Kokilam dreams of becoming an astronaut

Kokilam hails from Kottakudi village of Sivagangai District.  She is a student of grade 3 at the Panchayat Union middle school. Her father works as a daily wage laborer in a rice mill. His annual income is around 300 $ (Rupees 15,000). Most of the villagers are employed as  daily wage laborers  in farming, or rice/cotton mills.

Even though they realize that the quality of education in the government run school leaves a lot to be desired, Kokilam’s parents are constrained to keep her (and her younger sister Narmadha) there since they cannot afford to send her to a private school. When they came to know about the remedial education classes offered by Eureka Superkidz, Kokilam’s mother enrolled her in in them. She has started showing a tremendous improvement in her studies, and has even started speaking a few sentences in English.

Kokilam’s ambition is to become a scientist and her role model is  Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist with NASA. Her mother is indeed proud of Kokilam’s academic improvement and feels satisfied that her labour is bearing fruit in their lives.

Every day that Kokilam attends the After-school classes, takes her a step closer to her dreams.

Thank you Lesley (x2)and Frederic (x2) for coming together to provide a year of after-school classes to Kokilam.