CHENNAI: Fifty-six-year old Bhooma Parthsarathy’s pleasing demeanour only adds to her achievements as a successful educationist and social worker who runs three educational institutions and a community hospital near Ranipet. Polite to a fault, she spoke about her dreams in the social sphere and in education as she received the first ever Mrs YGP Educationist Award, instituted by the Rotary Club of Madras T Nagar on its Silver Jubilee celebrations.Despite completing a degree in history and her master’s degree in social work, Bhooma opted to become an educationist, starting the famous Vedavalli group of schools in Walajapet. It includes three educational institutions; a senior secondary school, a higher secondary school in Walajapet and a feeder school in Ranipet. On being asked why she opted to dabble in education, she said the situation in areas near Ranipet demanded a good school.“At that time, there was just one CBSE school, that too, on the BHEL campus.Many parents were looking at admitting their children to a good CBSE school, and entry to the existing school for non-campus residents was limited. So, I started the Vedavalli Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Walajapet in 1994,” she said, adding that with growing demand, more schools were started. Her school is noted for its innovative learning-based activity approach along with observing days like World Environment Day, World Elders Day and World Disability Day to learn about these issues at an early age.That’s not all, despite her preoccupations in education, Bhooma found time and resources to harbour her intent on helping society.As the head of the Thirumalai Charity Trust in 1983, she spearheaded the rural programme of the trust, which today includes health care, cattle care, deaddiction, women’s empowerment and rural education.It is estimated that at least one-lakh people in the neighbourhood directly benefit from the work the trust does in 225 villages in Vellore district. Recently, her trust also started a 20- bedded community hospital called the Thirumalai Mission Hospital.The journey has only begun, she says, as she hopes that the three-month-old hospital becomes a 150-bed multi-specialty hospital to help the needy in the community.“I would also like to develop a good community health and research institution and develop an interface between health and education,” she says, adding that a programme for disabled persons and an arts college are her other dreams in the education scenario.
Comments
0 comment