Beacon of hope teaches many skills

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C. Krishnamurthy started living alone when he was just 10 years of age after the separation of his parents. Coming from the fishermen community, Krishnamurthy found that his area, Srinivasapuram, Pattinappakkam, had many civic issues and he started solving them with a little help from his friends.

Though he could complete only till class 8, Krishnamurthy’s secluded life helped him understand more about his area and people.

“I started my own business and then through volunteers, we started conducting computer classes for youngsters from 1992.

As I belong to the same area, I found that there’s a big gap between fishermen community, Pattinappakkam, and the rest of society, as they could not speak English well and lacked many basic skills.

Then we started spoken English classes to help them get jobs in various companies,” said 47-year-old Krishnamurthy.

What started off as a small centre, is now educating more than 200 children and youths. Apart from spoken English and computer classes, Krishnamurthy’s Sri Ramakrishna Sharadadevi Vivekananda Seva Sangam, that began in 2004, conducts yoga, sloka classes and tuitions.

“Luckily, we got space in a primary school from the same area and we are able to conduct many classes so that these children will not waste their weekends.

It’s very easy for youngsters in Pattinappakkam to get attracted towards illegal activities so we try our best to make them utlise their time in creative activities,” said Krishnamurthy.

Gokila, a yoga instructor with the sangam, said, “It’s because of Krishnamurthy sir I was able to complete M.A. in Tamil and learn yoga. I teach dance, yoga and sloka to the children here and help them develop various skills.”

“We want to improve the standard of living of Pattinappakkam residents as more than 4,500 families reside in Srinivasapuram alone .

We want more volunteers and wish to educate more children,” said Krishnamurthy. Interested volunteers can contact Krishnamurthy on 9840685848.