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Ujjwal – Sorkha Village

“Empowerment of and investment in girls are key in breaking the cycle of discrimination and violence and in promoting and protecting the full and effective enjoyment of their human rights. When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everybody else”

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An educated girl is a change maker: An educated girl will:
1. Stay healthy
2. Save Money
3. Build a business
4. Empower her community.
5. Lift her country: Change the World!

 

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HelpingBrainz.Org in association with an AryaSamaj Ashram based in Noida Sector 115 conducted Ujjwal for 80 underpriviledged girls who stay at the AryaSamaj Ashram. The underpriviledged girls mainly belong to Nepal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The girls, who are aged between 4 to 18, are provided with primary and elementary education at the AryaSamaj Ashram.

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As usual, HelpingBrainz.Org conducted Ujjwal which included, Paint Your Dreams programme, School Stationary Donations, Meal Donations and Motivational Talks.
School Stationaries for the 80+ kids were donated by Akash Goyal and friends from Ameriprise Financials, Gurgaon. Carpets were donated by Piyush Tyagi and friends from Pacific Global, Noida.

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Post event, HelpingBrainz.Org would be conducting computer education, motivational and career counselling sessions for the girls.

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Neha Agarwal, Aachal, Sanjeev Verma, Piyush Tyagi, Akash Goyal and Urvashi Arora volunteered for the event.

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From HelpingBrainz.Org, the event was designed and orchestrated by Shubhangi Srivastava and Athulya Rajan ( Both Women Empowerment Leaders at HelpingBrainz.Org), followed by Rupak Kashyap (Vice President, International Peace Programmes), Suchaya Chaiworn (Intern –HelpingBrainz.Org) Kumar Madhuraj ( Project Leader – Community Development, HelpingBrainz.Org), Pratik Raj Bishen ( Project Leader – Women Safety and Empowerment Campaigns, HelpingBrainz.Org), Gagan Walia ( Project Leader – Environmental Awareness and Upgradation Programmes ),Jyoti Suchye ( Project Leader – Elderly Care Programmes) and YedhuKrishna Menon (Founder, HelpingBrainz.Org)

We sincerely thank Dr.Renu Verma for this opportunity, and respect the social worker in her.

“Ujjwal-let’s create wonders for them: A Day with Chotus” – at Madanpur Khadar

“I want to become India, because I love Hindustan”, this is what a seven year old mentioned; when he was asked what’s his ambition is! If anyone penetrates into the exact meaning of this one-liner by a seven year old Aslam from Madanpur Khadar, this may contain 100s of beautiful definitions, which may be a result of what Aslam saw from the day he came to his senses.

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Aslam, was one among 114 who painted their dreams in “Ujjwal-let’s create wonders for them : A Day With Chotus” orchestrated by Helping Brainz’s Child Empowerment Team at EFRAH’s Center in Samosa Chowk, Madanpur Khadar Village, an event co-sponsored by HCL Foundations.

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“Ujjwal-let’s create wonders for them: A Day with Chotus”, is a colourful event programmed by Helping Brainz, wherein a child is encouraged in dream, concrete their aim and ambitions.

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114 beautiful Chotus aged between 6 to 14, from the underprivileged section of Madanpur Khadar, painted their dreams and enjoyed their day on 6/20/2015 at a colourful event orchestrated by Helping Brainz, supported by HCL Foundations and facilitated by EFRAH.

Event consisted of:-
– Introduction to the process of dreaming,
– A session on concreting the path towards to the one’s ambition,
– Paint your Dreams – event,
– School Stationary Donations ( A notebook, Pencil, Sharpener, Eraser and a Camlin Crayon to each child )
– Distribution of Sweets and Food,
– A session on health awareness, and community hygiene by Dr. Renu Verma.

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Who don’t want to be with the kids, the people who volunteered where Dr.Renu Verma, Vibhesh Anand, Sanjeev Verma and Neha Agarwal from Ameriprise Financials, Gurgaon; Mohammed Danish, 1st year student, Department of Travel and Tourism from Jamia Milia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, Delhi; Hiba Siddiqui, an Intern with Helping Brainz (however 1st year student, Department of Psychology from Jamia Milia Islamia, Jamia Nagar, Delhi).

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From Helping Brainz we had, Ravi PrakasH ( Thë) Yadav and Ritesh Sachdeva (Event Coordinators, Ujjwal) – both Project Leaders from Child Empowerment CampaignsHelpingBrainz.Org; Rupak Kashyap (Vice President of International Peace Operations at HelpingBrainz.Org; Gagan Walia (Project Leader, Environment and Elderly Care Projects) and Yedhu (Founder, HelpingBrainz.Org).

