Pankhudi Foundation Blog

Last Saturday on 28th of August, Pankhudi Delhi organized a trip to a toffee factory for the kids. It has been a long time since we had a trip so everyone, including the volunteers and the kids, was pumped up with energy and enthusiasm. 

The volunteers met at 1530 hours at the slum. The kids were all dressed in new clothes and were visibly excited about the visit. At times it got a bit difficult to subdue the adrenaline. It took a while to get the kids into the cars and finally we set off at 1615 hours.

By 5 o’ clock we reached the factory. Once we reached, the nostalgic aroma of kismi toffee bars greeted us.
Mr. Khan, the superviser of the factory welcomed us and took us to an AV hall that they had set up inside the factory. Here they showed a 20 minute movie about how Parle started, its different products and also explained the entire cookie and toffee making process. It was an animated movie made especially for children. It was in easy and fun language and had a lot of cartoon characters. It also had excerpts of old Parle ads that all the volunteers remembered from their own childhoon and highly appreciated. Overall a good fun filled educative experience for everyone.

After the movie, Mr. Khan conducted a small quiz for the kids, wherein he asked them questions related to the movie and distributed biscuit packs to the kids who answered all his questions with great alacrity. The kids enjoyed this a lot. After this interaction, Mr. Khan took us on a tour of the factory which was very interesting and at the same time educative. He showed us machines that are used to make and package Mango Bite and Parle candy and even told us interesting facts like those machines could package 1000 toffees in a minute. The kids were quite fascinated seeing all this and were at their best behavior. This is the only factory in Delhi-NCR which manufactures Parle toffees.

After all the knowledge transfer it was time to grab a bite. We served them some snacks that we had brought with us. At the end, Mr. Khan gave little gift bags containing biscuits and toffees for the kids to take home. We were back by 1930 hours and dropped the kids off. Overall, it was a very interesting and informative fun trip for all of us.

Next day when we asked the kids about it, they actually remembered and were able to describe what they saw and the whole process of toffee making. Apparently the target was achieved as the kids had learnt something. Hope we are able to organize similar kind of trips more often.
The link to the  album containing pictures that were clicked that day is below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/pankhudi.pictures/PankhudiDelhiParleToffeeFactoryVisit

Extracts of Independence Day celebration:
The event was a great success with a large number of attendees. There were around 90 people from Patil estate Slum (including kids, their parents, siblings, relatives) who had come to COEP classroom to see the program. The classroom was decorated beautifully by Volunteers – drawings by kids, balloons, ribbons, flag, and ‘HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY’ were put up on the walls of the classroom. Also 1 notable thing was in the whole room there was a single father who had turned up for the program. He was given a bouquet for coming to attend the program, to encourage Father’s attend such program and take responsibility of the overall growth of their children.
We started the event with National anthem which was followed by a short Marathi movie on “Shahid Bhagat Singh”.
It was time for the Kids to take the centre stage and show their talent. Following were the performance done by them:
• Welcome Song
• 5 skits and 3 dance performances were done by the kids.
Most important thing about the above performances were that the kids did it all by their own.
The following two skits were written/directed/performed by the kids on social issues, find below the theme of the same:
One of the skit was about: A boy named Ratan used to go to school but left school because his teacher hit him once. He then went to park since he had nothing to do. There he met some other boys playing cards, smoking, drinking, etc. Soon he joined them and never turned back to school. 15 years later while he was working as a bonded labour at a road construction site, he met one of his school friend who continued learning, got a B.Com. degree and got a job. They talked and looking at the friend, Ratan realised that had he continued education, he would have lived a far better life. The skit ended with Ratan’s monologue where he urged everyone not to do what he did.
Another skit was about: A woman called Lakshmi whose husband used to drink every night with her money, come back home, and then beat her up for more money. Lakshmi lived a terrible life. 2 years later, the husband died of liver failure. What will Lakshmi do now? Two “diidii” came to meet her. They tried to help her out. But Lakshmi was illiterate so she was not able to go for a better job than rag-picking or house maid. She had to continue with the same misery. The skit ended here. And then all performers can on stage and Mahesh (a 12yr old extremely vagabond kid) said this to all kids and parents- “Drinking is a terrible habit. Never drink. And to all the little boys present here, I urge that none of them should ever beat their wives when they grow up.”
In between the above performances we showed a Girl Star video to motivate kids and parents towards importance of education.
. One of most memorable part of the event was that we invited two lady traffic police inspectors, to share their experience and about the importance of education. They came from same environment as that of Patil estate, but they struggled a lot and never stopped their study and today they are self dependent. Kid’s also asked some question and they answered beautifully.

