Author: Mahalingam Ponnusamy
Publication: India Today
Date: November 3, 2008
URL: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&&issueid=77&id=18457§ionid=3&Itemid=1&page=in&latn=2
When old schoolmates meet at an alumni meeting,
they end up comparing their worth. But when the batch of 1977 of the Jawahar
Higher Secondary School (JHSS), managed by the Neyveli Lignite Corporation,
Tamil Nadu, formed a Yahoo group called Jawahar World Wide (JWW), to meet
and chat online, something different happened-they ended up forming a philanthropic
group.
"One day while chatting, someone mentioned
that the wife of our sports teacher Manickam was admitted to a hospital and
we felt we could help," says S. Sivaraman, director in a pharmaceutical
company and the coordinator of JWW, whose members are now spread worldwide,
including the UK, USA, Australia and Canada.
Donations poured in and the teacher's wife
recovered. "I never thought my boys will remember me 30 years later.
Their contribution really helped my wife's pelvic cyst operation," says
a grateful Manickam. This spurred the Jawaharites and they formed the JWW
Trust to insure and help aging teachers. The Neyveli school, which has 15,000
students, employs a 500-strong staff, of whom nearly 10 retire every year.
Those who are not covered by the corporation's
group insurance get mediclaim benefits, with elderly teachers first in line.
Some retired teachers looking after their ailing family members also receive
Rs 1,000 every month. The alumni network has donated health insurance policies
worth Rs 50,000 each to 175 teachers while the United India Insurance company
has provided health cards.
The former students are now looking at ways
to improve facilities in their former school. The trust has started equipping
the school's labs and libraries with high-tech instruments as well as medical
and science books. Economically weaker students are entitled to free special
coaching. The trust is also setting up a system in which students who finish
their studies get career guidance and even employment facilities.
"When I joined Jawahar, I was not good
at science but the way my teachers taught the subject made me take an active
interest in science," says A.N. Ravikumar, a nuclear researcher with
a leading company in Canada. The teachers of JHSS did a good job and their
students are paying them back. A perfect thanksgiving story indeed.
