbinger of good health. It is a 15-day long festivity for them. Unlike firing of crackers in cities and towns, the burning of herbal wood of different types accompanies the celebration for the tribal folks. The smoke from the burning of herbal wood is believed to keep them healthy. This traditional custom also stands for the philosophy, that is, “hard work brings wealth, and good health is required for hard work.” They light a holy fire and march a procession to take the fire across the villages in a bid to prevent evils from intruding their habitats. They enjoy themselves over various folk dance forms on each of the 15 days of the celebration.

Also Check: Inspiring Stories of Toilet in Rural India

The tribal habitants in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh are distinctly identified for their different way of Diwali celebration, known as Diyari. The festivity begins ceremoniously with the marriage of crop in fields with an idol of Lord Narayana. It is followed by the ritual of filling households with food grain. The cattle owners in the tribal community of Bastar are honored with liquor on the first day of the celebration. They offer garlands, paddy and khichdi, a kind of porridge with local flavor, to the shepherds. They perform Gotton puja, another integral part of the festivity, to seek divine blessings for the good health and protection of their cattle. The cattle are adorned with garlands, the drums are beaten, and the crop is worshiped as image of Goddess Lakshmi during the 3-day long Diwali celebration.

Thakar is one of the scheduled tribes inhabiting the forest areas of Maharashtra. Their cultural heritage includes various folk dance forms and songs. The way they celebrate Diwali festival stands for their identity in distinction from that of the other tribes in India. They make lamps from the dried parts of a fruit called chibra, and use the stands made from cow-dung to place lamps on. They worship the grain, stored in a cane basket, as the image of Goddess Lakshmi, on the festive day. On this occasion, they perform a folk dance in rhythm with the beats of dhols.

About Travel Beats

This story is brought to you as part of the initiative, “Explore India with Indian Eagle”, aiming to promote what is good and lesser known about India through our overseas Indian community portal, Travel Beats. Travel Beats is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel, a leading air ticketing partner of Indians abroad.

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While we’re not yet done celebrating Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee’s entry to the elite club of Nobel Laureates in the world, two Indian American teenagers’ award-winning, environment-friendly inventions are ample reasons for us to have a double pre-Diwali celebration. Neil Deshmukh and Maanasa Mendu are named among the 25 outstanding young leaders for the Gloria Barron Prize 2019.

16-year-old Neil Deshmukh of Pennsylvania has won the Gloria Barron Prize 2019 for his free app “PlantumAI” that he created to help poor farmers and save water bodies in developing countries like India. Available for free, the app works offline to help farmers reduce the use of toxic pesticides in fields and detect various crop diseases, even in far-flung areas of rural India.

During his trip to India in 2016, Neil Deshmukh learned how atmospheric extremes and whimsical weather are taking a toll on farmers’ hard work at his grandfather’s farm in Maharashtra. Farmers were struggling to reap maximum yields by using pesticides to save crops from seasonal diseases. The toxic residues of the pesticides used in fields ended up polluting countryside water bodies – the elixir of cultivation for farmers.

Neil took a flight from Pennsylvania to India in 2018 after developing the app “PlantumAI” and ran a pilot test at his family farm. He partnered with plant pathologists and botanists at Akola Agriculture University, in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, to educate farmers on how to use the app and why. While the Indian American teen continues fine-tuning the app, more than 1000 crop diseases in India have been identified and studied so far using the app.

“My dream is to impact lives positively using artificial intelligence and data crowd-sourcing to make the world a better place for everyone, irrespective of their socio-economic status,” said Neil Deshmukh, the Gloria Barron Prize 2019 winner. He is currently helping the farmers of 12 villages across Maharashtra maximize healthy crop yields.

Another Gloria Barron Prize 2019 winner of Indian origin, Maanasa Mendu needs no introduction. Named America’s Top Young Scientist in 2016, Maanasa Mendu from Ohio has developed a cost-effective, renewable energy device named HARVEST using recycled materials. Just three hours of charging is enough for her device to power a 15-watt bulb.

An advocate of renewable energy, Maanasa Mendu owes her invention HARVEST to her roots in rural India where many households are exposed to the environmental hazards of using kerosene lamps due to daily electrical blackouts. During one of her trips to India, she felt the urge to empower those households with a low-cost device using renewable energy.

