Date: May 6th, 2010 Place: Nightingales Trust (Sandhya Kirana) Agenda: Visit the day care centre for underprivileged senior citizens. Participate in their daily activities and help in working out a marketing strategy for their hand-made products.
Sandhya Kirana has about 60 senior citizens, of which 50+ are ladies. They stay at a walking distance from the trust. After breakfast every morning (that is taken care of with the money received from donations) they spend the morning at the tasks assigned to them. This would mean making plates/cups/pens/candles/jewellery/doormats. They break for lunch, which is provided by Iskcon's Akshaya Patra programme and then they resume their work until four, when they get back home. Every Saturday, they are paid a small token amount, based on their output.
Having someone to talk to and to share one's thoughts, is the need of the day
Even in despair, we seek each other's company and create happiness
The lady on the right said "We come into this earth alone and when we go from here also we are alone. Only in between in a temporary phase, we have someone for company.... what do you say, am I correct?" "Absolutely!" is all I could say.
From the attitude, it is very clear that they haven't given up
This lady weaving a mat, is 70 years old and the eldest here. She's from Nellore. She speaks Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and a little bit of English. "My daughter-in-law works, I have a grand daughter who goes to school, I don't have a son you know... " she says as she smiles sadly. It was very touching.
This is the machine with which plates and cups are made from the bark of the arecanut tree. This gentleman is trying to fix the wires as the hot-plate isn't working. "We have 2-3 hour power-cuts daily. It becomes such a problem" he remarks.
Spread the word and make a difference ~ There is a lack of basic amenities at the trust. They need financial help ~ For the products made, there is a need for a steady market. Awareness is key here ~ The trust also provides medical facilities including dementia treatment. They need support
August 12th was the day of my Community Team Work (CTW) this year. 70 Children + Teachers + 20 volunteers = A Big group to handle and a lot responsibility. It took a lot of effort from my co-team captain (my good friend and namesake) and my side to plan, organize and execute the project. It helped us discover that we were brilliant together :D jokes apart it made us aware of our great planning and organization skills.
Our Planets - Was the project. We were to take the children from the slum school to the planetarium. More details here... 2 months before the project we had made calls to enquire show time/ticket price/availability only to be told that the Planetarium would be closed on that particular day. That gave us enough time to reach out to all the parties involved (volunteers, project manager, charity) and re-schedule the project. The show at the planetarium show was for an hour. Next round planning of revolved around what activities we could have for the children after the show. We wanted to make it fun and also a learning experience. Based on the age groups, we had planned for a quiz, painting and street play activities. Street play - was a request from the charity. The older girls being very talented did not get a chance to perform and be appreciated so this was an opportunity for them.
4 days before the actual project, swine flu panic spread like crazy. Volunteers were now worried. We faced a lot of questions on what precautions we were taking, if the children would be checked for illness before they were sent with us etc. Contacting the internal wellness centre, we understood that it would be best to cut short the project. Having the many children in an enclosed space for a long time would only increase the risk. We spoke to the charity and expressed the concern and told them to ensure that any child with even the slightest sign of cold/cough should not be sent on the trip. Again, change in plans - meeting held, everyone made aware that the project was being cut short. Not all the volunteers were happy with this. Cutting short the project meant spending lesser time with the children, but we had no choice :(
August 12th: We left from office after breakfast in 2 buses. We had to pick-up points for the children and teachers. We made most use of the time we had in the bus to interact with the children and ensure they had a good time. T planetarium was a real hit with the children. They had never witnessed anything like that before. When initially the lights went out and the tiny stars started peeping out, they were so thrilled that they started clapping and hooting :) Every new picture displayed was followed by a WOOOOW. Was such good fun being a part of this :) After the planetarium show we spent time with them in the playground outside, as they ran around and screamed their heads out :D We then headed back to the YWCA centre where all of us had lunch together. One group here (from one bus) lost its way and took time to reach, by the time we'd served lunch to the younger kids. Less space, well managed... thanks to lost directions? :D The children were thrilled with the trip, the teachers were happy, the YWCA members were glad that the children had such a good time ~ most of all it was a satisfying experience for all of us. Though just for a day, however small it may have been... we had made a difference.
Location: Kader Sheriff Garden (garden being a misnomer) Mission: To plan community work for the betterment of the slum children Mission partner: YWCA Team: Yet to be decided
We (here I mean the firm) are partnering with YWCA for the first time this year to be involved in some of their projects and help out in every possible way. Every year when its time for community work, I choose to be a volunteer, however this time I decided I'd take part in the planning and organising as well. As a part of the team captaincy, I got a chance to meet up with the board of members of YWCA. This was a very sweet and enriching experience. There were in all about 12-15 ladies, well past their middle ages - former principals, professors, college founders who have come together with an aim to make a difference. Listening to each of them speak about their experiences was just so motivating.
