Pankhudi Foundation Blog

On 14th November we were able to provide the children at SRMAB with a fun filled day of recreational activities on Sports Day – to get away from the everyday and do something different. The day started off at 9:30 am with the arrival of around 60 children ages 8 to 19 years and volunteers from Pankhudi to SRMAB play grounds.

The inauguration began with prayer and the children were divided into several teams. The day’s sports events were full of a variety of games including discus throw, shot put, javelin throw, frog jumping, spoon race, running race, book balancing and break the pot. The SRMAB grounds come alive as the students cheer their friends who hold high the flag of sportsmanship and competitive spirit through the various events from team sports to individual ones.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

The Event wrapped up about 2 PM and the event in all was a success. The Pankhudi team participated enthusiastically in setting up each race. This was really a day to remember and we are thankful to SRMAB for giving the opportunity to make Sports Day a memorable one for all the kids and volunteers here at Pankhudi.

Pics of the event: The photos are 3-d so you will be able to feel the love and fun we had http://picasaweb.google.com/vaibhav.kumar/SRMABSports#

It was final day of our eye camp. It was time to materialize all the effort. Eye checked had start some month back and with 130 Kids. After first round itself, doctor said only 37 kids can come for second round of checkup. Out of 37, we got 12 kids who got the specs and with specs they can see up to 4-10 meters. This much of visibility matters a lot, a lot for them.

Finally we got a group of young guns who are running YouthKonnect for donation. This young guys collect the money every month and make sure that it would reach to needy people. That day Ranjeet and other YouthKonnect guys joined us for distributing specs to the kids, those 12 kids.

Some kids care themselves and they on and often keep us asking when we were getting glasses. We were already 1 week late than schedule. But finally we did it.

Thanks to YouthKonnect team !

Some information that can be used:

If you are looking for Online Syllabus for CBSE, then yes, it is available. Not only for CBSE but for TN board and Karnataka board, it is available. Please use the following links:

http://www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/testing/Index.htm
http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Std9.htm
http://www.dsert.kar.nic.in/textbooksonline/first.asp

Karnataka book only have 10th books now. But soon other class books will come. This will be helpful for kids who avail the book in different format. Like Visually Impaired kids need book in braille and conversion in braille from here is very easy.

If you are teaching computer in some society and want some exercise on MS office or so, please have a look at these links:

(MS word) : Higher level – http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddzzngkg_23f5jxbhcf
Primary level – http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddzzngkg_26hhtv8d6p

(PowerPoint): Higher level – http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddzzngkg_27d7sj99gg

Computer basic: http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddzzngkg_32cm595wgp

Feel free to use, distribute ! We will add more here soon.

She was too young to meet a doctor. Today Bhumika was with me for eye checkup. Sometime I think I should learn Kannada because talking with these kids are too tough. Some grown up, manage English but small kids like Bhumika(5 year age) are too small for English even. Too young to learn anything other than smiling/crying.

I was on leave from last 2 days, many of us actually and its more worth than writing code or playing cricket at office. Today we have taken 13 kids for detailed eye check at Shekar Netralaya. They already visited the school last month and finalized 38 kids who can be operated further. Like previous day, we didn’t get a cab/bus to put the kids at Shekar Netralaya. It is around 1.5 Kms from school. We decided to take the kids by walk but if you want to avoid main road it will be more than 2 kms. 7 out of 13 were bare feet…

Asking them, they said that they feel it better that way. Changing an existing system is tougher than adding a new system. It was not good for their health to walk like this but that was not a right time to give lecture. We moved, its regret to know that many people don’t use brake of their bike in Bangalore in any case. We decided to do it 1-by-1, rather than telling our bikers to stop.

Hospital was crowded. For doctors also this is NGO work and so they can’t disturb the flow of their normal patient. Kids got the chair to sit at least. To one of the excited kids Ravi Kiran,we asked “you want water”. He replied “juice sir, it’s hospital na” . Finally the treatment started. And its hard time to listen new stories. Total of 3 cases, where it was a genetic problem. Marriage in same blood like with Cousin or relative, leads to this problem. What doctor sir explained me was – “getting married in same blood cause this problem at a dominant level. Maybe either his mother or father has this problem but not prominent but the next generation effect is very prominent. Lot of research is going on but we don’t have any solid solution yet. ”

Finally we got 4 kids, for whom vision can be little improved by glasses of power like +11, +10. Bhumika case was different from all of them. Her eyes are normal but brain connection with eyes never grown up. Can’t do much. Research is going on ! One doctor was abusing us, that why you came for checkup now. You know its too late for many of them. “Even for some, it is corneal problem which can be rectified but now their retina are too weak to see anything. If your retina will not work for 10 years, how it should be”. Hmmm…. correct ! Some got cataract which can be operated and removed. But again their retina are weak and so vision will not be improved more than 20-25 percent.

I am not writing this blog for any sympathy but just to inform that minor mistakes can lead to a severe problem. Out of 23, there were 4 cases, in which parents screwed up the eyes because kids claimed some irritation in eyes and they put some wrong eye drop/wrong medical treatment. Now, they are crying and why not, they left with that option only. 4 cases, where marriage led to this problem. Take care !!

If you have any kid in your surrounding who has vision problem, don’t wait even for a day. Immediate checkup is required. Eye power go down with a high pace. If someone die in your surrounding, request their relatives to donate his/her eyes. It’s more worthy than what he had done in his whole life. God will definitely bless heaven to him.

Lets give a try before concluding that trying this is not worth. 15 still more to go !

It was a big day for us. We were waiting for some result that can change life(s). I had already put leave mail, thanks to Sun culture where no one bothers about leave. But lot of our friends/volunteers already fought for their leave and made it possible, hats off ! Some committed to work in early morning, some committed to night shift but they made the day worth. It was an eye camp for the kids of SRMAB(Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind) and an important day for us.

Doctor had done their setup and we were all ready to control the flow of kids. Only one agenda – was he/she curable or not !! I was not there with any expectation but I could listen some “even if 10 kids can be cured, its a good number”. I had done all these pre-maths last night with the conclusion that if things were not in control, wish for the best. Volunteers were all ready for the action. Faculties of SRMAB were ready to help and taken the work to get the kids from different classes. Principal sir has given their own big hall for checkup, so nice ! He is one of the most concerned person when it comes to student’s health or treatment.

Dr. Smitha started with her examination. Before that, one doctor did the initial checkup. Like, he examined the eyes with torch light. If eyes motion exist on torch light that means retina is fine. If retina is not fine means eye problem can’t be cured. Everyone has to go through the main treatment after primary treatment. For some, there were no eyes. For other some, there retina were completed damaged. Doctor Madam told us that most of them have mechanical injuries or severe infection. For other some, eyes were too small… God “some break is required”. In break, God given 38 those kids out of 118 who can be verified/cured(chance) further.
One of the senior members who was Managing Director of Shekar Netralaya was explaining us other things related with this event. He was telling that eye donation is still weak in our country and I am requesting you guys also that whenever you go on any funeral, try to convey the family for eye donation. Eye can be donated in next 6 hrs of death and its best to keep the eye close and put some ice-cube over it. This will keep cornea safe for long time. He further explained that even you can go for Lasik treatment to remove your specs. Lasik operation, now a days can be done in 15 seconds and overall a day treatment. Adding further, he said “these days we do one or more lasik operation per day”.

I got the chance to meet my old students, Renuka, Sheela, Kaushik. Renuka said that she was ill from 17 days. Her eyes…hmm it was different from my prediction. Doctor said her eyes could be further checked, that means some hope is still left. They are the most intelligent kids of SRMAB at least in Computers , just because they can’t see completely and so they don’t bother to know whats going on screen. Mouse and screen are two useless part of computer for them.
It was a great day with full of knowledge, good hope, some disappointment and fun with the kids on weekday. Our game plan for next action is all set and we need to put that in zero time. Losing vision in many times is a gradual process which can be checked with proper medication.

More snaps can be viewed here : http://picasaweb.google.com/vaibhav.kumar/EyeCamp#

It always exist in the pure form. That small girl was laughing, laughing so much that her laugh was interrupted by her breathing. I asked the care taker, “your daughter”. He said “yes, aasram girl”. That was a nice ambiguous reply. She was helping me in putting the cloths in.

It was our materialization of collection drive which we did for Seva Shishu Aasram, Wilson Garden. I put down my collected cloth and then I said Swarsati Madam(Incharge of Aasram) “there are lot of cloths outside” showing my hand at the gate side. Because outside Deeptangan(one of us) was waiting with truck loaded(actually auto loaded) full of cloths.

That small girl just saw my hand pointing outside and she ran away, try to figure out which item she can carry and can get that inside. First she picked one pack, which turned out to be heavy one. Laughing loudly, she dropped it and grabbed another one. That was still heavy but she was able to manage it. She put the pack inside at a well defined location.

