Education for Underprivileged Gets Wings
Pune, 24 Oct. : The dream of education for all got wings in the form of Udaan Express, a state-of-the-art Mobile Life-Skills Training Classroom (MLSTC) that was flagged off from Kondhwa, Pune on Sunday amidst fanfare and well-wishes. The project is a brainchild of the internationally acclaimed motivational speaker Syed Saeed Ahmed through his Raabta Foundation. It will traverse 14 states and 50 cities to reach over one lakh people in its maiden journey of approximately 7500 kms.
The program was held in front of the Konark Indrayu Mall in Kondhwa. Besides Syed Saeed Ahmed, social worker Salim Mulla, Chief Income Tax Commissioner Abdul Gafar, educationist Khalid Zahir, social workers Sainath Babar and Gafur Pathan were present on the dias. Many dignitaries from the education department, Pune University Professors, College Professors, University Grants Commission (UGC) office bearers, NGO’s, police department, administrative and top corporate officials attended the function.
Speaking at the occasion, Sayed Seed Ahmed said, “This project is an outcome of the toil of ten years. Udaan Express will travel across the length and breadth of the country to reach out to extensively to large numbers of people, especially children, from the remotest corner of the country. It will spread the message of education and social empowerment through personality development of the individuals. We want to tell people that they will have to change themselves. We want to ignite the flame of education in them.”
Informing of the van, he said, “We will take 30 children from a particular area in a city at a time in the van. We will teach them the meaning of success through the stories of great personalities. We will teach to the respect themselves, that no work is too small and what a common man can do. The objective of the Raabta Foundation is to kindle a sense in ever person to contribute to the society.”
Saeed added that the initiative if for every citizen of the country. He thanked the sponsors especially Dr Khursheed Malik, ENA Foundation President Zubair Shaikh, Swamini Sarees Owner Riyaz Shaikh and Peepal Foundation President Vineet Kharat for their great help and support in the project. “After this van returns from the tour, Kondhwa will become a center of education,” he said.
Social worker Saleem Mulla hailed this initiative as the second educational revolution after Karmveer Bhaurao Patil’s mission. He said “It is intended to empower senior citizens and spread adult literacy and continued education across all the slums in the state beginning from Kondhwa. People from all communities will benefit from this national project launched by Saeed Sahab.”
Babar, Zahir, Pathan and Gafar showered praise on the project and extended wishes by saying that they were ready to provide any help for it. The program started with a beautiful enactment of the prayer by the students of Dar-e-Arqam School. Adilt Attar gave the vote of thanks.
Udaan Express is a mobile classroom cum teaching van equipped with a projector and an LCD screen, pantry, mobile seating arrangement for children on lines of an international classroom. The van is to criss- cross 14 states covering as many as 50 cities reaching over a lakh people in its maiden journey of approximately 7500 kms from Bidar to Bihar.
