Japan Tsunami Appeal, March, 2011

A ferocious tsunami spawned by the biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan (and the fifth worst in the world since 1900) slammed the country’s eastern coast on Friday, killing at least 1000 people, sweeping away houses, boats and cars across cities and farmlands.

Japanese police officials said the toll was at least 1000 with 300 bodies found in Sendai, a port city in northeastern Japan and the closest large population to the epicenter. The full extent of injuries weren’t known and the toll is feared to rise substantially.

Walls of water whisked away houses and cars in central Japan, where terrified residents fled the coast. Train services were shut down across central and northern Japan, including Tokyo, and air travel was severely disrupted. A ship carrying over 100 people was swept away by the tsunami, Kyodo News Reported.

Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was horrific because of the tsunami that swallowed everything in its path as it surged several kilometers inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images of surging water and uncontrolled conflagrations broadcast by Japanese TV resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.

SEWA INTERNATIONAL Bharat, having been at the forefront of many disaster relief projects and with wide experience in rehabilitation, launches this appeal to help and provide succor to these unfortunate victims. Your support will help reduce the sufferings of the people in the Tsunami hit Japan.

For further information please contact: Telephone: +91-11-23232850, 23684445

Email: sewainternationaldelhi@gmail.com, Website: www.sewainternational.org

Please send your generous donations to:

SEWA INTERNATIONAL

49, Deendayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi – 110002

Bank Account Details

Sewa International, Account No.- 10080533326, State Bank of India, Jhandewala Extn Branch, Branch Code- 9371, Swift Code-SBININBB550, New Delhi- 110055

Sewa Sandesh 131: August 8, 2010

From Editor’s Desk
The catastrophe in Leh, Laddakh and the surrounding rural areas saw RSS swayamsevaks and Sewa volunteers rushing in for providing succour to the flash flood affected. The disaster in Leh and the villages around is difficult to contemplate, the terrain being rugged and air being thin. It is more than a fortnight and the govt agencies are yet to provide normal power, water supply and communications. A senior political leader like Shri L. K. Advani is on record asking his party Parliamentarians to donate at least Rs.10,000/- from their salaries to Sewa Bharti J & K.
Laddakh is sparsely populated area as compared to the rest of the state of Jammu & Kashmir and yet providing relief is a Himalayan task.
It is in this trying hour that we need to extend our hand and go a mile longer to help the flood affected people. SI invites donors and well wishers to join hands for providing relief to the flood affected population of this tough terrain.

Relief And Rehabilitation Efforts By Sewa Organisations on in Leh

Hundreds of people got killed and thousands are missing and numerous were injured in worst ever cloud bursts and flash floods in Leh which caused unprecedented destruction in the entire district in general and Leh town in particular on August 6. In these adverse conditions, volunteers of Sewa International, Sewa Bharati, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP) and the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram started all-out rescue and relief operations. The leaders of all these organizations met the Dy Commissioner Leh, Chief Executive Councillor of LDHC and Brigadier Dutta of Army and submitted them written letters extending full support to relief and rescue operations. They appreciated the relief operation by all these organizations.

In the meantime, the Sewa Bharati J&K through its unit in Leh in association with the Ladakh Phande Tsongpa had already established a relief operation camp in Leh and is looking after
the nees of the affected people.
In Jammu, the Sewa Bharati organized an emergency meeting in which social workers of many organizations were present to chalk out the strategy to provide immediate relief to the victims of the disaster. All members paid homage to those who died in the disaster and formed a relief committee under the name of Ladakh Aapada Sahayata Samiti to assist the victims and affected families in Leh. Brig. (Retd.) Shri Suchet Singh has been unanimously elected president of the Samiti. Dr Kuldeep Gutpa is secretary and Shri Abay Pargal will be treasurer.
As an immediate measure, some cash donations were immediately transferred from Jammu to the group of sewa volunteers working in Leh. They purchased whatever relief material they could get from the nearby local markets and started distributing them. According to latest reports, a relief package of 2,000 blankets, a set of utensils for 500 families, 2,000 clothes and 500 shoes is on the way and will soon reach the calamity site. Some injured from Leh who have now arrived at Jammu are also being contacted by Sewa Bharati workers to provide them necessary help.

According to Shri Suchet singh on an average a family requires at least 4 quilts, 4 blankets and equal number of mattresses ,4 pillows and a big darri. All this material is necessary for high altitude places like Leh where the temperature goes below zero degree Celsius during winter months which start October, latest by early November. The approximate cost of these items works out to Rs 6,500 per family of four members. In clothing sweaters, warm shirts, inners, jeans/warm trousers, jackets are required. The average cost works out to around Rs 8,000. As regard to the utensils the minimum requirements are one pressure cooker of at least 5 liter capacity, 6 plates for lunch/dinner, 6 glasses, 6 katori, 2 patila wih lids, 2 buckets per family. The approximate cost works out to around Rs 2,000.

“The cost of constructing dwelling units comprising two rooms (one room 12X12 and the other one 12X15 including kitchen) in mud with tin roof will cost approximately Rs 2-2.25 lakh without labour component for which we intend to involve the beneficiary. The estimates are only tentative and may vary depending upon the requirements of the site. Similarly, the requirement is based on an assumption of four member family the factual position can be assessed only after the connectivity is restored”, Shri Suchet Singh added.

Sewa International
Aid Appeal For Cloudburst And Flash Floods In Leh (J&K)

CLOUDBURST, resulting into flash floods, triggered by sudden overnight heavy rain on the 6th August 2010, killing approximately 150 people as per latest report and over 500 people missing. Many people are still believed to be trapped under debris of buildings. Five villages – Nimmo, Basgo, Shapoo, Faing and Ney, apart from Choglamsar and Leh town have been very badly hit, where all communication systems, bus stands, Hospital and many other buildings have been washed away. Leh airport inundated with mud and water has been rendered non functional.
A distance of 150 kilometers – from Pang village on the Rohtang – Leh highway up to Nimoo on the Leh – Srinagar highway has been hit, hence the road connectivity to the city has been cut off from the rest of India.
SEWA INTERNATIONAL, started relief activities in association with local partner organization Sewa Bharati Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir from the early morning of August 6, 2010 by providing food and temporary shelter to the affected.
There is an urgent need to provide relief to the flood affected. SEWA INTERNATIONAL, Bharat, (a registered organization with FCRA facility) appeals whole heartedly the benevolent to help these unfortunate victims. Your support will help reduce the sufferings of these people in the flood affected area of Leh, Laddakh. Sewa International is constantly helping the flood victims to bring back their life to normal.
Laddakh is the region under J & K state and is predominantly Buddhist. SI has been serving the local community through computer training classes and supporting the construction of school and hostel building.
“Of all the righteous acts, help rendered to those needing it, is the most righteous.”

For further information please contact: Telephone: +91-11- 23232850, 23684445Fax: +91 11 2351 7722Email: sewainternationaldelhi@gmail.com,

Website: www.sewainternational.org

Please send your generous donations to:

SEWA INTERNATIONAL,

49, Deendayal Upadhyay Marg;

