Chennai DI updates - May 2009

Dear Friends,

KK Visit

Couple of weeks ago, we visited KK Children and old age home and provided dinner for the residents. We had a lot of new volunteers join us for the visit. The children enjoyed a lot by singing songs and playing with volunteers.

Trip to 'Rain Forest'

May 17th was the last day for the Adyar computer classes. We gave the children [ 12 children ] a surprise moment by taking them for lunch to Rain Forest, a theme based Restaurant in Adyar. It was a very nice moment for each of the kid and they enjoyed it thoroughly. Attached a few snaps from the visit. Please note that this particular lunch was NOT done as a project by Dream India. Volunteers shared the complete cost.

Regards,

Natarajan
Dream India

Anti Tobacco Campaign

Hi All

This was planned to be an event by the kids to highlight the evils of Tobacco to the public. We were quite sceptical before this event as neither kids nor we faced public,while rehearsals too kids used to laugh and were never appearing serious.But I made up mind in case everything fails I myself will explain the posters we collected from an other NGO. But while actually performing in front of people everybody was serious and looked like professionals. I was very upset with Sita, Deepak's sister,as she was always laughing while practicing.She however cooly told me once we face audience we will be serious and will not take it lightly,and she proved to be right.

Shashi,my sister-sunanda, Chandrashekhar-Padmaja's brother, Chintan, Sujoy,his mother,Sharvary,her mother,brother,Venkat krishna,Manasi,etc were present. Padmaja was not well but she prompty sent me letters,caps-with DI logo printed on them.

Kids were in full spirits on the 31st of May in the Borivali National Park. Sharvari has taken real pains to go to centre regularly and make them practice their roles. Though original script was mine she modified to suit kids. I took sessions explaining what addiction means. Krishna,Mansi and other volunteers too took part in improvising. On 31, Shashi took full charge of kids he also enjoyed distrbuting posters to and collecting audience.Sujoy's mother distrbuted caps to kids and volunteers.Chintan and Venkat Krishna took out special time and visited and encouraged kids in their task.It was lovely experience,Kids and my sister explained posters to old and young adivasis with equal enthusiasm.

We also collected remarks/opinion from people about our show that was consting of two parts-skit and poster explanation. Breakfast and working lunch was provided to all those present.

Overall, was a great event and hope people turn over a new leaf and quit tobacco.

Thanks

S.K.Gawarikar

Dream India

Thane (Mumbai) updates - May 2009

Dear All,

 

This is a news report, from DI Thane center ..... Its a combined report (from Kartik and Apeksha - from the Thane Team) about the Annual Exam results for our kids, which commenced in the government school, in March this year !! 

 

It gives me great joy in composing this email, I had to wait to collect all the details of the Exam Results, as it took some time for the team to put together the Success Story - part 2 of Thane Chapter's kiddos .....

 

and as it happened, I have witnessed so many good stuff today, just meeting with our kids was great, but things happened beyond that as well ..... so much so that I couldn't wait to share it with you all ......

 

Yes, there is a lot of good news ... first things first .....

 

Total no.of MHADA kids' who got admitted to the TMC school last year = 16

 

This Year's result has shown that 9 o.o. 16 kids have passed their respective standards' annual exams with flying colours and they will now move on to their next standard in year 2009-2010.

 

This is GREAT to know; something that needs the applause; however there is another news which is: the remaining 7 kids have not managed to pass their exams this year. So, thats an incentive for the Thane Team and these kids, to push for a better overall result next year ...

 

kids who have been SUCCESSFUL : 

Kailash (score 82 % agg in STANDARD 2nd)

Vitthal

Kishor (score 80 % agg in STANDARD 2nd)

Sanjay

Sunita

Anjana

Ganesh

Arun

 

kids who will need more coaching: 

Seema

Deepali

Aarti

Ajay

Rahul

Nyaneshwar

Shravan

 

Due to certain unfortunate circumstances, we were unable to help these kids make the next grade; however there is still hope, as we the Team @ Thane have noticed; that the kids did not take this result lightly. On the face of it, all the above 7 kids were disappointed and I had to sort-of pacify them when I finally talked to them; sometimes; we need to remind ourselves that "failure is the stepping stone to success"

 

Kids such as Kailash and Kishor who have performed mindblowingly well so as to score 82 % and 80 % overall; prove that SUCCESS is pretty much happening to our kids; ALL THEY NEED is our backing/encouragement ......

 

Come June 2009; our next batch of kids from this Thane-pada would be taking their first footstep into a School Environ; if everything goes as per plan; while we will face the challenge of catering to many kids at the same time; we are pretty optimistic about the same. This school, that I am referring to here, is the same TMC School in Thane's Vasant Vihar area, where, in early 2007, Apeksha and friends had secured admission to, for the 3 kids Deva, Kailash and Kishor, who are our brightest kids .....

 

The credit for the present day "continuity" of this School-Enrollment and education support goes to the Thane Team of Ruta Sawant madam, volunteers such as Mohan Gupte, Ujjaval Gupta, Uday Dixit, Kavita Ajmera and others ..... We are so greatful to each and every one of them !!!

 

Thanks to each of these good people, today the kids are very much going to school, learning their stuff and there is every reason to look forward to them breaking all educational barriers/odds that their parents couldn't get an opportunity to go through... It makes me feel so very happy & satisfied !!

we are now going to celebrate this moment for these kiddos; by arranging a small picnic and treat for them .... Will write more about it soon in my next couple of emails ... We want to do the best for our kids; no question on that .......

