Never Give Up-Bihar to Germany & YEF!

Rambabu Sharma

 Founder of Youth Empowerment Foundation

yefindia.org 

If you complain about not having enough resources, the only resource that matters is the same for all ‘TIME’. 

It’s hard to spend your productive hours working as child labour to support your family and still manage to complete education. Early days in Bihar were quite challenging, especially for someone who has come up from a very humble background. My journey started in a remote village of Bihar. I had to learn the word “responsibility’ very early on in my life. To meet the financial constraints in the family I had to take a break from formal education and sell my labour in the markets. As difficult my childhood was, I did not get an easy berth in my youth as well. Getting a good higher education in my village was quite impossible. Leaving Bihar at the age of 14 to come to Delhi was one of the important decisions in my life. To get settled in Delhi I had to work in the factories of Kirti Nagar. But that was not the end of my struggle in Delhi. To support my family and to look after my dad’s treatment I did every odd job which life threw at me. I have worked as a carpenter, office boy, data entry operator etc. at various places to earn better wages and to be able to cater to my family’s living. Despite all the struggles, I always knew that education is the only thing that can give me a platform to stand somewhere in this world and to do better for my family.  I have been a bright student throughout, yet it did not come easy to me but I did fight an equally hard battle to get and reach my goals and aims. Thus I continued my education and my efforts finally paid off when I secured 9th rank in the University entrance exam.  I was awarded a scholarship to pursue my education. Just before my term exams in 2013, I lost my mother, it was a hard blow to me. In 2016 I achieved an engineering degree from NPTI one of the esteemed colleges of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.  

Education paves the road ahead for you.

Currently, I am an Engineer in a German MNC and working with cutting edge technology of Power Generation globally. I have been to Germany and have also traveled the world but as the peak comes with it’s perks, it also has a downside of getting lost in the luxuries of life.  It is important to stay connected to your roots. While I was growing up I did not have any guidance or support of my own, I know there are so many children out there who are brilliant and have the will to study but either they cannot afford education or they are stuck in child labour. I always wanted to give back to society in some or the other way. So in June 2017 when I got a job right after completing my education, I got the opportunity to serve society and I decided to open these centre’s to help children with their education and skills that can change their lives as well. This was the start of YEF (Youth Empowerment Foundation). The reason why the problem of child labour still subsists in India is that we haven’t been able to comprehend or address the issue itself. Just by tackling the issue constitutionally or legally will not solve this problem. In my opinion unless and until we address the root cause of child labour which is poverty, it will continue to exist in our society.   

What I have learned in my life and would like to forward it to the kids is to set goals for themselves because unless and until you dream and aspire you won’t be able to change yourselves or your environment. In this highly competitive world acquiring a skill is also very important. As Steve Jobs has said “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future”. The skill might not immediately help you but I can assure you it will help you at some point in your life. Next, education is a must for all as it opens many doors for you. And when I am talking about education it also includes building a higher Emotional Quotient in the children. Education should just not be materialistic it should imbibe good values in society. 

If we have any talent it’s a gift of God if we use those talents for the welfare of society is our gift to god. –Rambabu Sharma

yefindia.org