New Delhi – 110 002

NEED YOUR SUPPORT URGENTLY

From Untouchable to Businesswoman
By GUY TREBAY

PLENTY of people exchanging free hugs in Times Square last Sunday traveled a long way to reach New York, but it’s safe to say that few covered anything like the distances Kakuben Lalabhai Parmar had. This is not just a matter of mileage, although certainly it’s a hike from Madhutra, a rural village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to 42nd Street.
At a practical level, Ms. Parmar’s trip required a series of unusual conveyances, among them a bullock cart, a trishaw, the flatbed of a Jeep and the open-topped shuttle bus she rode to reach an airport before boarding a form of transport she had seldom seen up close before, let alone ridden.
At a deeper cultural level, her journey is yet stranger and more wonderful, embodying as it does a half-century of global feminism and the evolutionary arc of modern India. In the cattle-herding community Ms. Parmar belongs to, one among a cluster of groups categorized by the Indian constitution as “scheduled castes,” women were traditionally bound not just to their region or village but to the home.
“My group was treated as untouchables,” said Ms. Parmar, 50. And if the community was untouchable, its female members were still more disadvantaged by being invisible. Married at 14, the mother of seven, Kakuben Lalabhai Parmar was well into adulthood before she came face-to-face with a man who was not a close relative.
Yet here she was in Midtown Manhattan last weekend, wrapping her arms around the strangers who gather there regularly to dispense affection, some of them understandably astonished at the apparition clad in a mirror-spangled skirt and a tie-dyed shawl, her throat and hands and arms lavishly adorned with the homemade tattoos that are a form of what Ms. Parmar termed “affordable beautification” in the far reaches of Gujarat.
And here she was, too, a businesswoman setting up shop at the Asia Society, where a group of artisans gathered for three days to sell their wares; and at CVS buying bargain shampoo and $1 hair ornaments for her five daughters; and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday morning, pointing out to this reporter that the cooking vessels of the 12th Dynasty of Egypt (from about 1800 B.C.) look exactly like the pots she uses to cook dal at home.
Not a lot seemed to faze her. She took in stride urban commotion, the assorted indignities of travel, the novelty of seat belts, in-flight movies and also elevators, escalators, yellow cabs, mattresses and the abundant forms so standard in life that could be unnerving to an illiterate whose signature is a print of her thumb.
“I already experienced the biggest change in my life,” she said, speaking a Gujarati dialect through an interpreter, “when I first got the chance to come out of my house and participate in society.”
Ms. Parmar’s moment of liberation came roughly 20 years ago, when the not-for-profit Sewa Project formed a unit in her village to help preserve endangered handicrafts and, equally, to provide the people who make them a form of alternative employment.
“We never even thought of getting income from selling this stuff before,” said Ms. Parmar, who sews patchwork embroideries that incorporate vivid threads and reflective shards laboriously cut by hand from mirror scrap she buys by the pound.
The cloth, at least, may be familiar to readers, since it is the kind used in the making of a slouchy “It” bag being hauled around this summer by Cameron Diaz, Nicole Richie and other celebrity entities.
The price tag on a satchel made from mirrored patchwork and bearing the label Simone Camille is about $2,000, a sum equivalent to two years of Ms. Parmar’s income. Yet even on the modest $60 a month she earns sewing pillow covers that require almost a week’s work and that sell in her local market for $15 a pair, she has become the family’s chief breadwinner. She holds title to her own cattle, has a personal account with a microfinance credit union and is quick to point out that while this may seem insignificant to a New Yorker accustomed to such symbols of Western wealth as reliable electricity and plumbing, it is considered a vast change in circumstance for a woman from rural India, even now.
“When I was a girl, all the assets belonged to the father or the husband or the brother,” Ms. Parmar said Friday. Squatting on the floor of the Asia Society’s grand marble lobby, she demonstrated her technique for cutting mirror shards into diamond, oval and triangular shapes and a pointed form called a “crow,” using the sharpened edge of a terra cotta roof tile. She multitasked ceaselessly, stopping to spread out pillow covers for one buyer’s approval, and explain the eye-dazzling motifs she uses to another, all the while keeping a sharp eye on the sales totals, eyeglasses perched at the tip of her nose.
“In those days, the husband was in charge of everything,” she explained to a visitor. “What could you do, with no skills and no education?”
Now as a globetrotter, an informal ambassador for Sewa and the Crafts Council of India — one of a growing number of groups committed to preserving traditional folkways in India, a country where, by some estimates, 40 million to 60 million people gain at least part of their living making handicrafts — she finds herself in circumstances she could never have foreseen.
She flies around the world on her own. She takes taxis. She shops at Walgreens and somehow manages to domesticate the experience of visiting a world-class museum like the Met by finding creative kinship there between her own utilitarian patchworks (“We never wasted a scrap of fabric,” she said) and a Malian mud cloth or a Sudanese tent divider embroidered with Venetian trade beads and cowrie shells. She proselytizes in an easy and natural way for the importance of educating women, getting them out of the house and into jobs.
Thanks to the work she does now, she says, with a high-pitched hoot, her role in family life inverts that played by the generations of women who came before her.
“Now that I have my own business and make my own money, my husband shows me respect,” Ms. Parmar said. There are even occasions, she said, when he helps her out with her accounts. “He’s my secretary,” she added with a laugh.

School Kit Drive By Seva Sahayog

Volunteers at Seva Sahayog come together every year to help provide brand new school kits to school going under privileged children. The aim is to bring smiles to these children as they take their next leap in learning. The beneficiaries have experienced the joy of having a new school bag, books, pencils and crayons on the first day of school. Sahayog hopes to create that moment of smile for the underprivileged children in the society.
Some facts regarding school kit drive are as follows:
• 10,000+ is the number of donors for school kit.
• 100 NGOs benefited from the drive.
• 150+ coordinators registered for the event.
• 100 companies empanelled for the drive.
• 600+ volunteers participated in assembly and distribution.
• In 2010, more than 26,000 school kits were collected.
· Spread over Six Sundays from 9 to 3 pm everyone 4 to 50 yr old had a task to assemble over 200,000 items for 20,000 school kits.

School Kit Drive By Youth for Seva ,Hyderabad.

• The first project taken up by YFS Hyderabad was the school kit drive.• It was designed in time for the start of the school year.

• A school kit consists of 1 school bag, 6 long note books, 1 com pass box, 2 pens and 20 labels.

• The kit was designed to prevent dropouts from schools due to financial constraints and lack of motivation to study further.

• The call for 'Gift a School Kit for Rs 250' was well received and funds for 2400 school kits were collected by YFS volun teers within 2 months.

• These kits were then distributed by the volunteers in various government schools across the city and rural areas of AP.
Titbits:
1. Nine years back, Shri S.S. Narayanan, a retired Assistant Executive Engineer of Madras Port Trust, found that Rs. 40,000 had accrued in his father Sankaranarayanan' s savings bank account, being the monthly Railway pension over the years. As all the sons and daughters of retired Station Master Sankaranaraynan were leading contended lives, and were looking after their parents Sankaranaraynan – Rukmini well, the father advised Narayanan, to use the amount in such away to benefit the needy in the society. Within a week, Narayanan and his siblings together added Rs 10,000 to it and donated the amount to Madhava Seva Samiti, which identified meritorious school going children of daily wage earners in Chetput, Chennai (Tamilnadu, Bharat); for the last eight years, the interest proceeds of the amount is awarded to nine such children in memory of Sankaranaraynan – Rukmini at functions organisd by Seva Bharati. This year the function saw two college students receiving similar awards, thanks to the thoughtful donation by Shri Sundar Nathan, a software professional working on E – learning projects in the US. He has instituted , on the advise of his mother Smt Saroja, a growing corpus in memory of his father late B.Viswanathan, a top business executive in his lifetime.
2. Vanshidhar project high school under Bhandra block at the Lohardaga-Ranchi road (Jharkhand, Bharat), comprises more than 700 girls in 6th to 10th standard. The double-storied school building earlier functioned from six rooms, including the office. ''Now it has nine rooms with three of them constructed with the guru dakshina of our students,'' said Meera Bakhla, principal of the school. ''Earlier we used to merge two or three sections to run classes in a single room but thanks to our students and their guardians who came forward for the noble cause,'' Meera Bakhla said. ''Parents of majority of girls are daily wage earners but their eagerness towards their children's education surprises us,'' said Muneshwar Mahto, Mathematics teacher of the school. More than 80 per cent of the students passed the Matriculation examination conducted by the Jharkhand Academic Council this year. It is to be noted that the district is infested by Naxal terrorism involving blasting of school buildings.
3. Shri Devinder Sharma is a food and trade policy analyst. He also chairs the New Delhi-based Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security. In 1999, he persuaded farmers of Punukula village in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, Bharat, to go in for bio fertilizers. A few farmers began experimenting with Non-Pesticidal Management (NPM) practices. A year later, the highly contaminated environment began to change for the better. Soil and plant health looked revitalised, and the pests began to disappear. Such was the positive impact both environmentally and economically that by 2004 the entire village had stopped using chemical pesticides. Restoring the ecological balance brought back the natural pest control systems. Along with the pesticides, the pests too disappeared. Surrounding villages promptly emulated this. By now 3,18,000 farmers in 21 districts of Andhra Pradesh are using compost manure and earthworm to enrich the soil. The health of farmers greatly improved with the disappearance of pesticides. Cost of farming too fell by 35 percent. Farmers of Ramachandrapuram in Khammam district had been bogged down by debts as a result of use of chemical fertilizers. After they took to bio fertilizers, in just two years, 386 of them could redeem the lands they had mortgaged.
Courtesy: Panchaamritam

“The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction.”
- Chanakya

Sewa Sandesh 130: July 8, 2010

From Editor’s Desk
Participation of women in Sewa karya has grown phenomenally in last decade throughout the country. In many states, women activists are leading the Sewa organizations in the capacity of President or Secretary or Coordinators. Indicators clearly state that the rise in number of Sewa karyas of Sewa Bharati is some way related to this very factor. Units like Delhi Sewa Bharati have crossed the limit of 50-50, tilting towards Mahila participation, having Mahilas at all levels- from grassroots to the state level.
Any change in society can be effectively brought in provided this is supported by womenfolk. This phenomenon has to be carefully watched and understood as their contribution in Sewa activity is growing in leaps & bounds. Everyone is aware of women Seva Vratis of Hindu Seva Pratishtana, Karnataka but many are not aware of women Arogyarakshaks of North East or teachers in city of Delhi where participation of women is in good numbers.

