Ghaziabad students seek to educate underprivileged with spare change

A Ghaziabad-based student group is looking to help the underprivileged children with collections of spare change or ‘chillar’, as it is called in rustic Hindi. The student group has crafted boxes for collecting money, to run six coaching centres in Ghaziabad and Greater Noida for the underprivileged.

A Ghaziabad-based student group is looking to help the underprivileged children with collections of spare change or ‘chillar’, as it is called in rustic Hindi. The student group has crafted boxes for collecting money, to run six coaching centres in Ghaziabad and Greater Noida for the underprivileged.

They have made 10 collection units and said they will create at least 250 in total. (Sakib Ali/HT)

Packed in a dingy room, students of ABES Engineering College have been busy crafting wooden collection boxes for the last three-four days. They have made 10 such units and said they will create at least 250 in total.

“We will keep one box in the staff room of each department for the staff, teachers and others, to contribute change at their ease. The idea is to encourage people to donate whenever they have spare change, so that it eventually helps educate underprivileged kids,” Gurleen Singh, a fourth-year student, said.

Singh is one of the executive members of Help Us to Help the Child (HUHC), a student-based social initiative aimed at educating slum kids.

The HUHC initiative has been running for the last five years and various students of the mechanical engineering division have been a part of it.

“We run ‘Kiran Shikshan Sansthan’ on the college campus, wherein we teach 25 children every day after college hours. We also run five centres in Vijay Nagar, Pratap Vihar, Saveri, Maharana Vihar and a saviour society for over 400 kids,” Shubham Srivastava, an executive member of HUHC, said.

Students said that the collections will help them sustain the initiative. They aim to include residents, teachers and corporate employees working in Ghaziabad.

“We have decided to begin collecting from the students and teachers of our college, after which we will circulate the boxes among residents and shopkeepers. Our seniors working with corporate companies will also install these boxes at their workplace. For now, our target is to use the 250 boxes,” Abhishek Sharma, vice-president of HUHC, said.

Apart from teaching the children, the students also ensure that they are enrolled in schools. “Last year, we ensured that 22 kids, who had never attended school, are enrolled in schools. Our initiative is basically to prepare children for professional courses,” Shubham said.

The students are also planning to set up a six-foot tall collection box for residents to donate old clothes, books and stationery items. “We are in talks with a society in Crossing Republik for installing the giant collection box. It will have four openings for residents to contribute old clothes, toys, books and stationery items,” Sharma said.