(Above) Krishna Choppara of Young ChangeMakers donating Chrome Books to Mr. Paul Bailey, Principal, Woodward Park Middle School.

June 23, 2020 -- The Young Changemakers of NorthSouth is a subgroup of the North South foundation created in April of 2019. The North South Foundation is a completely volunteer-based Non-Profit Organization that provides opportunities all over the United States and India to create excellence in education from the past 30 years. 

The Young Changemakers of the NorthSouth is a group of volunteers ranging from grades 5-12 from different parts of the US who strive to bring in positive changes in the community. As a part of the initial program of Young Changemakers of North South, most of these have our own social initiatives at various stages.

(Left) CCS Chief Information Officer Vandhana Veerni and IT Manager Chris Campbell handing over a certificate of appreciation from the Board of Education to Krishna Choppara of Young ChangeMakers.

As the pandemic hit us, these young volunteers have collaborated together to create the “Devices for Underprivileged Students” initiative as they learned of all the students that have not been privileged enough, and with a significant need for equipment to continue effective learning through these trying times. Through this initiative, they plan to provide electronic devices to as many underprivileged students as possible and bring smiles to their faces. 

They started off with this initiative in April 2020 by reaching out to the schools to access the need for personal devices for students. As they received the requests from various schools, they pledged to raise $25,000 through the crowdfunding campaign with an offer from the parent organization for 1:1 match up to $25,000. With the $50,000, they hoped to provide about 460 devices to the schools in need. So far they have identified up to 27 schools so far with a need for more than 1,650 devices. They have currently donated 195 Chromebooks to four schools across the country, including CCS' Woodward Park Middle School. To cater to the needs of more students, they have started reaching out to corporate companies for the contribution to this cause along with the crowdfunding campaign.