Vidya Bharati Schools in Odisha Felicitated for Producing Excellent Results

SARASWATI Shishu Vidya Mandir schools run in Odisha by Shiksha Vikas Samiti, affiliated with Vidya Bharati, continued to perform exceptionally well in the Matriculation Examinations in the State. The Shishu Mandir students excelled in the State High School Certificate Examinations this year by notching up 56 ranks in the top 100 list, including the top five positions. Anupam Jena, a student of Cuttack Shishu Mandir, topped the exams in the State.
According to information received from Shiksha Vikas Samiti, students of 158 Saraswati Shishu Mandir schools appeared in the Board examinations. The Vidya Bharati schools recorded pass percentage of 98.58 which is much higher than the overall pass percentage of the State. This year the overall pass percentage of the State is 71.74.
Out of 158 schools, 102 schools recorded cent per cent results. There were two schools where all the students got first class.
Out of 7,911 Vidya Mandir students who appeared in the examinations, 5,635 students got first class. The percentage of students getting first class is 71.23.
The Shiksha Vikas Samiti organised a function, Medhabi Abhinandan 2010, at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar to felicitate 56 students, who secured place in the top hundred list.
Addressing the function Education Minister of the State Shri Pratap Jena, praised the role of the Shiksha Vikas Samiti for providing quality education to the students of the State. "Good management, dedication of Acharyas and the role of guardians are the keys to success for Saraswati Vidya Mandir Schools. The government schools have to learn many things from the Shishu Mandirs," he added.
Speaking on the function, national secretary of Vidya Bharati Shriram Araukar said the aim of the Shishu Mandirs is not only to provide quality education to the students but also to build their character so that they can contribute in the process of nation-building.
Shiksha Vikas Samiti secretary Dr Bijay Kumar Swain said the holistic and value based curriculum, an edifying atmosphere, strong teacher-student relationship and strict monitoring system are the main reasons for the success of the Saraswati Shishu Vidya Mandir schools. A souvenir, Krutitva Vartika was also released by chief guest Shri Pratap Jena on the occasion.
Shiksha Vikas Samiti president Shri Duryodhan Kathua presided over the meeting.

All India training camp of Bharat Sanskrit Parishad
Drive to prepare 11 lakh Sanskrit speaking families all over the country

Drive to develop 11 lakh Sanskrit speaking families all over the country BHARAT Sanskrit Parishad, a unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), has launched a campaign to develop at least 11 lakh Sanskrit speaking families all over the country. According to Shri Radha Krishna Manori, general secretary of Bharat Sanskrit Parishad, a concrete action plan has been formulated in this regard and such families are being prepared all over the country through Sanskrit training camps by the Parishad.
Speaking at the concluding ceremony of all India Sanskrit training camp organised in New Delhi from June 11 to 24, Shri Manori pointed out that Bharat Sanskrit Parishad is working on the agenda to connect the propagation of Sanskrit with employment generation and it is with this objective that training camps are being organised at different places of the country.
The shiksharthis are imparted training in language, Ayur Veda, astrology, Yogashastra, Gandharva Veda, writing, etc. This training in the camps is imparted by experts. A total of 75 shiksharthis attended the camp in Delhi.
Earlier, inaugurating the camp on June 11, joint secretary general of VHP Swami Vigyananand said the Sanskrit scholars would have to come forward to protect and promote the language. He said learning Sanskrit did not mean neglecting other languages. One may learn any language including English but negligence of Sanskrit would prove disastrous to India. He appealed to Sanskrit scholars to focus on science also through Sanskrit and explore new avenues of knowledge. He also apprised the gathering of the information regarding the Sanskrit gurukulas being run in America, England, Australia and New Zealand. He emphasised that Bharat can regain her glory only through the Sanskrit language.
Vice president of VHP Shri Balkrishna Naik said the Sanskrit still has worldwide influence. He appealed to each and every patriotic citizen of the country to learn Sanskrit and help in preparing Sanskrit families. Prominent among those who guided the shiksharthis at the camp in different sessions included Dr Shri Krishna Semwal of Delhi Sanskrit Academy, Sanskrit scholar Dr Ruby Verma, national working president of Bharat Sanskrit Parishad Dr Girija Shankar Sharma, general secretary of VHP (organisation) Shri Dinesh Chandra, Dr Madhu Gupta of Yoga and Naturopathy College and Prof. Deviprasad Tripathi of Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit University.

Shree Chaitanya Maauli Trust Board, Sangali

Shree Chaitanya Maauli Trust Board has been rendering yeoman services to the down-trodden by running free cradle house, cultural education centre, etc. for children since 1982 with determination & perseverance.
The pious plant initially planted by Late Shri Balasaheb Joshi & Smt. Malutai Joshi with a motto of social service has now grown into a big tree. The institute is fortunate to have selfless workers, volunteers & because of support to this sacred cause from people at large more than 200 kids
of age ranging between 1 and 5 are receiving education at present.

Men and women from surrounding hut dwellings have full faith that when they leave their kids in the institute early morning at 7.30 a.m. while going away in search of work for earning livelihood, will be fully taken care of even upto late 8.00 p.m. by the institute and the kids also feel here like their own house. Thus, it can be imagined as to how much and what kind of care is required to these kids for 9-10 hrs daily.
Institute is also conducting cultural education centres at various places for children between the age-group of 9 to 14 for one or two hours once a week. About 250-300 children have benefited so far. Their mothers & sisters are also being empowered through Saving Groups and thereby making them self reliant. Shri Chaitnya Papad Home Industry is the fruit of these endeavours.

Purpose of conducting cultural centres
Every evil, unwanted destructive incident taking place in the present society is the outcome of depriving good cultural education to the large section of society. Even the honest straight forward person who believes in simple living finds it difficult to lead life and he helplessly turns to unfair means.
Unfortunately, these evils have reached our doors now and will enter in our house any moment. It can be imagined what our sweet and cultured children will have to face when they come out.

Children from rich and educated families are today following wrong path of vulgar language, unabated behaviour and that too, shamelessly. This leads unhealthy relations among youngsters.

People around us need to be religious, thankful, industrious and self respecting as well as responsible citizens so that their life can be peaceful. To uplift the society in general to a higher level of good thinking is the responsibility of the institute.

Sewa International’s Unique Water Project

In the rural areas of Nalagonda district in Andhra Pradesh, India, a village known as Mandanpally has received water filtration systems that is comparable to the ones in the mineral water plants in the country. This water filtration systems have greatly changed the lives of the villagers in this rural area, which lies in the mandal of Aleru. The population of Mandanpally is around1500 among 300 families. These water systems were kindly donated by an NRI residing in the United States. The cost of each system is approximately 1.5 lakh rupees.
The water filtration systems are located in 2 water tanks around the village. They can each produce around 500 litres of water per hour. This has made a gigantic impact on the people of Mandanpally.
The groundwater in the village has too much fluorine in it. This can cause diseases such as fluorisis. This disease can cause the teeth to become damaged. This high fluorine content can also cause paralysis. The filtered water is vital for children in early development because it affects their growth. The filtered water made available here is so good and clean that the villagers now do not prefer to drink the unfiltered water again.
One June 21st, Aditya Gande, Shashi Mutyala, Thirupathaiah Gande, and Shobhith Mathur visited the filtration systems. They talked with the village panchayat members, the president of the village and several other people residing there. They told how much it has positively impacted the community. They also examined the water filtration system and took pictures of the project.
Thus, Sewa International has made a tremendous impact on this village!

Youth For Seva Starts “Sponsor a Patient” Programme

Youth For Seva has started a new program called ‘Sponsor A Patient’, wherein it aims to provide financial, social and moral support and rehabilitation to patients with severely disabling illnesses who are unable to look after themselves and have no such support systems. This will be done by YFS volunteers during their routine field surveys as well as by word of mouth from its own social networks.
It will then include these patients in its ‘Sponsor a Patient’ database and subsequently match interested sponsors with such patients.
The sponsor can be any one above the age of 18 years who voluntarily wants to be a part of this program.
The sponsorship will be valid for 1 year. The sponsor can pay on a monthly or yearly basis. Further, the sponsor can decide whether he/she wants to pay the full amount or partial amount of the expenses for treatment, as the treatment cost for various illnesses may vary from a few thousand rupees to several lakhs.
The expected total cost of treatment will be put up along with other donor details on the website and the details will be regularly sent to the sponsors on the medical and overall social condition of the patient. The sponsor will also be allowed to communicate with the patient at any point of time, either personally, by phone, or in writing.
At the end of 1st year, the sponsor can choose to renew the sponsorship.

Seema Jagran Manch (S.J.M.) Plans to Build Schools on Indo-Nepal Border

The newly formed Seema Jagran Manch (S.J.M.) has decided to undertake the task of constructing schools and coaching centres in the border areas of India and Nepal, which is roughly 550 kilometer long. Through these schools the Manch would also be able to create an ‘army of patriots’ to check anti-national activity on this porous border.

Remember, your work may be only to sweep a railway crossing but it is your duty to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as clean as yours. – Sir M. Vishweswaraiah.

More Smiles Than Worries: Baba Ramdev with Bhutanese Refugee children at Dallas Youth Camp, U.S.A. The Programme was organized by Sewa USA.

Sewa Sandesh 129: June 8, 2010

From Editor’s Desk
Some of the traditions among the Hindu society have degenerated along the time, one such being the tradition of “Devadasi” prevalent in North Karnataka, South Maharashtra and some adjoining districts of Andhra Pradesh. One of the girl children in a family will be dedicated to the Deity in the local Mandir, rendering the young girls without a family as she will be married to the Deity. Dr. Bhimrao Gasti, born in a tribe that offers Devadasi, has successfully rehabilitated more than 700 such Devadasis and has also established institutions that offer free hostel & education to such young girls from those tribes. Fighting all possible odds including murderous attacks and political opposition, this loner has penned some novels in Marathi and some other languages. He was felicitated on the occasion of his “shashtipurtee” – completing 60 action-packed years of his life. Sewa International wishes this ideal “Sewa vratee” a long healthy eventful life.

