AID Delhi newsletter August 2009
Content
1
Association for India’s Development
Delhi Chapter Newsletter
August 2009
Table of Contents
Editorial
Editorial 1
Project Updates
AID Aashayein 2
AID Gurgaon 3
AID Jaagriti 6
AID Prayas 7
Jamghat 8
Parichay 9
Children’s Corner
ºª| «r|·| ºª| «r|·| ºª| «r|·| ºª| «r|·| - ª|·|| «º|ª| - ª|·|| «º|ª| - ª|·|| «º|ª| - ª|·|| «º|ª| 10
My Painting - Prince 11
Volunteer Speak – Robyn 12
Article
Should a Delhiite dump his/her car
and switch to public transport – Anuj 13
Photo of the Month 14
Contact us 14
It’s always a privilege for me to write an editorial
and meet you all through AID NCR’s newsletter. After
a short break in newsletter we are again back with the
summary of the work done. The updates from the
coordinators will give you a clear insight about the
happenings at the projects. While Jaagriti, Prayas,
Parichay and Jamghat are doing well Aashayein with it’s
revived energy with a set of enthused volunteers are
redefining their path while Gurgaon guys have got
enormous volunteers about whom Munish have
mentioned in the updates. This newsletter also presents
a painting from the painting competition conducted at
project Aashayein, Jaagriti and Gurgaon on the occasion
of Independence Day, in an event called Udaan, in
collaboration with a web based company mywebera. An
inspiring story by Radha from Parichay adds up value to
this edition. Radha is so passionate about teaching and
one day she’ll be one of the best teachers in her locality.
Apart from our regular projects, AID NCR also had
events organized by its volunteers for the I am No Lab
Rat campaign to generate awareness among the people
about the adverse health effects of GM foods. A Brinjal
festival at ST microelectronics is something to mention
about and there were movie screenings organized by
volunteers in different colleges as well. Please do visit
the site http://iamnolabrat.com to learn more about the
same. There are more such events on the pipe line.
AID NCR also has spread across the NCR and
now supporting projects going on at Munsiari. The
recent funding for the solar lighting of village at
Munsiari kick started the collaboration. Along with this
AID NCR would also soon consider supporting the
educational initiatives by community women at
Bhalaswa village in east delhi. AID NCR signed an MoU
with Evalueserve to work towards a target of admitting
a minimum of 500 children to formal schools by 2010.
With all the on going efforts and new volunteers
strength we think it can be achieved with ease. We also
had a tree plantation drive along with Kalpvriksh at
Navakriti school a couple of weeks back.
2
As we are compiling the newsletter after a break, I’ve
not discussed about any particular issue at the editorial
but from our next issue onwards, we’ll be having a
focused editorial.
September is a happening month with a lot of festivals
following. I wish our readers advance wishes for Id
and Dusherra.
Also we’ll soon have a new team taking over the
responsibilities of AID NCR and will contribute to
grow the organization to newer heights
Happy Reading
Selva
+91-9891358457
[email protected]
Project Updates: AID Aasahyein
"Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire,
Sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon
...must inevitably come to pass"
-Paul J.Meyer
And so was the case with Aashayein in the
month of August when after months and months of
planning and strategizing, with the ceaseless efforts of
the volunteer team, those plans bore tangible results: a
freshly painted new room complete with electricity
supply and the fittings, blackboard, models made by
children.
Regular weekend classes were taken by
Volunteers but with a new agenda. Saturdays are now
dedicated to dance, music, art classes. On Sunday,
Audio Visual aids are being used to teach varied subjects
like Human Anatomy, India’s map etc.
Dance classes have got a heartening response
from the children which was evident from the
reluctance everyone displayed in ending the class and
halting the music beats. To the foot tapping numbers,
the children were instructed in basic dance exercises and
various positions with a few elements of jazz dance
thrown in.
Same goes with Sunday classes. Children are
excited and eagerly responding to Audio-visual classes.
But this is not all, a teacher has been appointed at
Aashayein who will be taking 2hrs classes from Monday
to Friday. Children have been divided into 2 batches
according to their age- senior group (7th to 10th class)
and junior group (3rd to 6th class). The teacher will join
from next week.
