One of Asha’s brightest students, Mahesh, joined Macquarie Global Finance Services, India yesterday.
Having completed his Engineering Degree from the Delhi Technological University (DTU), Mahesh is well on his way to achieve his dream of living a life of dignity and moving out of the slum one day.
Mahesh’s father passed away when he was very young. His mother earns barely £80/$115 a month, sorting grain by hand in a general store. His fate to a life of poverty would have been sealed but for the happy chance of him joining the Asha children’s group at the age of 8. The team quickly identified his exceptional academic ability. Throughout his education, Dr Kiran encouraged him to study hard.
When he was in high school, Asha arranged for him to be admitted to a private school. Asha also helped Mahesh to attend a coaching course in preparation for the national engineering exam. He performed well enough to gain admission to DTU, one of India’s top engineering colleges, with an acceptance rate of just 0.1%.
This was followed by a series of internships at Rio Tinto (4 weeks in 2012), Bharti Airtel (4 weeks in 2012) and Macquarie Global Finance Services (16 weeks in 2014). Despite strenuous academic requirements, Mahesh also continued to promote Asha’s cause of higher education in his slum.
Today, Mahesh is a role model for many young people in his community. His success only exemplifies that no limits are out of bounds for those who are determined to make their dreams a reality.
