Chennai: UUU Foundation is an initiative by a young dreamer John C Prabakaran for providing basic needs to the less privileged. So does the name of the organisation goes Unavu, Udai, Uraivdam (food, clothing, shelter). The foundation consists of 1000 plus volunteers including teachers, students and other professionals.
Prabhakarans serving attitude started during his college days when he found a girl who starved without food.
This disturbing event ignited his mind and he started his mission by providing food to the needy. However, he felt that the problem was not solved, entirely.
“One fine day, with a spark in my head I came to a conclusion that education is the only key to solve these issues”, he says.
He started visiting small orphanages as he thought that, orphans were the ones who required more attention. Two such centres that the UUU team focussed were Karunalaya at Tondiarpet and Arun Rainbow Arcade at Purasawalkam, where the team started to educate them. What is more fascinating in the entire teams approach is that they decided to provide more of a practical education in order to, showcase their revolution against the traditional teaching mechanisms.
They started teaching moral values to the children as they felt that those are the subjects that many schools
hardly touch upon.
Eventually, the team joined hands with teaching professionals and college students so that the children would get a quality education and “better guidance”, adds Prabhakaran.
When questioned the students and professionals about their experiences they say, ‘It is a two-way process. When children learn things from us, we learn a lot in return.’
This spirit of the team spread across many parts of Tamilnadu like, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy and they have set foot to bring in changes among the needy children. Time and again, girls were never allowed to play sports except certain stereotypical games. But, the UUU team has taken a crucial step by encouraging the girls from the orphanages to play football. The teams effort has resulted in success. The girls have gone to the extent of representing India in Street Children Football World Cup.
The team goes forward to serve the needy regardless of their gender, age or any other division for that matter. This principle of theirs has introduced to them their next mission which is to build an old age home for the elderly live in a cramped facility in Coimbatore that lacks basic facilities.
“This is our major goal,” says Prabhakaran and team members. With the youngsters energy being sprinkled in various parts of the State, the team now aspires to spread its service throughout India.
-Inputs from Shivani Rajavelu.