The YWCA Bangalore project list among many things includes: ~ A lower primary school in the KS Garden slum ~ Day care centre for young children ~ Free computer course for girls from low income families ~ Leadership training for women from diverse backgrounds ~ Learning centres, hostel facilities, free counselling sessions The list thus goes on....
Since our project mainly has to do with the slum children, we drove up to KS Garden. We could have reached the school from the main road but we wanted to walk through the slum to see for ourselves - the slum-dwellers' way of life. This slum has about 1700 families living together in such pathetic conditions. No proper housing, no good sanitation facilities, hardly any space to even walk, dodging and ignoring all the dirt and the filth. What would life be living in such a condition. I again reiterate the fact that we take too many things for granted in life. In comparison to such a life in the slum - we are all so much better off, yet we complain about mundane and trivial things. We reached the school which had just 2 rooms. Room = 4 walls, no proper lights. There are two blackboards on opposite walls of the class. Half the children face one board, while the other half have their back turned towards the other board. Thus 2 classes are conducted simultaneously in the same room. The other room for the older children was even more dingy with no light at all. Despite all things - one thing to be noted is the smile that all the children had on their faces, the jest with which they answered our questions and their dreams of making it big in life. Their lives revolve around the slum, they have no clue of the evil that awaits them in the outside world, but they have it in them to become 'somebody'.
Once we had visited the two facilities, we started planning our work. It would mainly involve: ~ Moral education classes for the children ~ Basic health and hygiene lessons ~ Personality development and other useful tips for the older children ~ A day excursion to the planetarium.
The basic plan has been drawn - the hows, the whats, the how manys are yet to be decided. This should be a real good experience.
"Blame not laziness for the lack of (blog) updates, blame instead time - or rather the lack of it" Who ever said this, must be really wise :) The last few weeks have been like a marathon race. Day after day, with no count of hours - not too sure where it is all heading. 'It' in this case, being life. So here's 'what was' and 'what is'... from the last few weeks:
Kenny G concert: Two musicians whom I consider Gods of music - Yanni and Kenny G. I would do (almost) anything see them perform live. When I heard that Kenny G was performing in Bangalore, my first reaction was woo-hoo! Only then did I see that the tickets were priced at 2K and 3K. It was really hard to convince any my friends to join me, considering the ticket price and also that the concert was on a Monday evening. After not too much thinking, I decided that I was going no matter what, just had to find some company. As a last resort I had to force my brother to come along... I even had to buy him a ticket :) Venue - UB City: For those of you who are not too familiar with the Bangalore skyline (If I can call it that) UB city is an office/shopping space which has one of its buildings shaped like the Empire State building. Google should be able to provide some images. Sponsor - Blackdog - I didn't know until recently that this was a brand of whiskey. Everyone at the concert was offered complimentary drinks. Whiskey with Mango juice/Apple juice were weird combos I thought. But when its free, it just doesn't matter... now does it? The music - The concert started with Kenny playing while he walked amongst the crowds. In Mumbai, I heard he walked right from the last row up to the stage, but the Bangalore venue was not equipped for this sort of free movement. The play list for the evening included many of the popular songs Havana, This moment, Songbird to name a few. He also played a few pieces from his new album Rhythm & Romance, an album with a Latino flavor, he said Kenny also gave a demo on how he plays really long notes. The technique he explained was to inhale and exhale simultaneously. That of course would take a lot of practice. He demonstarted this by placing the mike near his nose, where we could hear him take in short breaths while he continuously blew into his sax. Its was a lovely evening, enchanting music, amazing lighting and acoustic effects... totally worth it!
"Story time for children" was the project that I signed up for as a part of community work this year. Me being me, love any activity that involves children. Only after initial visit to the trust, did we realize that the 'children' here were between age groups 4 and 19. We broke up the children into 4 groups based on their age and planned out age-specific activities. Another group had already organised fun and cultural activities for these kids, so we thought we'd make it a day of learning. The topics ranged from stories/songs, environmental awareness, greatness of India... to resume writing/career counseling for the elder kids.
