Ravi Rai quit his engineering job to start an aid group which builds homes, funds scholarships and supports Aids education.
The Straits Times Nirmal Ghosh reports…
The town of Barhalganj in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, an area near the Nepal border known for sugar cane, bandits and smugglers, seems an unlikely setting for a Singapore Flag. But without much fuss, Singaporean Ravi Rai puts one up in a hall at least once a year while giving a scholarship to a local child.
Mr Rai, a civil engineer, gave up his work with Koon Constructions in 1998 to start a non-government organisation called Children of Mother Earth (Come), targeted at Uttar Pradesh state and, specifically, his ancestral home. ”I’ve been interested in the area since I was a teenager,” he told The Straits Times in New Delhi, passing through on his way to Gorakhpur. Mr Rai’s father Ram Awadh Rai, who died in 1997, was with the Indian National Army under the iconic Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who fought for independence from British colonialism. He hailed from Gorakhpur.
“When I was very young I used to visit the villages,” said Mr Rai. “Now I give one scholarship a year to a child, and am lobbying to incorporate issues like Aids, population and health in school syllabi.”
Significant numbers of people from the Gorakhpur area worked overseas in places such as Thailand and Singapore, he said. This compounds the risk posed by Aids, which breaks down the body’s disease-fighting immune system. He has also undertaken Aids-awareness programmes for overseas workers in Singapore. “There is generally a very low level of awareness on HIV and Aids,” he said.
In the village of Barhalganj, some 50km from Gorakhpur, Come has built a home for the homeless. Since the area is prone to severe flooding, Come also operates a rescue team – which travelled to Gujarat last January to join rescue efforts after a devastating earthquake. Come also installs hand-pumps and organises eye-donation camps at Barhalganj.
Mr Rai, 39 and unmarried, devotes most of his time to his work. He was nominated for an award by the Singapore International Foundation last year – and has been nominated again this year.
In Gorakhpur, he presented a child with a scholarship of 200 rupees a month (S$8) which still goes a long way in rural India.