Sewa Volunteers Take up Rescue Operation At Mangalore Air Crash Site

KARNATAKA witnessed its worst ever air mishap on May 22 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 flight carrying 169 passengers on board overshot the runway while landing at Bajpe airport at Mangalore and got burst into flames. The flight was coming from Dubai. It was a cloudy Saturday morning with heavy rains. The mishap resulted in the death of 158 passengers including the crew members. The rescue operation was not an easy task at the site as it was heavily forested and sparsely populated area. With the fire brigade personnel and emergency staff, local Sewa Volunteers involved themselves in the rescue operation. They extended timely help during the day long rescue operation at the air crash site. More than 100 volunteers from the nearby areas rushed to the spot and started rescue operation from 6.40 am onwards. Shri Nalin Kumar, local MP, also a swayamsevak, was there from 7.00 am to 7.45 pm leading the operation with local karyakartas. Due to the bad weather the rescue operation got delayed, however extensive support from public and Sewa Volunteers was extended timely. Shri BG Chengappa, director of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services also rushed to the spot and led the rescue work.

Rashtriya Seva Bharati: A lifeline for Voluntary Organizations

Rashtriya Seva Bharati (RSB) was established in Delhi in December 2003. There are hundreds of organizations serving the underdeveloped and the underprivileged throughout the country. They are addressing different social concerns like education, rural development, health, social rejuvenation, economic self- reliance, nationalistic and character building, relief and rehabilitation during the natural and man-made calamities. Today there are more than 1.57 lakh projects and programs of this kind, run by more than 700 such organizations inspired by the ideology of Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh.

Rashtriya Seva Bharati “A-Z Service” for voluntary organizations-
¨ RSB helps in registering the trusts and societies, conducting the surveys, analyzing the problems and identifying the needs of a particular village or slum.
¨ Guiding affiliates to establish and run a functional office.
¨ Reaching out to new volunteers and orienting them to serve in various fields of social life.
¨ HR development and fund management
¨ Assessing the impact of the Running Projects and achievements of the affiliates.
¨ Helping affiliates in generating the PR material and reaching out to the society in general.
¨ To get them feel confident in their effort to build strong and nationalistic society.

Activities of Rashtriya Seva Bharati
Publications:
Seva Disha: RSB publishes the assessment of activity every 5 years that covers all the organizations, their area of activity, types of activity and details of beneficiaries, etc.
Seva Sadhana – RSB publishes an issue focusing on one of the Seva related issues providing the All Bharat glimpses. Following are the issues published by RSB in last couple of years:
2007 – Activity in urban slums
2008 – Illuminating seva experiences
2009 – Rural development & related experiments.
Training:
Workshops for Rural Development: An all Bharat workshop was held under the aegis of RSB in Chitrakut, on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in 2007 in which 120 activists from all the states of Bharat participated. Experts from rural development, organic farming, cow based agriculture, education, and others guided the workshop.
Reorientation Program for State Level Teams- RSB holds a National Reorientation program for state level teams drawn from all states once in every three years. The last national reorientation program was held in Delhi in 2008.

Assessment & Evaluation: RSB conducts a national evaluation and assessment program every year to keep tabs on the programs and their performance. This evaluation of activity provides inputs to the organization to improve quality, economize the activity, effective implementation of programs, understand the beneficiary, etc.

Till now, RSB has conducted three Assessment programs : i) Free hostels being run across the country ii) Free clinics and iii) Arogya Rakshak Yojana – village health worker.
Some schemes through the affiliates-
Education:

- Education being priority, emphasis on Yoga, Sanskrit, Sports, Music, cultural knowledge, Bharatiya Ethos.

- Alternative educational systems like Gurukulam, Ekal Vidyalayas (one teacher school), interstate Hostels for students from North East Bharat.

- 1200 Ekal vidyalayas in Jharkhand helps double the literacy rate in the state from 30% to 60%.

- The spread of education in other states have also helped awareness regarding health & hygiene among the students and their families.

- State Govt. of Delhi felicitated Seva Bharati, Delhi for providing primary and vocational education to Street Children- Chief Minister Sheela Dixit gave State Award to Seva Bharati.

- In Palmur district of Andhra Pradesh, the children are provided productive education like bicycle repairing, book binding, lamination, etc. Such income generating activity boosts their confidence to be entrepreneurs in future.In this way, these initiatives serve many types of educational needs and reach a variety of deprived groups.

Health:

Arogya Rakshak Yojana-Implemented in thousands of villages in many states of Bharat providing primary referral as well as preventive healthcare in remote villages.Thousands of youth have been trained to work as Arogya Rakshak in their own villages, benefiting the local village health.Arogya rakshaks also run Yoga classes, hygiene awareness, dietary awareness, etc for improving health.

Rural Development:

Rashtriya Seva Bharati has been encouraging integrated rural development in many parts of the country through affiliated organizations.RSB dynamically promotes-Organic, semi-organic, integrated and cow-based farming.Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic herbs.Producing medicines from cow milk & urine and related products.Food and fruit processing are special features in some states

.Idkidu village in Karnataka – transformed the village life through various programs like organic farming, water harvesting, gobar gas plants and Mandir based social activity which resulted in bringing harmony among all castes and classes in the village.In the tribal villages of Nandurbar District of Satpuda mountains, Maharashtra state, D

r. Hedgewar Seva Samiti has successfully provided livelihood in many tribal villages through soil conservation, water harvesting, effective agricultural cropping patterns together with educational and awareness programs.

Motivating and mobilizing people, providing technological support and brining in a feeling of oneness is the goal of Gram Vikas activities.
Social Rejuvenation
These activities ensure building a society with a healthy character. Temples are often the hub of these activities, which silently mitigate social evils like untouchability and alcoholism.
Matru Mandalies- Women’s weekly gathering – generating awarenss
Kishori Vikas- Supporting development of adolescent girls
Yoga and awareness activity in Jails among the jail mates.
Legal Counselling for women.
Balagokulam- the Global Network of Religion for Children (GNRC) affiliated with the UNICEF has brought forth Balagokulam as the model for value education in the world.
Indians living in USA and some other countries have already set up Balagokulam for their children. Balagokulam has grown to occupy an important place in the social life of Kerala, having originated there.
Economic Self Reliance
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have been the most powerful tool in empowering people with economic self-reliance. Seva Bharati institutions are providing a multitude of skill trainings for rual and urban youth, and women.
Economic activities, coupled with character building, are distinct features of RSB-inspired projects.
· Self Help groups in Tamil Nadu have empowered women in rural areas of the state-bringing in self reliance.
· Considering the discipline, financial transparency, response from the rural masses and excellent team work, the State government recognized Seva Bharathi Tamilnadu’s SHGs in 2002.
· Women beneficiaries in these villages of TN have worked on micro enterprise.
· Men are now following the women-forming SHGs.
Aid during calamities
The country has faced many natural calamities in the last few years like the Tsunami and the flood of Kosi. Rescue, relief and rehabilitation were taken care by the karyakartas. Hundreds of schools, homes, Mandirs and livelihood opportunities were provided for those devastated by these calamities. During the Mumbai terrorist attack on 26th November 2008, the karyakartas supported the police and citizens with food, water, medical help, and blood. The Jaipur bomb blasts too had karyakartas rushing for immediate relief of the wounded.
Youth for Seva

• Desire among the youth to serve the society has grown many fold.
• They wish to volunteer their time and talent for community development.
• “Youth for Seva” project launched under Hindu Seva Pratishtana in 2007.
• YFS motivates the youth, connects them to grassroots projects.
• Trains them in the skills required and orients them.

Nepali New Year Celebration Organized In Denver, USA.
DENVER, USA: "Hindus settling in the western countries can lead their lives as proud Hindus and preserve their religion, heritage and culture" Dr. Ved Nanda, the president of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), USA declared here recently.

Addressing big gathering of Bhutanese Hindu Community of Colorado at the Nepali New Year celebration in Denver, Dr Nanda urged the community to continue their Hindu way of life in America and assured that they have the freedom and cultural environment to do so. He asked the Bhutanese Community to be vigilant and not fall prey to the proselytisation efforts by the Christian missionaries. It is essential and possible to continue many Hindu practices such as daily puja, bhajan, keertan and temple worship in the US, he observed. Dr Nanda praised the Hindu Communities in Suriname, Guyana and the Caribbean countries as a model for Hindus worldwide for preserving and promoting Hindu religion and culture for generations. He also stressed that many Hindus in the western countries have successfully maintained their Hindu identity. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Vijayaraj Sharma, a professor of economics at the University of Boulder, encouraged the Bhutanese families to preserve their unique religion and culture and not to be intimidated by their

Neelam Shreshta, president of the Rocky Mountain Friends of Nepal (RMFN) chaired the event and offered support to the Bhutanese families. Colorado Bhutanese Community, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), USA and Sewa International had organised the event. More than 400 Bhutanese participated in the celebrations. HSS and Sewa International are working very closely with the Bhutanese refugee communities across the US to help them settle in and maintain their Hindu identity in an alien country. Bhutanese Hindus were driven out of Bhutan for political reasons during the early 1990s. After living in refugee camps in Nepal for 18 years, these families have been offered refuge by the US and other western countries. Out of 60 thousand Bhutanese accepted by the US, more than 24,000 have already arrived and settled in various parts of the country.

