After reading the book “Free the Children” by Craig Kielburger in their sophomore year, seniors Suruchi Salgar, Janani Prasad and Manvita Tatavarthy were later inspired to base their current DECA community service project on one of Free the Children’s campaigns: Brick by Brick which helps to build schools in poor villages. Sophomores Anna Aswadhati and Samyu Sridhar were working on another DECA chapter project called the Creative Marketing Project for the same organization at the time, and decided to work with Salgar, Prasad, and Tatavarthy to raise funds.

“[We were mainly inspired by Free the Children’s motto]: ‘children helping children‘ and just the fact that this 12-year-old could start an organization like that and have it go on to become a nationally and internationally known organization,” Prasad said. “We thought it would be amazing to do anything to contribute to that.”

Kielburger started the organization in 1995 when he was 12 years old. From there, the organization has traveled to 48 different countries to help out communities worldwide. These DECA members are fundraising to build a school in Rajasthan, India which will cost a total of $8,500.

“We hope this will be an ongoing project so we’re not thinking about finishing an entire school this year but we hope our DECA chapter continues [this project],” Salgar said. “Our goal [for this year] is $3,000 to $4,000 but we’ll see how it goes.”

According to Aswadhati, Free the Children is very different from other community service organizations. One of the biggest factors that made a Free the Children a unique organization was that with this organization, Aswadhati and all her DECA teammates knew the exact location for the school that they are currently fundraising to build.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

“[We were mainly inspired by Free the Children’s motto]: ‘children helping children‘ and just the fact that this 12-year-old could start an organization like that and have it go on to become a nationally and internationally known organization. We thought it would be amazing to do anything to contribute to that.”

– senior Janani Prasad

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
“The core value of the program is children helping children and we thought that was kind of special because with [organizations like] the Red Cross, it’s kind of open to everyone,” Aswadhati said. “We thought [Free the Children] was closer to heart [because it would be] directly impacting [certain groups of people].”

According to Free the Children, the money raised will also help to “build a library and provide the tools and opportunities required by children to receive a quality primary education. This includes supporting teacher salaries and the purchase of school furniture, uniforms and basic school supplies.”

Free the Children also works to sustain the schools by reaching out to surrounding villages and providing them with the necessary supplies and education to eventually operate the schools on their own.

In addition, Free the Chilrdren gives the necessary supplies and education to a village so it can eventually operate on its own and not have to consistently depend on an organization for its survival; most organizations simply provide villages with supplies, not sustainability.

“Just because we build them a school room doesn’t mean that the organization is done with that village,” Sridhar said. “They have other programs that help them get clean water, keep the school running and sustain the school. They also have alternative income programs for families that live there so they really care about making the village is functioning. “

Currently these DECA members are selling lanyards for $3 and bracelets called rafikis for $1 in order to raise money for the school. However, they plan to continue fundraising through benefit concerts, bake sales, car washes and a district-wide coin drive to eventually reach their goal of $3,000 by the end of this year. They plan to spread these events evenly out from now until May.

As for future plans after fundraising, they hope that one day they will either be able to visit the location where the school will be built or visit the school after it is built.

“[Seeing our school after it’s built] would be amazing,” Tatavarthy said. “I’m going to India this summer and I’m trying to convince my parents to take me there so I can actually see [the site they’re going to build our school on].”

To learn more about Free the Children: Brick by Brick visit their website here.