Ekal Vidyalaya hosted a musical fundraiser on May 13, 2023 at the Cameron Middle School in Framingham to raise funds for the underprivileged living in very rural remote areas. Anuradha Palakurthi was awarded the Ekal Ratna award for her contribution to Ekal with the beautiful creation of the Apna Ekal Song. The event was a first for President Manisha Jain who put together an impeccable show. 

The event opened with a welcome note by Manisha Jain who said with Ekal she really had found a purpose to her life. An educator herself, she felt there was nothing more important than bringing education and empowerment to those in need. Dr. Subra Dravida the President of Ekal USA addressed the audience and talked about how Ekal is now expanding its programs to include digital literacy, health and skill training to bring Integrated Village Development to rural areas. 

Ekal Youth Leaders under the leadership of Anu Upneja presented the Apna Ekal Hoga Na song created by Anuradha Palakurthi. Anuradha was presented the “Ekal Ratna” award for her unwavering support of Ekal and her unique musical contribution to Ekal. Prashanth and Anuradha talked about the impact Ekal is creating. "I received a letter from an Ekal school where a 39 year old mom said that she is also now learning to read and write along with her daughter." It was a touching story. Prashanth and Anuradha’s speech deeply touched the audience.  Ashok Arora, President of Ekal India presented the award to Anuradha. 

The event was supported through the sponsorship of Sanjay and Neela Shah and Rajiv and Priti Dayal. Maya Grill generously donated all the snacks for the event. Manju Sheth founder of Women Who Win donated roses to be giving to all the mothers in the audience in honor of Mother’s Day.

The musical program by Vishwanath Batunge and group was magical and  kept the audience very entertained. During the break, Ranjani Saigal, Executive Director gave detailed presentation on Ekal’s program. ‘Ekal runs at a very low cost due to the tremendous number of volunteers involved in the effort. Each 1$ donated by the donor is matched by $8 of volunteer time' said Ranjani. Support for 10,000 children in 300 schools was raised. 

Photo Booths and Vendor tables made a lovely social space for people who thoroughly enjoyed the concert. It was the first Ekal event under the leadership of Manish Jain who led the event beautifully. A large team of volunteers were involved in putting the event together. Kudos to the team for pulling off a successful event. 

Ekal Team 

Anil & Ranjani Saigal

Subra & Anu Dravida

Myank & Manisha Jain

Latha & Krishnan

Manorama Choudhury

Srilakshmi Srinivasan

Amrit & Raksha Soni

Manisha Kumar

Prerna & Anyanya Mathur 

Nisha & Virender Bawa 

Arun & Anuradha Upneja

Pushpa & Namdev Bhaskaran 

Sumedha Joshi 

Jayashree  Venkataraman

Chhavi & Anupam Misra 

Sangeet Srikanth

Rekha Palriwala 

Harshal & Vrushali Tole 

Meena & Apurva Mehta

Anjali Agarwal

Anu Chetty 

Sohum & Ruchi Chauhan

Monika Manocha Wadhwa 

Rishi & Niti Kapoor 

Aakarsh 

Divya Khamsera

Geena Virmani 

Lata Narayanan

Ammara’s Photography