Specially to mention: Rajeev Thakur , Ravi, Ritesh and Rupak – ‘the 4Rs’ where the real Changemakers of yesterday’s event.

Cleanliness Drive at Sector 31 Noida – World Environment Day

A Park cleaned by Helping Brainz and the Children of Nithari: This is how we celebrated World Environment Day (though it was yesterday)
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They’re God on earth. Yes in the career of Helping Brainz, we have never surfaced such an energy, which we saw in young KIDS aged between 5 to 12, who shook hands with us in a cleanliness drive orchestrated by Helping Brainz, facilitated by Gram Pradhan Nithari Vimlesh Sharma and SADRAG NGO.

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We together cleaned a land, which can be easily used as a park/garden however which is being used a garbage dump by the local residents, which is indirectly spreading epidemics. Though not complete however a section of the park was cleaned by the kids and volunteers. The activity aimed in creating change-making ideologies among the young ignited minds of Nithari (kids), which exactly synchronized according to the plan. Kids and volunteers cleaned around 22 trolley-vans full of garbage and became instrumental in bringing cleanliness in the park. The caretakers of the park (so called gardeners)/ and the local residents living in the surroundings just ‘gaped’ at the kids and volunteers, after they saw the untapped energy among the kids. Though the gardeners showed initial interest and they stepped back after churning their brooms for few minutes, however the kids and the Helping Brainz volunteers didn’t step back after the completion of the tasks assigned to them by their will.

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This is an activity which the government is supposed to do, Helping Brainz could have approached the government for the same, however Helping Brainz took a U-turn by first involving kids, because they are tomorrow’s change-makers, HelpingBrainz want them to be tomorrow’s environmentalist the messengers of cleanliness , HelpingBrainz dream of a beautiful Nithari through them. In next few days the park would be cleaned using machines under the supervision of Gram Pradhan Nithari on 13th June, the children and volunteers from Helping Brainz would be planting samplings in the park.

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The drive started with a motivational and informative session by Jayanthi Ma’am ( Jayanthi Iyengar ) who addressed the kids and the Helping Brainz team-members about the need of a clean environment. Thereafter we distributed the gloves and masks (children were really overwhelmed after wearing them, as if they became doctors ), then the real game started, 38 children from Nithari and a dozen of Helping Brainz team-members/volunteers began an activity which even the Government weren’t doing for long, though it was their cup of tea.
The team consisted of 38 young ignited minds from SADRAG (NGO), Poonam Ma’am and Santosh Ma’am from SADRAG (NGO), Vikky Sharma (Associate of Gram Pradhan Nithari),Samyak Jain from AIESEC and Suchaya Chaiworn ( AIESEC-HelpingBrainz Intern for Environmental Campaigns from Thailand) and gardeners from Nithari village.

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The entire event was led by Shally Arora ( Project Leader, Environmental and Elderly Care Campaigns ) and Shubhangi Srivastava (Project Leader, Women Empowerment Campaigns), also present were Kumar Madhuraj and Gitanshu Khurana (Project Leader, Rural and Community Development Initiatives), Pratik Bishen (Project Leader, Women Empowerment Campaigns), Shibin Varghese ( Project Leader, Environmental and Elderly Care Campaigns ), Pankaj Jha and Jyoti Mehta ( Helping Brainz Volunteers ) and Yedhu.

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Helping Brainz was happy with a fact that these underpriviledged kids chanted the same slogan throughout that ‘they need their environment clean’, which is a gift by Helping Brainz to the environment.

Identity Drive at Nithari

I think every person has their own identity and beauty. Everyone being different is what is really beautiful. If we were all the same, it would be boring, – a famous quote by  – Tila Tequila.
Though the sun was scorching at it’s best, at 41 degree Celsius, Helping Brainz team-members didn’t step back in their mission to create an identity for those who are even clueless about their date of birth/birth place.

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Helping Brainz in coordination with the gram panchayat Nithari, helped the government, on 31st May 2015, by visiting the darkened and untouched slums located in the outskirts of Nithari Village and sector 31 Noida, gathering information (personal information) from about 200 residents (majority of them residing in the slums). These people don’t possess any id proofs (no ration cards, Aadhar cards, voter id cards etc) nor do they have any clue about their date of birth, in a nutshell they don’t know anything about their identity. Collated information would be validated and transferred to the District Magistrate via Gram Pradhan Nithari Shri Vimlesh Sharma. Once it gets vetted by the DM, then we would be facilitating identity registration drive (Aadhar Card and Ration Card) in coordination with the BLOs of Noida, at Noida Sector 31 – Government School.

