Aryabhatta turns dreams of poor students into reality

Berhampur: Aryabhatta Learning Forum in Berhampur is turning the dreams of children living in poverty into reality. The institution provides free coaching to the underprivileged children and lodging and boarding wherever necessary even though coaching has become costly.

Some students also get financial assistance from Aryabhatta for joining the institutions of their dreams after coimg out successful at the national level entrance exams. Aryabhatta has been leding a helping hand to the children of underprivileged such as daily wagers, housemaids and orphans since 2006.

Aryabhatta is run by a Physics teacher, Sudhir Rout, who gave up his lucrative career in Education in 2006 to start the institution with an aim to provide free coaching to the underprivileged children. Financial constraint robbed Sudhir Rout of the chance to appear in the pre-university exam and qualify for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) entrance test in 1980. Even though his own hopes were dashed, Rout is paving the way for others to achieve their dreams.

Sujata Mahapatra and her sister Sunita Mahapatra of Khallikote, who are the products of ALF, could not have afforded to pay exorbitant fees in coaching institutions to achieve their aim in life. They were a poor village tailor's daughters studying in the government-funded Navodaya Vidyalaya. Dr Sujata Mahapatra, after completing her Doctoral and Post-doctoral studies in Denmark, is working as a scientist in Denmark. Sunita is now pursuing Medical PG in Ahmedabad after passing out MBBS in VSS Burla. Narayan Mallick, being an orphan, had dreamt of becoming a doctor when he was in school. After completing his MBBS at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar, he is presently working in Koraput Medical College.

P Manoj Kumar, a slum boy, had also nurtured a dream to study in IIT but had no clues as to how to turn his dreams into reality as he could not have afforded to pay more than Rs 1 lakh as coaching fee. Manoj is pursuing his BTech at IIT Kharagpur with financial assistance of Rs 1.05 lakh from ALF.

Ashutosh Maharana is doing his PG in AIIMS-Raipur after completing MBBS in the same institution. Ashutosh’s father, who was a Shikhya Sahayak, had died of kidney failure. Both of his kidneys had failed. His mother had donated a kidney. But after the death of Ashutosh’s father, his mother lost the ability to work hard to earn. Aryabhatta stepped in, provided free coaching and gave Rs 1 lakh to Ashutosh to continue his studies in medical college.

Some others who have benefited from Aryabhatta are Sibashankar Sethi and Umashankar Sethi of Purushottampur, presently working in GAIL India and BOSCH Global Software Technology after studying in NIT-Rourkela.

Priyanka Majhi and Sibani Nahak took admission in MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur.

Biswanath Jaranga did his post-graduation in SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack after completing MBBS in the same institution. Debashis Nayak of Dharakote took admission in SCB Medical, Cuttack. Manoj Kumar Majhi took admission in OUAT-Bhubaneswar. Mahesh Sethi continued his PG in AIIMS- Bhubaneswar after completing MBBS in the same institution. Subhendu Sethi is studying in AIIMS-Kalyani. Shantanu Dalai is studying MBBS in Fakir Mohan Medical College and Hospital, Balasore. Abhishek Dubey is studying MBBS in Burla Medical College.

Bholasankar Palo, son of a mason Kanhu Charan Palo from Sihala village, who studied in Aryabhatta, cracked NEET examination with 98.99 per cent this year. Gloria Dora and Grace Dora (both from Gajapati district) and Kanchan Sabar of Khallikote also cracked NEET this year.