Tech Champs of The Future

Juana Foundation recently held an event at their Nawal Griha situated in Satya Sai School in Khanpur. This event was held to motivate the children so that they can fulfill their aspirations by finishing their studies. Children coming from underprivileged backgrounds need all the encouragement they can get to push forward in their educational journey. While the mentors do an admirable job of encouraging the children, some external help is always welcome. This external help came from Mr. Sahil Seth, IRS, Joint Commissioner GST, Customs and Narcotics and Co-founder of Prasara Care Foundation, and Mr. Sagar Kumar, Founder of Fitholic Association.

The event started by welcoming the Chief Guests to the center. After their welcome and felicitation, the moderator started off the event by explaining why intervention was needed to uplift these children and provide them with a sustainable future.

Children are our future, and their protection, nourishment, and enrichment are our responsibility. However, sometimes this does not happen due to illiteracy, lack of monetary backing, or superstitious and social beliefs. Growing up in this environment, children learn to put earning their livelihood above their education and thus lose focus on their studies and aspirations.

To battle this state of mind as well as protect and empower the future generation, Juana Foundation has produced a set of programs that specifically target the mindset of the people so that the future of the children can be protected.

After explaining this need for intervention, the moderator asked Mrs. Swati Ganguly, President of the Juana Foundation to enlighten the audience about the work of the foundation.

Mrs. Swati Ganguly started by explaining that Juana Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that thrives on the motto ‘Reach-Teach-Inspire’ and thus is driven toward reaching out to the maximum people in need of empowerment and development, teaching as many minds as possible skills to lead life and achieve livelihood and inspiring as many stories as possible to find a direction towards fulfillment and sustainability.  She explained that since its inception, they have initiated four major Projects targeting various sections of society. Project Nawal, Project Vriddhi, Project Navya, and Project Unnati.

She went on to say that this center was a part of their Project Nawal initiative where they provide safe spaces for the children to focus on their studies. They also help the children with their studies to mainstream them to formal education.

After learning about Juana Foundation and Project Nawal, the Moderator led the event to the next program which was a PowerPoint presentation on the solar system that was created by a group of children from this center who called themselves Group Galaxy. They presented it in Hindi, explaining what the solar system is, how many planets there are in the solar system and what is the main feature of each planet. After this presentation, another group called Group Techies presented their PowerPoint presentation called Computer and its parts. They presented their presentation in English, explaining what a computer is, what are its uses, its parts, and its main functions.

After these two presentations, the moderator led the event to its next segment, a life skill session held online by the mentor from Kolkata. This short session showed how technology is helping the children’s educational journey by connecting them with mentors from all over the world in their quest for knowledge.

After the life skill session, the moderator asked the Chief Guests Mr. Sahil Seth and Mr. Sagar Kumar to say a few words. Mr. Sahil Seth started by saying that he was extremely impressed with this initiative and that the children were very interactive and responsive. He asked the children not to give up on their dreams as they will propel them further so that they can complete their education. He further said that almost every great person in history has had humble beginnings and if they could do it, then these children could do it too.

Mr. Sagar Kumar said that he was happy that the children liked studying so much. It showed how interested they were and that they were motivated to complete their studies. He further said that he was impressed with how quickly the children were progressing.

Next in the event, Mr. Osborne Dsouza spoke about how some of the children already showed the inborn talent of being a presenter, of showing interest in general knowledge, and of being curious and learning about technology. Along with this, he also spoke about Artificial Learning and how learning AI is the next step in their educational journey.

The final segment held the Prize Distribution Ceremony. The two PowerPoint presentations had been judged by the Chief Guests and according to the judging criteria, Group Techies came in as the winner for their wonderful presentation on Computer and its Parts. To keep up the energy of the children, Group Galaxy was given the Runners up prize for their presentation of The Solar System.

The Event ended on a positive note with all the children being motivated to study and give their best to complete their education and even the mentors were motivated to do more to help these children on their educational journey.