She came back at the gate and grabbed the second bag, now her laugh was badly interrupted by her breathe. I was just stunned by seeing the energy in this small girl. As we grow, we lose the purity of everything, pure smile, a purity in energy, everything looks like a manipulated event. When we laugh, either we laugh on someone or we laugh on something. It can be a laugh without subject… she was explaining this to me.

And soon we have piled up that corner with full of cloths. Oh my God, it was another auto, Priyanka(one of us) this time. She was half auto loaded. Till that time, Ajay(one of us, muscle man )joined us, so I left the work for him. He took the things from auto and put that in that corner(already piled-up corner). But its always in scope to increase third dimension. Ani(one of us, our camera man) was busy in making video.

She went somewhere. I searched but .. may be she went for sleeping, so much of work ! Minu and Shivpriya(two of us) joined us in next 5 min. Collection was still on. 4 bags in 4 hands, good enough. Nitin(one of us, newly joined), 2 hands with 4 big bags… carry on guys ! In the meantime, Ram sir(senior of us) joined. We decided to make a move for our meeting, which was supposed to happen at 1.00. Yes, it was 1.00. Most of us respect time and its always fun to laugh on late comers .

Swarasti Madam promised me that she will segregate the cloth according to size. Soon, few good men who take care of kids in Aasram took the cloths inside and start segregating it. Hmm, we went for meeting. We were back after the meet and awesomely one more pile was ready. Great work guys and God bless to all donors. Putting a new Shirt or a jacket will not tell you the importance of it. Fight for a blanket in 3 ppl at a chilling midnight can explain you better.

Fun is still I am getting cloths from my friends .

This time we decided to have eye donation awareness. My small blog about some important facts related with eye donation.

Sometime its quite strange to think of a person, who is talking to you, can’t see you. I mean we never get to know what picture of us .. he sets in mind. They never asked me what is the color of my T-Shirt, what is the color of my face. I guess, It’s more or less the same when we listen to Radio jokey and say ah this girl must be beautiful as she has a nice voice. Oh my God, if that is the case, their self-depicted picture for me would be horrible.

Last weekend I was talking with one of us about the eye donation in India. I remember that Aishwaya ad that used to come just before the news. Figures are not good. not good at all. Let me share some common facts about eye donation which we should know :

1. What is eye donation and how it works :

- Corneal transplantation is a surgical procedure where a damaged or diseased cornea is replaced by donated corneal tissue. Eye donation has to be done within 6 hrs of death. Why Donation ? The only substitute for a human cornea is another human cornea.

2. Awareness in India :

- I tried to figure out some data but there is no research done at all India level. B Priyadarshini from Madurai has done a survey in south India. 50 percent participant are aware of eye donation whereas only 22 percent know that it need to be donated within 6 hrs from Death. 20 percent only heard about Corneal transplantation.

I guess same data applied across India or even less can be expected as South zone is highly educated zone in our country.

- Approximately 840,000 persons developing a corneal ulcer every year in India; this is 30 times the number of corneal ulcers seen in the United States.
- Donation is even less than 1/10th of required. I don’t know what can be the barrier in eye donation. Maybe our dead body is not looking as cool as it need to be .. what a rubbish !

3. What we can do :

- Almost everyone of us can donate eyes. Even a person like me, who wears – 3.5 glass.
- It will not delay your funeral arrangements for long. This is funny, we can’t see that. It will delay not more than 2-3 hrs.
- Every religion support eye donation. Who really cares !

4. Time and Money :

- In Lab, Cornea tissue can be preserved and stored for several days before it must be used for transplant. But in our country demands are so high that it has been used or distributed in 1-2 days.
- In US, it costs around 4000- 6000 Dollars but in India it cost less than 700-800 dollars. Why ? – Because The healthcare sector in India is one of the best in the world. Most patient comes from outside for this operation in India.

5. Success Rate :

- Corneal transplants are highly successful.
- Possible complications with keratoplasty include infection of the eye, bleeding after surgery and failure of the transplant itself, but rate is very less.

6. Some more :

- Eye Bank says, There are currently 202 eye banks in the country involved in collection and distribution of donated eyes (data from Eye Bank Association, India – personal communication).
- As mentioned above : The current annual procurement of eyes for donation in India remains at approximately one-tenth of the annual requirement (data from Eye Bank Association, India).

