KOCHI:
It is time for joy for around 680 students of Aluva Kuttamassery Govt. Higher Secondary School whose studies were thrown to devastation by the malicious flood that inundated their school in August last.
The flood waters damaged everything including their computer lab, physics lab and books in the library. Now, thanks to the intervention of Department of Electronics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, the Humanitarian Activities Committee of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has sanctioned an assistance of $ 35,000 equal to Rs 24 Lakhs for restoring the lost facilities. The amount will be utilized to set up a computer lab with 15 computers, tools and equipments for physics lab and library, and smart class rooms in the school.
IEEE provides financial assistance against technologically supported proposals for immediate disaster relief and development projects in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Usually, five to ten projects, cost ranging from US $ 20,000 to 40,000 are sanctioned worldwide. Financial assistance for cyclone hit Haiti, aid for Nepal, damaged by earthquake, and help for Bangladesh reeling under the Rohingya refugees crisis are a few instances of IEEE help in the past years.
Most of the students of GHSS Kuttamassery are children of parents with middle or low income. It was when their future was rendered uncertain with the loss of study facilities following the flood that the principal of GHSS furnished a list of immediate requirements on the basis of which Dr. Bijoy Antoy Jose, Assistant Professor at Department of Electronics, CUSAT and Secretary of IEEE Kochi region prepared and submitted the detailed proposal to IEEE.
