‘Kalvithunai’, an NGO that offers free tuition for about 130 poor kids living in the rural suburbs of Coimbatore, was founded by Siva Swamy and his wife Mahalakshmi, three years ago, on 23.01.2014, in order to improve the lots of rural children.
Eldest of three siblings, Siva Swamy has worked for 23 years between with Bush, Boake & Allen and with Packaging India (P) Ltd., for 7 years. Later, in 2003, he came up with a talent search venture called Bharadwaj Career Solutions and started helping people to move abroad to countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Angola in pursuit of a career. Turning 60, he moved with family to Coimbatore and has been living in Covai S3 Retirement Communities, since then.
After studying the requirement of the local people for four years, he bought up the 5.5 cents of land and building and set up ‘Kalvithunai’, an ‘after school learning centre’ for the financially weaker students.
Kalvithunai has 10 paid teachers, who help the kids not only in their homework and examinations but help them maintain good hygiene. The children are also taught about Indian culture, spoken English and better communication skills among other things. Mahalaksmi Sivaswamy takes equal share in the running of Kalvithunai. Earlier, she was part of ‘Sneha’ (Chennai) which used to counsel people attempting to commit suicide, the Inner wheel Club which was part of Madras Central Aaditya Rotary and Karnavidya that works for the welfare of the visually impaired.
The evening begins at 5.30 pm and the cheerful kids rush into Kalvithunai eagerly. Right from the statue of Saraswathi, the class rooms, the computers and the clean toilets, the entire atmosphere is charged with the mood to learn. The kids wash their feet before entering the classrooms and are busy with their tasks till 8.30 pm. One of the students is learning bharatanatyam, too. Their handwritings are beautiful and legible. The display tells us that all the kids have been clearing their board exams successfully, year after year.
Siva Swamy (Mobile: 98400 39497) says, "We decided to give something back to the society and we wanted to do our best before our return tickets get confirmed. Its costs us more than Rs.80,000 per month to run this and a number of people help us with money. We contributed Rs.45 lakhs to get this going. Corporates are welcome to help with their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds and avail of the 80 G exemption too. We are now doing a skill development programme with Bosch during the day for school drop-outs. In fact, we are now looking out for a person who will be trained at Bosch Bengaluru for one week before taking up his or her space here. We have a UPS to handle power cuts. When our kids at Kalvithunai do well, we consider it as a blessing from the Lord Almighty, Hare Krishna."
The couple Mahalakshmi and Siva Swamy are blessed with two sons - Prashanth (a banker living in Mumbai) and Vedanth (a famous guitarist and budding music director living in Chennai). "A number of good samaritans are helping us to go further and now I am trying to negotiate and raise resources in order to purchase the neighbouring 5.5 cents to take care of at least 300 kids every evening besides offering skill development to hundreds during the day. We give certificates to people participating in our skill development programmes. We pay a salary to the teachers and others. Dr.Meera, a Homeopath and Dr.Seshadri are helping us out if there are any problems with the children’s health. Basically we are trying to make Lakshmi compliment Saraswathi through our initiatives. Skill and employability are important for the kids. Otherwise, why should they study?" asks Siva Swamy, a fount of energy.
Subbulakshmi Viswanathan, the 87 year old mother of Sivaswamy (69 years) contributes Rs.25,000 per year from her pension to help the initiative started by her son and daughter in law.
Kalvithunai Siva Swamy and his wife Mahalakshmi are real messiahs who have come to add value to the children living in the agrarian suburbs of Coimbatore.
Eldest of three siblings, Siva Swamy has worked for 23 years between with Bush, Boake & Allen and with Packaging India (P) Ltd., for 7 years. Later, in 2003, he came up with a talent search venture called Bharadwaj Career Solutions and started helping people to move abroad to countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Angola in pursuit of a career. Turning 60, he moved with family to Coimbatore and has been living in Covai S3 Retirement Communities, since then.
After studying the requirement of the local people for four years, he bought up the 5.5 cents of land and building and set up ‘Kalvithunai’, an ‘after school learning centre’ for the financially weaker students.
Kalvithunai has 10 paid teachers, who help the kids not only in their homework and examinations but help them maintain good hygiene. The children are also taught about Indian culture, spoken English and better communication skills among other things. Mahalaksmi Sivaswamy takes equal share in the running of Kalvithunai. Earlier, she was part of ‘Sneha’ (Chennai) which used to counsel people attempting to commit suicide, the Inner wheel Club which was part of Madras Central Aaditya Rotary and Karnavidya that works for the welfare of the visually impaired.
The evening begins at 5.30 pm and the cheerful kids rush into Kalvithunai eagerly. Right from the statue of Saraswathi, the class rooms, the computers and the clean toilets, the entire atmosphere is charged with the mood to learn. The kids wash their feet before entering the classrooms and are busy with their tasks till 8.30 pm. One of the students is learning bharatanatyam, too. Their handwritings are beautiful and legible. The display tells us that all the kids have been clearing their board exams successfully, year after year.
Siva Swamy (Mobile: 98400 39497) says, "We decided to give something back to the society and we wanted to do our best before our return tickets get confirmed. Its costs us more than Rs.80,000 per month to run this and a number of people help us with money. We contributed Rs.45 lakhs to get this going. Corporates are welcome to help with their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds and avail of the 80 G exemption too. We are now doing a skill development programme with Bosch during the day for school drop-outs. In fact, we are now looking out for a person who will be trained at Bosch Bengaluru for one week before taking up his or her space here. We have a UPS to handle power cuts. When our kids at Kalvithunai do well, we consider it as a blessing from the Lord Almighty, Hare Krishna."
The couple Mahalakshmi and Siva Swamy are blessed with two sons - Prashanth (a banker living in Mumbai) and Vedanth (a famous guitarist and budding music director living in Chennai). "A number of good samaritans are helping us to go further and now I am trying to negotiate and raise resources in order to purchase the neighbouring 5.5 cents to take care of at least 300 kids every evening besides offering skill development to hundreds during the day. We give certificates to people participating in our skill development programmes. We pay a salary to the teachers and others. Dr.Meera, a Homeopath and Dr.Seshadri are helping us out if there are any problems with the children’s health. Basically we are trying to make Lakshmi compliment Saraswathi through our initiatives. Skill and employability are important for the kids. Otherwise, why should they study?" asks Siva Swamy, a fount of energy.
Subbulakshmi Viswanathan, the 87 year old mother of Sivaswamy (69 years) contributes Rs.25,000 per year from her pension to help the initiative started by her son and daughter in law.
Kalvithunai Siva Swamy and his wife Mahalakshmi are real messiahs who have come to add value to the children living in the agrarian suburbs of Coimbatore.