Gorakhpur: Ratnesh Tiwari studied engineering but gave up his dreams for the betterment of poor children. He follows the Prime Minister’s campaign of ‘Young India’ and wishes to give free education and guidance to children who don’t have direct access to formal education. He currently teaches children who don’t have homes and spend their nights in slums and footpaths. 

Ratnesh worked as an engineer in companies located in Hyderabad and Delhi. He received a good package but could not hold up to the idea of working for a multinational company while a huge population of children suffered. He wanted to do something for the betterment of people. He returned to his town Kushinagar. He joined hands with social organizations and worked for the education of poor children. 

Soon after returning to his town in 2016, he started a campaign under the name ‘Yuva India Manch’. This time his purpose was to teach children living in slum areas. 

Setting up a school

Ratnesh set up the foundation of his first school named Akshar Muhim Pathshala. Initially, he could only convince 6 to 7 families to send their children to his school. He was providing children with free education but still, people had their doubts about fraud. 

Gradually, when Ratnesh could build his trust among people, the number of students increased. While teaching the slum children, he realized that they lacked basic needs like food and shelter. 

Ratnesh realized his responsibility as their teacher and stepped in to make sure that their basic needs were being met. Impressed by his noble work, word spread around, and he became a popular teacher among thousands of people. 

Holistic development of the kids

More people have joined hands with him, and now around 200 people work with his organization to teach children. Engineers and doctors go out of their way to contact him and help him make this campaign a huge achievement. The students are provided with food, clothes and notebooks at no cost. 

Ratnesh has expanded his campaign to more places in Gorakhpur; he has opened schools in Lal Diggi Park and Surya Vihar. Ratnesh prepares his students to take admissions in any private or government schools as per their interests. He even provides them with monetary funds whenever there’s a requirement.  It has been 8 years since he started teaching children for no money and he continues to build better and equal opportunities for children from all socioeconomic backgrounds.