One of the charts that I prepared
I have interacted with children from various other trusts, but these children were a just a class apart. They were outgoing, not shy, good in English and their confidence factor was the highlight. The Ashwini Charitable Trust takes care of not only the monetary requirements of the kids but also provides the guidance required for the overall development of the kids until they get employed. The kids at the trust are first generation literates, with mothers work as house maids and their fathers are unskilled laborers. There were two or three girls who were doing their B.Com from St Joseph's College. The way the children are molded by the trust, they do not find it very difficult to mingle with other children and the best part is that one of these girls has consistently topped her class in college :)
Collage on pollution
Drawing competition
It was a great learning experience, spending the day with the children. Once a year doesn't make too much sense. Already on my life's to-do list... let's see what more can be done.
Surprise visitor: Stranger from a distant planet, Mars - so it may seem No time to meet during the day, T'was not a part of the scheme Zoom over for coffee, vrooom and call it a walk Glad, we got a chance to meet, Though not enough time to talk :)
The evening weather: The weather in the evenings has been fantastic over the last couple of days. After the scorching heat during the day, the evening showers considerably bring down the temperature. Considering the fact that one is locked up indoors the entire day, going out and enjoying the lovely evening breeze by way of a short walk (or a longer one, if time permits) or just some time spent on the terrace listening to music - I understand, can do wonders :)
On the work front: No comments except for @$%#&
Let me use a quote that I read recently and liked a lot, to end this post.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go"
so... time to start thinking and deciding now. Happy Weekend!
23rd May 07 was the day of my CTW (Community Team work) project this year. The project I had chosen this time was in relation to Rakum Blind School.
Our project was to buy provisions and vegetables for the school. We were to buy about 700 kgs of rice and 50 kgs of vegetables. We were 12 volunteers for this project. We decided that rather than all of us spending the day shopping, we'd split up such that 1/2 of us went shopping and the other 1/2 went and spent quality time with the children. So, 6 of the volunteers went shopping, the rest of us went to the school.
We reached the school at 9 AM. There were about 150 children there. 30-40 of them were below 12 years and of the remaning we even had 2 students who's given their IAS exam. We started off by giving our introductions, telling the children who we were and why we were there. We then had our breakfast along with the children.
Then it was time for activities to begin. We split the children into 2 groups, based on their age groups. For the small children we had got clay and the first activity was to help them create their clay masterpieces.
For the older children we had the activity of "know your partner better". We paired off the children and gave them a minute to get to know their partner - who they were, where they were from, what thier interests were... Then each of the children got an opportunity to introduce their partner. Initial there was a lot of hesitation to speak out into the microphone, but once we started off, they did a great job. There were a few who were not comfortable speaking in English, so we encouraged them to speak in the language of their choice.
Then it was time for some singing. Man! are these children talented of what! By then, the rest of the volunteers were back from their shopping adventures. We all had lunch together.
Then the music teachers from the school gave their performance.
We had the Master of Mimicry, the Hindustani teacher and Carnatic teacher each give their performance...
We then had a quiz competition for the children. We were amazed by the knowledge of the children in not just their school syllabus but also current events. They knew their trivia well, be it Narain Karthikeyan or Sunita Williams.
By the time we finished, it was snack time....and even before we realised, it was time to leave.
Before leaving, we met Mr. Rakum, the founder of the school. It takes a lot of courage, patience, perseverence and a good heart to run such an institution. God bless the likes of Mr. Rakum.
June 20th, the date was marked on my calendar. It was the day of our community work. Our project this time was to take under privileged children to the Parle biscuit factory and the planetarium. The children were from “Acts of Hope”, a school run by an NGO for children whose parents cannot afford to educate them, though they are eager to.
As per our schedule, we reached office at 7:15, only to find that they would not serve breakfast until 8:00. (Hm… could have woken up half an hour later… I thought to myself. I’m sure everyone else also had similar thoughts) After breakfast we left office in 2 buses. The school is near Sarjapur. Thanks to the peak hour traffic, it took us an hour to reach there. The children were very excited to see us. The 50 children we were supposed to take out, were from classes 2 and 3. Not too small that we had to baby sit them, and not too old that we had to discipline them – just the right age We also had 8 teachers coming with us. They were only coming along because it was a fun trip for them.
Once on the bus, the kids were asked to introduce themselves while we distributed sandwiches, then started the singing session. Initially no one volunteered to sing, but once someone started singing, the whole gang would join in and scream at the top of their voice. The Parle Factory is near Peenya, so it took us a good 2 hours to reach. We walked up and down hundres of stairs in the viewing gallery to watch how biscuits were made. In the end, they played a short animation summarising the manufacture process. I personally thought the trip to the factory was a waste of time. All that it did was make us tired and hungry. We now had to go to Cubbon Park, the caterers would get there with hot lunch. As soon as we reached the park, the children forgot how tired and hungry they were and ran to play. We literally had to drag them, make them stand in a queue to get lunch. As soon as they finished lunch they went back to their games.
