How a YouTuber’s farm lessons, an IAS officer’s 10K walk to buy local produce and an 85 year-old woman’s exam are inspiring others
Improve and enhance seems to the mantra of the past week, as individuals, organisations and ordinary people rose up to the occasion to create positive change for others, and for themselves.
You are never too old to follow your passion, and create change. And there is no end to learning. These stories of the past week are all about creating change, and helping humanity.
Be it the 85-year-old Kembi from Wayanad in Kerala who recently cleared the Kerala State Literacy Mission’s (KSLM) examination. Or Darshan Singh, a YouTuber who educates farmers with his channel, Farming Leaders or organisations that helps sex workers.
In the humdrum of ordinary life, these are people who have strived for something more, and their stories inspire others to act.
Ram Singh, an IAS officer from Meghalaya walks 10 km every week to buy organic produce, inculcate fitness and beat the traffic.
As the climate change discussion reaches its peak, a few changes in our daily habits can yield great results - using public transport, cloth bags over plastic, etc, the collective gain will be the Earth’s gain. IAS officer Ram believes in this philosophy implicitly.
IAS Ram Singh along with her wife and the baby, returning from the local market (Image: East Mojo)
And he walks the talk too. Ram, who is the deputy commissioner of West Garo Hills, Meghalaya, walks 10 km every week to source organic produce from local farmers.
Unlike the supermarket-happy shopper, the lean and fit officer also refrains from using plastic bags, instead, he has a bamboo basket slung over his shoulders. And he also has his wife and child accompanying him to inspire others.
Seema Waghmode is changing the lives of sex workers and their children with her NGO Kayakalpa.
If not the planet, it’s the downtrodden and have-nots that need our help the most. Seema of Kayakalpa helps women move forward in life, and not get tied down by societal norms. Her organisation helped Abhilasha with Rs 52,000 to continue her education. Yet, Seema is not one to rest on her laurels, as she believes her work is far from over.
The rescued children and commercial sex workers under Seema's care.
In 1994, she set up Kayakalpa in Budhwar Peth. It became the first NGO to cater to HIV/AIDS patients, while also working as a rehabilitation centre for the children of sex workers.
Two decades since she vowed to help those in need, Seema has impacted over 10,000 sex workers and their children.
When talking about help, this next social enterprise is treading cautiously to help improve medical care.
Today, it has one lakh doctors on its platform, and is on the road to improving the quality of healthcare in India.
In 2016, around 1.6 million people died due to the poor quality of healthcare. A report revealed that 84 percent of cardiovascular deaths, 61 percent of post-birth issues and 50 percent of tuberculosis complications were caused due to substandard care.
The Omnicuris team.
To help doctors keep abreast with the latest breakthroughs in their respective domains, Savitha Kuttan (36) and Priyank Jain (33) founded Omnicuris in 2016 to solve this dilemma.
The organisation’s learning management programme consists of a series of webinars and videos, including quizzes, assignments and tests, which can be accessed by medical practitioners via a mobile application. As of today, more than one lakh professionals and an innumerable set of patients have benefited from it.
Omnicuris has also partnered with 35 leading medical associations and institutes, as well as eight state governments across the country to implement this initiative.
There are those that help others, and those that by helping themselves set a benchmark others can follow. Case in point is an 85-year-old tribal woman Kembi.
She cleared her literacy exam in Kerala, proving you are never too old to learn.
Henry Ford, an industrialist and founder, Ford Motor Company, once said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
85-year-old Kembi giving her exam among other tribal candidates (Image: Edex Live)
Going by this, the 85-year-old Kembi from Wayanad in Kerala is the youngest! Kembi recently cleared the Kerala State Literacy Mission’s (KSLM) literacy examination.
Hailing from Padachikunnu Colony in Mananthavady, Kembi was the oldest among 2,993 other candidates who appeared for the exam. Kembi, along with other candidates, who belong to the tribal settlements of Wayanad cleared the literacy exams conducted by the state agency as well.
This Punjab-based farmer helps improve agriculture with his YouTube learner videos.
Today, Darshan Singh has over two million YouTube subscribers to his videos on better farming techniques.
Over the years, YouTube, an online video viewing and uploading platform, has expanded into various segments. From entertainment to education, YouTube has become a one-stop platform for all content providers and its viewers.
Darshan Singh along with his YouTube Gold Plate on crossing a million subscriber (Image: The Logical Indian)
Punjab resident Singh educates farmers about various agricultural practices through explainer videos on his channel, Farming Leaders.
Singh’s channel has over 2.3 million subscribers with a total number of 170,599,145 views. With the help of his channel, Singh has been educating farmers on goat breeding, paddy farming, etc. He also provides product reviews for agricultural machinery, such as tractors.
(Edited by Suruchi Kapur Gomes)
