Six month’s Report: Small Contributions can make a Big Difference

Rajeev Kumar is Umran’s Founder and Managing Director. Under his leadership, Umran has been able to successfully introduce seven programmes that benefited nearly a thousand people and counting in a short span of a few months during the ongoing pandemic. The UMRAN team connected people from villages, cities not just from India but from various countries across the world. Now, we have a network of volunteers working with us along with a management team of 18 dedicated and qualified people from India and abroad.

UMRAN is a concept. It is a philosophy of wisdom that is being developed into a set of cultures, which will encourage a communicative society & inspire humanity towards peace and prosperity via a unique education process that re-imagines the material world & gives value & respect to the environment.

Umran Green School is another project under its ambit that is under construction in Madhubani, Bihar (India). The word ‘UMRAN’ is inspired from Ibn Haldun’s concept of Umran that envisions holistic development at every level of individual and societies. Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus School is another strong inspiration in the conception of Umran.

Our achievements so far-

1. Free Summer Language Program:

We started with small activities along with the idea of building a library in my hometown, Bihar. But Covid-19 pandemic gave a new shape to our activities and thus our first big project became the International Summer language Program. It is an intensive A1 level Language Course of 12 weeks. We offered 6 languages to candidates willing to learn them by connecting them to 12 qualified native language speakers who took the role of teachers. Two teachers were arranged for each language course. We received more than 150 applications from all over the world, including my hometown and other marginalized areas of Bihar. In the beginning, I personally called my friends, relatives, villagers for their children and former neighbours and explained to them how to access this online education.

This way the marginalized students were able to receive quality education in a culturally-diverse environment as they were interacting and learning languages and engaging in cultural immersion for the first time with students from various parts of Latin America, India, Turkey, Iran, Germany, Pakistan, the USA, Albania, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. Almost ninety language enthusiasts benefited from the program. This was one of the first successful projects of UMRAN. It concluded with a convocation where we distributed certificates to fifty students  and twelve course teachers.

2. Weekly Cultural Program

We designed the Language Program in tandem with the Cultural Program, which brings together scholars, teachers, students, musicians and even professors for an hour every Tuesday where they discuss topics which engage them culturally. Professor Bruce Lawrence from the USA, Professor Vahdatin İşik and Professor Felix Ceballos participated in this program as presenters and gave their utmost appreciation and support to UMRAN. This cultural program will always be a part of UMRAN’s educational system as it shows the true spirit of UMRAN. Students and members of UMRAN are expected to join the weekly cultural program as it follows the core principles of UMRAN, which is to connect people across the world on a cultural level. The cultural event consists of an open talk. We encourage participation from all whether they are associated with UMRAN or not.

Participants, from India, Turkey, Mexico, Albania, the US, Spain, El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Germany, Gambia, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Iran, at this platform not only learn languages but also foster mutual understanding through direct interaction leading to strong empathetic and amicable bonds with each other resulting in a global family.

3. Personality Development Course for Sambhal:

This project was a two-month program in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India. Students were from classes 9 to 12, in collaboration with Sahyl Study Point Sambhal. The purpose of this program was to provide them quality interaction, motivation and knowledge. For this, UMRAN set up weekly lectures from international guests and a trainer. Out of sixty, thirty-two students were selected through a certain process. UMRAN arranged for 3 coordinators for this program. This project concluded with a certificate distribution ceremony and is considered a success in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.

4. Online International Internship Program during Pandemic –

We organized an online International Internship Program. This program offered training in areas like project management, content writing, web development, understanding of sciences and intercultural studies with highly qualified trainers. Eighteen selected students were divided into two groups for a final project.

Group A designed a project called “Agro Awareness” which will work together with farmers to educate them on schemes provided by the government and ways to access the schemes and the methods to accomplish better marketing in the field of agriculture. UMRAN believes that this will reduce the suicide rate in farming sector and grant farming the status that it deserves as a respectable profession in society.

Group B successfully completed and presented the final project under supervision of Leena Thawani (Psychologist, India), Fatou Jobe (Project Coordinator, Gambia), Payal Priya (PhD Scholar at JNU, India) and R Sachin Kumar (Webultrasolution, India). Group B introduced the project of Mental Helath Support, which allowed free counselling sessions targeted towards students, housewives, middle aged and working individuals, which will reduce suicide rate among students as well as domestic violence in society. Counselling shall also be provided to vulnerable newly married women and working professionals to reduce stress.

5. Second Batch of Language Program

For the second batch, UMRAN offered 12 languages including three Indian languages such as Urdu, Hindi & Sanskrit along with French, German, Turkish, Chinese, Spanish, English, Portuguese, Arabic & Persian. This time we had 25 international teachers. We received more than 300 applications out of which 130 international students were selected through three stages: written application, test and interview. Furthermore, we connected with children to whom we provided English learning and storytelling programs, which helped them during these stressful times. We successfully completed this project as well.

6. Akaunha Education Project and SLY Library –

Akaunha is a small village in Bihar, located on the border of India and Nepal with a total of 2000 households and 4000 children. The literacy rate in Akaunha village is below 20%. Due to lack of education, children are involved in illegal activities, which has impacted their education and lifestyle negatively. Hence, we have decided to work for the educational needs of the village and for the sake of the future of the children.

UMRAN initiated this project by doing a survey and this research work shows that there is only 1 primary school and two madrasas for 4000 children most of whom do not even attend school. The school itself has had only 2 teachers (at govt. school) since 1987 with little improvement.

For the Akaunha education project, 12 volunteers along with local hospitals of the village have decided to work for the educational development of the village. UMRAN wants to improve the literacy level of the village. Its aim is to build a library for the children which will not only house books,  but it will be symbolic that it will bring people together to mutually support each other’s artistic and cultural engagements.

7. Tow-days International online Symposium:

Along with professors from Bogota University & Ibn Haldun University, we drafted a symposium program topic “Exploring ‘Identity’ through Culture, Literature and History” for the coming winter vacation. We are in process to organize this symposium in collaboration with Bogota University and Ibn Haldun University. It is our hope that this program will add to the rich repertoire of cultural and academic activities conducted by UMRAN.