Pankhudi Foundation Blog

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.

Activity Date:  22-June-2010

Activity Venue: SOS Children’s Village

Pankhudi volunteers Surendra, Pritam, Brinda, Richa and Satya joined the celebration of 91st birthday anniversary of the founder of SOS village Dr. Hermann Gmeiner.

I’d give all wealth that years have piled,

The slow result of Life’s decay,

To be once more a little child

For one bright summer day.

~Lewis Carroll

True to the words of this poem, all of us would willingly give away all our worldly possessions to relive our childhood memories all over again. Well SOS Hyderabad made our wish come true, by being kind enough to invite us to the “SOS day celebrations” on June 22nd 2010 .Even though the event fell on a weekday, without any qualms we all decided to take some time off from work and be a part of this wonderful event. We reached SOS by 4.30 p.m., and were welcomed by the director of SOS, Mr.Ramesh. The ACP of Cyberabad, was kind enough to grace the occasion with his presence as chief guest and most importantly, the proud mothers and the family of the stars of the event. The event kicked off with Grace Valentina compering the event and delivering the welcome speech. She exuded much of grace and poise, just as in her name, and her stage presence charmed everybody in the audience. This was followed by a speech from the director and the Chief Guest. Any form of accolade given to the children, be it a prize or a mere appreciation gives their morale and confidence so much of a boost, that they get raring to go and touch the pinnacles of success. SOS, too gave away prizes to its children,who excelled either academically and co-curricullarly. A proud moment for their mothers! The cultural events started after this, with a classical dance performance from Kalyani. That was such a beautiful and flawless performance, she did with so much of grace, that she had the audience breaking into loud applause. This was followed by a group performance based on the musical preview of Lord Vishnu’s life. These kids were elegance personified. Then a skit was enacted which gave everybody a strong and invaluable message of friendship and trust. The tiny tots in the age group of 4-8 years shook a leg to some foot tapping numbers and it was unarguably, the cutest performance of the day, which received a thunderous applause from the audience. They proved that SOS truly was a treasure trove of budding talent. At the end a patriotic dance was performed by Grace Valentina and group, the exotic display of colour and culture, accompanied by a fascinating exhibition of budding talent, truly proved Wordswoth’s saying, “Child is the father of man”.

Just like our last visit to SOS, this one too, left us asking for more!!!

Photos are uploaded here:

http://www.pankhudifoundation.org/photos/main.php/hyderabad/Year2010-11/SOSDay2010/

Saturday, the 3rd of July, Enable India conducted its first workshop for volunteers working with Pankhudi Bangalore. It was aimed at creating awareness about disability amongst us and how many despite suffering from many disabilities have done what seemed impossible – they are leading a normal life. It is not only because of their mental toughness but also because they were aided with the right tools and given the best guidance and advice. This was where both Enable India and Pankhudi Bangalore would play a critical part.

The second part of the workshop was a general discussion with Mr. Santosh from Enable India where the volunteers shared the problems that they face while teaching and handling kids. It was overwhelming to see how experience could help find a solution for everything.

The next step would be as follows

1) A representative from Enable India to visit and assess SRAMB (Eng and Computer class).

2) He then guides the specific volunteers on what to do and what not to and plans out a curriculum tailor made for that class

3) The curriculum would be short (4-6 weeks) and then re-assess and prepare for the next 4-6 weeks

4) The training of volunteers would be a continuous process , expected to happen at-least once in one and a half months

Even though the partnership between the two firms has just begun and there is a long way ahead but it does impart confidence in us that one day we will be able to make all disabled kids independent.

Pankhudi Mumbai completed the batch distribution exercise today.

A Parents’ meet was organised where we discussed our plans for the year and our expectations (in terms of discipline and attendance) from them.

All parents were supportive and seemed happy about our choice of subjects – English and Maths.

Later, ID cards were filled. They will be distributed on July 10th.

Admissions will remain open for the month of July.

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Regular classes begin from the 10th of July.

The content will be shared shortly.

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A Calendar will be shared with all volunteers, stating the chapters to be covered in the next few weeks.

This exercise will help in smooth functioning of classes.

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Pankhudi Mumbai will also  do a short volunteer drive on Saturday, July 10, 2010.

Colleges like Somaiya, Swami Vivekanand, SIES, Welingkar and Podar will be covered.

Brochures will be distributed and posters will put up in Cafeteria and students’ rooms.

Old and new volunteers are invited to participate in this drive.

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Photo Gallery and Picasa have been updated with today’s activity.

Activity Date:  19-June-2010

Activity Venue: Upper Primary School (UPS), Gowlidoddy.

Participants: Amit, Surendra, Bhaskar and Satya

It was a fine morning with the Sun God pardoning the hyderabadis and hiding behind the cool clouds! Yes, I am talking about the Saturday morning 9:30 am on the nineteenth day of June 2010. Volunteers of Pankhudi were eager to meet the volunteers from Move the Wheels (MTW) and Divine India Youth Association (DIYA) for a beautiful tree plantation experience. The day was scheduled for a plantation drive at UPS, a government primary school at Gachibowli, Hyderabad.

DIYA Volunteers had brought the plants, fertile soil, and the instruments for digging soil. Pankhudi volunteers joined hands with the volunteers from DIYA (Pritam, Mukesh, Naveen with others) in digging the ground. Ah! We must say it was a new experience but a tiring one! As Satya from Pankhudi rightly wondered how the farmers do their agriculture work! The MTW volunteers (Anjana, Brunda, Sunita with others) encouraged the volunteers at work.

The volunteers from Pankhudi and DIYA together dug 17 pits of 2-3 ft each (believe me developing software is much easier!). Pits were dug keeping in mind the school expansion and the road widening plans in the future. After the pits were dug, students of 5th, 6th and 7th were divided into groups and assigned responsibility of watering and protecting the trees. The kids themselves, helped by the volunteers, planted and watered the trees. Various plants were planted, including Neem, Pipal and Bogenvilla.

Each tree was temporarily named DIYA1, DIYA2, and so on. The DIYA volunteers are working on renaming them meaningfully. The task of daily watering the trees was assigned to different groups of kids belonging to standard 5 through 7. To safeguard the trees from cattle and other stray animals, iron shield of already grown up trees in the premises shall be used. DIYA also plans to award the group that takes the best care of the trees, with some prizes!

Apart from the plantation activity, in parallel, a collage competition was conducted in groups by MTW in which the kids from the 5th, 6th and 7th standard participated. To add to the fun and excitement, a “Tug-Of-War” game, involving the kids, was also held!

On the whole, it was lots of fun and excitement for the enthusiastic volunteers, kids and the families who attended this drive J. For the people who were the first to participate in such an activity, it was a heart welcoming experience. Nevertheless the glittering eyes of the kids, shining bright with excitement, would always be in the memory of all the volunteers who attended the day! Let’s wish, such activities come again and again… J

Photos are uploaded here:
http://www.pankhudifoundation.org/photos/main.php/hyderabad/Year2010-11/PlantationAtUPS/

Pankhudi Mumbai conducted BDT on Sunday, 20 June 2010 at Suman Nagar, Chembur.

Shahzad, Krunal, Aditi, Sachin, Samiksha, Uday, Aditya, Abhirup, Arunima, Sonali, Grishma and Mukta – all volunteered and made this event a grand success.

Special thanks to Smriti (for her insights) and Sonali, Grishma, Arunima, Abhirup for pitching in and helping conduct the test smoothly.

Through this exercise, we hope to gauge the profiency of the students and freeze our batch for the academic year. The results will also help us to chalk out the content.

Question papers were made using NCERT material, and, proved to be tough for most kids.

Next few weeks will be packed with badge distribution and batch freezing activity, parents’  meet, volunteer drive, stationery distribution by Prudential Group and a drawing competition.

We hope to see more volunteer participation as the year progresses.

More updates to follow in a while.