The Program ended with the prize distribution, we made sure that all the performers got some prize and none was named 1st or 2nd but everyone was awarded for their performance and encouraged to do more.
We also distributed colors and chocolates to every kids, along with Snacks for all the attendees.

Just a day before 15th August, Pankhudi Bangalore took the kids of Anatha Shishu Sevashram on a trip to LalBagh. Lalbagh organizes flower show on every Independence Day and Republic Day. So this was a nice eve to take the kids for the visit.

40 kids with 6 volunteers reached LalBagh at 9am. The flower show was quite fascinating for the kids. They enjoyed seeing different kinds and colours of flowers. The interesting thing was the India Gate made with flowers.

After the flower show the kids roamed around in Lalbagh. They visited the rose garden. Sitting under a tree near the rose garden, the kids were able to find the green parrots among the green leaves of the trees.

The next was the huge HMT clock. Kids were happy reading the time and seeing the cartoons. The volunteers then took them to the lake where they enjoyed the most. They enjoyed counting the ducks and other water birds near the lake. They were excited to see the fishes in the lotus pond.

After all the roaming around they were still not tired and were in enthusiasm to go to the small hillock with the temple. They rushed to the top when they were given the signal to go.

In all after 2.5 hours of roaming around, the kids looked happy. It was a nice picnic for them and a small break from the regular schedule.

Pics can be viewed @ http://picasaweb.google.com/pankhudi.pictures/PankhudiBangalore_Lalbagh_ASSA#

When Pankhudi began, way back in 2005, one of its primary objectives was deemed to be the promotion of child adoption in India. However, this being a rather complex issue, the founding members wisely decided to put it off for a little while longer until they had gained some experience in running an NGO. Five years down the line, the time has finally come when we can say we are truly ready to tackle this issue. We have decided to call this new project ‘Aanchal’ – a term synonymous with protection and care.

Our knowledge on this subject is still rather limited since our work in most of our chapters involves children from slums and government schools, and not orphanages (Bangalore being an exception). Before we can decide what we want to do to promote child adoption, we need to learn all there is to know about the current process and its flaws. To get this process started, we recently had an intern from the UK visit our Mumbai chapter to work on research about child adoption in India. He got us off to a great start and gathered a lot of useful information that has helped us create an initial picture about how things are done in India.

The next step will be to actually visit orphanages, adoption agencies, and other organizations involved in the adoption process to get a firsthand understanding of the system. We will use this to determine the role Pankhudi can play in supporting adoption in India.

Our main requirement right now is for enthusiastic volunteers to work with us in getting this project off the ground. Even people who are not able to work on field can help us by engaging in secondary research and brainstorming with us to determine our next steps. If you’re interested, please send us a mail at join@pankhudifoundation.org with the subject “Request to join Aanchal”. You can also e-mail us at pr@pankhudifoundation.org with all your queries.

Long time since we last updated and a lot of things have happened in the mean time.

Firstly we did a complete evaluation of the kids’ level in English so as to segregate them into new groups. This helped us in measuring the improvement in their knowledge from last year and also in identifying kids who need to be promoted to higher group, those who are new and those who need more attention. We are planning to give them badges according to new groups to help them and us remember what groups they are for all our classes. The evaluation was successful and we classified the kids afresh. We now maintain a record to see what all is taught to each kid in the class for future reference.
Another great news is that we have two new regular teachers on board. Two girls, Shamima and Prabha, from slum are taking daily classes in English and Mathematics which is very important. This will keep the kids disciplined and also will give Shamima and Prabha a feeling of self dependence.
We have been active since sometime on the health front as well. We are collaborating with Smile Foundation’s Smile on Wheels Program in which a fully equipped medical van visits the slum twice a month to conduct basic tests, do general health check ups and dispense medicine to the people at the slum.  Pankhudi and Smile have a common set of beliefs that a disease should not only be cured but also be prevented from happening at all. In this context, so far we’ve done two talks, one on HIV prevention and contraception which was accompanied by a movie that was shown to all females from slum, and the other by a doctor on basic child diseases.

We’ll be working more closely on the above mentioned fronts and hope to achieve more objectives in future.

Dear all,

Pankhudi Mumbai celebrated Independence Day with great gusto.

All old and new volunteers came together to help make this day memorable for our kids. Many, many thanks to all of you!!

The day started with Flag hoisting and speech by Lions’ Members.

Little kids then made mini speeches and sang songs on the importance of cherishing our Independence day.

We then showed some videos on girl child education and distributed snacks and sweets to all kids. We thank Manish and team who always provide us with projector, sometimes on short notice too!

The latter part of the celebration included a Mask making session which was lapped up by all kids and greatly enjoyed by on and all.