She spent three years designing several different prototypes of HARVEST and conducting about 1200 trials. The latest version of Maanasa Mendu’s HARVEST features energy-harvesting leaves which, when exposed to sunlight or wind or precipitation, produce an electrical charge. Her invention is modeled on the piezoelectric effect – the ability of certain energy-harvesting materials.

16-year-old Maanasa Mendu is also a budding philanthropist. She spends a portion of her scholarships and cash prizes from various science competitions to help run the Maruthi Foundation in India. The nonprofit provides the needy students with educational opportunities.

She is trying every possible way to make HARVEST available globally as a Do-It-Yourself kit. “I’ve also learned that you’re never too young or too old or too inexperienced to see a problem in the world and try to solve it,” says Maanasa.

Travel Beats, a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, strives to promote achievements of young Indians in USA. Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel booking partner of Indians in America, not only helps you travel on cheap last-minute flights to India but also shares latest updates on visa, immigration, Indian passport and major airlines.

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On the eve of Navaratri 2019, another Indian American billionaire family refuted the prevailing notion that Indian Americans – one of the highest-earning ethnic communities in the US – donate only about $1 billion a year, which gives a poor impression of their charitable giving, despite their potential of being more generous in giving habits.

Florida-based Indian American billionaire couple – Dr. Kiran Patel and Dr. Pallavi Patel – who are best known for their social entrepreneurship in health care, have partnered with Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale to elevate healthcare standards in rural India with quality medical education from USA.

As part of their initial investment of $200 million, the entrepreneur-cum-philanthropist duo who has transformed healthcare all over Florida has acquired 50 hectares of land in their native place, Gujarat. The land will be utilized to set up a world-class medical college hospital under the collaborative supervision of the Dr. Patels and Nova Southeastern University.

Under the leadership of Dr. Kiran Patel and Dr. Pallavi Patel from Tampa Bay Area, Nova Southeastern University will expand its operations to India following the construction of the proposed medical college hospital near Baruch in Gujarat. If things go as expected, the hospital will be ready in three years.

There is more to their multimillion-dollar healthcare mission in India. The Patels are mulling over several plans to set up three medical colleges in rural backwaters of India. Two of the medical colleges will enroll students for Indian degree programs, and the third will possibly be affiliated to Nova Southeastern University for US degree courses. Students will be trained in rural healthcare operations.

Whether the acquired agricultural land can be used for non-agricultural projects, is still subject to approval from the Medical Council of India. In October 2019, Dr. Kiran Patel may travel to India from Miami or Tampa in order to pitch his healthcare projects for India to PM Narendra Modi and expedite the process of seeking approval for the use of agriculture land.

“In case the approval to open medical colleges in rural India is denied, there are alternate plans to improve healthcare operations standards and medical education in rural areas of India,” Dr. Kiran Patel said. Lectures from Nova Southeastern University’s Tampa Bay Regional Campus in Clearwater will be digitally transmitted to India through interactive sessions with professors in real time.

Also Check: This Indian American Family Donates $5M for Heart Healthcare 

It may be followed by an exchange program between American professors and professors from India, who will work towards producing academically competent healthcare professionals. Through the exchange program, Indian physicians will get to experience the nitty-gritty of modern healthcare at the NSU Tampa Bay Regional Campus that is home to Dr. Kiran Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine and Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences.

Dr. Kiran Patel, an ‘Outstanding American by Choice’ award winner, and Dr. Pallavi Patel born in Ahmadabad broke ground for a free 60,000-square-foot charter school in Hillsborough County, Florida in December 2018 and pledged the single largest donation to Nova Southeastern University for healthcare research and development.

This news story is brought to you by Indian Eagle Travel at its Indian community portal, Travel Beats, as part of the continued effort to promote good work by Indians in USA. Indian Eagle not only strives to offer unbeatable lowest fare deals for flights to India from USA but also caters inspiring community stories, visa & immigration news, and international travel alerts through free newsletters.

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The martyrdom of over 40 CRPF personnel in the dastardly #Pulwama terror attack reminds us of those Indian households and mothers who muster the courage to send their sons to serve in the armed forces so that the 134-crore population of India remains safe within the borders. Some villages deserve a special mention for being at the forefront of producing men of steel and giving away them at the obedience of Mother India. Joining the Indian Army is an unambiguous choice, an age-old tradition and a matter of pride for the youth of Indian military villages whose men created history fighting for the nation and dying in the line of duty in the pre-independence and post-independence wars.

