Sometime in the month of January this year, Bindu and I met Murali, founder of Sevalaya and some of his key team members at their campus on the outskirts of Chennai. We spent a couple of hours, went around the campus and visited the school, community college, senior citizens’ home, Gaushala, clinic, the well stocked library and of course the computer lab. We were extremely impressed with the infrastructure, quality of the staff and support team, and last but not the least, Murali’s commitment and efforts to making Sevalaya what it is today and what it would be in future. As of today, Sevalaya provides high quality education to about 2,000 students, most of whom hail from the nearby villages, completely free of cost. But for Sevalaya most of these would not have had quality education or would have struggled.

After going around the campus, we sat down and had a long conversation with Murali. Murali is quick, decisive and super responsive. One area we identified as an opportunity for ShikshaDaan to work with Sevalaya was to bring English language proficiency to their students for whom the current medium of instruction is Tamil medium. We immediately introduced and brought English Helper in contact with Murali. English Helper is a specialist in the area of helping students learn English through their online classes. They have already had much success with the product and they are trying to ensure that they bring English language skills within reach for the poorest of the poor. After all, English is the language of business and job opportunities increase with better communication skills in English. Soon English Helper organised a demo at the Sevalaya and the teachers and students were thoroughly impressed.

It was time to the bring the power of partnerships. English Helper presented a proposal to Sevalaya with clear methodology, goals and outcomes to provide English proficiency to 1148 students for a year and train five of their teachers. With the proposal in place, we now needed funding for the program. Enter Aon Hewitt and their CSR team. Impressed with Sevalaya’s all round credentials, Aon Hewitt offered to fund the program. Through Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), the funds were transferred from Aon Hewitt to Sevalaya. The English Helper program in Sevalaya started on the 3^rd of August and is on course to deliver outstanding value to 1148 students.

Let’s look at the partnerships in this case. Aon Hewitt did the funding, CAF is their charity partner, English Helper is the value delivery platform, and of course, Sevalaya students, the end beneficiaries. For the whole initiative to happen, ShikshaDaan was the catalyst.

Congratulations to Murali and the Sevalaya team. Thanks to Jasjit, Tanuja and the Aon Cares and CAF team. Thanks to Sanjay and the English Helper team for the super quick response.

More power to such partnerships that deliver lasting impact.