As part of our weekend activity, six UWF members (Sridhar, Muthuselvan, Mathiniraiselvan, Balamurugan, Shanmugapriyan and Karthick Ganesan) visited IGIA Jakkur on June 20th, 2009. It was also the day, Udhayam Welfare Foundation successfully stepping into its second month of activities and the birthday of one of our Udhayam member Karthick Ganesan. In this post, Karthick and Mathi were sharing their experiences at IGIA Jakkur.
(From left to right: Karthick, Bala, Muthu, IGIA Computer Teacher Dharman, Mathi and Sridhar)It was a fine tuned experience for me(Karthick Ganesan) at IGIA, Yelahanka. I have never seen such a large group of needy children. I feel very proud to be a part of Udayam Welfare Foundation. I spoke to a large number of children there, especially with the Srilankan tamil children. We had deep heart conversation. Just see the conversation between Suraj and myself below:
Me: Suraj, Where do you like to live? In India or in SriLanka?
Suraj: (Before me ending), SriLanka.
Me: SriLanka is a violent place, LTTE occupied place (because Suraj stayed in Trincomalee (திருகோணமலை)). Do u like a terrorist group called LTTE?
Suraj: (In a polite way) I like LTTE, they fight for us (SriLankan Tamils)
I had no words to say hearing his reply!!!
(Clothes of all the students are piled up. The girl's were selecting their uniform for the current year, which may be used by some other student last year)
Like this, we spent time with most of the children. Non-Vegetarian food had become a very rare dish for them in the near past. So we decided to contribute a Non-Vegetarian dinner. We immediately went and bought around 55 Kgs of chicken which cost around Rs.5775 and vegetables worth Rs.550.
(Assembling of the boys in the evening)
We also came to know that the School Management is not able to provide basic amenities like proper drinking water, toilet facilities etc. As the underground Sewage tank was not cleaned properly, the waste got stagnated inside the toilet itself and the children were not able to use most of the toilets. Immediately, we called up the near-by sewage tank cleaner and cleaned the same. Now, they can use the toilet whenever they wish.
Also, the SINTEX tank in which they store water is in a pathetic condition without a lid and a tap. Water couldn’t be stored in the tank for more than two hours as it gets leaked. We need to pay attention to provide clean drinking water.
(The water storage which students use for taking bath and washing clothes)
We went to the terrace of the building. We saw the children using the floor and the parapet wall to dry their clothes. Because of this, most of their clothes were dirty and torn. We need to pay attention on this too.
(This is how the students dry their washed clothes)
Meeting a large number of needy children , I myself had many unanswerable questions. I have to thank God that I am in a position to serve such children. I would like to continue this service in my future days. I thank Udhayam for serving as a channel to fulfill my desire. Keep up your good work, Udhayam.
Action Item for UWF:
- Provide clean drinking water
- Provide alternate means for drying clothes
18 comments:
Many thanks to our team members.
though we went late and came back late this time we had a good chance to know about thier basic needs.
Adding up to the action points:-
3) arrange a barbar on monthly payment.
4)Children are cleaning the toilet on rotation basis and also we saw the condition of water tanks they used for storing bathing and washing,so we have to pay for a scavenger on monthly basis,
(I told to the warden to look for a scavneger in that locality)
5)Washing the clothes of younger children is now done by senior students. if possible we can get a laundry type washing machine(of course the budget will be high)
6)children need foot ball,volley ball and cricket bat and ball.(these all can be done with around1500 rupees)
Regards,
Sridhar.C
Also some students were interested in playing Chess, so we can sponsor Chessboards to them... I've an unused chessboard, cricket bat etc. I will give mine to them... :)
We need to provide them with good drinking water,proper maintainance of water stored for bathing,dresses,pillows,bedsheets and also live hygenic.Also we need to make them aware of some General Knowledge apart from thei syllabi..