Far away from the glitters of urban civilization, the army villages of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and northeastern states have carved a niche in the military history of India. Indian military villages don’t mourn the death of their brave sons; they rather consider the sacrifice as an inspiration for their youngsters. We at Travel Beats, an overseas Indian community portal by Indian Eagle Travel, took a walk through some of the Indian military villages to pay out tribute to the #Pulwama CRPF martyrs.

Gahmar in Uttar Pradesh

The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is as much known for its military villages as for its historical tourist sites. India’s largest village, Gahmar in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh prides itself on being called the ‘home of the fauji.’ An overwhelming sense of pride pervaded the village of Gahmar in Uttar Pradesh during the cremation of Harinder Yadav, one of the URI martyrs, in the neighboring Deopur village. Varanasi is a 90-km drive from Gahmar.

With nearly 18,000 men serving in the Indian Army and over 10,000 veterans having retired from the army, Gahmar in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur district has attained the distinction of India’s ultimate military village. Some of the village households have sent more than one member to serve the nation, and the interior of every house displays photographs of the martyrs. Sumita Singh, a resident of the village, lost her father in the 1971 Liberation War, her brother in the Kargil War, and her grandson in the 2007 Kashmir insurgency.

Since the First World War when more than 220 men of Gahmar were forced to join the British force, it has been a tradition for their descendants to join Indian armed forces and serve the nation at borders. It is said that military grooms from Gahmar have better marriage prospects than civilian grooms from the neighboring villages.

Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh                  

Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh is one of the few Indian military villages, which has at least one member from each of its households serving in the Indian Army. Located in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, Military Madhavaram Village, as it is popularly known as, has 30-decades-old history of the valor of its men fighting for the nation’s honor and guarding the borders. Over a hundred households in Madhavaram proudly possess war decorations that their male members have been bestowed upon. It is said that women of the neighboring villages take pride in tying the nuptial knot with the military men of Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

The military history of Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh dates back to the 17^th century when the village was a defence base of Pusapati Madhava Varma Brahma, the ruler of the Gajapati dynasty spanning the Deccan Plateau and Odisha. Some of the soldiers from across his dynasty were settled in Madhavaram village, from where they found it easy to fight for other rulers of the region, including Kakatiya’s Rani Rudrama Devi.

During the British Raj in India, 90 soldiers from this otherwise little-known village fought in the World War I. Madhavaram sent as many as 1110 men to the World War II on behalf of the British.

The military history of Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh is full of stories about Subedar Vempalli Venkatachalam, one of the war heroes, who was conferred upon the Victoria Cross Medal, the highest honor for gallantry in the British Raj. His son named Markandeyulu had participated in the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the 1965 Indo-Pak war, and the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. His grandson, Subbarao Naidu is a retiree from the Indian Army, and his great grandson is currently in the military force.

Today, nearly 250 men from Military Madhavaram Village are deployed along the borders of India. In memory of its soldiers’ service and sacrifice, Madhavaram Village has consecrated a war memorial built on the lines of New Delhi’s Amar Jawan Jyoti. Besides, the village has an Ex-Servicemen Association comprising of 1180 retirees from the Indian Army. A few documentaries and the national award winning film Kanche are based on the military history of Madhavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

Kammavanpettai in Tamil Nadu

In Tamil Nadu, Vellore district is home to the few Indian military villages including Kammavanpettai which have been sending its men to defend the country’s far-flung borders for more than 70 years. The valor of the men from Kammavanpettai and the neighboring villages – Penathur and Kattupudur – in the battlefields from the World War II to the Kargil War have been told and written about innumerable times. Most of the 39173 ex-servicemen in Vellore district are from Kammavanpettai, Penathur and Kattupudur.

The village has over 1500 war widows, and an equal number of young men from the village are currently serving in Indian armed forces. The martyrs of Kammavanpettai, including Narayana who attained martyrdom in the Kargil War and Vijay Kumar who was martyred during the 2007 insurgency movement in Assam, are the inspiring role models to the village’s youngsters who follow a strict fitness regime in order to join the army.

