Ekal Donor’s Meet 2021 (Norway Chapter)
Ekal meet was organized on 21 March 2021 using an online 1800-1930 (Norwegian time). The purpose of this meet was to connect with existing Ekal Vidyalaya donors, spread awareness and explain the functioning of typical Ekal Vidyalaya and Ekal organization to as many people around as possible.
HSS Norway has started supporting Ekal from 2006, with just a single school and then slowly and steadily made progress. In 2020, the number of schools supported by donors from Norway reached 68 schools. The sponsorship came from different cities within Norway like Oslo, Asker, Drammen, Sandjefjørd, Kongsberg, Stavanger, Haugesund etc.
The session started with Saraswati Vandana. We were very fortunate to have Barang ji Bagra (CEO Ekal) who presented the overall functioning of Ekal. He also explained how a new Ekal school is established, how it is nourished and how it helps in transforming the village in a positive way. The main take away was Ekal is a totally volunteer-based organization that is working for people who are living in remote areas of Bharat. He also explained about future plans of Ekal and how Ekal is using the latest technology to do remote and effective teaching.
Ramesh ji Limboo(Teacher/Trainer) for Ekal explained how Ekal is trying to spread its wings in Arunachal Pradesh. He explained about challenges they encountered and how they are overcoming.
Later two karyakartas from Norway who visited Ekal school in Bharat explained about their visit to Ekal schools. They articulated an immense joy they experienced while interacting with children and knowing about those schools and surrounding situations. This would help to motivate the audience to take at least a short visit to Ekal Vidyalaya during their vacation to Bharat along with their children.
A small piece of information about the Ekal activities and other Sewa activities done by HSS Norway was presented to the audience by the Sewa team. The meeting was concluded with the Kalyan Mantra (Welfare mantra).
There were around 65 connections during the meeting and very positive feedback about Ekal and the session was received from attendees.