Why am I fundraising?

There is a popular opinion that we 'Indians' are good at Math. We can't stop talking about 'Aryabhatta' and 'Ramanujan' and their contribution to 'Math'. 

Yet, we live in a 'India' where only 28% of grade '3' children can do basic subtraction, where 37, 39, 29 are the rankings of India for the past three consecutive years in 'International Math Olympiad'.  

'Scoring' a 100% in our exams has not been much of a challenge for us Indians, but 'understanding and appreciating' the essence and beauty of Math has been.

Things need to change. & that 'change' can happen both at the 'policy level' and at the 'grassroots level'. We @ Teach For India have been extremely excited to tackle this challenge at the grass roots level (school level). From a place where the spelling of dream (let alone the meaning of it) has been a distant possibility, to a place where they dare not only to dream but to pursue them, our students from corporation and low income private schools have grown slowly yet steadily.

Our latest dream in Math is to confidently take part in 3 avenues on par with other middle/high income students. They are ASSET (http://www.ei-india.com/introduction/), Olympiad (http://www.sofworld.org/imo) and Math Talent Test (http://www.tnstc.gov.in/MathResult.html).

But these avenues come at a cost per exam per student which these students and their parents are not in a place to bear. I will be running full marathon (all 42.2 kms of it) at the Wipro Chennai Marathon in Chennai to raise funds towards that end.

I am doing this as I am totally sold on their dream. Are you yet?

What do I plan to do with the funds?

The breakdown of cost for these avenues are:

Math Talent Test: 100 rupees per child
Math Olympiad: 120 rupees per child
ASSET: 140 rupees per child (subsidized price)

We are hoping that around 150 students will be able to take part in all these avenues. ( 150 x (100+120+140) = 150 x 360 = 54000 rupees )

Add to this around 10% charges taken by milaap (54000 + 5400 = 59400 rupees), the total rounds up to 60000 rupees.

-------------------Detailed version of this campaign. If you want to know more-----

NSS BITS Pilani initiated me to the world of education and children. Hence, it wasn't a difficult decision to quit corporate job to take up 'Teach For India' fellowship. The 2 years of fellowship have by far been my most enriching days. Post fellowship, I have decided to stay with 'Teach For India'. I currently work as a 'Program Manager' with the Chennai site of TFI. I also operate as a 'Math Specialist' for the city providing 'Math support' to fellows across the city of Chennai.

'Mathematics' as a discipline has been my most favourite as a 'student' and I hope for the students we work with to get a chance to explore this magical subject. 'Running', on the other hand, is not a mere sport/past time for me. It has been a spiritual journey to run. I ran quite a few runs in the past including the past two editions of 'The Wipro Chennai Marathon'.

This campaign, hence, connects two of my passions. Math and Running :D

What is the accountability?

I promise to
1) regularly post updates here
2) personally update any donor regarding the usage of their funds
3) post pictures and updates from the campaign
4) post final accountability report / bank statement as a PDF for all donors to see.

You can also email me (or reach out via Facebook) for updates after making a donation.

Other details to note

1. Whatever amount you choose to donate, Milaap charges 5% of it + 2.2% card charges. But, I request and encourage you to contribute via Milaap (this page) because that way you also support the awesome work Milaap does with so many deserving people all over. Please go to Milaap's main page to check.

2. You can also choose to send money via NEFT/RTGS to avoid the 2.2% charges. However, Milaap 5% of your donation + service tax on it goes to Milaap to cover admin charges (All fund raising platforms charge this amount and Milaap is one of the lowest I found. I request and encourage you to contribute via Milaap (this page) because that way you also support the awesome work they do with so many deserving people all over. Please go to theirmain page to check.)

3. Indian donors: All your funds are handled by Milaap.