Over 90% of the households of Kammavanpettai in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district have their men in the Indian Army. Evidently, Kammavanpettai is nicknamed Ranuvapettai meaning Army Village. Chennai is a 3-hour drive from this Indian military village.

Apshinge in Maharashtra

Apshinge Military Village is one of the lesser-known tourist places in rural India for those who think high of Indian soldiers and revere martyrs. Situated at a short drive off the highway between Pune and Satara in Maharashtra, Apshinge Military Village is a small hamlet of 850 houses which have sent one of their family members to serve in the armed forces for the nation. It is believed to have been an age-old tradition of Nikumbh Rajputs in the village from the time of Maratha King Shivaji.

An erstwhile Maratha settlement, this Indian military village had lost its 46 soldiers in the First World War, which the British recognized in the form of a war memorial with the names of the martyrs.

Brave sons of Apshinge also participated in all post-independence wars, including the 1962 Indo-China war, and the wars fought against Pakistan, according to the available records. The village had also contributed four soldiers to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj. The historical significance of Apshinge lies in the fact that men from Apshinge were part of Shivaji Maharaj’s army. It is also said that the first Chief of Indian Army, General Kariappa had visited the village in 1948.

Atus in Uttar Pradesh

Situated some 15 kilometers from Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Atus is one of the military villages in India. About 30% of the youth of the village, equal to 800, is serving in Indian armed forces. The current population of Atus includes over 200 retired army personnel. The menfolk of this Indian military village started responding to the call of the nation to defend the borders when Dashrath Singh, a soldier from the village, was slain by the Pakistani army in 2000.

Among the Indian military villages, Atus in Uttar Pradesh has banned alcohol and smoking. The village has its own set of rules to bar the youngsters, aspiring to join the Indian Army, from indulging in smoking and alcohol. Anybody found drunk is both punished and penalized. The panchayat rewards those who give a tipoff about any intoxicated person from the village. The neighboring villages have emulated the same rules for their youth.

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If 15-year-old Tanishq Abraham from California could become the youngest biomedical engineer in the United States, why not 12-year-old Naisha Bellam from Maryland could turn a humanitarian for underprivileged kids of her age? Naisha Bellam, a resident of Montgomery Country in Maryland is a Good Samaritan for school dropouts and needy school goers in rural India.

A committed member of Chirag’s Youth Club in the US, Indian American Naisha Bellam has gone beyond her school textbooks to learn from realities in day-to-day life. She launched “Caring4Kidz” initiative as part of Chirag Nonprofit Organization headquartered in Fremont, teamed with several young volunteers across the US, raised funds over $20,000 and helped set up mini libraries for more than 10,000 students at 125 rural schools in different parts of India, including Telangana.

A 7^th grader at Rocky Hill Middle School in Clarksburg, Chirag Youth Club’s Naisha Bellam belongs to Khammam, a suburb 120 miles away from Hyderabad in Telangana. Her trips to India from USA have been epiphanic realizations and life-changing experiences for her. The inspiring story of Naisha Bellam and her humanitarian work is part of ‘Young Indian‘ series at Travel Beats, a portal for overseas Indians in USA by Indian Eagle Travel.

During her past trips to India, she encountered dire pictures of child labor in Khammam and nearby rural areas. She observed kids at the mercy of their employers, and the working kids’ poor living conditions appalled her. On a further probe into the hard-edged reality, she found that those kids were left to earn for themselves or supplement the family income at a very tender age. Most of them were school dropouts who ended up being child laborers due to lack of motivation, support and facilities.

50% of Indian children aged 6-18 do not go to school, and dropout rates increase alarmingly in class 3 to 5, according to her finds. Astonished by the poor literacy stats in rural India, Maryland-based Naisha Bellam contacted Chirag Youth Club and checked on how to support those children. The members of Chirag Youth Club, including Indian American teens responded to her.

Also Check: Indian American Sajni Vederey Helps 1500 Rural Indian Girls in STEM Studies

Naisha launched Caring4Kidz initiative for the welfare of school dropouts and underprivileged students in rural India, in collaboration with Chirag Nonprofit Organization. She recruited more volunteers for Chirag Youth Club and increased the member strength. She leveraged the collective power of social networking, YouTube videos and online communities to run awareness campaigns on the abject circumstances of children in rural India. She, along with her team successfully raised funds for the initiative.

