midigeshi school project

Wed,   Jul 04, 2012

A handful of Houston Kannadigas come together, determine to build a new school in rural Karnataka and donate it to the kids. It all started in 2004 when Vatsa Kumar was in Bangalore on a visit to his family. At the request of the Secretary of Mythri Education Society, he visited the school located in Midigesi, a small rural village about 80 miles from Bangalore City.”
 

Reaching this place itself was difficult due to bad and poorly maintained roads”, says Vatsa Kumar, a well-known community activist in Houston.
 

According to Kumar, the school was run in a rented building, over 150 boys and girls packed into small classrooms with no furniture either for them or for the teachers. Due to lack of toilets, kids were quitting school and it was a pathetic situation, reports Kumar.
 

After returning to Houston, with the help of a few of his friends, Vatsa Kumar founded the Hoysala Charitable Trust, a nonprofit Texas Corporation, in 2004. Soon a board of Directors was formed with Kumar as President, Raghu Chakravarthy (Secretary) and Raghavendra Kongovi (Treasurer). B. N. Murali and K.V. Jagdish are the remaining board members. Buying land to build the school was the first order of business and this was followed by drilling well for water.
 

This well provided the water needed to build the school and continues to provide water for the school. K. N. Vishwanath Shetty, Civil Engineer from Bangalore, took the responsibility to oversee construction of the school and made sure that the building was built on a solid foundation.
 

In December 2009, the new building was completed and Vatsa Kumar inaugurated the new school building.
 

“It is a dream come true for me”, he says, proudly sharing his experience while raising over $150,000 needed to build the school. Today the school is a great addition to Midigesi, providing quality education to over 300 kids from 1 st standard to 7th standard.
 

Equipped with qualified and trained teachers, this rural school stands as a shining example for what charity can do.
 

Every cent of the donation goes to the school and nothing is spent by the board for things not related to support the school, said Kumar, in his closing statement.