America
“Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation†Raises 2 Million in A Glittering Gala --
By
Prakash WaghmareEkalVidyalaya Foundation’s (‘EVF’) glittering
‘Gala’ on Saturday, Nov. 4 at the majestic ‘Cipriani’ on Wall Street in New
York City was a grand success. The response for this highly anticipated event
was simply overwhelming, not only in terms of capacity-attendance, but also
donor’s enthusiasm to support EVF’s worthy cause. The evening raised more than $2
Million. ‘Ekal’ as ‘EVF’ is popularly known, had been raising funds in USA
through series of concerts mainly directed at grass-root level, until now. This
gala, was an added innovative effort to reach out to the Corporate world and
high net-worth individuals and bring mainstream America into its fold. This
impeccably organized spectacular evening’s main architect was Mohan Wanchoo
(Chairman, Founder of EC Infosystems). He was ably supported in this affair by
Chirag Patel (CO-CEO & Chairman of ‘Amneal Pharmaceuticals’), SonerKanlier
(CEO Jasmine Universe) and Rajesh Gooty (Founder, Pres.-CEO of M Corp). Since
its inception 29 years ago, Ekal had been setting new records, year after year
in fund-raising. Last year, even without any high-end gala event, this largest
NGO, with chapters in ten different countries including in Middle-eastern
countries, raised $7.2 Million in USA alone.
The evening started with the salutation to
American and Indian flags with national anthems on the big screen. Welcoming
the guests, Mohan Wanchoo, briefed the gathering about Ekal’s multi-dimensional
approach to uplift rural and tribal areas of India through emphasis on
literacy, healthcare, integrated village development and empowerment of village
folks. He informed the gathering that Ekal currently has 58,000 schools,
spread all over India supporting 1.56 Million children - more than half of
which were girls. He further stressed that the project cost, including
administration and monitoring was only $1-a-day or $365 per year per school.
Chirag Patel thanked all the teachers working at grass-root level in India and
imparting life-sustaining education to the children facing various hurdles.
VinodJhunjhunwala, the President of Ekal-USA paid tribute to Ekal leadership in
USA as well Ekal-India team, which had flown in specially for this occasion.
Under Ekal-USA leadership Ashok Danda, Subhash Gupta, Ranjani Saigal and Ramesh
Shah were acknowledged while for Ekal-India DrSubhash Chandra, BajrangBagra,
LaxmiGoel, and Naresh Jain were recognized. Ranjani Saigal, the Executive
Director touched on the whole range of Ekal mission in remote areas through
couple of brief ‘reality videos’ that also depicted use of digital technology,
organic farming, and skill-training centers which are empowering rural life.
Ms. Mitzi Perdue, the heiress to ‘Sheraton Hotel
chain’ and ‘Perdue Poultry Farms’, was one of the key- note speakers of the
evening along with Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman of ZEE-TV and Chairman of
Ekal-Global. Ms. Perdue, regaled the audience with three heartwarming stories
about Ekal, that also reflected the importance of education for better
achievements in life. Her speech enthused so many people that live
mission-based auction for raising funds had a jump start with pledging process reaching
one million mark within first 15 minutes. Three generous donors – Chirag
Patel, Ajay/RanjiniPoddar, Sant Singh Chatwal – each donated $250,000 each. There
was amazing synergy and excitement during the pledging process - so much so
that it was hard to keep the tab on all auction ’paddle-cards’. The frenzy to
give donations was simply astonishing. Dr. Subhash Chandra, praised Mohan
Wanchoo and Chirag Patel for putting up the magnificent fund-raising show and
challenged economically blessed group of people to shoulder responsibility of
those in need. Lauding the generosity of big donors, he further elaborated that
numerous small donors were equally important as they had larger stake in
building any Nation by their sheer number. The evening was interspersed with
fabulous Indian dances. With this awesome success, Ekal plans to make such
‘Galas’ an annual affair going forward and host them at various Metropolitan
places like LA, Chicago, Houston etc.