Agastya: Sparking Creativity In Rural India

Spread over a vast area of 170 acres of rocky wasteland in Kuppam, a deprived rural area in Andhra Pradesh, Agastya International foundation believes that complete learning is a combined form of shiksha (education), samskara (values) and sansara (world). It focuses on transforming the critical and much neglected area of primary and secondary education of the rural masses in India, including children and teachers.
Agastya runs one of the largest hands-on science education programs in the world!Agastya does this by bringing hands-on science education to the rural masses through the use of outreach programs like “Science on Wheels” (Mobile Labs), Scinece Fairs, Teacher Development program and Young Instructors Programs. Agastya seeks to fill the gaps in the Indian education system that threatens its socio-economic development. The conventional Indian education system instils little creativity in children and teacher education is generally divorced from classroom realities. Agastya’s projects overcome these problems with their unique features which involve idea generation and testing through the creativity Lab, creativity generation for poor and disadvantaged through interactive and engaging learning methods, learning linked to environmental goals, emphasis on developing behavioral skills and a close link between teacher education and the classroom system.
Agastya: Science on Wheels
If you ever hear Ramji Raghavan (Founder, Agastya International Foundation), you would certainly hear him talk about the learning pyramid as he strongly believes in the fact that we learn about 5% of what is taught to us in a lecture, 10% of what we read, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we experience and 95% of what we teach. Ramji Raghavan, a former NRI banker came back to India with a vision of providing education to poor children and teachers – education that would be the opposite of conventional techniques and this led to the birth of Agastya, named after Maharshi Agastya, famous for spreading sacred knowledge to south India, as a charitable trust in 1999.
Agastya was started off successfully on the path of building a creative India of ‘thinkers, solution seekers and creators’ that are ‘ humane anchored and connected’ by impacting over 3 million children and 120,000 teachers from vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and the model is scalable and replicable anywhere in the world.

Successful Blood Donation Drive in Guyana
SEVA-Guyana, SVN and the CI Temple have together sponsored another successful blood donation drive, on Sunday 23 May 2010 at SVN. The unit count at this time is 261. The Ministry of Health has assured that it continues to be the biggest drive in the Caribbean. With luck and hard work Seva-Guyana wants to make it to 396 next year which is the number of Indians (some say 406) who landed in Guyana in 1838. It is noteworthy that in 2009 it was 214 and in 2008 it was 176.

It is high time for the scientific workers in India that they exert their inherent right to live like decent citizen and shoulder responsibilities for the betterment of their motherland.
- Meghnad Saha.

Sewa Sandesh 128: May 8, 2010

From Editor’s Desk

Any selfless effort in Bharat will receive unconditional support from the Hindu society at large. We have a reason to reaffirm the above statement. Last summer, some youth decided that the Kshipra river flowing through the holy city of Ujjain needs some de-silting. The group decided that they would clean the river bed that summer for a length of close to 1 km. Every morning the youth started cleaning up the riverbed and remove the silt. To start with they were just a small group of 15-20. But soon, the watchers and morning walkers started joining hands. Crowbars and shovels came in, baskets and tractors came in, finance poured out of market, everyone joined hands to make this a people’s movement. Ultimately, the state government could not avoid funding without application.
The same exercise is being carried out this summer also in Ujjain, proving the point beyond doubt that charity is part of Hindu ethos.

Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra (VKK), Jharkhand Organises Gram Vikas Training Camp

Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra, Jharkhand organized a state level village development workshop from 18th March to 21st March at Lohardaga Centre, Jharkhand
29 karyakartas including 10 women from 15 districts of Jharkhand and 3 karyakartas from Purulia district of West Bengal participated in the event. Among them, 17 were block level (Mandal-Prakukhs) 4 district level, 5 divisional level and 3 state level karyakartas. Sri Ramji Oraon (full time karyakarta) who was trained at Devalapar Goshala near Nagpur gave the training in Panchgavya. National Vice President V.K.K. Ma. M. S. Purti, State Gram Vikas Pramukh Sri Raghav Rana, who looks after 599 SHGs, State Joint Organising Secretary Sri Satyendra Singh, guided the workers. The training programme was sponsored by NABARD, Jharkhand The Tide Trust of Mumbai has been supporting the SHG activities since the last two years.
Methods of preparing Vermi – compost (from cow dung), “Kamdhenu Ark” (from cow-urine), Malish oil, Keet-Niyantrak (pesticides), Danta Manjan (tooth powder) from cow dung were practically demonstrated. Shri Siddhanath Singh, Ma. Kshetra Sanghchalak of R.S.S. told about the methods of preparing Amrut Pani & Amrut Mitti. Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Farmers are the food giver like God but chemical fertilizers are poisoning their land”. At Patratu, he has started “Kalpataru Trust which prepares ladoos of Amalak, and Jam of raw Papaya. Sri raghav Rana demonstrated the preparation of tomato ketchup & told about Organic Farming.
Sri Chandra Sekhar Agrawal a retired engineer from HEC, Ranchi gave the information of installing small Gobar-gas plants & Solar heaters. The DDM of NABARD, Lohardaga, Sri Samrat Mukharjee provided the details of Kisan Club, SHG scheme & village development activities supported by NABARD. He also appreciated the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra. Dr. Satyendra N. Nayak, HOD of Centre for Rural Development & Tech. of IIT, Delhi put forth the details of preparing Madhuka juice from fresh mahua flower through charts & Audio-Visual. He also distributed the samples of chocolate, powder, jam etc.
Mr. Morensingh Purti, who presided over the event, said, “Mixed farming & organic farming are not merely essential but also beneficial. Some bad habits of drinking which spoils the whole life is a challenging problem before us. Our work aims at transforming the lives of the vanvasis. The experiences shared by the trainees also support that.”
Kumari Roshini District Incharge of Women’s Activities of Lohardaga, conducted the function Sri Raghav Rana introduced the guests & Sri Suresh Lohra proposed the vote of thanks.

