Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2011

Local nonprofit races to electrify Indian school

An impoverished elementary school in rural Guttahali Village, India, recently scored a much-needed donation of 20 computers.

But there's one problem: There's no way to turn them on.

In their isolated location, the Anjana Vidyakendra School receives only a few hours of electricity per day, sometimes in the middle of the night.

"If you give these students access to modern technology, that automatically provides better educational opportunities for them and economic empowerment for their community," said Murali Bashyam, president of Raleigh-based nonprofit Friends Unite. "Energy is a very key part of this."

Friends Unite is partnering with the Indian humanitarian group Brahmi to provide the school with enough solar panels to power those computers, as well as enable indoor and outdoor lighting. The nonprofit is hoping to raise the final $4,000 of the $15,000 project in the next two weeks.

"This project will give these children an opportunity to take the ideals of the environment in which they grew up and place them on an even playing field with those who have more advantages," Friends Unite board member Ketan Soni said.

The two-week deadline is so Friends Unite can succeed in the GlobalGiving Foundation's Open Challenge, which would grant them a permanent place on the charity-connection website's list of causes and give the nonprofit access to dozens of online fundraising tools.

To do so, Friends Unite must raise $4,000 from at least 50 different donors by April 30. Late last week, the nonprofit had just $330 left to raise, but needed 15 more donors to meet both requirements.

Soni visited the school last year, and was impressed with the school's forward thinking and emphasis on globally minded education despite their rural setting. The first step of the solar panel project, to install solar panels to power indoor lighting, is already in action. The next two steps of the process, installation of solar panels to source the computer lab and outdoor lighting, will be put into action as soon as the group hits the $4,000 mark.

This will be Friends Unite's first project since the nonprofit launched in December 2008. Their goals are long-term, Bashyam said. He founded the group based on the idea of friends coming together to help each other and the world around them. The group hopes to build connections in communities both local and global to foster friendships that lead to better living conditions and decreased poverty.

"If you are really going to create a partnership, you have to understand the community and the people in it, and you do that by forming strong connections - that's what keeps people involved long-term," Bashyam said. "I can't wait to see what will happen to these kids (at the Anjana Vidyakendra School) in 30 or 40 years."