The Profits of a Social Venture
"Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have." Jim Rohn
A community comes together as“cheerful givers” to make a difference in the lives of families living in the slums of India. The profits of this social venture 15 years later are bountiful and shared by both the givers and receivers.
In 2009 Nina Sethi was volunteering as teacher at Project Why, a non profit program improving the lives of underprivileged families living in the slums of Delhi, India. It was there that she met Meher, a 4 year old severely disfigured burn victim. She was shocked at the lack of services available for her in India. She decided to engage Chess Without Borders, a non profit in Barrington, Illinois in the US to help raise funds for medical treatment for her. District 220 Hough School teacher Maggie Gruber and Dr’s Kiran Frey and Pradip Sethi and Brian Gruber, another District 220 alum traveled to India to assess the situation. On their return through Chess Without Borders they raised funds for her reconstructive surgery of her face and hands as well as funds for educating her. 15 years later Meher is a 20 year old excelling academically been admitted to the prestigious Delhi University.
While the chess group continued their association with Project Why young chess players in Barrington grew accustomed to creating service learning projects and decided to start a computer center in the slums at Project Why. Funds were furiously raised for 8 computers and soon 300 students who would never have access to computers were introduced to computer education. The Barrington chess students named the computer center after their teacher Maggie Gruber. While visiting India Maggie and the team met a child named Mitto who was born with no legs and felt sad for his future prospects. However 17 years later 21 year old Mittoo is a hardware expert “I gained my expertise thanks to the computer center”, Mitto said when we visited Project Why a month ago. Mitto now holds a well paid job as a hardware specialist. In addition to other students learning computers there are 4 students who acquired computer skills and qualified for admission to the elite Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. This is an amazing feat as it is very competitive to get into this Institute. Of course their work ethic and drive is commendable. We were lucky to meet these students when we visited Project Why last month.
In the meantime, Project Why and the Barrington community continued a close relationship. A few months later the group of Barrington volunteers decided to start a computer center at Project Why to help with bringing computer literacy to the 300 children being educated at Project Why. Teenagers Austen Murrow, Siddharth Gehlut and Sujit Johnston even traveled to Project Why in Delhi to do an internship there.
After the sudden death of a volunteer, Peter Wulff at the age of 41 the Barrington chess community wanted to honor his legacy by bringing education and employment to marginalized communities. The Peter Wulff Center was created in 2023 to channel youth social entrepreneurship in order to help impoverished families through projects. Each year $7000 is raised to support the Peter Wulff Center. In addition, the center expanded the work at Project Why to create a training program for Tailoring and Beautician courses and improve the computer center. Furious fundraising service projects were created by adult and teenage volunteers. In 2024 a dinner and cooking class by gourmet cook Zein Bertacchi raised $2000 for new computers for the computer center. A private donor donated $2600 for sewing machines.
The mission of the Peter Wulff Center is also to raise youth social entrepreneurs. Service projects are created for local needs. Teenage volunteers, Jack Weed, Krish and Sree Nara, John Dawson and Prabhtej Singh and Prabhgun Kaur actively engage in creating, implementing and raising funds for needy families.
Youth discover and develop their skills as they find ways to raise funds for a variety of local needs. For the last 15 years local non profits and youth sponsor a Christmas lunch for about 150 people. This sponsorship involves collecting items such as winter clothes, toys and gifts for families, marketing, tech support and raising funds. An important aspect of the project for youth volunteers is to learn to work with adults to accomplish goals, understand the challenges and help solve problems that arise during this endeavor. These youth sold Hummus to raise $2500 for families suffering from food insecurity. The funds raised provided a meal at an orphanage for 25 children in Bareilly, India.
Another recent project was to support a chess club at St Leonards Place in Chicago as a part of rehabilitating ex prisoners. Peter Wulff, a gifted teacher for Behaviorally disturbed adolescents was using chess as a therapeutic agent at Riverside Hospital before he died suddenly. However his work is continued at St Leonards Chess Club hoping to gain knowledge and benefit members who attend to develop life skills. https://patch.com/illinois/barrington-il/chess-therapeutic-agent
These teenagers also serve on the Youth Advisory Board of the Peter Wulff Center. This helps them stay invested in advancing the goals of the nonprofit program.
An extraordinary impact of training youth as service leaders was when 31 year old Christopher Majkowski returned to work with volunteers who had supervised him as a 9 year old. With his passion and dedication he organized a fundraiser where some of the funds were also donated to the prison ministry at Outside the Walls. Chris continues to supervise teenage volunteers at the center. Chris has taken on a leadership role as Vice President on the Board of the PWC.
Collaboration with local nonprofit businesses engages volunteers in larger programs and provides access to knowledge, people, cultures and places. A dinner in collaboration with St Annes Catholic Churchfor migrants and refugees or 100 people held last year at Salem United Methodist Church raised $61,000. Teenage volunteers learned to serve, clean, practice hospitality and understand the effort involved in achieving results. The Barrington community was remarkably generous and “enjoyed being served by the young children”, said local resident Tina Kneisel.
The impact of the program is multifaceted at the educational, social, cultural, financial and physical levels. Students have won the highest award for volunteering from the White House and the program since its inception has raised over $331,300 for local and global charities. More at www.peterwulffcenter.org
About 300 students have access to the computer center each year. The impact of introducing children to computers has been “pure joy” says teacher Dharminder. 4 students who learnt computer skills were admitted to the elite Indian Institute of Technology and 21 year old Mitto, born without legs trained himself to become a hardware specialist securing a well paid job. When we visited in 2009 teacher Maggie Gruber and the team were sad about his future with such a severe handicap but this impact of enabling him by providing education at the computer center was profound.
Students are also graduating from the Tailoring and Beautician courses and securing jobs and/or starting their own businesses. 63 students graduated from the Tailoring class and 45 students completed the Beautician courses last year. 300 students use the computer center.
More follow up details of each graduate is at: www.projectwhy.org
Join the enthusiastic multigenerational team at the Peter Wulff Center to contribute in any way possible and watch your investment grow. More at Peter Wulff Center.org