HYDERABAD: Once upon a time, there lived a youngster who loved to travel. He, along with his mother, traveled to different places, took pictures, relished the food, enjoyed the weather and came back home. This one time, when he was at this village near Aruku Valley and he fell in love. In love, with the village. The entire course of his life changed since then. At the age of 24, he started frequenting the village, faced the resistance of the villagers, sustained the adversities and somehow managed to win their hearts. Now, he is hailed as a hero by nearly 200 villages in and around Aruku valley. This is the story of entrepreneur turned social worker, Kiran Chukkapalli, 29, who is now bringing a change in 200 villages and giving them “lights” of hope.
“I stumbled upon a beautiful tribal village called Gemelput. All that it lacked was a smile on the face of the villagers. I knew this is where I would start”, says Kiran. “It was difficult. I took three years before I could even break the ice. Then I found our first volunteer Jamuna, a resident of Gemelput, who helped me gather data about the number of houses in the village. Jamuna is now an integral part of the team and works as a field officer,” says Kiran who sold his event management company a few years ago.
In 2010, after floating his NGO, Think Peace in Hyderabad, Kiran took up several activities for the villages. With zero local support, Kiran used Google Earth and mapped the villages to find the villages, paths, places and ways to approach them. He identified Gemelput village and decided to distribute solar lamps to the villagers as the village lacked electric power and education. After approaching his friends, he raised money good enough for 42 huts and distributed the lamps. The villagers were apprehensive to take lamps as I was an outsider. So, on day one, only few of them dared to even collect lamps. But after seeing light in their neighbours’ homes, the rest of the villagers approached us for more lamps and thus the nearby villages too”.
Kiran started a project to serve million families get solar lamps nation wide. “It is called Clean Light Initiative and the idea is to provide hand held clean sources of light to the slums, villages and tribal hamlets with unreliable sources of electricity. The lights cost ` 150 and we want to inspire as many people as possible to contribute to the project. We are planning activities at school level to raise funds, and sensitise the urban children,” adds Kiran.
He has distributed lamps to 13,000 families so far. “I raised funds through my friends and families. It was word of mouth till now. I acknowledged everybody that helped us in this project”, says Kiran who is now looking for major sponsors to expand the project. The villages, which were submerged in the darkness, now have solar lamps that are used for household chores and studying.
Apart from Clean Light initiative, Kiran is also building pre schools for the tribal kids. The literacy rates in these areas are low in spite of a reasonable improvement in access to educational institutions, schemes to increase student enrollment, mid-day meal programs. “The Preschool programme that aims at providing a literacy focused environment to the tribal children through fun, music, dance and play along with mid day meal”, says Kiran who has launched a pre school in April and is planning to launch five by June. His pre school programme is primarily focused for the 200 villages near Aruku valley. It costs nearly `1,50,000 to launch a school and approximately `12,000 per month for maintenance of 30 kids per school. “Anybody can sponsor a school and we shall name the school after them. We need more sponsors as it is the need of the hour to introduce education in these tribal areas”.
“If you know a village that has insufficient street lighting and if you can volunteer your time, do get in touch with us. We shall help you through our Clean Light Initiative”, adds Kiran who believes in serving humankind.
Kiran studied in Mumbai and ran a PR company sold it for a good amount and right now lives off his savings and is into service fulltime.
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