Sewa Sangam in Bengaluru –II

By Shyam Parande

How youth get the inspiration to serve instantaneously when they have an opportunity on hand? Without much search, I could understand the phenomenon during the Sewa Sangam. The band of youth which was taking care of the delegates-serving them the food, helping the delegates with whatever they need-had all the youth from the engineering college hostel, the venue of the Sewa Sangam.
Most of the NGOs look up to the national governments or international aid agencies to fund their projects. Apart from the governmental financial support, some of the NGOs raise funds through fund raisers, sales of the goods produced by the disadvantaged groups and services provided, and lastly through public donations. Everyone is aware that several governments of the developed countries are funding NGOs in the developing and underdeveloped countries.
The corporate sector has started investing good amount of funds through its Corporate Social Responsibility programmes for supporting the NGOs. To some extent this has come as a relief to the NGOs as national governments have started reducing on their funding to the NGOs. Ask any non-governmental organisation (NGO) about need of a volunteer and you can expect an affirmative answer in most of the cases. Volunteers contribute in a big way though through smaller tasks. Many tasks in the non-governmental sector do not call for a full time paid person. Every organisation seeks volunteers for such tasks and interface with the local community. Language is important to some extent but more than that it is the heart-to-heart relationship that volunteers easily build and connect the organisation with the local community. Familiarity with the local situation is also important apart from the grasp of local social traits. Simpler tasks are executed efficiently and economically by the volunteers. The more the volunteers, the better would be interaction with the beneficiary and local community.
Orienting, training and deploying volunteers is a considerable task for many and needs some sort of specialisation. It is always simpler to handle employed staff than handling volunteers. Professional staff fails to achieve the results sometimes that the well oriented and trained volunteers can achieve. Of course, the professional staff will fare better in many given situations and demeaning their importance can be avoided.
Not all people who work in the NGO sector are volunteers. Volunteers are not always philanthropic as some of them have their own benefits at the back of their mind while they serve. They bring immediate benefits to themselves as well as the community they serve, including skills, experience and contacts.
However, Youth for Seva in Bengaluru city or Seva Sahyog in Pune engaged only the volunteers who were out just for serving selflessly and did not expect even a certificate from the organisations they were engaged through. Hindu society has a splendid tradition of sewa and getting volunteers at a modest call is enough in reaping good response from the society, especially the youth. It is amazing to understand that girls are outnumbering boys if figured out among the young students and professionals.
Engaging large force of volunteers is where the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati (RSB) affiliates have an advantage. The funds available are spent mostly on the beneficiaries and less on the salaried staff in all these projects. However, there is a disadvantage where the weakness of these organisations is exposed sometimes. The volunteers do not match the schedules for the reporting as well as quality of the reports so produced through volunteers fails to match the one through the professionals, I feel.
How youth get the inspiration to serve instantaneously when they have an opportunity on hand? Without much search, I could understand the phenomenon during the Sewa Sangam. The band of youth who were taking care of the delegates, serving them the food, helping the delegates with whatever they need, were all from the Engineering College hostel, the venue of the Sewa Sangam, and had no exposure to the sewa activity or voluntary action earlier, I found out. This was spontaneous response from the students as they saw some other volunteers, who were part of the Youth for Seva programme, making arrangements for the delegates. The local students cooperated in the best way they could, including offering their own rooms for the delegates, shifting themselves to some friend’s room. Astounding, is it not?
Funding for NGOs
It is vital for any voluntary group to raise funds, particularly when these organisations are not trying to get funds from governments or international funding agencies. Most of their energy is utilised for raising funds and naturally the other part-effective implementation-is less taken care of.
Most of the NGOs look up to the national governments or international aid agencies to fund their projects. Apart from the governmental financial support, some of the NGOs raise funds through fund raisers, sales of the goods produced by the disadvantaged groups and services provided, and lastly through public donations. Everyone is aware that several governments of the developed countries are funding NGOs in the developing and underdeveloped countries.
Though these organisations are called non-governmental organisations meaning independent of the governments, most of the topmost international NGOs depend on the government funding heavily. The famous Christian relief and rehabilitation organisation, World Vision, receives goods worth millions of US$ for their projects while OXFAM, receives millions of US$ support from the British and EU governments. "Medicines without Frontiers" (Médecins Sans Frontières), the Nobel Prize winning NGO receives close to 50 per cent of their annual budget through various national governments, it is said.
Distinctly different : One needs to be very unambiguous here in comparing the voluntary bodies with the NGOs. Most of the above said NGOs spend at least 35-40 per cent of their budget on the administration while the voluntary organisations spend less than 10 per cent on administrative expenditure which speaks a great volume of the difference. It becomes essential here to state that the NGO sector has become a major sector for employment in some of the countries world over.
The corporate sector has started investing good amount of funds through their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes for supporting the NGOs. To some extent this has come as a relief to the NGOs as national governments have started reducing on their funding to the NGOs. Observers have also stated that the CSR funding is being utilised by the corporate companies to pre-empt the NGO run campaigns against some of the corporate companies. The logic here is simple, if the corporate is supporting an NGO, the NGOs will not work against the corporation. This logic similarly applies to the governmental funding and the supported NGOs. That is mutual interest being protected on both sides, biding a good-bye to the interest of the beneficiary society.
In many cases, monitoring and control is being utilised effectively by the funding agencies, be it governments, international aid agencies or corporations, in safeguarding their own interests to the extent of curbs on the NGOs or the beneficiaries, it is understood.
Paradigm shift
There is a paradigm shift when I tried to compare the above with the voluntary organisations attending the Sewa Sangam. During the valedictory session of the Sangam, Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi, Sarkaryavah of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, assured the conference that there would be no dearth of funding for sewa projects and that the society would support any creative activity worth it’s purpose provided they are done with a pure heart and mind. "Go out and seek the person, not just the money," he elaborated, "A person is more important than the money."
Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi further said that, "the numbers are important as RSB is serving the society through more than 1.5 lakh of programmes and projects but this alone is not important. More significant is the quality of the programmes and projects through which sewa is being offered. Qualitative growth of the karyakarta has to be improved for enhancing the quality of the sewa. One has to offer the best one can and not just whatever one offers is best."
Mahatma Gandhi had stated this very emphatically, saying, "It is the quality of work that pleases the Creator, not the quantity." This is something stirring. A volunteer has to improve on his own quality for providing quality service and this becomes an obligation for every volunteer.
The beneficiary can never be looked down and serving him can best be defined as serving the Divinity by serving his manifestation before one’s own eyes. Swami Vivekananda wants the youth of this country to serve the manifestation in a best way possible when he defines the beneficiary as Daridra Narayana.
Every delegate at the Sewa Sangam had a bagful of experiences to share as almost all of them had started as micro efforts in serving voluntarily and have grown into huge projects with large expanses. For every endeavour had a goal set before them, not just serving the society but to bring in metamorphosis in the society, the Parivartan-as it was all the time being talked about. "Sewa Sangam" was an earnest effort, I could understand, at bringing the Parivartan in the minds of all the beneficiaries, the volunteers and benefactors as well as the society around! (The writer is International Coordinator of Sewa International and has an experience of three decades in the voluntary sector. He can be contacted at shyamparande@gmail.com)

Inspiring Personality: Nanaji Deshmukh

Early childhood
Nanaji Deshmukh was born on October 11, 1916 in Kadoli, a small town in the Parbhani District of Maharashtra to Late Shri Amritrao Deshmukh and Late Shrimati Rajabai Amritrao Deshmukh.
Nanaji’s long and eventful career was full of strife and struggle. He lost his parents at an early age and was brought up by his maternal uncle.
His family had little money to pay for his tuition fees and books, but his keen desire to learn encouraged him to work as a vendor and sell vegetables to raise money to fund his education. He lived in temples and received a higher education at the Birla Institute in Pilani.
Though born in Maharashtra, the fields of his activities were Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Seeing his devotion, the then RSS Sarsanghchalak Shri Guruji sent him to Gorakhpur (U.P) as “Pracharak”. He rose to be the Saha Prant Pracharak of Uttar Pradesh.
Social work
After retirement from active politics Nanaji then served Deendayal Research Institute that he himself had established way back in 1969. He wanted Deendayal Research Institute to be devoted to strengthening the movement for constructive work in Bharat.
He did pioneering work towards the anti-poverty and minimum needs programme. Other areas of his work were agriculture and cottage industry, rural health and rural education. Nanaji assumed chairmanship of the institute after relinquishing politics and devoted all his time to building up the institute. He was also instrumental in carrying out social restructuring programme in over 500 villages of both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states of Bharat. He also published the journal “Manthan” (introspection) which was edited by K.R. Malkani for many years.
Nanaji did a lot of social work in Gonda and Beed — the most backward districts of U.P. and Maharashtra respectively. The motto of his project was: “Har hath ko denge kaam, har khet ko denge paanee”.
He finally settled down at the picturesque Chitrakoot, a holy place on the borders of U.P. and Madhya Pradesh. It was in 1969 that Nanaji Deshmukh visited Chitrakoot for the first time. He was moved to see the pathetic condition of the society in the karmabhoomi of Sri Ram the place where Ram spent 12 out of the 14 years in exile. He sat by the holy River Mandakini, and resolved to change the face of Chitrakoot during his life-time. While in exile, Lord Ram started working for the upliftment of the downtrodden here. With this important historical and inspiring background, Nanaji made Chitrakoot the centre of his social work.
He chose to serve the poorest among the poor. He used to remark jokingly that he admired Vanavasi Ram more than Raja Ram and so would like to spend the rest of his life in Chitrakoot among the vanavasis and most backward sections of the society. He kept his vow to his last breath.
He also established Chitarkoot Gramodya Vishwavidyalaya in Chitrakoot- Bharat's first Rural University and was its Chancellor.
Deendayal Research Institute (DRI)
Deendayal Research Institute (DRI) was founded in 1972 by Nanaji Deshmukh to validate the philosophy of Integral Humanism propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya (1916–1968). Integral Humanism gives us a vision for Bharat that, with an approach to man and his relationship to society that is integral and complementary, could transform Bharat into a self-reliant and compassionate example for the world to follow.
Nanaji Deshmukh developed a model for the development of rural areas on the basis of Integral Humanism. After initial experiments in Gonda (U.P.) and Beed (Maharashtra), Nanaji finally fine-tuned an integrated program for the development of rural areas that covers health, hygiene, education, agriculture, income generation, conservation of resources, and social conscience, that is both sustainable and replicable. The basis of the project is 'Total transformation through total development with people's initiative and participation'.
The project, called the Chitrakoot Project or the 'Campaign for Self-Reliance', was launched on 26 January 2005 in 80 villages around the Chitrakoot area in the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The aim was to achieve self reliance for these villages by 2005. When complete in 2010, the project hopes to make the 500 surrounding villages self-reliant and serve as a sustainable and replicable model for the Bharat and the world.
DRI has association with the following important institutions among others.
The Wadia Group, Apeejay Education Society (AES), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF), Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology (MPCST), India Development Coalition of America (IDCA), Department of Elementary Education (DEE), The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, Ayurveda Yoga & Naturopathy Unani Siddha and Homoeopathy(AYUSH) and Sewa International (SI).
Appreciation and recognition
He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1999.
Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has lavished praise on Nanaji Deshmukh and the organization started by him, the Deendayal Research Institute, for giving the nation the litigation-free model he had devised for resolving disputes. The then President said "In Chitrakoot, I met Nanaji Deshmukh and his team members belonging to the Deendayal Research Institute (DRI). DRI is a unique institution developing and implementing a village development model which is most suited for India,". "Apart from all the development activities, the institute is facilitating a cohesive, conflict-free society. As a result of this, I understand that the 80 villages around Chitrakoot are almost litigation-free". "The villagers have unanimously decided that no dispute will find its way to the courts.

The differences will be sorted out amicably in the village itself. The reason given by Nanaji Deshmukh is that if the people fight among each other, they have no time for development,". "I consider that this model may be propagated in many parts of the country by societal organisations, judicial organisations and governments," Kalam concluded.
Praising Nanaji Deshmukh for his single-minded devotion to the uplift of the people, Kalam said “What the octogenarian leader was doing at Chitrakoot should be an eye-opener for others.”

Mahaprayan : Nanaji died on 27 February 2010 at 4.45 p.m. the premises of Bharat’s first rural university, Chitrakoot Gramodya Vishwavidyalaya, that he established. He was unwell for some time due to age-related ailments and had refused to be taken to Delhi for treatment. He had willed that his body be donated to Dadhichi Dehdaan Sanstha of New Delhi which accepted and sent his body to All India Institute of Medical Sciences for medical research.

