By Turning A Village Into Free Wi-Fi Hub, This Brother Duo Is Helping Students Take Online Classes

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn”, a beautiful quote by Benjamin Franklin.

Even though the world stops, one shouldn’t stop learning, it’s a continuous process. But ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, this was not the case for both the students as well as for the teachers. On the contrary, online learning turned out to be a fiasco in the eyes of parents, says several survey reports.

To fix this situation, two brothers, Mahesh and Harish have joined hands to make the students’ lives easier in their Chikkanahalli village, which is located in the Ramnagar district, Karnataka. As an effect of the corona pandemic, all the schools and colleges were also shut down and students had to attend online classes from their places.

Due to the lack of available resources and facilities like internet and smart devices, the students in their village have been facing difficulties in attending classes. So, the brother duo from Mathrubhoomi Seva Foundation came up with the idea of providing free Wi-Fi and smart devices to the students who are in need.

Leveraging Through Technology

The duo, Mahesh and Harish, started this project in July 2020. Initially, they thought of providing only free Wi-Fi for students. Later, after taking a survey in their village, it’s found that more than 150 students don’t have the internet facility. Plus, most of the students don’t have smart devices to access or attend their regular classes.

So, these two brothers have provided free tablets and installed PCs in the village for the students who couldn’t afford one. By the end of October 2020, they provided free Wi-Fi for the whole village and smart devices for the students who were in need.

Youth Broadband is providing a Wi-Fi connection for the entire village. “Without any hesitation, they helped us wholeheartedly. They agreed to take a Wi-Fi connection to the whole village. Initially, there was no connection established, which was a very challenging task, as we have to take optical lines from the nearest city to the village, added Mahesh.

After setting up free Wi-Fi in the village, they installed 10 PCs in two spots of the village, so that other students can also attend the classes in groups. But their idea did not solve the problem yet. So, they swiftly came up with another idea i.e., providing free tablets for 50+ students who were not in a position to afford the smart device.

Also, they had set up broadband at 25 places in the village, which was provided by “Youth broadband“. Some of the hands that helped to make this project successful are Adarsh, Yogi, Abhilash, Lakshman, Sunil, Harish Kumar, T.V. Girish (Lawyer), Chandan, and Raghu.

So far, their service is helping 150+ school students in attending their classes. Now that the Wi-Fi is freely accessible for the entire village, it is helping other working and non-working people as well in several ways.

The Hurdles

The major challenge faced by them was bringing Wi-Fi lines into the village, as there was no proper medium or prior set up to carry the optical fiber lines to the desired Wi-Fi hotspots in their village.

However, whatever be the stumbling blocks, they decided to create a peaceful, prosperous, and progressive society by igniting the young minds towards the righteous path, which they stated as their vision. They are also putting several efforts to inspire today’s youth with more progressive actions and empowering them to take a stand on those concentrated issues.

Happy Moments

With all the struggles, they also had some happy moments to share with us.

“One of such happy moments was when we provided a tablet to one of the students who were not able to afford it, she danced with joy with tears of happiness”, stated the brothers.

Another uplifting and heartwarming moment they shared was when they provided a tablet to the 12th-grade student who is an orphan and her name was not on the list initially.

“She approached us and explained her needs about how badly she wanted to study. She was very happy when we supported her by providing her a tablet. She appreciated our work and expressed that once she becomes successful in life, she will do such work that will help others. This made us very happy” shared Mahesh.

Hearing such incidents exhibit the conditions of villages in several parts of the country and how the government is failing every time by delivering some trivial charlatans.

What Does Mathrubhoomi Seva Foundation Do?

Mathrubhoomi Seva Foundation is an NGO founded by Mahesh Mathrubhoomi on 26th November 2013. The main objective of this foundation is to provide social justice, development, and human rights. The foundation is Running Mathrubhoomi Madilu Orphanage, a residential institution devoted to caring the orphans/orphan children. Recently, they started an old age home too.

Currently, the organization is supporting 5 schools in Bangalore and impacting 500+ children. They strive to better the educational experience for students by improving their surroundings and infrastructure to ensure a safe learning environment.

Additionally, they aid in filling the gaps in the education system for students by assisting them in various ways require. The organization is also making every effort in improving the academic performance of the students along with extracurricular activities and character development.

Furthermore, they work closely with the school staff, organizing teacher training on effective management of students and classes. They assist the children by providing them necessary learning equipment such as free uniforms, shoes, school kits, drinking water facilities, and periodical healthcare facilities. This is found to improve overall attendance and prevent dropouts.

What’s ahead?

Thanks to these two gentlemen who have taken this initiative to help and empower students in several ways. Moving ahead, when asked about their next step, they gave a quick reply – “In the future, we plan to install solar panels to provide electricity to villages with power issues. We also wish to open a digital library in our village”. 

“We will work towards the empowerment of the village and promoting small scale industries. We will make sure all the government facilities reach the villagers. We aim towards making our village an example for an ideal Indian Village,” added the duo brothers.