Mumbai: Bhavishya Yaan Project Completes 15 Years, Beneficiaries Join Celebration

Mumbai: Students from various municipal schools of Mumbai, who benefitted from educational programmes run by Bhavishya Yaan, an initiative by Rotary club of Bombay, came together at an alumni meet on Saturday to mark the project's completion of fifteen years. The initiative has facilitated over 5000 underprivileged students to be educated with life skills that have ensured them a brighter future.

In 2009, Rotary Club of Bombay had started this initiative with an aim of providing better quality of education to students of the city's municipal schools. The project educates students with the help of courses which includes spoken English, computer skills and other life skills, in addition to their school curriculum. This helps them with better career opportunities.

Bhavishya Yaan Educates 1500 Students:

Started at one school and 40 students, Bhavishya Yaan currently educates around 1500 students of six municipal schools in the city. Akhil Sanghi, chairman, Bhavishya Yaan project, said, “Apart from academics, students are also involved in various extra-curricular activities, including visits to filmshoots and celebrity cricket matches. We make sure to provide daily nutrition to them and we plan to continue serving these students with the same spirit."

With this one-of-a-kind project completing fifteen years, Rotary Club of Bombay organised an alumni meet for the students who studied under the initiative and are now working in various sectors. At Saturday's meet organised at the Indian Merchants Chamber, former students came together to meet their friends and mentors from Bhavishya Yaan classes and shared stories of their success.

Celebrities Share Video Message To Mark Occasion:

Apart from the Rotarians and other individuals associated with Bhavishya Yaan, celebrities like Diana Hayden and Diana Penty shared their video messages congratulating the students and Rotary Club for the successful journey.

Vedant Kadam, a student from the first batch of Bhavishya Yaan is working with a leading semiconductor distributor in the country as an electrical engineer. Sharing his experience about Bhavishya Yaan, he said, “Bhavishya Yaan made me a confident person and that confidence helped me top my school in Class 10. It was only due to Bhavishya Yaan that I could attend a student exchange programme in Brazil which gave me an international exposure.”

Another student, Abhishek Gupta, who studied in a Colaba municipal school and attended Bhavishya Yaan classes works as a film editor and digital imaging technician at a leading production house in Bollywood. He said, “I used to attend extra workshops organised by Bhavishya Yaan. Those workshops gave me opportunities to choose the career of my choice and I grabbed one such opportunity to be where I am today.”

Bhavishya Yaan was helped by HDFC Life in its initial years and the organisation continued to be the helping hand for the project for five years even before Corporate Social Responsibility Act was introduced.