RADHIKA JHAVERI profiles Each One Teach One charitable foundation.
The rise of the civil society can be marked by the number of professionals who are leaving their careers in order to work with NGOs. Their reasons are varied; for some it is a break from the monotony of everyday life while for others it is a way to give back to the society. Hema Raney belongs to the later category who wants the years of corporate experience she has gained to be of service to the civil society undertakings.
Hema Raney began her career at age twenty two after completing her BSc in Chemistry. She was made Vice President by age thirty and a CEO soon after. However, she decided to give it all up in order to work with an NGO. Ms Raney is currently the CEO of Each One Teach One Charitable Foundation and has played a major role in bringing the organization to the next level. When asked about the motivation behind the decision to leave her career, she says “I have always wanted to give back to the society.” Since she has joined the organization almost three years back, she has managed to get the ISO certification, recruited and trained a new team of teachers and staff members and started many successful fund raising events which invited the attention of many personalities such as Pankaj Udhas, Sanjeevani Belande, Bhupendra and Mitali Singh. She remarks with satisfaction that the number of students who are getting distinction has improved significantly in the past 3 to 4 years.
Each One Teach One was founded by Mrs Jyoti Tanna in the year 1983 which has reached out to 10,000 children till date. It works with students from municipal schools in Urban Slums and rural India. It provides them with after school training in English, Mathematics and Science along with personal development exercises. “We concentrate more on development,” Ms Raney explains, “Education is the hardware and skills are the software. We have noticed that students with skills other than education are more successful.” Over the years, EOTO has had many success stories. One such story is that of Mr Vinayak Ramane who successfully cleared the Architecture entrance exam of the J.J. School of Arts. “It was a moment of tremendous joy and I saw my dream coming true. All this has been possible due to EOTO’s timely intervention,” he exclaims.
Backed by an impressive list of Donors, which include Tata Motors, Pavers England, Concern India Foundation among others, EOTO organizes annual day functions, science workshops, sports events, goal setting workshops, funding for scholarships and counseling sessions for both students as well as their parents. In Mumbai, EOTO is working with various municipal schools in Andheri, Sion, Chunnabhatti Vileparle, Dadar and Tilak Nagar.
However, working for NGOs can be very different from working for corporates, something that Ms Raney has found challenging. “It is difficult for the people from NGOs to accept a person who is more organized and professional,” she explains. While she has brought about changes in the organization, the organization has changed her as well. Looking back she has no regrets, “Here it is more down to earth, it is at grassroots level, I feel very happy inside by looking at the results. I feel connected to people here, with corporates it was more at a superficial level. When you see the smiles on children’s faces, it is a different kind of satisfaction.” She does not think about the kind of growth she could have had if she would have continued with her job. “It’s a different kind of growth here; personal development can happen wherever I am. I go for training, keep myself updated about what’s happening in the world for my personal growth, that doesn’t change,” she remarks. Working with EOTO has allowed her to have free time, more than what she enjoyed in her previous jobs. It is a pressure free and a relaxed environment, something that she likes to ensure for her staff as well.
Since she has started working with EOTO, she has changed the organizational structure, “Hierarchy and autocratic systems are gone. If you really want people to work with you, they have to be taken along with you. They have to be made a part of the decision making process; only then will they support you,” she says. The organizational chart is round at EOTO, made up of three concentric circles; the innermost circle representing the beneficiary, the outer circle representing the donors and the middle circle representing the staff members which includes Ms Raney. “If we want to create a difference in people’s lives, we have to think differently, we have to think outside the box,” she explains.
Her dream for EOTO is to ensure that all children who come out must be financially independent. “When one child in a family becomes financially independent, the whole family gets uplifted. Education is only a part; just with education we are not doing the complete job. We have to make them financially independent. You have a tapori standing at the panwala shop on the nukad, one tapori who is educated and the other one is uneducated, that’s the only difference we will make if we only educate them. We don’t want that,” she says, “The intention is to inculcate a value system in the children when they are small. A value system is the foundation, if that is strong you can build a building as tall as you like.”
