The teenager Sahaat Poddar (14) who is studying at Indus International School in Bangalore is the founder of RARE TOMORROWS, a charitable cause that is defined by "We Are the Possibility" in creating global citizens through holistic education and exposure.
“The reason I feel for this cause is not just to provide exposure and opportunities but to help build stronger minds, and if even one child can undergo such a transformation like I have with the experience, then as a young citizen, I feel that I've taken a small step towards building a stronger nation” says, Sahaat.
Sahaat, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia, has extensive travel experiences and is also a certified open water scuba diver. Sahaat's mother Akshika Poddar says, “Every weekend as a family, we have been helping underprivileged children of construction workers’ families and we also help an NGO to support the education of these kids.”
Coming from a privileged family, Sahaat always understood the importance of giving back to society through the medium of helping young minds with their extra-curricular activities, There is a community school inside his school campus where he used to meet the kids of these construction workers and helping them get a proper education.
He got inspired by his father to achieve comfort in life by working hard, which in today's world you can achieve only by getting not just proper education but also by participating and learning other valuable things in life and getting equal opportunity.
Sahaat helps 12 kids to follow their dreams by getting them training in activities like cricket, music, instruments, dance; etc. He has enrolled these kids in the computer and music classes where he also learns. These centres have also contributed by giving Sahaat a discounted rate. He does all the work of going to these centres with a Powerpoint presentation and gets these kids enrolled.
“He does not get money from us; rather he sells the shirts from our garment business at a little extra amount and then takes that money. Now he has spoken to many other bigger organisations and people in the industry and raised awareness and money and helps them”, says Akshika.
Sahaat feels that his family has always made sure that he receives holistic education and with the help of that he got opportunities, for instance, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kinabalu and also being certified as an open water scuba diver.
Future plans? “I wanted to put my education to good use not just by getting money from the family and helping or just by getting money from others; I want people to understand the importance of equal chances so I am doing this to educate the mass that we can provide a chance to others to get opportunities through holistic education. My friends now are also helping a few kids to achieve their dreams by helping them learn more”, says, Sahaat.
Sahaat doesn't want to take many kids under him as he may not be able to help so many and so he is sticking with the 12 kids out of whom four are
children of domestic workers, security head and driver.
