How would you keep the memory alive of a martyr who sacrificed his life for the country during the Kargil War?
Erect a statue and forget all about it later?
The village of Ghudani Kalan in Payal Tehsil, Punjab had immortalised its martyred son, Sepoy Sukhchain Deep Singh by naming the government senior secondary school after him.
But being a government school, there were neither proper infrastructure for the children to study nor technologically advanced amenities that could enable better methods of education.
To help revamp the school, Jasvir Singh Kukku, a village resident reached out to an NRI association, which has been working to change the fate of government schools, especially those in a shabby condition since 2006.
15 students from Young Sikh Association Singapore (YSAS) headed to Ghudani Kalan in 2015 and invested close to ₹15 lakh to change the face of the school.
“Satwant Singh, the leader of YSAS, is my friend, so for long, I had been requesting him to spend some money and time for the Shaheed Sukhchain Deep Singh Government Senior Secondary School. Along with 15 students, he came to our village in 2015 and stayed at my place for around 20 days, and brought about a transformation of the school,” Jasvir told Times of India.
From getting the school painted to installing a 10KV sound proof generator, the group also furnished the school with racks and 3, 200 books, two RO machines, water coolers, computers, printer and scanner, 15 chairs and tables.
Another thoughtful change that the group made was to fill the school ground with 200 trolleys to tackle the crisis of water-logging, which used to be a constant concern, especially during the rainy season.
Things don’t end at the refurbishment. Jasvir makes it a point to keep the facilitators in the picture as a follow-up and regularly sends pictures of infrastructure to YSAS. He proudly states that the school post its transformation is being considered by many to be a notch above the private schools.
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According to the school’s principal Surinder Kaur, following the face-lift, the school was awarded Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar in 2016 with 85 per cent rating and 93.33 per cent greenery rating by the Ministry of Human Resources Development.
You can reach out to the folks behind YSAS on Facebook.
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