She also found to her utter surprise that most schools in the rural belt of India hardly provide quality education due to limited resources, such as lack of libraries and inadequate access to quality books. A place without a library is like a wilderness for growing children. Several research studies have revealed that libraries have a positive impact on reducing school dropouts and helping children take interest in education. Undeniably, reading is a good exercise. It improves imagination and helps develop other skills.

“In summer 2018, my dad and I took flights to Hyderabad, stopped by some schools in our hometown to check how much they would benefit from the mini library project, and found the project a highly feasible one. That’s how we initiated the Chirag Mini Library project to help the students of 125 government / tribal schools in rural India with access to quality books on social studies, science, math, English and fiction,” said Naisha Bellam sanguinely.

Naisha Bellam and her team of volunteers distributed around 200 books to each of the 125 rural schools and brought more than 10,000 students within the purview of mini libraries under the Caring4kidz initiative.

“With the mini libraries being accessible to all, school dropouts can continue their passion for reading and learning. Personally, I have learned a lot from this experience and these kids have taught me to be optimistic and smiling in every phase of life. I wholeheartedly would like to thank the entire Chirag team, Chirag youth volunteers and PMR memorial trust (India) for their support, encouragement, and guidance,” Naisha shared with Travel Beats.

A member of the US girl scouts, Naisha Bellam is an equally active philanthropist in Montgomery County. She earned the Girl Scout bronze in 2017 for having collected winter cloths and distributed to the needy people at Germantown Park and Ride. She worked more than 250 hours as part of the Student Service Volunteering in Montgomery County and earned “The 2018 Superintendent’s Student Servicing Learning Award”. She also raised funds for National Center for Children and Families and donated 50 backpacks.

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No matter how far we go to relocate away from our mother country, our umbilical cord cannot be uprooted from the soil where we were born or we belong to ancestrally. We are naturally inclined to give back to the native land and serve the people there. It’s true about 16-year-old Indian American Sajni Vederey who recently donated $50,000 for digital education of underprivileged kids in rural India.

Sajni Vederey from the US state of Virginia is a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. She is an inborn crusader and a budding philanthropist too. Her nonprofit foundation named STEM All Stars in Alexandria, VA has collected $200,000 so far for the welfare of over 15,000 girls from socio-economically disadvantaged families in developing countries, including India.

In a recent act of support for computer literacy of kids in India, Dallas-born Sajni Vederey’s STEM All Stars donated 100 computers and 30 digital boards to 20 underprivileged schools in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala. The nonprofit foundation commissioned the construction of a new library in Bhimavaram, a village in Andhra Pradesh by breaking ground this spring. The library will be a hub of books on science, math, biology, computer technology and other disciplines.

A resident of Great Falls in Virginia, Sajni Vederey was recently in India for 3 days and facilitated the ground-breaking ceremony for the library, which will open up the world of computer science and technology for the underprivileged girls in rural Andhra Pradesh.  The founder of STEM All Stars, Sajni Vederey is on a mission to empower needy girls by motivating them to pursue careers in science, math, engineering and technology.

In December 2017, Indian American Sajni Vederey received a donation of $50,000 from Vetukuri Venkata Siva Rama Raju in Andhra Pradesh. He is not only a lawmaker from Andhra Pradesh’s Telugu Desam Party but also a member on STEM All Stars’ board of directors. Besides, he is the director of VEM Technologies Pvt. Ltd., where computer systems are assembled as well as integrated for defense and aerospace.

A trip to Hyderabad in August 2015 is what served as the foundation brick for the setting up of STEM All Stars in Alexandria, Virginia. During her trip to Hyderabad where her mom was born and brought up, Sajni visited a school in her grandmother’s neighborhood and noticed that the students’ academic growth and subject matter knowledge were stunted due to lack of learning materials and other resources. She also found no necessary amenities there. She volunteered at the school and interacted with the students to understand their needs and the academic ecosystem there.

Also Check: Two Indian American Siblings Tell Stories of India through Video

Much to her surprise, Sajni discovered that most of the students did not hear of Google. Upon her return from Hyderabad to Virginia, she founded STEM All Stars in Alexandria aiming to equip underprivileged schools in India with the amenities required for needy students’ fundamental computer knowledge, and pique the students’ interests in STEM studies.

