NAGAPATTINAM: A group of volunteers rebuilt a school building at the cost of Rs 8 lakh near Vedaranyam. With this, they completed their target of rebuilding three schools which were damaged by Gaja Cyclone in 2018.
Direction for Volunteers (D4V), a Chennai based volunteers group founded by a Mayiladuthurai-based IT-engineer Ashok Raj crowd-funded, constructed and opened yet another building at the cost of Rs 8 lakh, in the island village of Vandal near Thalaignayiru.
The building for Government-aided primary school in Vandal is the final one of their series of the rebuilding of school buildings damaged by Gaja Cyclone, which cost Rs 27.4 lakh. “We collected donations from employees in PSU and private companies. Our volunteers also contributed to the cause. This was challenging because the village was remote and not easily accessible” said R Vinoth Kumar, an IT-engineer and the coordinator of Direction for Volunteers.
Both the buildings of Government-Aided Primary School in Vandal, founded in 1949 were damaged in the cyclone. While the first one was reportedly reconstructed by CPCL and was opened in July, the volunteers took care of the second one. “The buildings built by my father stood for about 70 years. I was really worried about its future,” said R Rajendran, the 66-year-old school correspondent.
D4V Volunteers has been winning praise since they constructed their first building for Selvam Government Aided Primary School in Thalaignayiru at the cost of Rs 7.7 lakh and opened it on June 2. Then, they constructed their second building for Saraswathi Vilas Government Aided Primary School in Kovilpathu at the cost Rs 11.7 lakh and opened it on June 23.
“The classrooms look more spacious. It will help us during the admissions,” said P Nirmala, the headmistress of the school in Vandal.
Shri Venkateshwara Temple in the USA, the employee community of CPCL and the employees and management of Balmer Lawrie, were the contributors. The volunteers are now planning to improve their educational standards. “Our children like the new atmosphere provided by the efforts of volunteers. We thank them and wish that they would help more schools in future,” said P Madhavan, the representative from Parents-Teachers Associations of the school. The volunteers said they chose government-aided schools because such schools do not get funds easily.