At around 3:45 we set off to the planetarium. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. But since it was in English, I’m not to sure how much the kids could follow. I especially loved the part where everything goes pitch black… all you can see is the twinkling stars… fantastic! After the show, we distributed snacks and juice to the kids and then headed back to the school. We reached the school only after 7. We then gave rain coats to all the kids. When we were all set to leave, the kids in one voice screamed out “thank you aunty, thank you uncle” . Then they came to shake each one of our hands and say thank you. That was really touching. By the time we got on to the bus, we were completely exhausted. All we wanted to do was get back home. We reached office at around 8 and then went our own ways. That was a very nice experience!
31st of May… I’d been waiting for this day for a couple of months now. It was day when I was to participate in the community team work organised by our office. It was a tough choice I had to make between spending a day at an old age home and spending a day with under privileged children. After a lot of deliberation, I chose the latter. "Baale" is the name of the school that we were visiting. It is run by an NGO called Paraspara Trust. Here, girl children from the slums aged between 7 and 14, whose parents cannot afford to educate them, are taken care of. The children living here are given basic education and also taught means of earning their livelihood. There are close to 60 children here. 30 between 7 and 10 years and about 30 from 10 to 14 years of age. 13 of us had volunteered to go to Baale on the 31st to spend the day with the children, conducting games and competitions for them. We started out from office, after having breakfast at 8.45. We were carrying with us food for the children, prizes for them and also lots of old clothes which they were very much in need of. The school is 25 kms from Yashwanthpur so the journey took close to 2.5 hours (thanks to the traffic and bad road conditions) during which we played Antakshari and a very hilarious round of dumb charades. On reaching the school, we saw the children eagerly waiting for us, all dressed up and ready to perform for us. We first distributing sandwiches to the kids and with breakfast done, it was time for the fun and frolic to begin. We started off with the dance competitions. Half way through Dhoom (which was the first song they were dancing to), the battery of the tape recorder ran out, so we moved over to the drama competition. The 1st play which they enacted, depicted the difficulties rural girl children faced. The next one was a comedy drama revolving round an insane doctor and the third and last one was another comedy about a deaf family. Next in line were the games. We conducted lemon and spoon race, sack race and also had a round of musical chair. By the time we finished with the games, it was close to 1pm- time for lunch. The kids patiently waited for everyone to get their plates loaded, recited a prayer and only then did they start eating. A few of us volunteers, being early lunch goers, were famished by then, so we too loaded our plates and hogged away to glory along with the kids. Right after lunch we had the drawing competition. While most of them drew sceneries and made them really colourful, some of the kids had amazing themes for their drawings. One girl’s theme was unity of religions. Another had drawn 2 girls, one in school uniform and the other one in working garb -- with "send this girl to school" neatly scrawled in kannada next to it. We were really amazed by their talents. In the meantime , someone had gone and got the battery charged up, so we could go ahead with the dance competition, this time without any breaks. How much these kids had practiced! They never seemed to tire out at all. They pulled all of us also to dance with them. It was really good fun! It was close to 4pm. We distributed chocolates, fruits and juice to the kids. Then was the official prize distribution ceremony. We’d seen to it that all the children won prizes for something or the other. After all…. we weren’t there to judge them, only to cheer them and encourage them. When we started to pack up and leave all the kids came to us, shook our hands said sweet thank you-s and asked us if we’d be coming the next day also. Sadly we wouldn’t be going there the next day, another group of volunteers were going there to build a playground in the school. So we promised them that we’d try to come and see them when ever we could. An entire day spent with kids, I personally learnt so much from them. Seeing these kids, the love, affection, enthusiasm they had, even though they faced so many problems in life at such a young age – made me realise that life wasn’t just about school, college and work. It was about people, challenges, efforts, perseverance and the ability to have a big smile on your face and laugh out loud even though you weren’t sure if tomorrow you would even have any food to eat or clothes to wear. Little angels they were and they definitely made our day very memorable (though it was supposed to be the other way round). I now gladly look forward to the same time next year, when we’ll again get to do something similar
Even in despair, we seek each other's company and create happiness
The lady on the right said "We come into this earth alone and when we go from here also we are alone. Only in between in a temporary phase, we have someone for company.... what do you say, am I correct?" "Absolutely!" is all I could say.
This lady weaving a mat, is 70 years old and the eldest here. She's from Nellore. She speaks Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and a little bit of English. "My daughter-in-law works, I have a grand daughter who goes to school, I don't have a son you know... " she says as she smiles sadly. It was very touching.
good job buddy...
hats off..