Bringing Rural Girls of Punjab Into the 21st Century

When I first read about this article in the press, I was amazed. This is exactly the kind of project that could catapult a few young women from a 18/19 the century existence into the 21 st.

NRI billionaire Nanak Kohli, 73, known as the ‘‘Rolls Royce Sikh of Washington’’, explains how he came to focus on the girl chid. ‘‘I wanted to start a project for the best of the best, but then the writer Khushwant Singh advised me to concentrate on the poorest of the poor,’’ he says.

The founder of a multinational company into everything from telecom to trading, his group is worth over $200 million. But at 73, after having spent much of his lifetime making money, the self-made billionaire is now faced with a new dilemma: "My income is increasing while my needs are diminishing. What am I to do with it since I can’t take it with me to the next world?" So Kohli is doing what he thinks is the sensible thing: "Giving it back to society."

But giving away his money can be as much hard work as making it, as Kohli discovered last year when he started looking for ways to rid himself of a small but sizeable portion of his fortune.

NRI Nanak Kohli’s initiative, at least 10 villages in Punjab are trying to make girls net-savvy and fluent in English to help them land BPO jobs.

The Sundar Amar Sheel Trust which caters to 2,000 children in Delhi set up computer centres for girls in rural Punjab.

Col Singh, who is part of the trust and urges girls to write their own letters, says ‘‘Right now the girls are under training, but next month they will undergo a test to check their competence.’’ He hopes the girls will pass the secretarial practice exam which will help them find some work.

At Mahadian village, also in Fatehgarh Sahib district, 75 girls are learning English and brushing up their IT skills. Some are still in high school while others are graduates. The girls hope to land a job in their village itself.

Some of the students and teachers have had to overcome considerable adversity. Computer teacher Paramjeet Kaur, whose father is a village labourer, boasts of a diploma in computer applications. ‘‘She is a classic example of empowerment,’’ says Satinder B Singh, project director of the Trust, who has moved from Delhi to Chandigarh.

Word about the project has spread far. On a particular day, three retired colonels from Kapurthala turned up hoping to set up a similar centre at their village. Patiala MP Preneet Kaur (wife of Chief Minister of Punjab) has deputed Deepinder Dhillon, vice-chairman of the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC), to set up a similar centre at Lalru. Kohli is looking to train 10,000 girls at 100 centres and hopes to make the centres become self-reliant. ‘‘Believe me, in one year’s time they will get not just word processing work, but telemarketing and medical transcription as well,’’ he says.

As amazing as this project is and given that Mr Kohli probably has more than enough money that thousands of individuals like me and you, I still wish that the The Sundar Amar Sheel Trust had a web site so that people like me who are overseas and wish to retain that connection with their motherland could contribute and keep the momentum of giving back, alive. Whats more, a web site would allow periodic status reports to be mad available so that other Nanak Kohli’s could draw inspiration and help out even more needy people across our land.

Source - http://www.nriinternet.com/Section3Who/WhoUSA/M_R/Nanak_Kohli/

Nishkam Canada Comes To Life

By March of 2005, we got official word that Nishkam Sikh Welfare Organization had been granted official charitable status in Canada. While I joined the party late, it was a fulfilling experience to share the joy with the rest of the people at Nishkam that had pursued this objective for a long time.

On April 11, the Nishkam Canada web site, www.nishkamcanada.org went live. And once again this was due to the efforts of Gurinder Singh Rahal (http://www.xenixdesign.com/) who was by now in Calgary. I still have not met him face to face.

On April 21, we were able to get the credit card functionality going on the www.nishkamcanada.org web site. I really believe that with the credit card functionality we have leapfrogged the vast majority of the desi charity sites. The online credit card donation is made easy with www.canadahelps.org, a charity itself that was started up a by a few students in Canada. Any charity approved by the CCRA can use this credit card system to accept donations on the web for a 3% fee. www.canadahelps.org instantaneously emails out receipts for donations to online donors that can be used for tax deduction purposes for Canadian tax payers.