The next big event on the Aashayein activities
calendar for the month of August was the Independence
Day celebrations. On 15th August, amidst rain and
patriotic fervor, the national flag was hoisted and songs
of “desh-bhakti” were sung. The main focus of the event
was the Udaan- Painting competition sponsored by
MyWebera. Along with that various competitions were
organised like Independence Day Trivia, Leader
Recognition Competition. The event ended with
distribution of refreshments and kites.
http://picasaweb.google.com/aid.delhi/IndependenceDa
yCelebrations2009AtAashayein#
On the occasion of Independence Day, we took
the opportunity to release Aashayein blog. It is an
initiative to connect better with people.
http://aidaashayein.blogspot.com/
Volunteer meet happened as usual. Everyone was
filled with ideas and plans for Aashayein. Due to newly
found friendship and a great rapport between the
volunteers we now have a great team that works together,
celebrates together. This is the 3rd consecutive month
where we have collected MEAL A MONTH. The
collections are increasing every month.
University Awareness Drive is one of the major
ventures of Aashayein starting from 28th August
onwards. Screening of AID’s 5th Anniversary video
along with Aashayein’s video will take place in association
with Pravah. Street plays will be done by volunteers in
the respective colleges. Posters and Flyers will be put up
in colleges. Along with that T-shirts and Handmade bags
will be sold by our volunteers.
On the Cards is our plan to raise funds through Candle
and Diya making for Diwali. Volunteers and children
together will make them. Along with that various other
items will be sold in attractive packing to corporate and
women’s club.
3
Nutrition Program
It started in Disha on the lines of Unnati, and
programme is now running on regular basis. Children
and Teacher, coordinate among themselves for the
smooth running of this programme.
RSEP
All the children admitted under this programme
rejoined the school In July .A big setback was Sanayak,
who dropped out in between from Pallavan, as per her
grandparents he went to his home town in Bihar.
Progress of the children is being checked regularly by
the volunteers. There have been few challenges with
these children, but volunteers are trying to motivate the
children their parents and are meeting the teachers in
the school for tracing the progress of these children.
Tracking sheet of Progress of Children at Disha
As per the understanding reached between AID
- Gurgaon and AID-Atlanta, it was agreed to give a
monthly progress tracking sheet of the children at
Disha. This was a requirement for the funding
assistance for AID-Atlanta. Rohit Gupta (McAfee) took
over this task voluntarily and has submitted one report,
which was posted on website also. He is working to
develop a model which is easy, simple and credible. In
between as backup Swati Sinha (Law Student, Final Yr)
had volunteered for this task, she is observing this
model and is working closely with Rohit for better
understanding.
Independence Day Celebrations
I-Day was celebrated with lot of joy, excitement
at Disha .Children from both schools gathered at Disha
along with volunteers, teachers and few visitors.
National Flag was hoisted and National Anthem was
sung with pride. There was lot of performance by
children which was a great learning for the fellow
children and for volunteers also.
Creativity Classes
These classes are run by Robyn, who is one of
our International volunteers have been regularly coming
on the Tuesdays and have come with a ART PLAN,
which shall serve the purpose to guide interested new
volunteers to join in these classes . The plan will be
finalized soon and shall be published on the website.
A picnic to Rail museum is also planned for the
month of September. We have planned to celebrate
birthdays of children and volunteers together on the last
Sunday of every month to strengthen the bond between
our team.
Also, here is the link of Aashayein video made
by Anirban. A great video that bought smile on our
faces and took us down the memory lane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dUaGt9EnEg
Project Location: Timarpur ( 10minute walk from
Delhi University metro station )
Regular Class timings:
Weekdays – Mon – Fri: 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Weekends - Saturday: 4:30 pm -6:30 pm
Sunday : 11:00 am – 01:00 pm
Regular volunteers: Anandita, Deboshree, Nikita,
Srishti, Manoj, Swastik, Neelu, Harpreet, Prachi
New volunteers this month: Nikita, Srishti, Ritu
Contact Information: Prachi Aggarwal – 9811462868
Prachi Aggarwal
[email protected]
+91 -9811462868.
