Club gives children the tools to succeed
Due to the prevalence of illiteracy in India, USU students have organized and established a school in Sasaram, which now educates 40 impoverished elementary students.
Casey Allred and Bushra Zaman are co-directors of Allred’s non-profit organization Effect International, the driver of the project to improve education in India. Sasaram is Zaman’s home village, and she said the children there who do not learn English or go to a private school have little to no chance of succeeding.
They are currently working with Zaman’s mother, who is the principal of the school, Aakashdee, which means “light in the sky” in Hindi.
“I want my people to progress,” said Zaman, who recently received her doctorate’s degree in civil engineering. “Education made a lot of difference to me. My mother sent me to a good school, and if these kids go to a good school they can do a lot in their lives.”
On average, one worker’s daily wage is a maximum of $4, the women working as housemaids and the men as rickshaws, pedaling villagers around on bicycles, Zaman said.
Allred said one-third of the world’s illiterate population live in India. The country is densely overpopulated, with 84 million people living in the school’s state, Bahar, which is the size of Illinois, he said.
Effect International’s club, USU effect, is also involved in this project and is lead by Tyson Stevens, who said he is amazed by the ability that people so young as college students could accomplish such a project. Because of their inexperience with the procedures and paperwork that accompany the creation of a school abroad, there were many roadblocks they were forced to deal with, Stevens said. He said it was especially trying with five to six people attending the club’s meetings when it opened in the fall of 2009.
“Because we are so young, I believe there will be a ton of other challenges that will come in the future, but we will not allow these things to stop us,” Stevens said.
The total cost to build Aakashdeep was $25,000, and it costs $9,000 per year to maintain, Allred said. This maintenance includes everything from paying the teachers to utility bills. He said one dollar in India goes a long way.
A rented four-room building is the current location of the school, and a plot of land has been donated to Effect International to build an entirely new school that will begin construction this winter. Allred connected with a recently-graduated architect from Illinois Institute of Technology, who is responsible for the school’s design.
“I have traveled a big part of the world,” Allred said. “In India, I was still wide-eyed, they are quite a ways behind. Kids are walking around with huge stomachs because malnutrition is high. It smells like human feces and cows walk freely in the streets.”
While traveling, Allred said he met an older woman who took his hands, looked into his eyes and began crying because she knew he could help her children and grandchildren harness opportunities in their lives, he said. From then on, he knew he wanted to improve conditions in developing countries throughout the world, especially in education.
“Since our school has opened, we can’t even believe the success we are having,” Allred said. “It’s raising eyebrows and people have been saying they are interested in moving forward with us.”
Effect International and USU Effect plan to improve education in Nepal as well as Sasaram, Allred said. Zaman will travel to India in the near future to fuel recruitment for the school.
USU Effect hopes to attract new recruits to their cause during their opening social Thursday, Oct. 7, in Room 317 of the business building at 7:30 p.m.
“I hope this school will continue to grow in enrollment and that eventually we can build a high school in the same town,” Stevens said. “Likewise, I hope that as India continues to join the global marketplace, they will put more emphasis on educating all of their citizens so they can all enjoy the blessings of knowledge that many of us have our entire lives.”
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu