https://csim.in/conversations/Conversations-July2013.pdf

The Loyola Outreach Programme (formally known by its abbreviation, LEARN) was a module that first began in Loyola College, in 2001, when a process of re-structuring began making its presence felt on an academic level. Incidentally, this was the year when the college began seeing the full potential of its autonomy — a status that it was granted back in 1978. Post-2001, syllabi saw a great deal of modification and modernization, even as teaching modules were also given a facelift. “It was around this time that the college felt that a lot needed to be achieved on the social front, as well,” says Dr Bernard D’Sami, who is today, director of the Outreach department of Loyola College. “Until this time, our postgraduate students had a sense of social awareness thanks to their outreach module, LEAP,” he continues, “But our UG students didn’t exactly have this kind of exposure.” It was then, not more than 12 years ago, that it was decided that undergraduate students of the institution also needed to be given a social edge to the kind of academic credentials they derived by way of an education at Loyola College.

Thus began a journey that is today, stronger than ever before. Loyola’s Outreach programme is indeed a module that has gone from strength to strength, to become an element of the college’s holistic approach to education. “What many of us felt was simply the fact that what the student learnt in class was for his head,” says Dr D’Sami, “But they needed something more. In fact, they needed something for the heart.”

Loyola’s Outreach objectives are fairly simple. The aim was easier to comprehend. “Change the society around you,” Dr D’Sami, “That’s what we intended to do. With the aid of the Corporation and Slum Clearance Board.  Loyola outreach worked closely with the State Resource Centre and many other government agencies.    We identified close to four localities that were in need of our help. We began sending students to aid teachers of corporation schools in these areas; in due course we extended our help towards those deserving students in need of home tuitions.” But that is not all. The Outreach programme even goes about doing its bit in the promotion of women’s empowerment by way of rehabilitation of widows, and even in aiding day-care centres. The areas that are selected include Choolaimedu, Chetpet, Kodambakkam and Nungambakkam. “We did not want to engage localities that were far from the college. We were conscious of possible travel constraints are students might face and thus decided to lend a helping hand in small way, in the areas that were around us,” says D’Sami.

In all, the Outreach department has an eight-member faculty that oversees the running of the department throughout the college. This staff is aided by internal faculty in each department, who are entrusted with monitoring its respective department’s participation in the day-to-day activities of the Outreach department. “Our structure has helped us achieve our goals and objectives,” says D’Sami. These goals, of course, include social awareness and more importantly, the need to develop a sense of pride around this social awareness. “The students of Shift One go about their outreach activity after college hours, while our Shift Two students get to class once they finish their outreach programme,” D’Sami explains. In fact, nearly 40 to 50 deserving students in benefactor schools are identified and provided help with regard to admission and scholarships in Loyola College.

Bernard D’Sami feels that the biggest achievement of the Outreach department, among its many achievements, is the attitudinal change that it has imbibed in its participants. “One day, our former principal Rev Dr Albert Muthumalai was overseeing a disciplinary committee hearing, after the committee had ordered the suspension of a few students over indiscipline,” he recalls, “After calling for a meeting with the boys’ parents, Father had ordered their suspensions one by one. At the end of this meeting, one student refused to leave his office and wore a sad look on his face. Father, quite impatiently, asked him why he hadn’t left his presence yet. The student replied, ‘I don’t mind being suspended, Father. But let me complete my outreach hours.’ The boy explained how despite his suspension, his students at a Corporation school nearby would wait for him to arrive, twice every week. He couldn’t afford to fail them, his suspension notwithstanding. In fact, Father Muthumalai often recalled this incident while dwelling on the kind of attitudinal change that Outreach has brought to the college.” Principal of Loyola College,  has himself served as Director of the Department of Outreach for the last four years.  He gave visibility and recognition to this programme, thus underlining the importance that the college has attached to the functioning of the department.

Perhaps the greatest story of the programme has been the great success that its flagship project, Give Life Café, has been met with. As part of an innovative and first-of-its-kind initiative, the Outreach department inaugurated a high-end cafeteria and bakery on campus, which provided employment to deserving students before or after college hours. Chennai Mission, an NGO founded by Mr. M. Mahadevan of Hot Breads donated the machinery and infrastructure for this cafeteria and offered training to students in baking and confectionary making. In fact, the proceeds from business at Give Life Café went into funding education needs of children of widows who live in the slums nearby.

No surprises then, that when the Give Life cafeteria was inaugurated in 2008, the kind of reception that it got from the student community was nothing short of staggering. Cold coffees, burgers, Calzones and even flavour-filled milkshakes find pride of place on the menu. Even today, the patronage that Give Life enjoys, is an aspect of its functioning that truly deserves special mention.

On future plans of the Outreach department, D’Sami is hopeful of taking social service to the next level. “We’ve identified a few slums that require our help, and with them we’ve also identified numerous societal issues that call for our attention. Our aim of course, stays the same: to bring about a change in our environment,” he says. Interestingly, another objective on the agenda is extending the Give Life initiative that the Outreach Department introduced in 2008, to an even bigger avatar.” However, through it all, one factor has stayed the same: the need to give back to society, and in doing so, upholding the mission, vision and principles of Loyola College.