Actress Koel Mullick distributes books and stationery to children from Education For All

In June 2005, Omprakash Shaw, a labourer in a packing company in Howrah, approached Education For All to sponsor the education of his children Akash and Kiran, who were studying in classes IX and VI of Shree Jain Vidyalaya.

The only working member in his family, Omprakash was finding it difficult to foot their education bills. Today Akash is studying BCom (Hons) at St Xavier’s College and pursuing his CA and CS. “The constant support of Education for All helped me stand on my own feet,” says the 18-year-old.

Akash is one of the 12,000 children who have benefited from the works of the trust that was started in 2000.

“Our scholarships are based on income and not merit. Many children, who are above average in studies but not brilliant, want to study further but cannot afford to do so… we are here to help them,” says Sundeep Bhutoria of Education For All.

After a hiatus of four years, the trust is being revived. “When I contacted sponsors, 90 per cent of the replies were in the affirmative. Some like H.M. Bangur, Ujjwal Upadhyay, Gopal Poddar and Rajendra Bacchawat sent their cheques immediately,” says Bhutoria.

Actress Shabana Azmi, who has sponsored one child for Education For All, had lunch with sponsors at Taj Bengal on Wednesday. “My father Kaifi Azmi runs a school and a computer centre in his village, Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh). He single-handedly established them despite his paralysis because he believed that change was possible. We believe the same,” said Shabana.

The project initially started with a corpus of Rs 10 lakh. Today, it has Rs 25 lakh. One of the schemes to be renewed is Each One — Educate One. Under this, an individual can sponsor a child’s education at Rs 500 per month. Donors can choose the child.

The trust also requests people to donate used toys and clothes for Muskaan, another scheme for the needy.

An Education For All kit is distributed in slum areas. It used to include four exercise books, stationery, alphabet books and a toy. “We have seen parents selling the exercise books. Now we will tell them that the toy will be given when the used exercise books are submitted,” says Bhutoria.

And those who have benefited now give back. Akash, for example, does his bit for Education For All. “The trust has enabled me to support myself. So I also try to give something back to the trust,” he says.