Project Updates: AID Gurgaon
Corporate Collaboration
AID – NCR took initiative to share a vision with
Evalueserve, to mainstream a minimum of 500
underprivileged children in to regular schools. A
memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed
between Evalueserve and AID –NCR, whereby EVS
had assured volunteers and committed funding to AID
projects across NCR region to help achieve the target.
4
Skill Building Programme for Girls
Sewing classes were started at Unnati a month
back by Literacy India .As of now there are Six sewing
machines and 12 adolescent girls .The response have
been very good and there is very good scope to scale
this programme.
Community Connect
Among Gurgaon AIDers it’s popularly known
as “Basti Visit “. This is being done on regular basis on
Sunday evenings. Objective of these visits are constantly
re-discovered and achieved by volunteers.
Purpose of these visits is:
• To get connected with the community.
• Win their confidence
• motivate them to send there children to school
• make them realize the importance of education
Recently we had few international volunteers joining us
on these visits.
IT Updates
It was a grueling month for the IT team as we did a lot
of fine tuning of our website and had a lot of things to
report to our well wishers :-)
For the past few months, we have been trying hard to
make our website more users friendly and informative.
Some key updates are:
> AID Gurgaon volunteer opportunities were posted
on various web classifieds.
> Volunteer experiences, project updates, pictures,
slideshows and much more were posted on AID
Gurgaon website regularly.
> New features like facebook fan box, volunteer
registration link, contact us form, projects map and tell a
friend have been added.
> Updates were posted on social media like orkut,
facebook, twitter and various other community portals
to create mass awareness about our work.
> Google analytics has been very helpful in
understanding the shortcomings of our website and we
have tried to rectify them as and when time permitted.
As a result of our online efforts, we have got a decent
number of volunteer requests via internet in spite of
substantial downtime of AID Gurgaon website due to
server problems.
We hope to keep all our well wishers informed about
our work regularly in the future as well, so please keep
visiting our website (http://gurgaon.aidindia.org).
Health Initiative
“If problems are interconnected so shall be the
solutions” Team Guragon had a detailed discussion on
this aspect and came on the conclusion that apart from
Education and Nutrition, child health should be the
component our strategic efforts towards mainstreaming
of these children . Further this was felt imperative when
few our RSEP children felt ill and missed their classes
for one whole week .We are planning to work out this
with some hospitals in Gugaon and would soon come
up with a plan on this .
Out Reach Efforts
Bradley Gamage, Sapient-UK Director and
Directors of UK Health Services visited AID –
Gurgaon projects and were amazed to see the
performance of the children and humbleness of our
efforts. They had great time at school and amused the
children by their magic tricks .We plan to take this
association with Sapient to higher levels, for which
volunteers are constantly following up. Prachi (Project
Aashayien) and me also accompanied to the slum areas
where these children live .Ruhi an international
volunteer also helped visitors to show around .
Volunteers have been working regularly to reach
more and more corporate for Volunteers, resources and
funds for new and existing projects in Gurgaon. As a
result few corporate representatives had visited us and
have appreciated our efforts and looking forward to
work with us. Also some corporate had requested us to
give a presentation at their offices.
Volunteers are very excited to start a new
project in Gurgaon and have been regularly doing
ground surveys and community surveys in different
location in Gurgaon. Once team finds some new
committed volunteers to manage these projects these
will be started with no scope for delays.
Adult Literacy
This program was started with an object to
facilitate the Adolescent boys who work throughout the
day and are willing to study in the evening and are
interested to learn computers. The project is in trouble
due to lack of volunteers to monitor it on daily basis
and basic infrastructure .We expect to get furniture
from AT Karney very soon next month. Also talks are
on with another corporate company to get few
computers, so that this project could be accelerated and
expanded. Also lack of proper modules and an
experienced teacher is major challenge faced by this
programme. We are still open to NAME this project..
