Scaling heights: An NGO's initiative to promote volunteering in education

For many children across India, education still remains a distant dream. Chennai-based Team Everest, run by Karthee Vidya, says it is turning these dreams into reality.

“All individuals have the potential to make a difference in this world, and how do you discover that goodness in them is my motivation. If you can make volunteering as your habit, your lifestyle, we all will become change-makers,” Vidya tells SocialStory.

Team Everest works to help underprivileged children pursue their education as well as provides volunteering opportunities.

“Through our programmes, we have two beneficiaries. One is the actual beneficiary (students) and the other is our volunteer, because they have added volunteering to their mindset,” he adds.

The organisation has inspired over 20,000 volunteers through various virtual and offline programmes.

When asked why he started Team Everest, Vidya replies, “My inspiration to start this NGO came from my parents, as my father would volunteer in various clubs that do eye donations. I always say role models like Sachin Tendulkar and APJ Abdul Kalam inspired me on this journey. I have seen people struggle. So, if a solution would come, it would come from within us (as changemakers)."

Winds of change

Team Everest started its journey as a non-profit in the education sector in 2006. A few years later, it gained support, and people started understanding the importance of volunteering.

“Our primary goal has always been to promote volunteering, to help individuals inculcate it into their daily lives, their culture, their lifestyle. So, one day, even if Team Everest does not exist, the habit of volunteering will exist,” he says.

Looking back, Vidya shares some milestones he remembers through this journey, “First, we have helped change so many people’s lives. And secondly, people start making volunteering a major part of their lifestyle, and we have already inspired 1 lakh people to volunteer during our journey. This is always going to be an ongoing process. Our major goal is to always create consistent volunteering opportunities for people to join.”

Team Everest has conducted various projects, including Smile 100, Back to School, and I am the Change.

“Many of our schemes is to motivate children. For example, on a trip I took in Chennai, I saw a corporate workspace facing a slum. Seeing this, we decided we would take the children of the slum on a tour of the office. The children said how the restroom here was cleaner than their school’s, and how some could not believe girls could work here. Each of our schemes is to help children realize their motivation, Vidya says.

Through the Smile 100 scholarship programme, the organisation helped 100 children in Arni (Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu) pay their school fees. The NGO also conducted various extracurricular activities as well as organised summer and winter camps.

An example of the team’s success is Karthik, a samosa-seller, whose dreams of becoming an engineer came true. Team Everest helped him by sponsoring his education. Now Karthik works as an assistant manager in Royal Enfield and also helps in educating the children who are chasing their dreams to study.

Team Everest also provides volunteering programmes for corporate employees.

“We are continuing the 'One-is-to-One' programme, where a working professional is connected to a college student, and the former teaches soft skills according to a given curriculum to the college student,” Vidya adds.

'Speak Out’, another project by the team, helps connect a graduate with a college student to teach communication skills over a phone call. 

Discussing some of the challenges, he says that sharing domain knowledge, strategising and considering financial models was a challenge at first.

“We all live a very short life on this planet. Can I make it a little better than how it existed before me? If many people inculcate volunteerism in their habits, then it can have a massive impact on society. Volunteering has done more to me than I have done to society,” he says.