Why we did this campaign:
An identity proof speaks about a person’s identity. Majority of the people living in the underpriviledged areas of India, doesn’t have any identity proof to claim their identity and they became a tool for most of the illegal activities and social menaces sponsored by the priviledged class of the society, priviledged class which includes the political mafias, local goons etc . Also, some corrupted politicians use them while elections to enhance the count of votes by luring them with short-time money.
These people cannot even apply for a job without since they don’t have an identity proof, thus the self-development process becomes stagnant resulting in poverty and unemployment.
Who all contributed :

From Helping Brainz Sujata Kapoor, Vice President for Rural and Community Development Activities at Helping Brainz led the event, also present were Shubhangi Srivastava and Pratik Raj Bishen (Project Leader (s), Women Empowerment), Gitanshu Khurana (Project Leader, Rural and Community Development Activities), Rupak Kashyap (Vice President , International Peace Programmes), Ankur Khandelwal ( Vice President, Healthcare Awareness Campaigns), Tanveer Alam ( Rehan) ( Project Manager, Environment and Elderly Care Programmes), Shibin Varghese(Project Leader, Environment and Elderly Care Programmes) andYedhuKrishna Menon contributed voluntarily for the cause.
Shri Vimlesh Sharma ( Gram Pradhan Gautam Budh Nagar) and her associate Vikky Sharma facilitated the events.
Gaurav Srivastava and Akash Pandey, volunteered for the event.

Educational Counselling at CRPF Camp Dwarka

“Are women in defence organisations safe and empowered ? This is a prime question which is revolving in any ‘patriotic’ human being from 200+ countries round the globe, who does have an interest in defense studies! History always questioned about back home psychology of defence personals. They safeguard the living beings of a country, does anyone think about empowering their families, though government just bestow them with some ‘extra luxuries’!

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Given that, in the above para we were not discussing about the unfortunate Widows and the mighty kids of the brave jawans who sacrifice their life for our safety!

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However Helping Brainz took an opportunity to help and empower the Women and Kids from Defense Organisations in India, without considering what Government is doing or not doing for them! Helping Brainz in association with HCLT Foundations geared a ‘Women Empowerment’ mission for the enthusiastic women and kids of Central Resource Police Force, Dwarka Unit [women here meant are the a). Members of women battalion b). Wives and Widows and c). Children of CRPF personals].

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Today we conducted an educational counselling session for the parents, children from various age groups, wherein we talked about Career aspects, educational courses, opportunities, need for higher education, women empowerment etc.

The two hour event was anchored and led by Shubhangi Srivastava (a young changemaking Helping Brainz Women Empowerment Project Leader, also 1st year forensic science student at Amity University, Noida), the event was managed by Pratik Raj Bishen (a young changemaking Helping Brainz Women Empowerment Project Leader, also 2nd year BBM student at IMS, Noida ) and Avinash Tiwari ( a Helping Brainz teammate from ModiNagar, UP). Also present was Sanjay Deb Sir, who shared his life experiences and took a session on women empowerment, also present were Ambika P Menon(an educationist), Vineeth Psethu ( a social worker) and Yedhu.

Something which made today’s event more special!
Though I started Helping Brainz in Aug 2012, my mother attended a Helping Brainz event for the first time today, which made me the happiest man on the earth, since she’s the reason for the Helping Brain in me. – Yedhu

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“When we know better we do better”

Mother’s day with Grandmas and Grandpas of “Home for the Aged

“Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years”- Ausonius

It was 4 in the evening when we landed there, and our sole aim was just to make the wrinkles stretched and make them happy for the time we are there. An old home is a place, which leaves us clueless about the cruel mankind, who can even think of caging their Ma and Pa after a certain stage. I was touched by the warmth they transferred to us which comprised of a grandma’s and grandpa’s affection.

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“Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man” – Leon Trotsky. If this is a phenomenon which every individual goes through, then why they enroll their parents in an old age home, how can one even think about the same? The love they grandmas and grandpas have, god, to be honest made me in tears.

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Let’s take a pledge that we won’t cage our parents to an old age home, common they are our parents, the one who made us walk, learn, dream, think – then how come ? The world is 360 degree round.
– “She was the richest woman of Delhi, and now she is with us at our old age home as a resident” – mentioned the SPOC over there. Well is it called life ?
– “The son even takes away the fruits and cash from the mother, after visiting her every Sunday” – What will you call this ?