5
During one his visits Rohit shares “I learned that a right
blend or resources and guidance can take these children
to new heights. I learned that it’s important to be in the
right place at the right time. If we can ensure this
synchronization for these children, they will fly on their
own. They gave mementos to cherish of my own past, a
food for thought to reorganize my relationships and the
motivation to come again. I offered them a bird and
they fetched for me two from the bush!! “
Smita Singla
An Engineer by profession and works with Floor
Denial. Smita is very passionate about seeing the change
around her…..positively.
She have been accompanying on Community Connect
and have is working to play an active role in Publication
team of Gurgaon.
She feels “Every single moment I spent with those
children and their parents was an experience for me. I
could see a twinkle, a joy in their eyes. They felt wanted
and cared for. I thanked God for providing me with an
opportunity to do my bit for these disadvantaged angel-
like souls. We think sometimes that poverty is only
being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of
being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest
poverty. We must start in our own surroundings, our
own cities to remedy this kind of poverty….The
combined efforts of millions of concerned citizens
could do wonders to help the impoverished.”
Swati Sinha
A final year Law student in Delhi she lives in Gurgaon.
Swati has been volunteering since June. She bring along
with her a charm that engages all children in Unnati , to
such a level that children forget all other voluntees
present there. She prepared children on song “Ek din
mitjaya maati key mol, jagg mein rehjayenge pyare tere
bol” which inspires not only children but we volunteers
also. She aspires to work with UNICEF later in her
career.
Aastha Chalana
An Engineer by profession she works as Research
Associate with Evaluserve.
Aastha joined AID through the CSR cell of Evaluserve
and had actively participated in the Independence Day
celibrations. She is very keen to work on Out Reach
Endeavour’s of AID_Gurgaon and looks forwards to
work on it.
Recently she posted her experiences in the “Volunteer
speak “on website where she says
Our Web coordinators Anirban, Puneet and
Sanchit are never short of ideas, and are passionate to
volunteer in this way. They infact set a model in
volunteering and show the flexibility of options to
volunteer with AID. Just one need to donate is his/her
little time!
New Volunteers updates!
This month good number of volunteers came
forward and showing there commitment and desire to
make this society more inclusive and share this vision
with us.
However it was observed that its something lacking on
our part that we are not able to retain these volunteers
.We are have initiated a volunteer management plan
where we will decide the proper volunteering modules
which can give an ease to volunteering considering the
grueling work pressure on the volunteers working with
corporate in Gurgaon. Also we strongly feel personal
commitments also should not suffer on weekends, so
this way we need some innovative to work out with
such volunteers.
Following are the new volunteers:-
Dileep:
Works with Evalueserve as Research Associate and has
been working with fellow AIDers on all Saturdays and
Community Connect on Sundays. He is actively
participating in discussion with community people and
closely monitoring the Adult literacy programme. He
keep on motivating adolescent and adult men working
in his company and business centre, who work as
guards, housekeeping, and office boys to add value to
there work by acquiring technical skills .
Gauri Mathur
A Psychology student studying in Noida she
volunteered during her summer vacations at Unnati. She
have been working on the English literacy of children
and worked very hard with full commitment during her
vacations .She now comes intermittently as most of the
time she is in hostel in Noida.
Rohit Gupta
An Engineer by profession he works with McAfee as a
Software Engineer.
Rohit enjoys the analytical work in his profession and
choose the similar volunteering activity in AID Gurgaon
also.
He volunteers every Saturday at Disha, where he works
to track and analyze the progress of the children.
Rohit feels that "Educating a child today is equivalent to
uplifting a full family in the next generation”.
6
Volunteer Visit frequency –Roles
Dilip Kumar
(Comverse)
Regular-Cordinates Unnati
Project and Nutrition
Programme.
Shankar Kumar (Hero
Honda)
Intermittent –On Community
Connect and Events
Anirban Mudi
(University of
Calgary,Canada )
Regular- Remotely works on
Web Cordination
Bittu (Construction
Suprivisor)
Intermittent –Out Reach
Efforts and Local Village
Support Cordination.
Aashish Kumar
(Maruti Suzuki)
Regular –at Unnati ,conducts
Dance clases
Robyn (International
Volunteer)
Regular –On Tuesdays –
Executes Art Plan
Sukrit Chopra (HR -
Consultant)
Intermittant
Puneet Sharma
(Aricent Technolgies)
Regular-Remotely handles the
web cordination and the
Financials of AID –Gurgaon.
