LIVE YOUR DREAMS - OF CHARITY

M. Venkaiah Naidu
BJP leader

“Leaders need not be politicians,” said the daughter of the BJP leader, M. Venkaiah Naidu. She runs the charity foundation Swarna Bharat Trust. Every once a month, Mr. Venkaiah Naidu visits Swarna Bharat Trust, despite his career as a politician, he is very passionate about social service.

“Politics is an instrument to do service to the society,” he says. When we went to visit Swarna Bharat Trust in Nellore on the 14^th of November, a special medical camp was being held for Children’s Day. Every Children’s Day, a camp is held by pediatricians from Hyderabad and Chennai, specializing in a certain ailment. This year, the camp was for heart diseases. Seventy children are examined and those that need surgery are sent to hospitals in Chennai and Hyderabad. All of this is free of cost.

However, Swarna Bharat Trust also has a lot of day to day activities as well. There is a hospital where village people come for free checkups. There are eye, dental and oral specialists. There’s a Woman Training Center, where rural women are trained in arts like embroidery and dying so that they can become self-employed. There’s a Farmer Training Center as well, where farmers are taught modern agricultural methods. 10^th and 12^th grade dropouts are given basic computer training because, as Venkaiah Naidu says, “Every job requires computers.”

Before we educate people, it’s important to teach them the need of education. Bridge School in Swarna Bharat Trust does that. It was made to bridge the gap between what rural children know and don’t know. Most of children are orphans or workers. They are taught values, etiquettes and basic life skills. Then they are sent to their own village schools.

As well as these facilities, there are others as well. There’s an Elder’s Home, for elders to reside in comfort. There’s a veterinarian clinic, which treats village livestock and has a mobile clinic that goes from village to village. There’s an auditorium, where AV presentations are given for awareness, religious purposes and sometimes even entertainment.

 M. Venkaiah Naidu himself used to be very poor. He attended a village school in Nellore and joined the VR College there as well. He explains how he rose to power, first the class president, then an MLA. He first became an MLA in 1978, then again in 1983. He claims to be deeply inspired while studying law by freedom fighters. He was arrested during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency to serve his country. He appears to be a strong believer of Hinduism, Indian culture and BJP ideology.

The entire experience was amazing. We learnt a lot about ways we can implement our own desires on the society. Helping people can be done by anyone, a politician, a teacher or an ordinary person like you and me, as long as they have a good heart.

-POORVAJA RAJAGOPALAN, VIII E
  POORNIMA DANI, VIII E