Entrepreneur settled in US gave up her lucrative career for an NGO that builds others; They look after education and development of slum children.
Three decades ago, three-year-old Krupalatha Martin Dass stood at her home, watching her mother bring slum children home and tutor them after school hours every day.
Her well-do-do background in an industrial area like Magadi Road did little to deter her mother, Suguna, to do her bit for the betterment of deprived children in the locality.
Years later, Dass took after her mother as she gave up a lucrative career as a granite
businesswoman in the US to start Sukrupa, an NGO to serve the underprivileged community.
“When I was 16-years-old, I saw my classmate in a bad state on the street. He was an alcoholic, and married with a kid. His father was a pushcart vendor and mother a domestic help. Although a very good student in school, he had no one to guide him and ended up on the streets. I could not sleep for many nights after that,” Dass said, narrating the moment that defined her purpose.
Sukrupa has been providing free education, nutrition, healthcare and empowering slum children for over 10 years now. “The dropout rate from schools was 85% in 2002 and is now less than 5%. We reach out to about 400 students, most of whom are first-generation learners,” she pointed out.
Apart from the basic education that it provides to children aged between 2.5 and 10 years, Sukrupa is also engaged in training the youth on life skills, providing distant and college education and community development programmes.
“The children are trained in English and can also speak in multiple foreign languages,” Dass said.
Anna Marie, who is studying in fifth standard, joined the NGO when she was two-and-a-half-years-old. She had tuberculosis and her mother had passed away. The little girl, who was frail and unable to express herself owing to the lack of warmth and care in her early days, is now a ‘star’ in her school.
Robin Prakash, son of a factory worker, who completed his graduation in multimedia, Manigandan S, who is a BCom graduate and two young boys from the slum who went to the US to study for a year talk volumes on how education is the game changer. All they need is a hand to walk them through and a source to instil confidence, the founder of this organisation said.
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