From a student watching Chandrayaan 2 landing with PM Modi to a farmer singlehandedly building a school - top stories this week
This week, we bring you stories revolving around Chandrayaan 2, social organisations, and the story of a farmer who became a teacher for thousands.
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We all know how Chandrayaan 2 is a landmark mission for India. While many of us want to see the landing of Chandrayaan 2’s Vikram Lander, only a few lucky ones could actually witness it, like the 60 school students selected from across India.
And talking about empowering students, 70-year-old Keshav Saran has single-handedly built a school in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, and is now teaching 1,200 students.
Read the other top social stories this week here.
Meet the Class 9 student who will watch the soft landing of Chandrayaan 2 with PM Modi and 60 other students
As ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 mission prepares for a historic lunar landing, the stage is set for India to become the fourth nation to put a spacecraft on the moon. The touchdown is scheduled to take place on September 7 (between 1:30 am and 2:30 am IST), and will be live streamed on Doordarshan National, Indian government’s Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) YouTube channel.
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G Vaishnavi, a Class 9 student (Image: The Hindu)
About 60 students from across India have been selected to watch the Chandrayaan 2 soft landing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. These students are winners of a quiz that ISRO had organised ahead of the proposed landing.
The winning students include G Vaishnavi, a Class 9 student from Raichur district in Karnataka, one of the two students from the state to witness the soft landing.
This Bengaluru artist’s viral video made BBMP fix potholes in a day
As Chandrayaan-2 steps closer to explore the undiscovered south pole region of the Moon, we are still far away from walking on its surface.
But an artist from Bengaluru has already managed to walk on the lunar surface, or so does it appear.
Image: Indian Express
The video was shot and uploaded on Twitter by street artist and social activist Baadal Nanjundaswamy. It shows theatre actor and film star Poornachandra Mysore dressed up in a spacesuit walking on pothole-ridden roads in Bengaluru, which appears like the lunar surface.
The initiative successfully spread the message, and the city’s civic authorities rushed towards the site to fix the problem just a day after the video went viral.
This organisation is fighting the good fight for animal welfare and rights in India
Since its inception in 2010, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO) has been working to ensure the welfare of animals in India by partnering with several animal rights protection organisations and activists in the country.
FIAPO's Executive Director, Varda Mehotra
Touted to be one of the longest standing organisations working for farmed animals across the country, Delhi-based FIAPO, along with partner organisations, was able to put the brakes on India’s first mega dairy that was to be set up in Andhra Pradesh with over 40,000 cows.
Today, it works with more than 130 members, 200 supporter organisations, and 1,000 individual activists in over 70 cities.
Meet 70-year-old Keshav Saran who single-handedly built a school in Rampur, teaching 1,200 students
This Teachers’ Day, we featured the story of a teacher who changed thousands of lives for the better.
Seventy-year-old Keshav Saran from Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh took to farming when he was only 15. Right from ploughing the land, planting seeds, irrigating, and maintaining the crops to harvesting them, he did it all.
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Keshav Saran, (left) the 70-year-old farmer turned teacher.
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Since the nearest school was far from the village, Keshav couldn’t study beyond Class 9 as lack of transportation facilities made it impossible for him to travel to school.
However, knowing the value and importance of education, and to improve the literacy rate of his village, Keshav singlehandedly set up a school in his village. Today, more than 1,200 children are benefiting from it.
This organisation is empowering orphaned children across India
According to a report published by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), five percent of children under 18 years of age live without one or both biological parents in India. This translates to a staggering 50 lakh of them.
Though most of these children are part of the foster care system, many suffer from a host of physical, sociological, and psychological problems including lack of nutrition, education, and abuse
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Caroline Boudreaux (center), Founder, Miracle Foundation.
Miracle Foundation, a Texas-based non-profit with presence in New Delhi, is making an effort to empower orphaned children across India.
Founded by Caroline Boudreaux in 2000, the organisation not only helps children to be a part of a family, but also strengthens child-care institutions to provide the best for them as long as they are a part of it.
Over 6,075 children across 106 CCIs in India have been supported by the foundation over the last nine years. Besides this, the organisation has around 504 staff members who are trained in child development and discipline in order to enable them to enhance the lives of children.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