Though a tiring activity to manage and monitor, we felt extremely happy to see the smiles and excitement elicited by the activity.

Heartiest thank yous and many hugs to Rashmi and Yatin who stayed up late yesterday and made all the dummy mask cut outs and other preparations!!

Mask making was followed by a prize distribution for the drawing competition held yesterday by Arunima and group.

Finally, note books and pencil sets donated by Prudential Group were distributed amongst all kids. Many thanks to Samiksha and team

Again, we thank you all for your continued support in helping Pankhudi to make a difference to children’s lives.

************

Pictures of 14th and 15th August have been uploaded here :

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/pankhudi.pictures/MumbaiAugust14DrawingCompetition#

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/pankhudi.pictures/MumbaiAugust15Celebration#

On the 15th of August Pankhudi Mumbai will celebrate Independence Day at Suman Nagar, at 8.30 in the morning. We will be joined by the Lions Club members and students of Balwadi as well.

There will be a flag hoisting ceremony followed by address by the Lions Club President.

Students from Balwadi will perform a few patriotic songs. Pankhudi students too will present speeches and songs on our National Leaders.

All members of Pankhudi Parivaar are cordially invited to be a part of the event.

Adams Koshy, an intern with Pankhudi Mumbai, completed his two weeks of internship on Sunday, 8th August.

He helped us with one of our pet projects : Aanchal, the adoption drive.

During his stint in Mumbai, Adams worked on presenting a basic research paper on Adoption in India, the current scenario, major agencies involved, regulations, etc.

A detailed report has been shared with all Aanchal project volunteers.

Initial findings were also presented through a conference call, held on Sunday morning and attended by volunteers from all chapters.

The call transcripts have been shared with all chapters through google groups.

The way forward for Pankhudi is to study the basic research report and conduct a feasibility study on how best to move ahead in this direction.

If you wish to share information on adoption or join Project Aanchal, please mail us at pr@pankhudifoundation.org.

Aditya Karandikar and Mukta Matta visited Somaiya and Swami Vivekanand on Thursday, 5th August  with the intention of getting college students to volunteer for Pankhudi.

In K.J. Somaiya college, they met with the Dean, Prof Sudha Gupta. She was keen to call Pankhudi over to make a presentation to a larger crowd on some event/occasion. Later,  a short meeting with Prof. Bhavani of KJ management school was held and the Pankhudi brochure was shared with him.  Sonam Goel, a management student, has agreed to take this forward and help  with increasing Pankhudi’s visibility amongst college students. The Mumbai team will get in touch with her so as to have a continued association with the administration of KJ.

An email will also be sent to Prof. Radha Iyer who has indicated her interest in helping Pankhudi out.

Again, from the engineering stream, a student representative, Vidit shah introduced Aditya and Mukta to the student council. A 15 minutes presentation was held for the students.

After covering ground in Somaiya, Aditya and Mukta visited Swami Vivekanand College, where they met with Milind Shirish, the NSS student co-ordinator. The main in-charge, Mr. Sanjay Premchandani had already left for the day.

The Principal, Mrs. Phadnis was very helpful and showed interest in Pankhudi’s activities. She directed the team to Prof. Deepta Dasgupta who handles credit courses.  After making a presentation to her, the team asked ways in which Vivekanand college could help in Pankhudi’s initiatives. Mrs. Deepta said that she would speak to the college authorities and see if the college students could be given extra credits for volunteering with Pankhudi.

Overall, the drive ended on a positive note. We look forward to maintaining the interaction so that it materializes in additional volunteers for us.

Pankhudi Mumbai (Shahzad, Krunal, Shivani, Samiksha, Aditya, Mukta) and Adams (Intern) met at Pankhudi’s Office for one last time on the 27th. We will be vacating the place by end of this month.

Points that were discussed:

• Our engagement with Lions Club.
• Activities for August 14th and 15th. It was decided that a drawing competition will be held on the 14th (Arunima and group will help us with this). Flag hoisting, a skit and prize distribution programme will be held on the 15th.
• Volunteer drive in Swami Vivekanand and Somaiya will take place on this Saturday.
• Project Aanchal – Adams updated us on his findings. A project plan has been chalked out and shared with him. If all things go as per schedule, we will have a preliminary report ready to help us start our initiatives in the field of adoption.
• Content : We explored the option of having school teachers come in and help us design our course content. Your thoughts are invited to take this forward.
• Content for Quarterly Newsletter and a content plan for the piece in Chembur Ghatkopar Plus (TOI edition).
• All audio/video files pertaining to the ACM will be merged and copies will be sent out to all chapters.