கடவுள் நமக்கு தந்துள்ளதை நமக்கென்று வைதுகொல்லாமல் பிறருக்கும் கொடுத்து உதவ வேண்டும் என்ற எண்ணமே சிறந்தது. இப்பணியில் இடுபட்டுள்ள நம் குழு உறுபினர்களை என் மனசார பாராட்டுகிறேன். மக்கள் பணியே மகேசன் பணி. வாழ்க உங்கள் பணி :-)
Rather than buying a washing machine we can appoint some one or two person to take care of cleaning toilets and laundry work. We can pay salary to that person from our funds.
We can also teach them - General knowledge, Physical exercise, hand crafts, Arts - drawing, painting, etc. We can teach them making dolls greetings and we can help them earn some money(pocket money :-)) through selling that also.
That handicraft idea was a good one rose... :) Thats why I'm asking for all your comments, so that we can get some innovative ideas from you people... Let us plan for our next month activities for IGIA, as now our main focus is only on IGIA.
Description for the photo's from top to bottom of this post
1) our udhayam members along with the computer master :) 3rd from right(that's how we call him)onthe terrace of the classroom.
2)Clothes of all the students are piled up in the year beginning from this thegirl's are selcting thier uniform for the current year,which may be used by some other student last year and as they have grown up they couldn't use it now.
3)This is the assembling ofthe boys
in the evening .I guess this may happen every day.Being saturday senior student's provided distributed washing soaps.Warden gave instructions in this assembly howto behave ,how to call thier inmates ,,like they should not call any body as "da",call all with respect ,like vaanga,ponga.
you should not have nick names to the inmates as we know this is a very common trobule in childhood.
opposite to the assembly outstanding student's(mischevious) were made knee's down.
Similar assembly were made for girls on the other side.
4)this is the water storage which student's use for taking bath and washing clothes.This snap has been taken from the terace ,so it doesn't clearly show the water quality ,if we have a closer shot ,no wonder it will leave you
in shock.
5)on the terrace.. this is howthey dry thier washed clothes,theydon't have any hangers
By the way, without Eashwari Kannan's support, it won't be possible for us to sponsor non-veg food for these kids. On behalf of our Udhayam , I once again wish her a happy married life, and thank her for her support.
~Muthu Selvan.S
We can buy them ropes and stand to tie the rope for them to dry the clothes. We can also use some wodden log to tie ropes. It is not hygenic if they are going to put their clothes and ground to dry. Please do something in this regard.
It will be great if the Non-members of Udhayam can also contribute their ideas and give a helping hand by donating.
Also, we should not forget about assisting them to prepare the land for cultivating Tomato, brinjal etc.,
For next month's activities we'll have the following...
1. Gardening and arrangement for swings for kids
2. Arranging a Scavenger for the school
3. Arrangement for drying the washed clothes
And also we can contribute old clothes, cricket bats, chess boards etc to them...
Guys,
I'm not sure if you had already done this but Why don't you come up with a short email with a good title - say something like 'an oppurtunity to bring a smile'/'your help can improve a kid's life' whatever, sorry i am not good at english, come up with a straight forward email with contact details, send it to all your friends, add a note to spread a word about this foundation(ask them to forward it to many)
This can be spread across the friends circle(we never realize how big our networked friends circle is). I am sure you would start getting responses, people willing to contribute and help.
Sounds like an idea ? :)
You might have already done this but i am saying this cuz i did not get any email like this in the past, though i have 2 friends(muthu & goms) in your group. I am assuming that the message was not spread.
TC. God bless.
vina sana,
Already we started sending mails regarding this at the time of our magazine release. we are getting responses from many of them..
still we are in the process..
Hi Vina Saana, we're plannig to spread the news about our activities, but we have'nt started this activity yet. First we'll do something and then after some success we'll start spreading the news to everyone. Next month (july) you can expect a mail from us. Do spread it to your friends. :)
^^Cool muthu. Happy for that.
yaaruppa adhu cycle gap la ltte ya terrorist group nu quote panni irukkuradhu ? :) :) SL govt & Indian govt kkum thaan avanga terrorist but not for the eezham people. anyways, this is out of context here, dont want to write on this further. Sorry :)
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