 

We need more volunteers, in DI Thane, so that we can cater to more and more kids, as well as, focus on the exams' preparation and grooming of the "role-model" kids such as Kailash .... I am also going to visit the TMC School in order to find out more about special tuitions/coaching for some of our kids who can do better with some help. I'll see what all can be done ....

 

Over to you all ...... 

This email goes out, as a Hats-Off to all DI volunteers, who have made great things happen over and over, at so many DI centers, across India ..... 

for DreamIndia

kartik

www.dreamindia2020.org 

Anna Nagar (Chennai) updates - May 09

Dear All,

Classes 

The classes are going on well. Now that the annual holidays are drawing to a close, kids are expected to be back in town and join the clan. We've been a bit irregular as well. With a few out-of-station trips happening over a couple-o-weekends, we are now back on track.

 

Volunteers 

A couple of months back a volunteer Aravindh had joined our team. He had to go to Mangalore for his training. Luckily he's been posted back to Chennai which is good news fo us. Another new volunteer - Ravi (from IBM) has joined us and he's been in for about a month. He's spoken to his collegues and looks like another 8 volunteers are interested. I need to discuss with Ravi on this. Apart from this, Durai, Divya and I are here.

 

SSS 

The Small Savings scheme are going on well for the kids. I submitted this months' savings today. Though the kids are spending their pocket money on junk food (thanks to the annual holidays) volunteers have been able to cover it up.

 

Kannadasan 

Good news from Kannadasan's front. The 10th results were out today and Kanna has scored 421/500. Mathematics let him down. Otherwise he's done very well and made us proud. We're planning to set the map right for his +2. Meanwhile, he's been using his free time on type-writing classes and he's doing well.

 

Thats it folks.

Rest in next

 

Regards,

Vishnu.

BNHS Visit

We visited Conservation Education Centre,of Bombay Natural History Society situated near Film city,Dindoshi on 19th May.this was their regular designed program for children of weaker section.we started close to 7 am and reached by BEST bus after changing one at Dindoshi.22 children and about 4 volunteers attended the same.

Children fron Durga Temple at 11th hour backed off.(morning at 7 am,nobody was ready and I was asked by senior member from the community about my identity and the real purpose of taking children away.Actualy right from 5 days in advance I was making publicity of this program and telling everybody that only those children will be taken for picnic- as they used to call,who will get permisson from their parents in writting or in person if they do not know signing.I gave this job to Sunita,sr.girl from the same community to prepare list and I meself spent 45 minutes previous evening to explain purpose, need,detailed program etc.,or any other doubt they may have.In addition I told Sunita that we want even willing parents to join us for the picnic and they donn't have spend single paisa for this.This practice was followed on our previous picnic too when we went to National Park.Some 4 sr.members,adults, were present that day. As no childre was ready I was also not in mood to re-explain and hence waste time).

as we reached we were received by their program officer and teacher.They took us on trail for 90 minutes,during this they explained various plants, trees, incects, birds whatever came to our way.Chilren enjoyed long and bit challenging trail.Then breakfact was served in full.Followed by slide show,consisting of various animal and plant kingdom species.in Hindi.This was followed by outdoor game based on global warming and quis on whatever was shown and discussed.Program lasted till 1 pm.childrenwere hungry again and this time they consumed packed lunch they brought with them.Back to basti by 2 pm as planned.

Program was really well arranged by BNHS staff and everyboy enjoyed.
Other centres from Mumbai can contact BNHS site and enjoy as we did.It is really worth

N a m a s k a r ,
S.K.Gawarikar

Chennai - Valasarawakkam Class updates

Dear all,      We have enrolled three of the very interested students of last year's classes at Valasarawakkam for Type-writing classes.. These students are going for the classes for past 10 days. We have also planned to give scholarships of Rs.1000 each to two of the best students as a token of their interest in learning and sincerity. This scholarship would be utilised towards payment of school fees, books and uniforms for those students for the next academic year. Arunan , Bharath and I will plan out for some of the activities that can be conducted in the school as a part of classes for the next year. Soon we will mail regarding the some of the things that we plan to do. Suggestions regarding some interesting activities for class six students are welcome.   Regards, S.Sriram

Hadapsar Updates - Pune DI

Hi all,

We had a ‘Colour Knowing’ class this week. Everyone was to sketch different colours along with its name. After that, we had a short session on Map so that children can know places and locations.

Overall, it was good. We’ll need to get a pack of crayons as the existing one do not has all the colours.

Along with this, we were also told by Nandini madam to get the Map of the world and that of India so that we can teach them various locations and features. Last but not the least, we also need a moral science book which could teach the children basic senses and manners.

Also, I feel, at a personal level, that we should educate even the elders because at times they abuse their kids like anything. All sort of slangs are used on these children. I mean, there are different ways to be strict, but using offensive languages cannot solve the purpose. The pattern repeats, the children learn all these stuffs which they should be quite far off that this age. I am referring to this because of the incident this weekend. I called up ‘Vijay’ for study and his father treated him like hell. Adding to the heat was his brother, I feel. Overall, things got messy and everyone started quarrelling and abusing each other. Such things should not be there. There need to be some proper manners.

Also, there was one guy who told us to teach his kids also. We told him to send them next week at quarter to 10.am

--

Harmit Singh

Volunteer, DI Pune

16th May, 2009