When Wali Rahmani, 25, appealed for crowdfunding to establish a quality school for poor children last week, he received overwhelming response. In the last six days, he has been able to collect donation of Rs 6 crore out of Rs 10 crore that he has planned for.
– Mohd Naushad Khan
Wali Rahmani, a youth from West Bengal has in a unique way crowdfunded Rs 6 crore in just six days for his proposed English-medium school for the marginalized and underprivileged students.
When Wali Rahmani, 25, appealed for crowdfunding to establish a quality school for poor children last week, he received overwhelming response. In the last six days, he has been able to collect donation of Rs 6 crore out of Rs 10 crore that he has planned for.
Rahmani, who had planned to establish an English-medium school in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, was unable to accomplish his dream project due to shortage of funds.
Thereafter he recorded his appeal on a video, asking for donation. The video clip soon went viral and became talk of the town, nay the country.
“Out of 20 crore Muslims in our country, I am requesting to 10 lakh Muslims only. If they all can donate only Rs 100 each, I would be able to collect Rs 10 crore,” he said in the video message.
Rahmani has been harboring the dream of building a huge English medium school for the last three years for better education of the children of poor class. That’s why he has named his school Umeed Academy. The construction work of the school is going on and currently the Umeed Academy is running in a rented house, in which 300 children are studying; 1500 children are waiting for admission in the school, but there is no space.
Wali Rahmani’s work has earned him recognition and respect and people have come forward to sponsor the students in whatever way they can. One generous donor has donated 2 Acre (87120 square feet) of land to Umeed Academy worth Rs 2 Crore. Wali has plans to construct fully functional hostels on the land for students with separate dormitories for boys and girls, a housing facility for the staff members and a campus which can accommodate approximately 600-700 students at once.
The construction work has started and the cost of the entire project has been approximated at Rs 13.5 crores. Wali intends to complete this work within the next two years and requests donations for his lofty mission through donations.