Activity Date:  6-June-2010

Activity Venue: SOS Children’s Village

Participants: Brinda, Richa, Satya, Vijay, Pritam, Rejesh, Surender, Manish

It was a summer vacation at the UPS school. We were all bored rigid since it had been almost a month we didn’t interact with kids (We were doing only strategic planning for the next academic year). We remember that fine day when during a meeting, Satya and Brinda told us about an “SOS” orphanage (We will not use this word again as “SOS” management doesn’t like calling it orphanage. They call it “SOS Village”)

Brinda explained the concept of “SOS Village” that they believe every child has a right to have a family to grow up with love, respect and security. Therefore, the management there has created a village like environment; there are 12 separate houses (3-4 BHK) and each houses 10 kids with different age groups and genders. The mothers are widowed women, having no one in their lives. The SOS Management has brought them to the Village and takes care of them as well. The SOS Village management believes that these mothers can only take the best care of the kids in the village. This unique and novel concept was received with surprise and much appreciation by all our volunteers.

So, once we heard about the village from Brinda, we were extremely anxious to visit the place, the kids and the mothers there. Hence, we decided to visit the “SOS Village” very soon in near future. Brinda and Satya worked closely with the SOS management and finally we settled down on the date to do our fun activities with kids at the “SOS Village” on 6-June-2010 (Sunday, 2pm to 5 pm).

We all were very keen to visit “SOS village”. Brinda, Richa, Surender and Pritam took the responsibility for the various activities while Vijay, Rajesh, Manish and Satya arranged the snacks and other things required for the event. Everyone in the team was very enthusiastic for the visit. Finally, everything was in shape by Saturday evening (5-June-2010).

At last, the day came for which we all were waiting eagerly. We all assembled at Gachibowli around 1:30 pm. It was awfully hot outside but the mercury could not dwindle our enthusiasm. We reached the “SOS Village” sharp at 2 pm (on time!).

This is the first time we were visiting any orphanage, we had seen the orphanage in movies and was under the impression that kids stay in some lousy rooms and an old weird man who doesn’t know how to talk would be the care taker.

Our perception went wrong when we first stepped into the “SOS Village”. The very first thought that came into our mind was that we have landed in some wrong place, it would be a resort. The place was so quiet and calm, and with full of greenery. Director of the “SOS Village” greeted us very nicely and asked us to keep our belongings in one room. We decided to conduct a drawing competition at the activity rooms and rest activities (games) outside, as there were many shaded areas.

We started with an introductory round where each kid came forward and told his/her name, hobbies and the ambition in life. After hearing their ambitions, we all were astonished, as each one of them knew what they wanted to be in life, most of them wanted to be teachers to make society a better place. Gracy from VII std wanted to become an IPS officer. The introduction round finished with lot of respect towards the “SOS Village” management.

Then there were lots of fun around the village, we tied friendship band on every kid’s hand. Still there is a smile on my face when I think that little conversation with one small kid.

He asked innocently to me “Anna (Brother), if you tie this band on my hand then will I be your friend?”

I said “Yes”

Then he asked another band from volunteer and said “Anna, you also become my friend” JJ

After tying bands on their hands, we played icebreaker (musical chair) and the game truly broke the ice. All Kids mingled with volunteers as if we all knew each other for long. Then we played couple of team games where kids as well as volunteers enjoyed a lot.

After a lot of masti, we asked all kids to assemble into activity rooms where we had planned a drawing competition. The competition started and there was pin drop silence in both the rooms as all kids were busy with their sketches. Volunteers also took active part in the competition. Richa and Pritam drew some good sketches and were admired by everyone later. We all were really surprised by concentration level of the kids.

All kids were trying to draw their best, most of them took scenery as their object but some of them took very creative ideas. One girl put colour wax on drawing paper and then used pencil on top of that, to design something unique. That time no second thought came into my mind other than that I wished I could also think out of the box like her.

