Vidial - A brief History

Education is the best route to empowerment and this is the driving thought that brought about 'Vidial'. Illiteracy is a primary threat in today's world. Is it possible to deal with it? Answer: Yes. Why don't we? When it is possible for us to reach out and light up the lives of deserving people around us, how much does it take? A thought? An inspiration? A nudge? We are thankful to Shanti Ashram and Parthi anna for providing us all these and more.

We started by helping out with some of the activities at Shanti Ashram (a very established NGO in Coimbatore) like assisting villagers develop their respective villages. Other activities included tutoring the children of an orphanage, Anbu Illam. In a 'Desathuku Tholkodu' meeting, Parthi anna suggested we do more than just lending a shoulder to the nation. Thus was born the idea of helping out a village, like Shanti ashram did. For various practical reasons we had to give up this village project of ours.

That was when it struck us - Educating an individual is like educating the whole family and it is best one starts at the grass root level and works up to the top of the pyramid. The year 2004 saw us come up with a framework of operation. With the help of Parthi anna, we identified about 10 children who were in need of financial aid for their education. After a screening process, Nivithya, who was then in class 7, was chosen, owing to her family's desperate situation. From then on, there was no looking back for us. In 2005, we christened our group, which had by then grown from a handful to quite a large number, VIDIAL. Vidial had its first task in helping out a fellow CITian Kanchana and in it, faced a problem. Where would a group of final years in college go for the money required to educate a girl for four whole years? A bright idea was to look up our seniors and ask for funds. By the stars of luck, offers poured in to help Kanchana. We knew then, if we can't grow huge, we could atleast make a dent in the society. Education is our primary goal for the next few years, although there's no guarantee on where we would be headed 10 years down the line.

Also it our duty to proudly say that till today, the CITians continue to do their share by helping out at Shanti Ashram and teaching at a Home by name Aravanaikkum Anbu Illam; Kanchana has finished her education and has been placed in a good company; Nivithya is in her 10th standard; 8 of our beneficiaries last year are now self dependent ; and Vidial continues to fulfil the purpose it began with. If we've truly been able to bring happiness into the life of one person through education, we would count ourselves successful. Darkness is the absence of light. All we want is enough light for everyone to read.