Anshul Sachdev
(AT Karney)
Offline -Due to Personal
Reasons
Munish Duvedi
(Quintiles
Transnational Corp.)
Regular-Cordinator AID –
Gurgaon
Munish Duvedi
[email protected]
+91-9999623000
As they say, life is too short to do all. But Sangarsh Seva
Nirman can anyways be carried through out one’s life.
In order to work on these lines I decided to join hands
with AID Gurgaon for this noble cause. The idea of
getting involved in the AID team was to interact with
the potential population (young children) who is directly
benefited through it.
In this age of neck to neck competition, mad race of
earning money, fame and respect. I always used to
wonder if there are some people who actually think
anything over and above themselves. But after meeting
the team my views got transformed. I met some great
people, who if not more is as enthusiastic as I am. I was
more than surprised to see the spirit of the members
and their way to interpret things. I came to believe that
there is no dearth of good people around us, the art to
have an eye to see them, spot them. As every one of us
is either studying or works to earn our own living, but
after joining the team I realized something very special.
It is that we have not come to this mother earth just to
do any job, but we have come here to provide our
services to the society. Everyone in the team contributes
to the maximum of his/her capacity. The level of
cooperation is very mature among the mates.
According to me, when we help people or work for
them, we in turn help ourselves. The rewards we get are
beyond obvious and tangible. We develop as a person
and a human being. So according to me my contribution
to society is more my own progress and happiness. I
shall keep my up all my sincere efforts to work the max
I can.
Varun Jain
An Engineer by profession works with an overseas
commodity trading firm.
He joined us first time on ORM and is willing to work
with publication team and modules development team
of Gurgaon.
Prateek Vijayvergia
Software Engineer by profession and working with
Royal Bank of Scotland in Gurgaon.
Prateek while sharing his first view at AID-Gurgaon
that involved community visit was a mixed-bag. He felt
sad to see that so many people live without proper
shelter (forget electricity) in such conditions but at the
same time he was pleased and motivated to find that
even in those small basti's (slum-dwelling houses) the
children were so eager to learn.
He very keen to work in educating chlidren and look
forward to work on it.
Other Volunteers of AID –Gurgaon
Project Updates: AID Jaagriti
Project Updates
The month of August was very exciting for the
Jaagriti children as well as the volunteers. Many new
volunteers have joined up and are very actively
taking part in all the activities. Following has
happened at Jaagriti in August 09:
1. Arts Classes: The classes, started in July 09, have
been really going on well, with the Children
showing a lot of interest to learn new drawings,
shapes and about usage of different colours. The
volunteers take 2 hour classes every Saturday with
around 35-40 children. For pictures of the classes,
7
please visit:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/anchitgoel/ArtsClas
sesAtJaagriti?feat=directlink
2. Independence Day Celebrations: Project
Jaagriti celebrated Independence Day with a lot of
activities, including singing, flag hoisting, balloon
competition, painting competition etc. For many
Children, it was the first time they got to know
about the significance of the day and why and how
we celebrate it. And for most of the volunteers also,
it was the first time they had celebrated the
Independence Day in such a manner, with true
spirit of contributing towards the welfare of the
nation. At the painting competition, children
displayed their arts skills, learned during the arts
classes and came up with wonderful paintings on
the two themes “I love my India” and “Draw as you
like”. At end, total 5 winners received lunch boxes
and drawing books. The competition was
sponsored by Mywebera.
For pictures of the Independence Day, please visit:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/anchitgoel/Indepen
denceDayCelebrations?feat=directlink
Events planned in next month :
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc8g8qms_5338
s9cdk
Project Location : Dwarka.
Regular Class timings: click here to learn more
Regular volunteers: Aayush, Aditya, Abhishek,
Anchit, Ankit, Debashish, Gaurav, Joy, Kshitij,
Manish, Nishit, Rahul, Rajeev, Saurabh, Vivek.
