How two brothers are bringing high-speed internet and Wi-Fi to their village in Karnataka so that kids can study online 

Mahesh and Harish along with the volunteers of their NGO collected data on the number of students and their age in the village. Later, they segregated the data to map our their wifi plans 
Mahesh Mathrubhoomi and Harish Kumar
Mahesh Mathrubhoomi and Harish Kumar

With the increase in the spread of the COVID-19 virus, education across the world has gone online. As a result, a lot of students need internet that is free and fast. That is why Mahesh and his brother Harish Kumar are in the process of converting their village Chikkanahalli into a free Wi-Fi hub. 

Mahesh is the Founder of Mathrubhoomi Seva Foundation in Chikkanahalli village in Channapatna Taluk of Ramanagara District. He says, "A lot of students,bith in school and college, lack internet even if they have proper smartphones. As a result, they end up missing online classes provided by their colleges or schools. Hence, we have been installing receivers and Optical Fibre Cable from Channapatna Taluk to our village."

But before they could provide free internet to these students, Mahesh and Harish, along with the volunteers of their NGO, collected data on the number of students and their ages in the village. Later, they segregated the data into the ones who have smartphones and the ones who don't have smartphones. Similarly, they also checked for the students who had access to fast internet and so on. Once this was done, the brother duo created a map to install receivers so that at least people from five different homes can connect to the wifi they provide. 

Mahesh, who has been working on this project for more than a month now, says, "Since the collection of this data was a humongous task, we took one months to finish up. Later, we planned our budget which came up to Rs 3,50,000. Soon, we contacted an organisation called Youth Broadband who provides internet package at affordable prices. Then, we started pulling these optical fibre cables from Channapatna. It has been five days and we have installed free Wi-Fi spots in nearly 13 homes. A lot of students who can access this free and fast internet are quite happy with our initiative. We are still in the process of creating 30 to 40 free hotspot connections. We have also installed two computers at important locations so that if students don't have smartphones, they can come here for an hour or so to attend the online tuitions or school."

Furthermore, Mahesh and Harish plan to install solar panels to generate power for all 365 days. With this continuous power, the duo plans to bring digital banking system to their village. Not just banking, they also want to create employment for youth so that they don't go out to cities looking for jobs. "We want to convert our village into a model village by making it completely digital and call is as a Tantrik Village. Aside from this, we want to provide soft skills training for youngsters so that they get employment easily once they are out of the college," says Mahesh. 

Other important initiative
Mathrubhoomi Seva Foundation was founded by Mahesh in 2013 soon after completing his education in ITI. Since their idea was to take care of orphan kids, Mahesh ended up creating a place called Mathrubhoomi Madilu in Channapatna Taluk. He explains, "Currently there are 18 kids of different age groups. These kids either have single parents who can't look after them or some of them don't have parents. After some bitter childhood experiences that I had, I felt that it is important to take care of orphans and transform them into responsible citizens. Hence, I take care of the education, food and clothing of these 18 kids in our ashram.

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