What else ! Please let me know if I missed any point. For reference, use this :

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_donation
2. http://www.medicaltourism.cc/category_story_1457.html
3. http://www.eyedonation.org/faqs.html
4. http://www.ijo.in/article.asp?issn=0301-4738;year=2003;volume=51;issue=1;spage=101;epage=104;aulast=Priyadarshini
5. http://www.sightlife.org/

Some more points on why donation or replacement is so less :

- Family at the time of your dead don’t really remember you have donated eye and we need to contact doctor.
- Our culture not take it in a good way
- Lack of awareness
(Thanks to Abhishek)

Did you know that there are some underprivileged and unfortunate kids living around us who can’t afford the basic things for their living? Well, don’t just sit there, do something about it! Help us in our collection drive.

Pankhudi — A family of many in the service of underprivileged and unfortunate children of our society. Working for the cause, care of the slum, disabled and orphaned or uncared children to improve the quality of their childhood is our prime motto. Pankhudi is spread over Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

Pankhudi Bangalore is involved in lots of activities like DivyaDrishti – Education for visually-impaired children,Sahayata – Pankhudi Collection Drives.The Bangalore chapter has recently involved itself with a new activity (Computer Education) at an orphanage “Anatha Shishu Sevashram” at Wilson Garden Bangalore. The orphanage accommodates around 60 kids (both boys and girls) aged from 5 to 25 years old.

The need of having a collection drive was felt after the visit to the orphanage. The Bangalore chapter has started a collection drive on 5th July and will be collecting items around the city till 19th July 2009. On Sunday, July 19 the chapter will deliver all of the collected items at the orphanage. Everyone is invited to make a donation. See around in your wardrobes – It may be wastage for you but a resource for others.

For all those who can contribute in the collection drive, following are the items you can donate:

1. Highest Priority Requirement – Sweaters and Blankets.

2. Important requirements – Cloths (any size will work, if its kid size – simply awesome), toys, sports item (cricket bat, badminton, chess), electronic item (like torch, radio).

3. Any other item which you think will be useful for the kids

You don’t want to do this alone so recruit anyone and everyone to help you out. It would be great if you can spread the word among your family, friends.Don’t worry if you are having trouble in delivering the collected items. If you get a good collection and because of “any” reason you are unable to collect it. Let us know the place or address here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cjNydXI4QUN0RUNPNFRtOVpjaGxKQXc6MA

We will be there to collect it from the specified place.

However if possible we suggest you can also come over in person and also get a firsthand look at how your donations are put to use.

Pankhudi Contact Details:
Vaibhav: 98867 96985
Lipika: 99456 00788

Anatha Shishu Sevashram
#14, 2nd Cross
Wilson Garden,
Bangalore-560027
Landmark: Opposite Hindustan Marbel & Granites
Phone: 080-22236892
Mobile: 9845695924

“Nadiya..”, it was quite strange, I have never heard a name like “Nadiya…”. Thought a bit who had given her this name. Came back from my thoughts and I asked “which class you study”. She replied “2nd standard”. Sometime back I got to know that they moved to the next standard, so I asked “completed 1st”, she smiled and turned her head with a closed eye. It was beginning of our class at a new location, Sheva Shishu Ashram(orphanage home of 60 kids), with new excitement. She came near me and crossed her fingers with my palm and smiled. I asked “what is your name” …

Don’t remember the date, I asked one student “tell me about your best day” in an interview and he said “yet to come, Sir”. 4 weeks back, our gang started computer class in Shishu Seva Ashram, Wilson Garden. It was a great excitement in kids. Before starting the class, Subhash(a bright student of Sheva Shishu) came to whiteboard and made the diagram “Parts of computer”. I told him to add speakers and CD drive into the diagram which he had done it in 10 seconds and then labeled it. Class started … “where we use computer”. Abhishek(a bright kid of Shishu Seva) replied “Banking Sir”. It was a fascinating answer and I remembered “best day is yet to come”.

Please join us to give them what we called “best day” of life.

For more, read Priyanka’s blog.
For joining : Drop a mail to me or join@pankhudifoundation.org.

We have started collection drive  on 5th July . Here is the to do list :-

1. Highest Priority Requirement -  Sweaters and Blankets.
2. Important requirements – Cloths(any size will work, if its kid size – simply awesome), toys, sports item(cricket bat, badminton, chess…), electronic item( like torch, radio).
3. Any other item which you think is important is important, please collect it

End Date : 20th July 2009

NOTE: If you get a good collection and because of “any” reason you are unable to collect it. Let us know the place or address here : http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cjNydXI4QUN0RUNPNFRtOVpjaGxKQXc6MA

We have started it for Anatha Shishu Seva Ashram, Wilson Garden, Bangalore.

Help us !