 

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Ahh..No clue!
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Helping Brainz on May 10th Sunday, on the occasion of Mother’s day planned of spending the second half of the day with the mothers who were denied their motherly hood or caged by their kids. We visited an old home in Fatehpur Beri, Chattarpur on Sunday evening and spent few hours making them smile wholeheartedly, Helping Brainz team member and few volunteers played ‘antakshiri’, distributed juices, and fruits and spend time gossiping with the grandpas and grandmas of the old age home.
Gitanshu Khurana from Helping Brainz, is the man behind this idea. 🙂

The people who thought of spending mother’s day with the grandmas and grandpas where
Ashish Mathew, Vijay Singh , Arya Devi Aunty, Varun, Sonam Griyaghey , Pankaj Jha and from hamara #TeamHelpingBrainzwe had Swati Saini, Kumar Madhuraj , Ragini Singh, Gitanshu Khurana, Ravi Prakash, Shubhangi Srivastava, Pratik Raj Bishen, Ritesh Sachdewa (and his wife) and Yedhu 🙂

Helping Brainz would be working for “Home for the aged” hereafter!

Rural Educational Counselling – Madanpur Khadar JJ Colony

“Every child got the right to go to school, and India produces the best technologists and management professionals of world”.


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So, why we are facing a strong gap in the field of elementary education and educational counselling, or guiding our near ones towards the right path,why there isn’t a strong urge in the parents to send their children to a field which they are interested in.

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For answering these questions, to motivate the children to think and propagate and to encourage them to right the write, Helping Brainz in association with HCLT Foundations conducted a Rural educational counselling for more than 50 kids in the rural town of Madanpur Khadar, a city located in the outskirts of Delhi. Around 50+ children aged between 15 to 18 attended the counselling session. This is the second time Helping Brainz is conducting an event in a span of two months in the village of Madanpur Khadar.

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Learning through experiences, motivation towards education, educational counselling, educational system in India, what and where after 12th/10th, course details, vocational education, training and education through ITIs, vocational study centres, universities, colleges (government, public, private and deemed), government examinations, civil services where some of the major topics covered.

From Helping Brainz we had our Rural Educational Counselling expert Somi Shukla(Project Head, Rural Educational Counselling – Helping Brainz), the Event Manager, Pratik Raj Bishen (Project Leader, WSEC, Helping Brainz), our motion capturer Kumar Madhuraj (Project Leader, CCRIDI, Helping Brainz), Neeraj Shukla (Project Manager, WSEC, Helping Brainz), Gitanshu Khurana (Project Leader, CCRIDI, Helping Brainz) and Yedhu.

The event was conducted at EFRAH Center, Madanpur Khadar.

Ujjwal – A Day with Chotus at UnnatiKiRah, Pochanpur, Dwarka

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” – Gandhiji

Though we have touched more than 5000+ little hearts unofficially in our 32 months career (137 Saturdays of Community Service) , 4/18/2015 witnessed the most significant one when Team Helping Brainz in association with UnnatiKiRah ( A Dwarka, Delhi based NGO ) touched around 100 little hearts from the slums of Pochanpur Village, Dwarka, Sector 23. The kids and their parents make their livelihood by picking rags. Though kids study in the government schools (or in the MCD Schools) in the nearby areas, they spent time on rag picking, segregating the same etc.

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HelpingBrainz.Org in association with UnnatiKiRah conducted “Ujjwal- A Day with Chotus” which included:-
– Paint Your Dreams, painting competition;
– Recitations and dances by the little ones ;
– Distribution of School Stationary Items (A Notebook, Pencil, Sharpener, Eraser and Crayons each);
– One time meal programme;
– Health Awareness talks by BHB Team, Apollo Hospital.

What hence:-
– After 21 days we would be conducting the prize distribution programme,
– On the 45th day we would be launching the classroom network named ‘TeachWithHelpingBrainz’ programme,
– Renting a school which would be acting as post-school shelter for the children.

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We at HelpingBrainz are blessed with a team of volunteers and Helping Brains who are best when it comes to imparting affection and healing. The programme was orchestrated by Ravi Prakash ( Thë) (Project Leader, CEP-HelpingBrainz.Org), Supported by Pankaj Jha, Shubhangi Srivastava, Kumar Madhuraj (our motion capturer), Ragini Singh, Pratik Raj Bishen, Gitanshu Khurana ( all Project Leaders, Helping Brainz ).