My Haiti Experience
— Vinayak Joshi

I am back from a very memorable volunteer work. Volunteering is not new for me as Sangh have taught that to me from childhood seeing Latur and Moravi physically. But Haiti brings a unique case with a combination of poverty, lack of inland commerce and infrastructure.
95% of homes in the town of Leogane are at ground zero level. People have all their life savings and after 20 years of settled life they will have to start from beginning. Worst than rich to rag stories. And on the top they have lost their loved ones.
During my visit I did see a lot of presence from UN soldiers and many of Indian soldiers representation. Hats off to them. We also have a Indian peace force in Port Au Prince. The tweeter minister had been there some time back !.
I was accompanied with my 2 daughters Saie (13) and Tanvi (17). Many have warned me against going to Haiti myself leave aside taking them due to security and psychological challenging conditions in Haiti. But this was exactly the reason for me to take them with me. Having them was very useful as we did conduct games , conduct family events and visited hospitals in Haiti. Saie and Tanvi played a crucial role in organizing get together session (can call it Shakha) and have lead the Bal Vibhag. It started with 10 kids and within short time reached to 150 kids and total upasthiti at 200 plus.
For that time families laughed, kids exhausted themselves competing for Rassikhesh and soccer like games. Everybody forgot the memories of past 2 months.
Along with this heart building activity we all participated in cleaning the city and rebuilding activities. While leaving my daughters felt that all their hearts were left in Haiti. Same was true with Haitian kids when we departed. The reality of life has made me insensitive to these events but I was also touched to see how soon we have crossed color, race and language barriers.
My 13 year old wrote – “I think I might have actually lost more than I gained on this trip to
Haiti. Firstly, I lost weight. I lost my pride. I lost my materialism. I erased the walls of a comfort zone. I became a humanitarian.”
My 17 year old who secured admission to GW College of medicine wrote – “Working in Haiti has further solidified my ambition to become a borderless physician.

‘We have, I think, developed an inferiority complex. I think what is needed in India today is the destruction of that defeatist spirit. We need a spirit of victory, a spirit that will carry us to our rightful place under the sun”. -- C.V. Raman

Sewa Sandesh 127: March 8, 2010

From Editor’s Desk
Changing the rural scenario in Bharat had been a daunting task. Many have ventured on the path, yet, very few could accomplish. One of the most renowned among them is Shri Nanaji Deshmukh.
Late Shri Nanaji Deshmukh is an exemplary person who decided to retire from the active politics at the age of 65, to utilize his rest of the life for the rural upliftment. All his energies, skills and talent, his contacts were deployed to change the face of villages in Gonda and Chitrakut districts. Nobody needs to explain his achievements through the Deendayal Research Institute as the villages where DRI has been working are the standing monuments of his contribution to the development of those villages.
Visiting Chitrakut mesmerizes the visitor, for a person like Dr. APJ Kalam, ex-Rashtrapati of Bharat spoke at length of his visit to Chitrakut in the Parliament of Bharat. Dr. Kalam personally paid his tribute to Nanaji by visiting DRI in Delhi.
Shri Nanaji breathed his last on 27th February 2010. In life he breathed for the downtrodden and in death, he had endowed his body for the medical research.
We pay our tributes to the towering social worker who started as a Pracharak for Sangh, adopting to the politics some way, only to prosper as a Sewa Vrati. Om Shanti.

IIT Delhi and Kalyan Ashram join hands for rural development

RURAL development department of IIT Delhi and Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have joined hands for strengthening the process of development in rural areas. As a follow up, they have decided to organize village development camps in Vanvasi villages beginning from April this year. There will be camps in Assam from April 2 to 3, Sundargarh (Orissa) from April 10 to 11, Jashpur (Chhattisgarh) from April 12 to 13, Babhani (Uttar Pradesh) from April 14 to 15. The dates of the camps in Purulia (WB) and Lohardaga (Jharkhand) will be declared later. While the camps in Karnataka, Madhya Bharat and Mahakaushal regions will be held in June.
A joint meeting of both the organisations was organised in New Delhi on January 30 to start the process in a systematic way. Kalyan Ashram workers from Assam, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mahakaushal, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir participated in the meeting. The meeting was inaugurated by joint general secretary of Kalyan Ashram Shri Kripa Prasad Singh and Dr Rajendra Prasad as well as Dr SN Nayak of IIT.
Both, Dr Rajendra Prasad and Dr SN Nayak, explained the new technology available for rural development. Shri Kripa Prasad Singh elaborated on the sad condition of rural areas. He said 45000 revenue villages in Vanvasi areas do not have basic facilities and there is a dire need to initiate the efforts of development there. "Connectivity of villages with roads is necessary but providing electricity, transport facility, educational facility and drinking water is the immediate needs. When the state governments have failed to take initiatives on these fronts the social organisations and technical institutions have to do it," he said.
Prof. SS Krishnamurti presented the model of Picco Hydle project which hardly costs Rs 1.5 lakh and can supply power to 100 houses. Two horse power pump supply of water is required for the Hydle project. If the village is situated on the bank of a small river, it could be a successful experiment. IIT can install this project for the villagers. Similarly, the experiment of using solar energy in villages has also been very successful and Government provides subsidy for it to BPL families. Shri Jagdish Joshi, an engineer from Rajasthan, who has done experiments in Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur districts, said the investment from Rs two to three lakh could irrigate 100 acre land for double yield.
The IIT has spared Dr Rajendra Prasad, Dr SN Nayak and Sri Ramgopal for this work while the Kalyan Ashram spared Shri Harsh Chouhan, Shri Soumen Gupta, Shri Jagdish Joshi and Shri Prakash Kamath for this project. All these workers are from engineering background and are suitable for the village development programmmes.

Sevabharathi, Tamil Nadu:

Sevabharathi, Tamil Nadu is a socio-cultural sewa organisation striving to bring about the integration and all-round development of society. It ensures that caste, class and religion do not stand in the way of social cohesion. Its service activities reach out to the weaker and neglected sections of the society living in remote villages, forests, hills and slums.
It focuses on five areas of service – Education, Health-care, Social Welfare, Self-sustenance and Disaster Management. Over 7,000 Seva Projects are being implemented all over Tamilnadu.

Whenever and wherever a natural or man-made disaster occurs, Sevabharathi volunteers are often the first to arrive at the scene and the last to depart from it. It is one of the very few NGOs with end-to-end disaster management (rescue, relief and rehabilitation) capability, with over 25,000 disciplined and dedicated volunteers who can assemble at short notice at the disaster site.
As it looks around, it sees an increasing need for broadening and deepening its Seva activities. These millions, mostly from villages and slums, are languishing not for lack of talent, ambition or perseverance, but because they have far fewer opportunities and vastly inferior infrastructure – schools without teachers, the nearest hospital miles away, lack of identity because of zero contact with the mainstream culture...

A little help, guidance and inspiration from it can go a long way in transforming the scene. These people will not only catch up with the rest of people, but make a substantial contribution through their own vigour and skills when their self-esteem is bolstered.Sevabharathi Tamil Nadu is seeing the miracles happening everyday, as it engages with these children, youth, mothers and elders.

Seva Project Summary, December 2009
Education
Play Schools (Balvadi) 26
Free Tuition Centres 342
Value Education Classes 436
Libraries 5
Mobile Libraries 77
Yoga Classes 83
Hindi Classes 4
Children’s Small Savings Forums 737
Health Care
Medical Centres 19
Mobile Medical Services 4
Blood Banks 2
Blood Donor Directories 15
Blood Donation Camps 7
Neurotherapy Centres 14
Ambulances 2
Social Welfare
Bhajan Mandalis 35
Anbu Illams (Orphanages) 14
Women’s Forums 257
Deepa Pooja Groups 1,179
Adolescent Girls’ Counselling Centres 2
Maintenance of Temples (Uzhavarappani) 151
Senior Citizen’s Forums (Sanjeevani) 5
Self-sustenance
Tailoring Training Centres 77
Computer Training Centres 5
Typewriting Training Centre 1
Self-help Groups 3,761
Handicrafts Training Centres 14
Total Projects 7,275

Sewa Sangam in Bengaluru
A search for the grassroots leaders

By Shyam Parande

I had the opportunity to talk and discuss with the grass roots as well as the higher ups in the echelon present in the Sewa Sangam and decided to have a reality check on the ethics that were presented from the podium.
Participants, I could understand, were from large voluntary organisations on the one hand and small on the other, not to mention that there were the mid-size also. Budget and expanse of activity wise, some were restricted to a village or a slum while the others were covering a state. A fine spectrum well spread to understand the quantity and quality of activity, their penetration and acumen in reaching the legitimate needy, I thought. I could talk to quite a number of delegates to gauge the organisations they are working for, their working method, their finance management, their achievements, et al.
Annapurna Mahila Bachat Gat (A women Self Help Group) working in the village Kolda of Nandurbar district is involved in producing the Neem seed kernel powder. The Dr Hedgewar Sewa Samiti through the Krishi Vigyan Kendra Nandurbar had trained the group in producing the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) that includes physical, biological, chemical control of pests. The major component of IPM is the Neem seed kernel powder.
The SHG could produce 32 quintals of Neem seed kernel powder last year to earn Rs 48,000 and this year could produce 60 quintals to earn Rs 90,000, making the women participants of the SHG self-reliant, enhancing the confidence of the women from the small and remote village. The Annpurna Mahila Bachat Gat is now looking for other avenues to work together and earn better, helping their kids for improved education.
If this was the case of the SHG producing the Neem powder to be self reliant, the story of some others who utilised the same powder to advance their economic resources needs to be listened to.
Namdev Atmaram Koli, a small farmer from Hatmohida village in the same district had been cultivating Bt. Cotton for quite a few years now. However, he adopted the IPM method since last two years using the produce of the Annapurna Mahila Bachat Gat to save on chemical sprays which cost him Rs 3600 per hectare to Rs 1700 per hectare while the net earning on the cotton produce has been enhance from Rs 27,500 to Rs 39,850 on the same plot of land. The local resources and technology has been effectively used to provide self reliance to the women’s SHG as well as helping the Vanvasi farmers improve on their profits.

