Covid-19 Relief work
“I wish things were back to normal again”, a phrase that’s become quite popular in the last year. It is now well understood that Covid-19 is much more than a crisis in global health. Since its emergence in 2019, the pandemic has plunged many economies into recession, disrupted most activities, and wrought havoc on people’s lives. We are midst one of the greatest humanitarian crises ever, with lack of oxygen, limited access to protective resources claiming many lives. In these challenging times, where everyone is trying to help in some way, it did not feel right sitting back knowing that somebody somewhere could use our help. To help support our local community and many unknown heroes, the Trust, led by Bir Singh Uppal started a fundraiser on social media to raise funds for Covid-19 relief work.
With the help of many people, local or international, friends and strangers, the Trust raised funds for Covid-19 relief efforts in Amritsar. We decided to use the funds to support the police in Amritsar, the door-to-door garbage collection agency in Amritsar, the local blind school and villagers who didn’t have access to basic resource such as masks. The funds were used for –
- Distributed of 10,000+ N-95 masks, of which half were for the local police and the other half for garbage collection workers.
- Distributed masks and conducted an awareness campaign about the dangers of Covid-19 in Nushera Village near Amritsar
- Providing essential items such as cooking oil, blankets and cement to the Blind School in Amritsar.
Bir’s efforts were widely recognized in Amritsar, and he earned a letter of commendation from the Head of the Blind School, the Police Commissioner of Amritsar and got covered in many local newspapers and was interviewed by a local News channel.
Free Education
(Computer Science Education)
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”.
This quote truly reflects the thinking of all the members of the Trust and we truly believe that education is the most important thing you can provide a child and an educated individual is the most important asset for a society. To build on this notion, the Trust built a school in the year 1898 in the village of Naraingar. The school was built for underprivileged students’ ad taught subjects such as Punjabi, Hindi, English and Mathematics.
The Trust aims to equip children from marginalized communities with high quality, value-based education; enabling development of their limitless potential We believe the best way to achieve long term positive social change is through education and that good education is a child’s best chance to escape poverty. Making women self-sufficient by providing appropriate skill training is a goal we truly work very hard to try and achieve and hope to keep working on in the future.
Bir Singh Uppal has been very involved in updating the school curriculum. In this evolving world, where computers are more of a necessity in the competitive job market than ever, Bir, who is passionate about computers, decided to take up the initiative of going to the school once a week during his vacations for the last 2 years and teaching members of the school as well as the girls of the society the basics of handling a laptop. They learnt about basics such as turning on a laptop to how to handle and sort data on Microsoft Excel, Java, Word, Creating and handling emails etc.
More recently, the school like every other had to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite some damage to the school and difficulties in running it, we hope to rejuvenate the school whenever the pandemic passes and will raise some funds to get the school and children some other materials which would make their education more fruitful.