Finally, drawing competition also got over and it was time for evaluation. We had genuinely tough time to choose best 10 out of 39 as they all were good by some or the other means. At last, we selected the top 10 and announced the result. The kids accepted the results in a very sporty fashion, as no one complained (as this is a usual nature of kids). No one was disappointed but they were cheering their friends. We wrapped up our activities after distributing the prizes and chocolates among kids.

The kids came to each volunteer to thank them for coming. We all returned with sweet memories and the determination of an “SOS Reloaded” in our hearts J

Photos can be seen here:

http://www.pankhudifoundation.org/photos/main.php/hyderabad/SOS/

With each year comes new volunteers and new ideas who gives us new insights and confidence to explore newer terrains.

Pankhudi Bangalore team had a marathon meeting to discuss strategies and way forward for the team. The participation was overwhelming. Following were the key points discusses-

1) A detailed report of the last year activities shall be documented ( details of classes,activities etc.) and presented to Pankhudi Bangalore. This will ensure that the new representatives and new volunteers are aligned with what Pankhudi has been doing and help them with a better approach when it comes to strategizing.

2)Performance Monitor – Kids performances need to be tracked. Hence there is a need to have both online and offline monitoring system where the kids and the class progress is fed in. Conducting tests once in 4-6 weeks is a must.

3) Content – Enable India to help us with the content for the visually impaired kids. For the content of  English, Maths and Computers, the responsibility will lie with the assigned group of volunteers

4) Volunteer Induction – The new volunteer joining the Parivaar will be taken through the presentation, a compiled report of last year and also through a training schedule ( at Enable India for volunteers who wish to get trained to teach for visually impaired kids)

5) Pankhudi Internship Programme – Pankhudi Bangalore hopes to roll out an internship programme for college going kids where the scope of the project would not be limited to teaching but to do market research on potential new projects

6) Sponsor a kid – We need to come out with feasible plans of connecting kids to guardians who are willing to fund their education completely or in parts

7) New projects – Pankhudi Bangalore would always be willing to start new projects but would dabble with them only once it has garnered the requisite resource to make it sustainable. One of the very new projects that we have started is at the Desire Society.

Workshops for kids on development of values, hygiene sense etc.

9) Outings for kids to be planned in advance and executed well (adventure trips and educational trips)

We will keep re-visiting these points time and again over the course of the year, adding new milestones while clearing all obstacles with the strong support of a well-knitted Pankhudi Parivaar.

Pankhudi Bangalore representatives met with the Enable India team to plan out strategies that could help Pankhudi to be more effective when it came to teaching the visually impaired kids. Following were the key points discussed-

a) Pankhudi Bangalore to sign an  MOU with Enable India that would help us use the resources made available by Enable India to the maximum

b) The team from Enable India will visit one of our classes to evaluate the standards of teaching

c) Pankhudi will share its current course content with Enable India seeking modifications and to be designed in a fashion that benefits the kids in the long term

d) Enable India is willing to send a trained person to our class who could overlook the teaching process and help the volunteers who are taking the classes.Besides all new volunteers can be inducted through their training session that happen over weekends

e) Enable India to share fun-related activities that could be done in a class-room and break the monotony

f) Enable India has tie-ups with corporates and they do the profiling for the students after class 10th, train them for two years and provide them with a job. Our current student pool at SRMAB will be connected to them after class 10th for better future prospects.

The meeting had been extremely fruitful and we are hopeful of taking swift action on the above mentioned points.

Come this Sunday, the 30th of May, and Pankhudi Bangalore will be starting off with another project at the Desire Society (http://www.desiresociety.org/), a health care and support centre for HIV affected kids and kids of HIV affected parents. There are around 20 kids, all talented and brimming with confidence and the idea is to spend time with them, engaging an d teaching them through fun activities. We have a set of existing volunteers who would be devoting their time in it. More overwhelming is the fact that a new set of  spirited volunteers will also be engaged in this activity. Pankhudi Bangalore expects more people to support this by contributing a little time of theirs and wishes its team all the very best in their new endeavour.