To break gender-based stereotypes is another goal of STEM All Stars. While growing up in the United States, Sajni herself experienced gender disparity and often heard, “Girls are bad at math and engineering.” The picture of gender stereotypes is more or less the same in the rest of the world. To empower girls in STEM fields in developing countries including India, and thereby mitigating the consequences of gender in equality is the vision of Sajni Vederey’s STEM All Stars.

Also Check: This Virginia Indian Creates Heart Disease Therapy for 400 Million People

STEM All Stars which has so far provided STEM books, computers, lab equipment and other supplies to 55 schools across India. It has held several fund-raising galas and events for awareness about gender equality as well as STEM education of girls, in the United States.  It also hosts STEM competitions in India. The 2018 STEM All Stars Competition was organized at Goethe Institute Hyderabad in January.

Born to an immigrant couple from India, Sajni Vederey aspires to be a lawyer. Her father Jaganmohan Reddy from Hyderabad works for the US Navy. Sajni is a published author too. Passionate about creative writing and storytelling from the age of 6, Sajni penned a book titled Roo and His New Habitat, a fictional story about a group of students and their STEM skills, when she was in the middle school.

This article is part of our continued exclusive stories about young Indian Americans and their achievements, at Travel Beats, a Desi community portal for Indians in USA. We not only offer the cheapest US to India flight deals at Indian Eagle but also cater community news, upcoming events and travel updates to Indian Americans through our free newsletters.

The post Indian American Sajni Vederey Raises $200,000 for STEM Education of 15000 girls in Rural India appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

India has been fighting against open defecation for years. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Mission spreading out across the country and reaching out to far-off regions, this fight has become a nationwide revolution of toilet construction in households. Rural India has witnessed active participation of women in furtherance of the Clean India campaign through construction of toilets by any means.

We at Travel Beats curated the most inspirational stories of toilet from the uncelebrated ambassadors of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on the eve of International Toilet Day. These stories are the stories of courage, bravery, sacrifice, responsibility and commitment mostly by women in rural India.

A Bride Asked for a Toilet as Her Wedding Gift

In a first, an Indian bride asked for a readymade toilet as a wedding gift from her parents during her marriage in 2015. Daughter of a farmer in Maharashtra, she was unaware of the fact that there was no toilet in her in-laws’ house when the marriage was fixed. Chaitali was the first Indian bride to demand a toilet setup instead of jewelry or kitchen appliances or household gadgets. It is the first-ever and best wedding gift in the history of Indian weddings.

A Bride Left her Husband for Lack of Toilet

Among the stories of toilet in India, Priyanka Bharti’s story is an inspirational one for all brides in the rural pockets of India. A 19-year-old newly-wed bride, Priyanka reached her in-laws’ house in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district only to run away the next day in 2012 because she had to defecate in the open like all other members of her husband’s family  due to the lack of basic sanitation in home. Her brave act of defying the in-laws’ family tradition of open defecation became a widespread campaign which drew the attention of Sulabh International, a non-profit organization working for sanitation and hygiene across the country. Sulabh International got Priyanka a toilet in her in-laws’ house and awarded her with Rs 2 lakh for bringing a revolutionary change in the lives of other brides.

He Gave up American Dream to Become Poop Guy of India

One of the inspirational toilet stories across India is that of an Indian from America. On return to India in 2007 after four years of his ‘American Dream’ pursuit in USA, Swapnil Chaturvedi was taken aback by the sheer lack of sanitation and the sorry picture of open defecation in his home country. He left his cushioned job and luxurious lifestyle in America to educate the locals on hygiene habits and improve the existing community restrooms which were previously not safe for women. In 2011, he launched a program, Samagra Sanitation, which became a Gates Foundation trustee.

A Teenage Girl went on 2-day Hunger Strike for Toilet    

The stories of toilet in rural India also include a tale of a 15-year-old girl’s hunger protest in demand for a toilet in Tumakuru district of Karnataka. A 10^th grader with a do-or-die attitude,  Lavanya staged a 48-hour hunger protest to convince her parents the pressing need to having a toilet in home, which further fueled the Swachh Bharat Mission in her village, Sira.

