A Summer to Remember

Hi, my name is Purvi Rajan and I am part of Project LINC. I helped create this project in order to donate solar lights to children in need in India. My sister Pallavi, my cousins Shreya and Shweta, and I donated lights four years ago. This year we got together with our friend Shivani and created Project LINC. During the first couple of weeks of summer, we decided that we wanted to do some sort of charity work. Since Pallavi, Shreya, Shweta and I had done this before, we thought it would be a good idea to go back to donate more lights and to see how well the previous lights had worked out. Then we started the planning phase. We realized that we needed to raise $1,000 in order to pay for all the lights we were planning to donate. Since we didn't have much time to fundraise, we came up with different ideas to raise money. Shreya and Shweta left for India before we could do much fundraising. After a long time of brainstorming, we decided to call and message basically all of our family and friends asking for donations. Many people said they would donate but a lot of people didn't answer. By the end of the day we had raised about $250. Many people pledged that they would donate too. We realized that we needed other ways to raise money so we wanted to have a fundraising event in the park. We agreed to have it on a Friday which was when many people would come to Calabazas Park. We sold samosas, cookies, water, and jewelry. At the end of the park fundraiser, we made about $50. Even after all of these fundraisers, we got the most money from family and friends. Through them, we earned around $2,400. We stopped fundraising on July 1, 2016 and after adding up all the fundraised money, we had made $2,779.60! Then it was time to start working on the plan for the distribution. After a lot of discussion, we realised that the high schools were the most important so we decided to donate to two high schools: one in the village of Agara and one in the village of Mamballi. The Agara high school had 93 students and the Mamballi school had 104 students. We had raised 197 lights so we had some lights left over. In our past experience we learned that some of the teachers had taken away the light from the student and kept it for themselves. To prevent this from happening, we decided to give the extras to the staff because they had helped us so much and they worked very hard at these schools. After all the planning was over, we hopped on a plane and flew to India. Then it was July 14! The day of the distribution! The night before, we had planned to leave by 6:30 in the morning. On the day of the actual distribution however, we ended leaving at 7:00 in the morning. In the car, we ran through our speech and decided who would say what. The car ride took about two and a half hours to reach Agara. We went to my great aunt’s house and ate breakfast. Then we went to the first school. As we were walking to the entrance of the school, I noticed that a bunch of kids had started to stare and looked like they were wondering what was going on. We made our way to the principal’s office and since he already knew why we were here (we called beforehand), he told us to wait while he got the students organized. Then, we went up to a stage like structure and began our presentation. We talked about how we were from the USA and that we wanted to give them lights so that they could study. They were very obedient and didn't interrupt us. We told them how my mom (Girija) was born in this village and now she lives in America and is a software engineer who has her own business. They asked a lot of questions about how they could also be like her. We told them that they needed to study and work hard. Even during the distribution, they wanted to talk about what our life was like. I felt so grateful that I had been given this opportunity to give so many children the gift of learning. When we finally gave the lights to them, they were so humble about it. When we were done, they didn't want us to leave! We took lots of pictures with them and they kept stopping us to give us hugs and to shake our hands. I realized that in those two hours, I had made so many new friends. We went home and began examining the answers of the question paper. They had written it in Kannada so I couldn't read it. We were so tired after the first school that we took a nap before heading to the next school. The next school was a five minute drive because it was in the village next to Agara. It was very similar to the first. The speech and distribution were the same and they also asked us a lot of questions afterward. They asked us mostly about school in America. We were very impressed with how many different subjects they did. Then it was time to leave. We left the village and drove back to Agara. We had one more thing to do before we were done. Since we had done this project once before, we wanted to know how well the previous lights had worked. Only one girl, Bhoomika, showed up but we still went through with the plan. We gave her one of the question papers and had her answer the questions. We asked her questions like, how long did the light last? She said that the light lasted about a year before it broke. We also asked how she used the light. She said that she and her family used it to study and do chores. Then we gave her a new light and she left. Finally, it was time for us to leave. I didn't want to go because I was having so much fun but we had to go home. We said goodbye to my great aunt and got into the cars. Then we drove home. The drive back took about two hours. At the end of the day I felt so glad that I had given these children these lights. I also felt so lucky because I lived a life where the problem of no light to study was never a problem that came up. I think it is really great that now these kids won’t have that problem for a while. Looking back, there are so many people who I would like to thank for helping us make this project successful. I would like to thank Amma, Appa, Gireesha Mama, Danna, Jaya Aunty, Vishwanath Uncle, Ajji, Thatha, Jen Greene, the principals and staff of both the schools, anyone who liked and shared our posts, our donors, and of course, the Project LINC team. We honestly couldn’t have done it with you all. Thank you so much for all the support you gave towards this project!

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