Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | March 21
Giving a new lease of life to ‘Each One Teach One’, a noble initiative started by Kethosilie Sorhie in 2017, The Global Shapers Kohima Hub today organized a fundraiser event at the Heritage Kohima bringing together entrepreneurs, musicians, fitness enthusiasts, and artistes for the cause of educating and empowering underprivileged children in the state capital.
An entrepreneur by profession, Kethosilie Sorhie had founded the ‘Each One Teach One’ tuition centre in a rented garage where young students from economically weaker section of the society would gather and learn their everyday lessons or get their homework done and doubts about their subjects clarified. These were children of uneducated parents, some of whom were drunkards, or working in manual labour and did not have either the time or resources for tuitions for their children. Kethosilie Sorhie would pay rent and a nominal fee for the teacher at the centre out of his own pocket, but after about one and half years, the centre was closed for lack of resources to sustain it.
This is where The Global Shapers Kohima Hub comes in to support the social initiative with the firm belief that they can build a cohesive network of several such centres dotted in every locality in Kohima, spreading and evolving their vision to enable students to articulate their own goals, ambitions, and passions into reality without the casualty of their moral fibre, self-respect and integrity.
Speaking to The Morung Express, Kekhrie Mezhür, Curator of The Global Shapers Kohima Hub expressed hope that they would be able to raise enough funds to pay the rent for a year and also employ a full time teacher, who can dedicate a couple of hours every day (the tuitions were held 3 days a week earlier) for the education of these children. He said, “We also don’t want to just make it an academic centre but a learning centre” where not only academic knowledge is imparted but is supplemented with other skills and learning activities as well.
“This is a pilot project and if we can sustain and replicate this model, we hope to bring up more centres all over Kohima,” he informed. One of the challenges, he pointed out is the lack of teachers specially for Mathematics, Science, and Hindi, and towards this end, he said, they are trying to link up with institutions and invite students (not necessarily the teachers) to teach them once a week. This, he said could be either in the field of Hindi, Music, or Art in order to inspire the children and open to them a world of possibilities.
On partnerships with local cafes such as Dimori Cove, D/Café, Sorshia & Co., and Uptown; the fundraiser event include street fitness competition initiated by Native Station and Dreamcafe featuring arm wrestling, tug of war, push-ups, etc and a concert featuring Paper Sky, Mar Jamir (Polar Lights), Music Academy Kohima, Unplugged 3, Chuba, Brooke Shitiri and Gigi Ale.
“We are all here because we support the cause. It is the community doing it, it is through the power of community and when you club everything together, the force is really strong,” Kekhrie added.
Mention may be made here that The Global Shapers Kohima Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was launched on August 1, 2015 and currently comprises of 19 young individuals from diverse backgrounds and voluntarily working together to bring social change and awareness. Besides ‘Each One Teach One’, their other initiatives and interests include Café Conversations, The Joy of Giving, Mentorship Program, Mental Health and Environment.
