Harshal Dhoke hails from a small town named Katol, located near Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra. He has always been an over-achiever in academics and secured admission to IIT due to his hard work and aptitude. He was the first individual from his town who qualified for IIT-JEE in 2011, holding AIR 724. He went to IIT-BHU to pursue his Bachelor of Engineering (B.E) degree in electronics. After completing his graduation, he pursued his MBA from another premier institute, IIM Rohtak.
Founder of Shashi Dream Foundation – Harshal Dhoke
Despite his illustrious educational background and excellent grades, Harshal was always keen on doing social work. His heart’s calling took over him, and Harshal has since then been actively working in the field of education. Harshal came up with his dream project – ‘Shashi Dream foundation.’ His motto was to help as many people as he could through this foundation.
At Shashi Dream Foundation, they are focused on changing underprivileged children’s lives with the help of digital classrooms and are simultaneously supporting the youth by providing them career counseling. These children are helped with their studies and uplifted to achieve their dreams. Through ‘Shashi Pathshala,’ Harshal Dhoke aims to help those mothers who cannot help their kids with their homework, take tuition or help them study for exams. It helps by taking up these children’s homework follow-ups as the central core work, thus assisting them in their studies.
The digital classroom made by raising funds has students from the first to sixth grade. It consists of 100 students from the towns of Katol and Savargaon. It has a big TV with an installed internet connection. The children there are taught by teachers and volunteers working with this foundation with the help of digital videos. This foundation is currently active in the Katol and Savargaon towns of Maharashtra. The Pathshala has derived its name from Harshal’s mother, ‘Shashikala.’ Harshal wishes to establish Shashi Pathshala’s centers across every village, PAN India, to reach the maximum number of underprivileged families.
The second initiative Harshal has undertaken is ‘Career Counselling .’ This initiative started on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook through LIVE sessions during the country’s lockdown period from March to September 2020. Several experts from different domains were invited to speak about their profession and share insights with the youth. A total of 85 sessions were conducted during this period, and they accumulated a widespread reach to more than 50,000 students via Instagram and Facebook. This year’s target is to reach out to even more students for career counseling and guidance.
The main challenge faced by the foundation is to bring underprivileged students to the Pathshala. Even though the children are more than happy to learn and attend school, it is challenging to change parents’ and decision-maker’s mentality at home. As per their rituals, they tend to get their children married at 9-10 years, thinking there is no use in studies. They believe that there is no requirement for education and it is an unnecessary responsibility. The main issue that arises here is to change this mentality of people, and the foundation is working very hard to overcome this issue.
Shashi dream foundation finds its motivation from the fact that ‘right to basic education; must be the primary aim of everyone in society. It is a platform through which underprivileged children can be guided, supported, and nurtured to build their future. Initially, Harshal started this work on his own, and later on, people started joining him. Today, his organization has more than 30 people working on the same mission.
Presently, Harshal Dhoke is working in a bank as a full-time employee and uses a large amount of his salary to manage the foundation’s expenses. The teachers working in the foundation are from the same community who support the foundation. They require a basic salary to run their household. The focus of the foundation is to empower as many children as they can. Harshal also invites donations from people who wish to contribute towards the education of unprivileged children and help them secure a bright future.
“A teacher makes himself progressively unnecessary.” – Thomas Carruthers. This quote best describes the selflessness of teachers and people like Harshal Dhoke, who continue to inspire millions with their efforts to educate society.
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