We are really thankful to the entire UnnatiKiRah crew including the founding member Stella Ma’am who helped us in reaching out to the kids. We also take this opportunity to acknowledge the sincere efforts by Garima Kohli and Shubhangi Singhal (from BHB Team) who helped us in conducting the health-awareness sessions, Swati Saini, Ashish Adlakha and Shally Arora – the event sponsors, Sanjay Deb Sir – who even in his busy schedule made some time and paid a visit and helped us by being one among us, Ruchir Sajwan and Nikita from Ameriprise Financials, Gurgaon who volunteered to their best.

I am blessed to be a Helping Brainz. ‪#‎blessed2bahelpingbrain‬

— at Ujjwal – A Day With Chotus @ Palam Slums.

Swachta Vriksharopan Abhiyan ( Cleanliness Drive) – Nithari – April 11 2015

We cleaned the Government School in Nithari on April 11, 2015

  • FLASHBACK!

On 5th April Sunday afternoon, when I visited to Nithari Village, to supervise an educational counselling, conducted by Somi (Project Head, Internal Learning and Educational Counselling, HelpingBrainz.Org), me and Vimlesh Aunty walked through the silent verandahs of the lonely government school of Nithari,  feeling the naturalism where the underpriviledged children undergo their elementary education, feeling disappointed after seeing the stagnant drainage systems and mosquito generating ponds, uncleansed classrooms/assembly ground/gardens, which the so called government ‘servants’ are not interested to clean upon.

I felt the helplessness of a child to express his right for sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene in the silent school. ‘How can a child study in such an environment’? I witnessed a lady village head’s urge for clean environment, however also understood the lack of cooperation of the government officials.

When I heard Vimlesh Aunty, requesting someone to clean the school, I stopped her and said ‘HelpingBrainz will clean this school for you’, I mentioned to her that, ‘it’s my wish to have my little siblings learn in a clean environment, though their teachers to be honest don’t want’.

  • THE GAMES HERE!

I immediately telephoned, my friend Swati (VP, Environmental & Elderly Care Projects – HelpingBrainz.Org) – to design the programme, Abhinav Vikash (Abhinav works for HCLT Foundations, he’s one whose heart beats for the community equally) and Purnoor (Our designing spearhead) and we fixed the event (Cleanliness Drive) in 10 mins, and gave heartwarming confirmation to the village-head to support her in this mission to clean the school.

CLEANLINESS DRIVE ON 11TH April 2015 at 12:30 PM, at Government School Nithari

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We took brooms, yes we all took brooms, spades etc with a mission to clean the school.

  • The entire school premise was swept and garbage transported to a dumping ground,
  • The school garden was cleaned,
  • The school verandahs was washed,
  • The drainage systems was opened and stagnant mud was removed,
  • The school’s water pumping system was cleaned,
  • After all created an awareness of cleanliness among the children.

Who all joined hands for this noble cause:-

  • A team of wonderful children from Government of School, who will be awarded with “Certificate of Participation” by HelpingBrainz.Org
  • Vimlesh Sharma, Gram Pradhan Nithari
  • Ajit Mahapatra, Swati Saini, Shally Arora, Kumar Madhuraj, Gitanshu Khurana, Pankaj Jha and Yedhu from HelpingBrainz.Org
  • Abhinav Vikash, Arvind Kumar Singh, Safder Wahab from HCL
  • Sohanveer Tyagi from The-Change Team

Our sincere thanks to Vimlesh Aunty, Children of the School, Volunteers, Purnoor for the designs and Vineeth (for masks and gloves)

Some Artifacts

  • A tree-plantation campaign would happen shortly in the school!
  • Org, HCLT Foundations and would be together distributing dustbins to all the residents of the village and making it compulsory for them to throw the garbage in the bins, thereby ensuring cleanliness.

 

 

Rural Educational counselling – Nithari April’15

An educated man can #makeadifference.

To bridge two inhabited lands, we need a capable architect, however we need a coterie of educated human beings to traverse a country from darkness to enlightenment.

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With a mission to enlighten this country, by empowering the rural population, HelpingBrainz launched the Rural Educational Counselling, a programme aimed to cater knowledge about various courses, employment opportunities, short time courses, certification programmes, government’s educational establishments. Around 20 smart ladies ages between 15 to 60 attended the programme held at the panchayat bhawan, Nithari. Nithari gram pradhan Shri Vimlesh Sharma inaugurated the event.

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From Helping Brainz we had our smart kids on field, Kumar Madhuraj – the helping brain who managed the event, Shubhangi Srivastava, the youngest among us however a born change maker, and the one and all Somi Shukla, the man behind the event and YedhuKrishna Menon

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Next Sunday afternoon we would have the second part of the event.