For empowering underprivileged children through education, a walkathon was organised by Aashayein Foundation recently. Called the ‘Aashayein Walkathon 2008’, it aimed to create a platform to interact with people from all walks of life and spread awareness about every child’s right to education.

The walkathon, held in association with Perot System, was flagged of by Manivannan, Founder-Heart and Soul Foundation, trustee of Advaith Foundation. Antony Sebastain, founder of ‘ECO’ and Sagar Muthappa, rally champion were some of the few who’s who of the City who participated in the walkathon.

The walkathon started at Kanteerava stadium, passed through Corporation Circle, Vittal Mallya Road and ended at the Kanteerava Stadium itself. The participants were highly enthusiastic. The commitment of each participant could be gauged by the fact that all of them registered for the event by paying a registration fee of Rs 100. The funds generated from the registration amount will be utilised to provide education to the underprivileged children.

The objective of the Aashayein Foundation is to educate children, who hail from economically weaker sections of the society and to provide them with monetary and non-monetary support so as to empower them to be better citizens of tomorrow and thus contribute to the nation-building process. The volunteers of Aashayein Foundation are professionals who work with various IT companies in the City. The walkathon was also a wake-up call for the citizens of Bangalore to make them realise the needs of the underprivileged children.

Jaydeep Saha