School Students Crowdfunded Toilet for a Friend

Not only women and men but also young students are the agents of change in some stories of toilet in India. In Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, four young Indians, who are class 8 students, raised money to build toilet in a friend’s house where there was no basic sanitation facility. They approached their classmates to crowdfund the construction.

A 105-year-old Lady Sold Her Goats to Build Toilet

Even in the Indian State of Chhattisgarh, 105-year-old Kunwar Bai Yadav joined the brigade of change makers in response to Narendra Modi’s mission to make the country open defecation free by 2019. She became the first resident to build a toilet in her village. She paid for the construction by selling some of her goats, the only source of her living. Inspired by her, every household in the village got a toilet within a year. Today, Dhamtari with a population of 8 lakhs is the first open defecation free district in Chhattisgarh.

A Woman Sold Her Mangalsutra to Get Toilet  

Rural women, who are daily wagers, are playing instrumental in the nationwide campaign of toilet and sanitation in India. The story of Phool Kumari’s praiseworthy act of choosing her dignity over her mangalsutra (a piece of ornament around the neck of Indian Hindu brides) is an immortal one. A cook at a local primary school in Barahkhanna village, Bihar, Phool Kumari sold the mangalsutra to raise money for the construction of toilet in her house when her personal savings fell short of the cost. She was made brand ambassador of a sanitation awareness campaign in the district.

A Man Mortgaged his Wife’ Jewelry for Toilet

Charity begins at home. It holds the truth for Kanti Lal Rot, a daily wager in Dungarpur district of Rajasthan. He proved to be a caring son, husband and father by building a toilet for his family without minding what it cost him. He sold his cattle and mortgaged his wife’s jewelry to raise money for the construction. Later on, he received a grant of Rs 8,000 from the municipality to restore the mortgaged jewelry.

Mothers Took Loans to Get Toilets for Children  

Mothers can do anything and go extra miles to ensure the health and safety of their children. This is what a group of women in rural Tamil Nadu did. Open defecation is a menace to the health of boys in general and the safety of girls in particular. Being daily wagers, they could not manage to fund toilet construction costs with their daily earnings. Instead of giving in to despair, they were determined to build toilets by any means. With the help of micro-finance, they accomplished the mission to secure the health and safety of their children.

A Mother-in-law Gifted Toilet to Daughter-in-law

Generally, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law are at loggerheads. But toilet became a means of bonding between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law in Bollavaram village of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. In a rare instance, Shamsun got a toilet built in the house by the time her son’s bride arrived. She welcomed her daughter-in-law with such a precious gift.

Brothers Gifted Toilets to Sisters on Raksha Bandhan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) has inspired many stories of toilet in India. Gifting of toilets to sisters on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan is a laudable act by some brothers against open defecation in rural Rajasthan. It spread out of Udaipur and Ajmer where some people motivated by the Swachh Bharat Mission constructed toilets for their sisters and inspired others to build toilets in the house of their married sisters. They also received a grant of Rs 16,000 each from the government.

A 50-year-old Mason on a Mission to Build Toilets

The saga of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan would remain incomplete without a mention of 50-year-old Kalabati Devi’s contribution to the mission. A mason by profession in Uttar Pradesh, Kalabati Devi didn’t hesitate to go door-to-door and collect funds for construction of toilets in slums and low-income areas across the city of Kanpur. With her mission spiraling out of Kanpur, she is not at rest. She holds meetings with community leaders to raise funds and educates slum dwellers on the health benefits of sanitation.

Also Check Journey of Toilets from Indus Valley to Modern India

The post Stories of Toilet in India are Inspirational Tales of Courage, Sacrifice, Revolution for a Cleaner India appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

More and more Indian Americans are coming forward to make women literate, independent and self-reliant in India. Indian American filmmaker Nyna Pais Caputi makes films on crimes against women in India for spreading awareness of women’s rights, while Los Angeles-based Pooja Nagpal trains rural Indian girls in self-defense.

19-year-old Pooja Nagpal from Los Angeles is a second-degree black belt Taekwondo performer. Recently she bagged the 2016 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for teaching girls martial arts so that they can defend themselves in Subathu, a far-off mountain village of Himachal Pradesh. Pooja has armed over 1000 socio-economically challenged women with self-defense techniques in the past four years.

