Season of Giving: Executive Director Ranjani Saigal Reflects on Ekal USA’s Efforts to Empower Rural Communities During Covid-19
“Ekal’s mission is the holistic development of remote rural villages. Ekal has four main pillars - Literacy, Digital Literacy , Health and Livelihood. During Covid we played a critical role in keeping the villages safe.’ Our final story of 2021’s Season of Giving, is Executive Director of Ekal USA, Ranjani Saigal. A community leader with a passion for education technology, Ranjani shares how Ekal is working to empower rural communities and villages around the world. During the pandemic, NGOs like Ekal have played a crucial role in supporting vulnerable communities with crucial resources. For today’s story, Ranjani reflects on her Ekal journey, how the organization aided in Covid-relief efforts (such as creating over 300,000 masks and a Telehealth hot line) and her vision for future of the organization. Enjoy the story and the rest of the Season of Giving!
1) You are the Executive Director of Ekal USA, and been at the heart of the organization. Tell us about Ekal Vidyalaya's mission to make Rural India literate, healthy and Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) and your personal journey with the organization.
Our mission is to bring literacy, health services, and economic prosperity to 100,000 rural villages in India and Nepal. We work in the places the world has forgotten: rural and tribal villages that otherwise lack viable access to education, basic amenities like nutritious food and reliably clean water, and living wages.Our first intervention was education. We are the largest educational Non Governmental Organization in rural India running single teacher schools in 100,000 very remote rural villages. We also now are working in the areas of health and livelihoods. The schools run at the low cost of $1/day. It takes just $365 to run a school in a village for a year. This is possible because every dollar given to Ekal is matched by over 8 dollars in volunteer time. The success of Ekal is due to the dedication of its volunteers. The scale and depth of our work was recognized by the Government of India with the Gandhi Peace Prize, the highest award given to Non Profit organizations in India.
My professional career was in educational technology. However I have also been actively engaged in volunteering for a variety of social enterprises. When my children got off my payroll, I changed careers and joined Ekal as Executive Director. I was drawn to Ekal because it was focused on bringing education to the most underserved. Education is a cause that is very close to my heart. My father, who was a founding member of IIT Bombay and retired as Dean of the institute, came from an Ekal like school. With my career in Education Technology, I could also see the new opportunities that technology provides to bring quality education at scale.Since I joined Ekal, we have added digital literacy to Ekal which we provide using Ekal on Wheels, a mobile computer lab. I feel passionate about bringing development to the underserved rural remote areas and Ekal is a great platform to deliver this service.
2) Ekal has a wonderful team with experts across various fields. Who are the founders and some of the key people (and their roles) involved in the program?
Dr. Rakesh Popli, a professor of Physics at BIT Mesra created the unique single teacher school model where a local youth is trained to be a teacher.
Shyamji Gupt, a community organizer and Madan Lal Aggarwala, a philanthropist took this model and scaled it.
Ramesh Shah, the current CEO of the Ekal movement started Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA to bring new ideas and funds to grow Ekal. Digital Literacy , Telemedicine Enhanced Arogya(health) and Skill Training were initiated by Ekal USA.
Ekal now has a presence in many countries including Canada, UK, Australia, Thailand and others. We have an executive committee with Suresh Iyer from Los Angeles as the President and Dr. Subra Dravida from New England as the Executive Vice President. I serve as the Executive Director. Dr. Arun Gupta from Cincinnati serves as the chairman of the board of directors.
3) Many nonprofit organizations have had to take on new projects and shift gears during Covid-19. What are some key programs that are implemented to achieve your mission and how has Ekal adapted these programs with Covid 19?
Ekal’s mission is the holistic development of remote rural villages. Ekal has four main pillars - Literacy, Digital Literacy , Health and Livelihoods. In our model we hire local youth and train them to be teachers at the Ekal Vidyalayas (schools). Our livelihoods section provides a variety of skills to the youth in the village and empowers them to become entrepreneurs or fill government or other jobs in the remote areas. Arogya powered through telemedicine brings health care to the last mile. Women empowerment is a central focus for Ekal. Most of our teachers are women who are well trained and are respected in the villages. We have nearly 80,000 women teachers. Our health care workers are also women and the services we provide keeps women as a central focus. Our most important skill training is tailoring training for women which allows them to gain a good income while providing a much needed service in the village.
During Covid we played a critical role in keeping the villages safe. We trained our teachers and health care workers to provide information about the pandemic through wall writing and pamphlet distribution. They were given oximeters and thermometers to test the vitals of those that may have symptoms. We set up a Telehealth Life Line to provide teleconsultations. Women trainees from the tailoring centers made masks and distributed it to frontline workers in the rural areas. Over 300,000 masks were distributed. We worked to combat vaccine hesitancy in the villages. Our schools were run in the open and we continued to engage the children.
4) As we head into Christmas and the Season of Giving, what are some future goals and programs in the pipeline for Ekal? As Executive Director of Ekal USA, what is your dream for the future of the organization?
Use of technology to bring higher quality education through our E-Shiksha initiative in the villages and to bring health services using telemedicine is our next big step forward. Vivek Sharma is working on launching GRANE - Gramothan Atma Nirbhar Ekal initiative where we are creating value added agricultural products like high quality haldi and using the profits to not only provide higher value to the farmers for their produce but also use the profits to make Ekal itself self-sustaining. We plan to upgrade the skills at all our skill training centers to provide greater economic opportunities to the villagers.
Thank you Ranjani for sharing your story with us! We are excited to have you in our global network!
Bio: Ranjani Saigal is the Executive Director of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA. A 501(c)(3) organization, Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA runs over 100,000 schools in rural and tribal areas in India and Nepal, providing education to nearly 2.8 million children. Each school is used as a nucleus to bring about holistic transformation of the village. She has succeeded in bringing digital literacy to these remote areas with the use of mobile computer labs called Ekal on Wheels. A graduate of IIT Bombay, Ranjani Saigal worked at MIT and Tufts University in the field of Education Technology for over 25 years prior to joining Ekal.
She is the co-founder of a bi-weekly South Asian e-magazine, Lokvani.com with over 40,000 subscribers and an active community leader in her hometown Burlington where she has served on the board of the Burlington Food Pantry. Ranjani Saigal is the founder of one of the oldest schools of Indian classical dancing in Boston and was honored by Governor Deval Patrick for her contributions to Indian Heritage and Fine Arts in Massachusetts. She is also a qualified priest who has conducted Hindu weddings. A community leader in New England, she has received the India New England Women of the Year Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Asian American Commission
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