I wish to elaborate a case of Kantilal Gojilal Naik, a Vanvasi farmer from Navapur Taluka among the Satpura Mountain. Kantilal was harvesting rice for quite many years and since his training with the KVK Nandurbar has doubled his rice harvest. It was the training in seed treatment, Integrated Nutrient Management, and Improved agronomical practices along with improved rice variety that brought the difference.
But this is a difference that many other NGOs can talk about. Kantilal, the Vanvasi farmer from the remotest village has gathered the courage and conviction to offer his own farmland for experimenting to the agricultural university. Any person with integrity, just cannot ignore what the Sarsanghachalak was talking about and will have to trust his word
Dr Hedgewar Sewa Samiti Nandurbar accomplished the self reliance in the remotest villages through the SHGs and the agricultural innovations. Can we have a look at the urban slums and the much talked about city of Bengaluru?
Ramya, a girl at the age of 5 had to resort to rag picking, like some other children because she lost her parents before that age. She had a noble hearted neighbour who accommodated the young kid but the supporting family was also part of the slum and had economical restrictions. Ramya used to leave the home everyday for rag picking from 8 AM to 8 PM, a rigorous 12 hour routine.
She would spend her entire day rummaging through large piles of trash sorting out and recyclable paper products. At the end of the day Ramya would take the paper products she had collected to a recyclable centre where in exchange for her findings she would receive Rs 10 only, a paltry sum for day long toil. That is inhuman on the part of the civil society.

Ramya was 8 then. She was spotted by a Sewavrati of Nivedita Nele, a home for rag picking girls run by Hindu Sewa Pratishthana Bengaluru. Quickly Ramya could understand the importance of education and joined the Nivedita Nele starting her 1st standard at the age of 8. The challenge of being in a home and discipline was huge for the young girl who was enjoyed the roaming and roving at will on the streets of the city. She struggled a lot to herself for a year or so and was helped by the Sewavratis, full timer ladies, to settle down.
Ramya is now 13 studying the 5th standard and has a dream of serving the aged people whom she watches around while she walks up to her school from Nivedita Nele home. This is amazing to understand that a girl, who was destitute herself, that too within a short period of just 5 years, is dreaming of serving others. Ramya is not alone for singling out. Saumya, a 4th grade student from Nivedita Nele topped her class with 100 per cent marks while Netra, a 10th standard student, excels in traditional Rangoli art and a compere of programmes par excellence.
Let me also talk about a village and this is from the southernmost district of the country-Kanyakumari. Perumal Self Help Group-a women group-has influenced the life of their village absolutely. Caste differences are done away-women representing all castes in the village are members of the group-no discrimination. Drinking water tank-which happens to be the bone of contention in every other village-is open to all villagers. The members of the SHG initiated cleaning process of the tank themselves offering karseva, following which whole village participated. ‘Anganwadi’ centre for the young kid’s education was brought into the village from a neighbouring village as the students had to walk long. An enterprising unit using the green technology to manufacture plates and bowls out of Areca nut leaves has been established-from micro finance to micro enterprise development. The local village Panchayat and Banks, observing the impetus, have joined hands with this SHG offering funding to various schemes in the village.
Well, can not this be called the metamorphosis that the Sarsanghachalak was talking about? Turning the beneficiary into a benefactor, appropriately!
Well, a Ramya from Bengaluru streets, a Kantilal from the remote Vanvasi village in Satpura, the Annapurna Mahila Bachat Gat SHG group from Nandurbar, the Perumal SHG from Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, are just a few examples of the change that is being brought in the minds of the beneficiaries by the dedicated band of activists. Not bothered about someone watching them or not, someone cares for them or not, they have raised the flag of development and that they would carry till they achieve the goal. The urge to serve and the urge to develop are innate and concurrent among the people who volunteer and the people who are being offered some kind of support through this movement. This is something different, I realise from what I see otherwise.

Are they not the "grass roots leaders" joining hands for development of the underdeveloped and yet do not cater any ego, totally selfless shunning name, fame or anything else, and sowing the seed of self reliance in the minds of people who would have been otherwise?
Probably, these are the people who made the Sarsanghachalak speak out for their action.
(To be concluded)
Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment Conference: Sewa International, US is going to organise a conference on Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment. This conference will be held from April 17 to April 18, 2010. Conference details are as follows:
Objective
Empower Bhutanese-Nepalis to settle in the US while preserving their identity and culture.
Conference Need
• With significant experience gained over last two years, a crucible for exchange of experience is vital.
• Success and challenge of the BRE project are uneven geographically. Some chapters have significant successes in certain BRE projects while lagging behind in others.
• It has become increasingly clear among the community that a national forum is needed to address the unique needs of the Bhutanese in the US.
• A platform is needed to nurture National and local leadership among the Bhutanese through mentoring.
• Sewa is happy to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our Bhutanese brethren and help them achieve this goal.
Goals and expected outcomes
• Bhutanese brethren and Sewa volunteers will exchange best practices, success and challenges faced.
• Bhutanese to organize themselves into a self-governing national US organization.
Program
• Bhutanese/Sewa delegates from 30 cities. Academicians will share experiences and will guide.
• Determine future plans of action.
• Open session.

TITBITS

1. Good news for millions of diabetic patients. Cow urine, which has many medicinal properties, can also cure diabetes.In a significant development, a three-member team of researchers in Bangalore has found that cow urine contains certain molecules that can fight diabetes. Led by Dr K Jayakumar, professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the Veterinary College under Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (Karnataka, Bharat), the team is in the final stages of identifying the molecule that secretes insulin. This is the first ever scientific study on cow urine and its properties and its findings can change the diabetes treatment in India . Jayakumar said that anti-diabetic activity of cow urine was tested on rats with experimentally induced diabetes. He said rats were orally administered small doses of cow urine daily and there was marked difference in blood sugar levels in these animals. But in the case of diabetic rats which were not administered cow urine, sugar levels remained the same. The cow urine is used in the preparation of Ayurvedic medicines for centuries. This scientific study promises to give a ray of hope for millions of diabetic patients in the country. Based on a report by Smt. Kestur Vasuki in THE PIONEER, February 19, 2010.
2. Nine children and a teacher were killed on Thursday December 3, 2009 when a school van fell into a 30 – foot deep pond at Panayadikuthagai in Katripulam village of Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district (Tamilnadu, bharat). The pond was full to the brim. Twelve children were rescued from the water by the 22-year-old teacher M . Suganthi, who died by drowing while saving the kids. But for two who were in Class IV, the children were in kindergarten grade. Most of the rescue work was undertaken by local people, who jumped into the pond and forced open the van. One family lost two boys in the accident. Later, on Republic Day, Chief Minister gave away the Anna Medal for Gallantry 2010 to Suganthi for saving the lives of 12 children from drowning. It was presented posthumously to her father Mariappan. The award carries a medal, a cheque for Rs.25,000 and a citation. Based on media reports and the Tamilnadu government press release.
3. Ms Irina Bokova, during her first official visit to India as Director-General of UNESCO, delivered the IGNOU Silver Jubilee lecture on "Building inclusive knowledge societies in a globalized world". Ms Bokova's visit to India has drawn attention to IGNOU, the largest university in the world, as well as to distance education in general. Almost three million students in India and 33 other countries study at IGNOU which is also India's National Resource Centre for Open and Distance Learning and a world leader in distance education. Through its 21 schools of study, 59 regional centres, 2,300 learner support centres and some 52 overseas centres, the university offers 175 certificate, diploma, degree and doctoral programs, comprising around 1,500 courses. IGNOU's staff consist of 380 faculty members and academic staff in headquarters and regional centres while some 36,000 counsellors from conventional institutions of higher learning and professionals from different spheres. With the launch of EduSat (a satellite dedicated only to education) in 2004, and the establishment of the Inter-University Consortium, IGNOU has ushered in a new era of technology-­enabled education.
4. Each of the 50 plus saplings girding the Luz Garden Enclave (the High Income Group flats behind Navashakti Vinayaka temple) in Myalpore , Chennai (Tamilnadu, Bharat) promptly receive a bottle of water every morning, thanks to the thoughtful school going kids of the Enclave. As part of New Year celebrations, instead of dinner and dance, the children of this community planted saplings of various trees. The Owners' Association president Dr. A.M. Jayaraman led the activity. Association auditor Shri Raman, impressed with this campaign, announced a gift of Rs, 250 to each of four well-maintained saplings to be given at the end of the year to the child who planted it. — Courtesy: Panchaamritam

"Man is not a detached spectator of a progress immanent in human history, but an active agent remoulding the world nearer to his ideals". — Dr. S. Radhakrishnan