Enduring to educate – The story of Renita and Shamitha

Being a woman is certainly not easy. From the beginning of time, women have always been looked at as a liability rather than as an asset by the very men they gave life to! But today women have done almost all that men can do and then some! They have proved that men and women are equal. This story of two young women Ms. Renita and Ms. Shamitha, needs to be told and re-told, because they give us a hope that every woman has the potential to achieve her dreams if there is hardwork and passion within. Their work has been recognized and Mangaluru Press Club Award 2016 and Sandesha Education Award 2017 has been conferred to them.
Their’s was a small initiative with a large vision in many ways – They started with the tiny tots, starting a upper kindergarten school in Kundapur. Hailing from Mangaluru, the two classmates-turned-friends Renita and Shamitha’s vision drove to make a difference in their early 20s. Kundapur will not be the same again. Their Mother Teresa’s’ English Medium School in the remote Shankaranarayana, in Kundapura has grown over time and how has 1167 students. It has seen 6 batches of students pass out and and has a current count of 240 in its pre university section.

Initial struggle

After completing graduation and at the age of 20, at the insistence of a Nun who was their friend, Renita and Shamitha, who were classmates and good friends, reached Siddapura to take up teaching roles. Though not B.Ed qualified, they started their mission to help the children to get educated in Siddapura. It was not a piece of cake for them. “This was our first experience of rural life and we worked for two years. The school in Siddapura still exists and is not doing very well as it is in the remote area. Born and brought up in Mangaluru the difference in the education system was glaring. We found the need to systematize the schooling system and we arranged assemblies, uniform, assignments, homework etc. this made the parents and children happy,” said Renita speaking in an exclusive interview to NewsKarnataka.

Family pressure and future uncertain

At the young age of 21, family pressures mount. Shamitha and Renita were no exception to the norm. But they had a mission heading their way. Though they earned appreciation, and a little money teaching at Siddapura, family pressures began to mount to make more out of their lives. There were repeated pleas to return to Mangaluru and search for better prospects. As the present school was not ready to pay them well for the work they did, they packed up and decided to return. Renita says, “Parents of children visited us and were insisting on us not to leave, and this put us in a dilemma. The words of villagers ‘when the village needs your service why can’t you do something here, why can’t you both start a school’ this moved us and we gave a second thought on our decision.” With this support from villagers, they never looked back after that.

With Village support dreams come true

“Prayers helped us to take a decision and start a new school leaving everything in the hand of God. As there was a school in Siddapura, we decided to start a school in Shankaranaraayana which was not as developed as Siddapura. Till date there is no development as such in Shankaranarayana.” said Renita. The initial phase of applying to start a school began from the Panchayath. The registration of the school as per the BMO had to be done soon the school was registered under the Societies Act. With an initial nominal fee of Rs 300, the duo began providing Lower Kindergarten (LKG) and upper Kindergarten (UKG) education. With the desire to do more Renita and Shamitha started the next level due to which they had to change the registration of Society into a trust. As their original plans morphed into a vision for the locality, so did the need for space. The pair then got a two-storied building in which the education continued. From one room the school is now a massive structure.

The persistence, enthusiasm and the passion helped Shamitha and Renita, meet the demands and the needs of running a school one way or the other. Family support to continue the task in hand made them stronger. A building without educational aids is nothing. With personal savings, families contributed to meet the needs were in process, Renita and Shamitha put in their ideas to make the charts, the benches and the things required for the children. “During this work of setting up the classes in the building in hand, we purchased a portion of land nearby with just 25 thousand in hand. Though there are buses now, they are on loan and we have been working to repay it. The registration of the school was not easy. However, the villagers responded well to our initiative. Initially the villagers thought that there was a motto of conversion as the convent system of education was introduced, but the parents of the children soon realized that we were there only to provide education” expressed Renita. As the school started becoming popular because of their dedication and teaching methodology the number of admissions grew.

Moving ahead…

Like Martin Luther King, the duo of Renita and Shamitha too had a dream – to go further on the path to educating the children of the locality. The urge to move ahead quickly became an itch. They wanted to start a high school. But their inner voices made them hesitate – it would need a bigger place, building, more educational aids and the like. This would require a lot of finances. During this time the encouraging push was given by the Bishop of Udupi. Sr Maria Goretti SRS provincial superior, spurred them onwards with Rs 5 Lakh. The duo said, “Sr Maria Gorrettie was impressed by the activities of our school and granted us Rs 5 lakh for the construction of the high school building”.

The high school required a class strenght of 40 to get the required permissions, but their 7th standard had only 14. They did not lose hope and these go-getters started going to houses and spoke to people about the new initiative and asked people to send their children to this school. “We also made arrangements for a vehicle to pick up the children. With faith in God and hard work on the ground, the school kicked off with 41 students”. The school became popular when all the 41 students passed and one of the students who had left the government school and joined Mother Theresa School got the 2nd rank in taluk level. The success of this venture, and the desire to provide continuing education to their own students, prompted the pair to start a Pre-University section. Though the path for this was difficult, and the permission to start this was not easily available, everyone from the locality supported their initiative – from the local MLA and the relevant department officers.

Yes, Renita and Shamitha, go-getters and champions of change have boldly overcome all odds to see their dreams and those of the locality come true. Though most of us are passionate, very few like Shamitha and Renita translate their passion into action. We believe their story can change that chaltha hai attitude…

Kudos to the duo…