How a creator from Bihar raised ₹10 lakh for a tiny school in Sikkim

India Today

Watch how Ashwani Thapa, a creator from Bihar, connected with children at a remote school.

Transcript

00:00Next period, class 4 was sitting on the left side.

00:03That's Ashwini Thapa.

00:06Because of the lack of rooms.

00:08A guy from Bihar who met these kids at Grace Academy.

00:11It's a tiny school in Sikkim, Sardom.

00:13For 30 days, I was going to study here.

00:15Months later, he raised 10 lakh rupees for those same children.

00:18I thought that there were 20,000 views in each video.

00:21But it would be 1-2 lakhs.

00:22A little kid's idea is that if you tell them to sit down,

00:26then you'll be sitting in the entire period.

00:27Six months earlier, he had applied to volunteer there,

00:35but never made the trip.

00:36This time, when he did...

00:37For the children of farmers and single mothers,

00:54mountain guide Lakpa Dawashirpa built this school.

00:57He was the current principal of the school.

01:00To keep it running, he left his profession and turned his cottage into a hostel.

01:04I gave him a question.

01:05I was going to study in class.

01:06I was going to study in class.

01:06But I was going to study, Kamal.

01:08No library, no clean water.

01:10In one room, light from a window.

01:12In another, a weak bulb.

01:14Still 80 children filled the benches.

01:16How did computer science work without computer?

01:18Day after day, he filmed it all.

01:20The assembly, muddy little shoes,

01:22the lessons, lunch with the kids.

01:24And always, little Sam Nima, the youngest, with a flower in hand.

01:27I was going to see her face.

01:28I was going to see her face.

01:29I was going to be scared.

01:31When I saw the children of LKG, I was going to be scared.

01:33There were others too.

01:35For me, UKG was okay.

01:37Kids with endless jokes, impossible questions, and dreams bigger than the hills.

01:46His storytelling began three years ago with his YouTube channel, starting as a creative

01:55experiment that eventually drew people in.

01:58And the first video that I made was voiceless, because I was not comfortable with my voice.

02:04Then, he left home for?

02:06Gaining 1 million subscribers on YouTube.

02:08And I won't return home until I do that.

02:11Sometimes, he threw momo parties for a whole village.

02:14Sometimes, he had shared stories like a man digging a pond in Uttarakhand.

02:19Ashwani told the story that needed attention, and now, the school in Sikkim.

02:23Viewers pitched in, another creator joined in, raising 10 lakh rupee for children in a

02:37far-flunged region, enough to build a new school, a computer lab, and a playground.

02:42So, that's how a man from Bihar transformed a school, and…

02:51And thanks for watching me on more.

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