Thrissur: Gifting humble pencils is his way to say he cares! Meet K Venkatraman, a Dubai-based philanthropist who has donated 100,000 pencils to children across the state who lost their basic tools of education and study materials in the devastating floods.
A native of Tamil Nadu, Venkatraman’s noble gesture has made an indelible impression on the children and provided a fresh hope to them.
Pencilman, as he is fondly called, returned with a bagful of used and worn-down pencils collected from these children. For the past decade, he has been reaching out to needy students with study materials across the globe.
Venkatraman handed over a consignment of 1 lakh pencils to Col H Padmanabhan, commanding officer of the 7 Kerala Girls Battalion of the National Cadet Corps (NCC), for distribution among students in areas identified by rescue and relief workers. The Battalion will help him identify the areas and deliver the remaining packs of pencils as per the requirement.
Conceding the NCC officer’s request to come down to Kerala, Venkatraman, a charted accountant by profession, visited a number of schools in the district. He gave away school stationery and interacted with children at the model anganwadi at Ilanjikulam, and schools at Palissery, Nanthikkara, Athirapilli, and Vazhachal.
When he told the children that he had distributed used pencils in poverty-stricken regions of Africa where even used stationery items are a luxury, they handed over their old pencils to the ‘Pencilman’ and requested him to give them to their counterparts in Africa.
With this kinds gesture, the children have proved it is often the little things that make a huge difference.
Venkatraman has already distributed pencils in schools in flood-affected areas in Attapady, Wayanad and Kozhikode districts. Venkatraman also has plans to supply free stationery items and uniforms to needy students on Children’s Day in association with the NCC.
