The Heart Has its Reasons: Geetika Joshi

While on an inspection round Geetika Joshi came to the dilapidated primary school in Tarikhet, in Almora district of Uttarakhand. It was raining, the roof was leaking and shivering children sat huddled trying to learn their lessons. It made a deep impact on Geetika, the Deputy Education Officer.

She looked at the building and realized she has to do something so that the children could comfortably attend school. She initially got the roof fixed with money from her own salary. However, she did not stop at that and completely rebuild the school with her own money. This was just the start to rebuilding many more schools in the remote schools in this hilly area. She started interacting with the teachers and due to her selflessness it motivated the teachers and they too came out to contribute towards this noble cause. The teachers collected 2.5 lakhs which went in building infrastructure for many other schools.

When you have goodness in your heart and it translates into your work it begets more good. Geetika got a very big support from the joint magistrate IAS officer Himanshu Khurana. He saw that the initiative was going rather slow so he approached former district magistrate Eva Ashish Srivastava who in turn pushed the project by sanctioning budget from untied fun.

A new scheme in the name of “Roopantaran” was set up, bank account set up so that well-wishers could donate money for the cause. The MLA from Ranikhet donated 23 lakhs from his MLA Fund; the District Magistrate office sanctioned 12 lakhs. These funds were used for the necessary infrastructures, uniforms for the children teaching material etc.

By: Madhuchanda Saxena

Content: https://www.hindustantimes.com/dehradun/education-officer-renovates-schools-in-the-hills-with-her-own-salary/story-FzNGuNDJw7qKQPbuMrZhBK.html