Contact Information Anchit Goel - 9818115226
Anchit Goel
[email protected]
+91- 9818115226
The month of August was very significant for
AID-Prayas .We celebrated "Independence Day" in a
very nice way .The whole event was very well planned
and executed by Raj & Linkan. Both took the lead with
support from all others .Each child was excited about
15th August and they worked hard along with
volunteers to perform different activities like Song
,Dance etc .We were privileged to have Nai Disha
Founders (Capt. Jaiswal & Col. Jeeta ram ji ) ,Principal
and teacher with us on the event .The entire Prayas
family did a wonderful job to make the event a success .
15
th
august is always an inspiring day for all of us
but for AID-Prayas it's special, since 2007 .The
celebration of 15th august 2007 at Nai Disha inspired us
and the aspiration from there lead us to produce the
result s and bring us to a position whatever we are now.
And 15
th
August 2009 inspired us in a way that our team
decided to make a robust plan of opening a school for
under-privileged by 15t
h
august 2010.
Our different classes for different batches
are running satisfactory .Three batches are catered in the
evening, night and weekend class, and the best part is
that all the volunteers are doing their part exceptionally
well. One major development has been “Charu our
most dedicated volunteer" took the charge of children
in the next year batch i.e. "fresher’s batch" along with
other volunteers. Now the situation of crisis which
existed after the departure of our full timer Abhinash is
resolved for this batch :) .
We had a parents meet to understand their
issues and children who are not going to govt. school
can be admitted .We are going to admit rest of the
children into govt. school with the help of volunteers
very soon .
Our last year and this year batch children
(around 25-30) are doing good into the school .From
last month we have arranged a school bus for them
which is becoming helpful for them to be regular at
school. Raj is taking activity classes for these children on
weekends and Anant has started computer classes
Project Updates: AID Prayas
8
Apart from all above we’ve divided some key
responsibilities within the executive committee for
better functionality of our work i.e. posts like
Volunteer coordinator ,Community coordinator,
Event coordinator ,Project coordinator has been created
and assigned to key volunteers .
Events planned in next month : Teacher’s Day
celebration, Id Celebration,
Project Location : Sector -15 & Sector – 16, Noida.
Regular Class timings: Click here to learn more
Regular volunteers:
Volunteers with Freshers batch :-
Charu,Daisy,Nirmala,Megha ,Anvita,Sonika
Volunteers with Eureka batch :-
Charu,Akanksha,Dileep & Shweta
Volunteers with Senior batch :-
Raj,Rajiv,Sugandha,Linkan,Gaurang,Gaurav, Anant
& Darshan
Prayas Executive Committee :-
Vikas,Anand,Raj,Rajiv,Selva & Darshan
Treasurer :- Anand
There may be many people whose names might not be
mentioned in the list above but Prayas is doing good
because of each volunteer’s contribution.
New volunteers this month: Shweta, Nirmala
Contact Information Rajiv – 9811981809
Darshan Mehra
+91-9818361122
[email protected]
Rotary Club came to celebrate Independence Day with
the children. It all started with the national anthem sung
by children. They organised a painting competition and
also gave kites to the children to decorate the area.
There was a prize distribution ceremony as well.
Live on Campus, a website portal for the University
students also did a small event with us. They taught
yoga and meditation to the children. It was followed by
some dance and origami. Children just loved making
different things with paper.
We also had 15-20 volunteers from Taiwan who spent
few hours with children at outdoor shelter. They played
games with the children, danced and sang songs. They
also taught children a song in their native language. It
was fun.
We have volunteers from abroad who spend time with
children, teach them and play with them. They try their
hand on teaching alphabets and numbers which children
learn at an instant. They also teach the children to draw
and paint which children enjoy the most!
Night walk has always been a thrilling experience. We
did a night walk with an NRI group from US called
INSPIRE. There were around 25 students who came
with us on this trail to Old Delhi. They had a learning
experience.Also we had a Night Walk with volunteers
and general people to make them aware about the
miseries people face while living on streets.
Events planned in next month : Id Celebration,
Nightwalk
Project Location : Ladoo Sarai [2 shelter homes] &
Jamma Masjid
Regular Class timings: Any day and anytime
Regular volunteers: Suchita
New volunteers this month: NIL
Contact Information Amit Sinha - 981870715
Priyanka
+91-9811656740
[email protected]
Jamghat has seen a tremendous growth in the
past and is still on uphill. It is constantly being
supported by its volunteers across the globe.
