This NGO is providing primary education for girls and now has a man cycling from Mumbai to Delhi to raise awareness for it

(Umeed 1000 Cyclothon flagoff at Mumbai)
“A woman is the root of a family; she nurtures and strengthens the family. Girls being the staunch bearers of the society need to be educated, so that they can educate their family and the society,” believes Nirmala Tandon, the CEO of Gurgaon-based non-profit organization IIMPACT.

Present in 11 states, with over 30 learning centres, IIMPACT has been working towards providing quality primary education to the girl child in remote communities since 2003.

And, for Tandon, the journey to ensuring all girls in the country receive quality primary education has just begun.

Approximately 45,000 girls have been educated till Class V through IIMPACT’s learning centres, wherein volunteers teach the girls basic subjects, apart from counseling parents to be in favour of sending their kids to school.

“No amount of awareness is really enough. And, this year, we intend to reach to 1000 more girls and get them started on their primary education,” Tandon tells me.

This might seem like a job easier said than done. It not only requires massive amount of funds, but also a whole lot of awareness.

This is where Mumbai-based cycling enthusiast and Microsoft employee Jasmeet Singh Gandhi came in.

In a bid to raise funds for supporting the cause of girl child education, Gandhi, a strong supporter of the cause himself has undertaken the Umeed 1000 Cyclothon 2015 and is cycling 1000 kilometres spanning the distance between Mumbai to Delhi with the aim to complete it in 10 days.

Gandhi started his cycling odyssey from Mumbai on 7th December and will pass through Vapi, Surat, Vadodra, Ahmedabad, Himmatnagar, Udaipur, Ajmer, Jaipur, Gurgaon before finally making it to Delhi on the 17th December.

Gandhi however is not new to undertaken expeditions such as this. Last year, he cycled from Mumbai to Bangalore for raising money for eye-cancer patients. And, this year, he aims to guarantee the education of a girl child, through the power of his cycle.

“It takes Rs 3,000 a year to educate a child. My mission is to raise funds to support 1,000 children," said Gandhi, who will have a medical support team travelling with him.

Along his way, Gandhi will also participate in various events to help raise awareness and educate people on the importance of basic education for girls.

The event is being sponsored by RBL bank and according to Shanta Vallury Gandhi, Head Human Resources, CSR and Internal Branding at RBL Bank, the reason for their tie-up with IIMPACT is because women empowerment and education is one of the core pillars of RBL Bank's CSR programme.
"While IIMPACT is run by professionals it is run for charity. They have been instrumental in brightening the lives of many children by providing educational opportunities to girls, from socially and economically disadvantaged communities of India. When you educate a girl, you educate a nation and this is very much part of our ethos. We are particularly happy to partner with IIMPACT for this noble initiative as it fits in well with the DNA of our organization," she added.