Pooja started taking lessons on Taekwondo, Korean martial arts, at the tender age of 12 with the spirit of a fighter. She took up the challenge of training other girls in dynamics of martial arts for self-defense on completion of three years. She was motivated to take it as a mission on reading about crimes against women such as domestic violence and sexual harassment in developing countries including India. (Watch Pooja Nagpal in a video below)

Pooja is currently graduating in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. One of the certified girl scouts in USA, she appeared as a speaker at TEDx in Manhattan Beach last year. She won the title of a National Young Woman of Distinction in 2015. She supports gender equality and believes in the virtue of social work.

This Indian American girl took flight to India this summer 2016 and trained 600 rural women as well as girls in self-defense across rural backwaters of Himachal Pradesh. She also visited a few orphanages in Delhi and Chandigarh for the same purpose. Pooja is not alone on her mission to prepare disadvantaged girls and women for a fight against crimes. She is assisted and accompanied by her sister Meera.

On having achieved the Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of USA, Pooja Nagpal founded a non-profit organization, For a Change Defend, to promote martial arts as a weapon of self-defense for underprivileged school girls. She also developed training curriculum to give them lessons on empowerment, willpower, confidence and leadership. She has also associated with the Los Angeles Police Department and domestic violence shelters to promote martial arts in local communities.

Pooja Nagpal has also planned to get a safety mobile app for women so that they can connect with the local police in times of sexual harassment. The Indian American sister duo – Pooja and Meera – also teaches English language to girls in remote villages of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. When Pooja is in USA, her online videos keep the self-defense program going in India.

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The Missile Man of India is no more amidst us. We commemorated his death anniversary on July 27 this year. However, his presence is felt all over the nation, even in remote rural backwaters, like an invisible ray of hope, inspiration and optimism. That is what three school students from the Maoist hotbeds in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh proved by winning the prestigious APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award 2016.

13-year-old Roshan Sori is a student of Class 6 and son of a poor farmer from a remote village in the district of Sukma, a region affected by Maoist violence in Chhattisgarh. His idea of a software-based solution for instantaneous voting earned him the APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award this year. According to this young Indian, electronic voting machines (EVMs) can be equipped with software which will instantly transmit data to the control room of the election commission as soon as voters press the button.

Picture Credit: Hindustan Times

In Chhattisgarh, Maoist rebels often block the roads, stop vehicles and loot electronic voting machines (EVMs) during elections, thereby causing long delays in the poll process. Consequently, it leads to re-polling and adds to the electoral overheads of Indian government. 13-year-old Roshan hit upon the idea on reading the reporting of such incidents in newspapers.

Roshan Sori’s idea of software-based voting, if developed into a concrete solution, will be a most feasible alternative to the looting of electronic voting machines. In addition, it will give respite to thousands of people of different age-groups, who travel long distances from far-off places to cast their votes. These poor people who often can’t afford even public transport are the worst victims in the event of EVM looting. They are required to walk in to the voting centers and cast their votes again during re-polling.

Indu Manikpuri from the district of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh is among the 28 young Indian winners of APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award 2016. A student of Class 7, she came up with a solution to the lack of maintenance for toilets built across rural India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s project Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign).

The septic tanks of those toilets overflow with human waste as there is no proper, timely maintenance. Villagers drop potatoes into the tanks to prevent overflowing of human excreta. Potato starch leads to decomposition of human waste by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, which in turn prevents overflowing of human waste. But this is a temporary process. It works for only a month or two. It is a most common problem in the villages of India. If Indu Manikpuri’s idea is implemented, it would raise an alarm to alert villagers whenever toilet tanks are full.

Himanshu Rateria is the third winner of APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award 2016 from Chhattisgarh. He ideated an innovative medical alarm on TV for senior citizens.

The APJ Abdul Kalam IGNITE Award is an annual national competition conducted by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) of India. It seeks to fire up and harness the creativity, thinking ability, innovative spirit of young Indians up to age of 17 years or Class 12. They are invited to participate in the competition by sharing their original ideas and innovative solutions. The winners are announced on October 15, the birthday of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, every year and awarded by the President of India. the winning ideas and innovations are converted into projects for development.

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