Leaders for Tomorrow, a unit of Lady Shriram
College made a visit for compassion at our indoor
shelter. Around 7-8 students came in and taught thumb
painting to these children. They distributed story books,
games and clothes as well. They spent a lot of time and
had a blast with the kids.
Project Updates: Jamghat
9
Prizes will be distributed to those who
demonstrate exceptional knowledge. Parichay
also plans to involve such children in the
awareness program.
1. Vijay Bhaiya plans to organize a workshop at
Parichay on August 31 for interns and children
who are keen to contribute to the project for
mentally challenged. Some community people
who have shown interest to work on this project
will also attend the workshop. The objective of
conducting the workshop is to orient children,
interns, and community people on how to
interact with the targeted schools for the
awareness program.
Gyanodya Updates:
1. The literacy classes are catching up fast at the
new centre. 22 students have been regularly
attending the literacy classes, being organised by
Haseen, who is now studying in class 8
th
.
2. 3 students have been admitted to the local
government school.
3. Parichay organised a meeting with community
ladies on August 23. They requested Vijay
Bhaiya to start a livelihood program, similar to
one that is being run at Parichay. We plan to
introduce embroidery and handicraft unit for
such ladies. A second meeting is being planned
in the next month.
Events planned in next month : Teacher’s Day
celebration, Id Celebration, Roza Iftar party & Dusherra
Project Location : Tukhmirpur, Bhajanpura.
Regular Class timings: Any day and anytime
Regular volunteers: Puneeta
New volunteers this month: NIL
Contact Information Vijay Bhaiya – 9810753425
Puneeta Chugh
[email protected]
+91- 9891217839
does).
Parichay (Main Center) Highlights:
1. Monthly Sale at STM: Rs. 9675
2. Independence Day was celebrated at Parichay
with great enthusiasm. The whole program was
planned by senior children and women of
Swayamsiddha Mahila samooh. Delicious lunch
comprising Chana masala, Aloo dum, masaal
Kachori, veg biryani, boondi raita and shahi
toast was cooked by senior children and
community women for more than 140 children
and community people. Children from
Gyanodaya were also present to celebrate the
day. Flag hoisting was followed by cultural
program presented by children. Kites were
distributed among the children at the end of the
day
3. Preparation for Deepawali stalls have begun at
Parichay. Children are busy preparing torans and
other handicrafts items. Diyas, gel candles,
greeting cards, and other gift items will be
available for all our supporters. This year, we
plan to introduce Parichay-made chocolates as
gift packs.
Project for Mentally Challenged:
2. A 3-days awareness program was conducted by
Vijay Bhaiya in a local Public school near
Parichay. Bulbul and Rai Singh accompanied
Vijay Bhaiya to the program. They engaged
school students in several group activities to
inform them about various types of disabilities,
and how such children need to be dealt with.
Aids like flip charts etc were used for
presentation of concepts.
3. Parichay will organise a poster making
competition on August 31. Prizes will be
distributed to the winners of the competition
and the selected posters will be utilised to
generate awareness in other schools.
4. Parichay plans to organize a short Multiple
Choice Questions (MCQ) session for children to
ascertain their awareness level on issues related
to mentally challenged children.
Project Updates: Parichay
10
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Children’s corner
ºª| «r|·| ª|·|| «º|ª|
11
Name : Prince Kumar
Project : Jaagriti, Dwarka
Event : Udaan – Painting competition on the occasion of Independence day in
collaboration with MyWebEra.
Children’s corner
My Painting: Prince
12
Once the walls are full (which wont be long) I’m
going to get some folders that can be used to give them
each a portfolio of their work. It should be a good way
of seeing their progress over time too.
The best thing of all is to see them have fun
each week, spend time with them, get incredibly messy
with them and learn together. We always have a lot of
laughs!
Next month we’re planning to do some printing,
paper folding and focus on the topic of countries. Wish
us luck!!!
