NEELU KHANNA, AASRAA TRUST

Today, I would like you to meet Neelu Khanna, Honorary Secretary and Managing Trustee at The Aasraa Trust in Dehradun. Before I tell you more about Neelu, let me tell you about the organization that she is so passionate about. Aasraa is an education trust that seeks to restore dignity to the lives of the street and slum children through education, love, grooming, basic literacy, vocational training and shelter homes for abandoned and orphaned children. Founded in 2009 with 35 children, today, it educates around 1800 of them.

Neelu comes with a background in teaching and travel trade. She left her job with Singapore Airlines to follow her belief that “Women are natural care givers and must try to step beyond the confines of their business and their families, to identify, empathise and reach out to the less fortunate.” She is the Initiator of Street Smart, a major project of Aasraa trust that focuses on the NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) program for structuring the academic program for children outside the school system.

Neelu is my most experienced wonder woman to date. Born in 1957 and married at the age of 20, she considers her biggest achievement to be her transition from a cancer survivor to a full time social activist. The brush with cancer did not put her into depression, instead it firmed up her resolve to “plunge headlong into educating the underserved”. I asked Neelu to tell me about any one of Aasraa’s children and she shared Sunita’s story. Sunita was Aasraa’s first street child. An orphan, Sunita grew up on the streets getting sexually exploited since the age of 8! With love, persistence and positive reinforcement the team at Aasraa were able to de-addict Sunita from whitener and ‘gutka’, rehabilitate her and mainstream her to a good school. Aasraa continued to stand by Sunita even as she made some bad choices, which included marrying someone who made her return to begging after she gave birth to a child at 16. Aasraa did not give up on Sunita and continues to guide her through life. It has now offered Sunita and her husband a place to stay, a job and a life of dignity. There are so many similar stories and while some have exceeded expectations others were fraught with challenges, but Neelu describes them all as “highly rewarding”.  I was surprised when Neelu said that her toughest challenge is convincing parents to become partners in their children’s education. It takes Neelu and her team a lot of effort, empathy and awareness sessions to help the parents understand and support the initiative. Another very difficult thing is staying objective ” It’s impossible to not get emotionally involved when working with children”, says Neelu.

Neelu leads by example and we have so much to learn from her. I asked her to share some words of wisdom to all those reading this and she said, “A child’s first teacher is his / her mother. Apart from nurturing the child she’s the one who moulds the child, shapes his / her thinking and guides the path they ultimately follow. This is a huge responsibility and one that cannot be taken lightly. I would like to urge all women to make education their number one priority – not just for their children but for themselves. Education will empower you and open avenues you never knew existed. Take your fate in your own hands and be the person you want your children to emulate and admire.”