In 2013, FICA (Federation of India Community Associations) started a new service initiative called Shiksha Daan (Gift of Education). The objective of Shiksha Daan is to get the Indian community more involved in helping with the education and development of the under-privileged in the Greater Cleveland community. Shiksha Daan partners with various education and youth development organizations in the Cleveland area and identify specific opportunities for the Indian community to contribute towards.

They are always looking for members of the community who are willing to give 2-6 hours a week to help with:

• Coaching middle to high school students in developing business plans as part of entrepreneurship education
• Help students develop resume writing and interview skills
• Mentoring 7th and 8th grade students at charter schools to help with high school applications and selection
• Tutoring middle school kids in math, science, english, etc

Here are two videos from Shiksha Daan founder Sanjay Garg explaining the program.

2021 activities update:

•Online tutoring – We continued our online tutoring program with 13 students enrolled in the spring semester and 14 students in the fall semester. The Shiksha Daan volunteers provide one-on-one online tutoring to a student for two hours a week. The focus on the tutoring is to help the students with English and Math literacy and also help them with their homework. The feedback from the parents is that they find the tutoring very helpful for their children and the students are doing better in schools since they started the tutoring with Shiksha Daan. The volunteer tutors have also stated that they enjoy working with the students and seeing them make progress.

•College Now Mentoring – we had 18 Shiksha Daan volunteers serving as mentors for college students. Thirteen of them are currently mentoring students while some are waiting to be assigned a new student for the 2022-23 academic year. The mentors spend 1-2 hours per month interacting with their mentees via e-mail or phone. They enjoy the interaction with the students and helping them succeed in college. Shiksha Daan volunteer Mala Garg was selected to be one of the two College Now Mentors of the Year for 2021.

•Refugee Response – We have 3 volunteers currently serving as mentors in the Refugee Response Youth Mentoring Program which is for students in grades 2 to 8 who are from refugee families settled in the Cleveland area. These mentors spend two hours a week interacting online with the student assigned to them, helping them with school work, English literacy, and emotional development.

•Seeds of Literacy – We have 3 active Shiksha Daan volunteers serving as tutors for adults who are working on completing their high school equivalency diploma. The volunteer tutors spend at least one hour each week doing online tutoring.

•Volunteer Recognition – We were not able to hold our annual volunteer appreciation luncheon again this year due to the COVID situation. However, thanks to one of our generous donors, we were able to provide Amazon gift cards to all our active volunteers as a small token of our appreciation.

If you have an interest in giving back to the community by volunteering for Shiksha Daan, or if you have any questions, please send an e-mail to [email protected].