Robyn Lister
[email protected]
Every Tuesday morning at Disha the children
and I get creative and messy with all sorts of art
materials. It’s always lots of fun and we teach each
other English and Hindi along the way. They continue
to think my attempts at Hindi are hysterical (as do I) but
are very encouraging and I have noticed week by week a
steady improvement in their English so well done to
their teacher!!
Something else that I’ve noticed is how much
natural talent these children have when given some
materials and a topic. A couple of them in particular
blow me away every week. This has motivated me to
come up with a plan/guide for these sessions the aim of
which is to help me and any other volunteers who come
along to ensure that the classes have some structure and
a whole variety of techniques and materials are shown
to the children. We will also have a theme each month
that we’ll work around (eg solar system, plants, animals,
weather, food, countries). It’s still to be finalised but
hopefully will be helpful long term.
This month we dedicated one session to
Independence Day and they proudly held up their final
product for a photo at the end of the class (a slightly
chaotic but fun tradition we have at the end of each and
every class!!)
We also put together the first Disha art
“newsletter” for them to take home to their parents. It
contains photos of things they have created during the
sessions and they decorate it before taking it home. A
lot of the art they make has gone onto the walls in the
classroom so this way their parents get to see it also.
Volunteer Speak: Robyn
13
Article: Should a Delhiite dump his/her
car and switch to public transport – Anuj
Grover
The Times of India had thrown open a blog to
record what people wanted to say about the possibility
of people dumping their cars in favor of public
transport on the BRT corridor. I felt that smart people
would definitely prefer the switch... Here is why :-)
--------------------
I think Delhi people are smart...
The success of Delhi Metro in converting
people from car travellers to users of public transport
can be replicated..If we look at reasons why people
switched from private cars to public transport, we
notice a few pertinent things:
1. Petrol and fuel prices are sky-rocketing... People want
to cut down their cost of living in times of such
inflation... They are looking for alternatives
2. Driving on Delhi roads is a night-mare... If you drive
to office and take about 1 hr in one side commute (quite
normal), then by the time you reach office, you are tired
enough to not be able to contribute fruitfully for at least
another 30-45 minutes... And if by chance you meet an
accident on the way (again scratches are quite
commong), forget about making good use of about 1-2
hrs...
3. Delhi Metro offered fast travel... Speed of buses in
BRT will be very good (since as newspapers report, the
BRT corridor is almost vacant).. This means, that
commute time through buses would also reduce...
4. Delhi Metro offered predictable travel time... This
was significant gain when compared to traffic-jams
ridden road travel... With the advent of BRT, we do not
expect to see traffic jams in that corridor... So the public
travel will become more predictable than private
transport... So, DTC can come up with time-tables of
their buses - when a bus would reach a particular stop
etc (just like done by BEST in Mumbai and public
transport fleets in other countries)... Natural logic would
mean, people would switch..
5. Delhi Metro - even if crowded - is
comfortable because of A/C coaches... People don't
mind standing in A/C coaches for fast travel... If A/C
buses are introduced on the corridor, it would make the
travel much more convenient... The low-floor DTC
buses are also comfortable, but AC buses would
increase the comfort... The travel in such buses would
also be pollution free and therefore healthier...
6. Delhi Metro is preferred mode of transport because it
connects the most congested parts of the city... BRT
should be implemented in the congested regions of the
city and its utility will become more than evident...
7. Delhi Metro has been expanded to mesh around the
city... Similar exercise should be done for BRT... If
public transport across the city is fast, people would not
mind changing buses to reach destination because they
will get end-to-end fast connectivity...
8. Delhi Metro is a good example to prove that people
switch from private transport to public transport... I
personally have very high hopes with BRT... This
despite the fact that there is some teething troubles at
the moment
Anuj Grover
[email protected]
+91-9910013387
This article of Anuj was written on May 2008.
14
The smile says it all. Volunteers and Children of AID Unnati at Gurgaon.
Feedback: [email protected] Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9818248459
Send your Cheques to
Selva Ganapathy.R
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology,
Delhi - 110016
Hauz Khas
Phone: +91-9891358457, +91-9818248459
Publications Team : AID Delhi
Photo of the Month
