Student Name: Rhea Chakradeo -- Finalist (High School Cohort) on behalf of the Konnekt Global Team that also includes Arjun Athalye (11th grade), Shrusti Chavan (10th grade), Aditi Dam (10th grade), Shriya Dani (10th grade) and Anya Singh (10th grade)

Grade During 2019-2020 Academic Year: 11th Grade 

Hometown: Rutherford, NJ

One of the most significant issues that students in India face is a lack of resources in classrooms. Many children struggle financially for education, and cannot afford required school items such as backpacks, notebooks, and pencils. Without these, it becomes difficult for a child to fully grasp learning material the way that others with these items would. It is tough for a child to take notes or answer worksheets in a classroom while lacking a pencil. However extreme this sounds, it is the unfortunate reality in poorer neighborhoods  and rural communities all across India. 

With a large population, there are millions of children who cannot obtain these simple items due to financial burdens. Citizens of resources rich countries like USA can help. 

Across America, there are many students of all ages who have unused or gently used school items that they no longer require. An example of this would be an extra backpack, or a forgotten pencil case. These items can be donated to charities like KONNEKT. Anyone can easily search through a closet or cabinet and pull out a few unused packs of colored pencils, crayons, rulers, markers, highlighters, notebooks, and other things which enhance education. Recycling these items also prevents them from being dumped in landfills. 

To combat this ongoing issue, my friends and I at Konnekt Global have come together to launch a Supplies Drive project. 

Konnekt global is a nonprofit lead by 6 determined high schoolers from New Jersey, USA. We have seen the struggles of these children in India on our visits there and have been inspired to help in any way possible. We believe that access to education is extremely important; however, it is equally important to have the tools that allow for the retainment of knowledge in the first place, otherwise learning becomes arduous.

Through our Supplies Drive Project, we collect gently used school supplies, art supplies, clothes & shoes and ship them to India. We started our project in February this year and have already collected 5 boxes of supplies. We also conducted 3 fundraisers to meet the shipping budget before the Covid-19 lockdown began. Our plan was to ship these items to our colleagues in India who are working on building a list of organizations, schools and charities which will distribute these items to those who need it the most and will also monitor their usage.

We now plan to send the first shipment before this year ends. We need to collect more supplies and also need to raise funds to cover shipping costs. 

Throughout the lockdown, we have continued appealing for supplies and many families have donated. We also started a CARE PACKAGE drive during this time to raise funds, prepare and deliver care packages for essential workers in NY and NJ. Our care packages contain snacks, drinks and personal care items like masks, hair covers, mouthwash, lotion, body spray, with the thought that these will provide a brief moment of respite to all workers who have been so busy throughout this crisis. We have created and distributed over 70 such packages. We have also provided these to assisted living centers in NJ.

In the month of May 2020, Konnekt launched another project called Konnekt Koaching. We felt that parents and students, especially from elementary schools, were getting frustrated with online learning and decided to do our part, to help relieve this stress in our communities. We offer free online tutoring to students who need help in understanding school work, homework or just need some enrichment. All 6 of us now tutor students from grades 1 to 5. I must say that it's very rewarding and enjoyable!

Vedanta philosophy says that if you do any work with Concentration, Consistency and Co-operation, nothing in the world can stop you from achieving your goal, however lofty it might seem. Our SUPPLIES DRIVE project might right now seem like a needle in a haystack, but it’s a start. Things will change only if we start doing something!

After all, little drops of water make a mighty ocean.