No donation can be as valuable as good education. Keeping this truth in mind students of the Symbiosis Infotech Campus (SIC) have come together to make an effort in this direction. "Prayatna was formed with an intention to give quality education to slum children, who would otherwise just become literate, but would not be equipped to hold their own grounds in the competitive world," says Devdutt Chauhan, co-ordinator, Praytana.

The body was floated by SIC students last year and has been taken up by their juniors . Out of 13 children, who came to Prayatna for classes, nine were admitted to Karmavati Devi School, Hinjewadi. All the expense is born by the members of Prayatna.

"These children do attend their government-run schools, but they needed that extra looking after to make themselves more competent. We not only take classes for them on our campus but have also got them admitted in a good English medium school for their better education," says Chauhan, adding, "We have to catch them young as it becomes difficult to shift them from a Hindi or vernacular medium schools to a English medium one."

Not neglecting the funds, he said that they were paying Rs 7000 per children to the school, which in turn takes care of all the needs of the children – from fees to books to uniforms. When asked about the source of funds, Chauhan explained that SIC students conduct film festivals and games through which they collect money for the children. They also collect old clothes and books from SIC students. However the noble idea was of alumni adopting the children.

Explaining the above Chauhan says, "We have a provision of alumni adopting the children and looking after their education. Though so far we don't have many such cases, we are hopeful that more will come forward."

Apart from the schooling, they also have many activities lined up for the kids."We bring them to our campus five times a week and give them classes for english, maths, science, personality development, general knowledge and so on. We also take them for games and sports. We show them inspirational documentaries," says Chauhan.

He added that initially they faced a lot of problem in getting the attention of the children sit who were not used to such an exercise. "For better management we have divided ourselves in five teams — marketing, finance and legal, operation, academic and web communication. Apart from the core committee of 10 members, we have around 150 volunteers with us, who help us in different tasks from arranging fund raising events to teaching children," says he.

The reward is more valuable than money as all the members talk of the high percentage that the slum kids secure in their exams. "We are proud of them, they haven't let us down and nothing could be more rewarding than the fact that all the children secured more than 60 per cent, while five of them got more than 70 per cent."