The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Project Akshara launched

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 03, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Project Akshara launched

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Grand initiative: Governor T.N. Chaturvedi launching Project Akshara by distributing notebooks to children at Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on Monday.

Bangalore: Governor T.N. Chaturvedi on Monday inaugurated Project Akshara of the Rotary International District 3190 under which it will distribute two lakh notebooks free to the government school children in its jurisdiction.

Lauding the efforts of the Rotary International, the Governor said that education was a powerful vehicle of social change and economic development.

It was necessary that teachers should be involved in reaching such facility to the needy.

Mr. Chaturvedi appreciated the inclusion of the national anthem and the State song and information on the Constitution in the notebook. Such innovations should be copied by other organisations to promote love and respect for national symbols and values.

To start with, books will be supplied in five Government schools.

Ko. Channabasappa, former district judge, was present. Rotary Governor H. Rajendra Rai said that children in Mandya, Tumkur and Kolar and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh would benefit from the project.

Mr. Rai said that a quiz competition on the contents in the notebook would be held and the winners would be invited to participate in the final competition in September. Some of the programmes that would be implemented by his organisation were free cardiac surgeries on 50 children.

‘Stree Vahini’ was aimed at empowering rural women. Under this, one thousand women would be given cycles to fetch water and household articles for the family. They could also use the cycle fitted with a carrier to sell vegetables and other essentials for augmenting their income.

The schools would get 500 benches and 400 biosand water filters developed by a Canadian organisation. The Rotary had set up five accident trauma care centres equipped with an ambulance and other facilities to help accident victims on the highways. It would conduct cataract surgeries on over 3,000 people in its hospitals during the year.

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