UDHAYAM Activities - August 22nd Update

In this blog I would like to share my experiences with the kids at Eijpura orphanage. We six members of Udhayam which includes Muthuselvan, Sridhar, Mathi, Karthick, Aarthi and Myself visited AET orphanage, Ejipura on Saturday 22-08-09. As we said in our previous blog, we felt that providing breakfast for the kids would be better. One of our Udhayam members contributed towards the expenses which incurred for the breakfast and fruits. We bought idly for the breakfast and fruits which includes apples and bananas.


We reached the orphanage at 8PM. Luckily we could be on time so that we could provide breakfast for all the kids. It was a holiday for the school going kids. The kids organized themselves for the breakfast. Few kids served water. we members served the kids with idly, sambar and two varieties of chutney. They had their breakfast after thanking the almighty.

Udhayam members serving food to the kids

We also provided them with bananas. It was a great feeling watching the kids having their breakfast. We could feel their happiness.

After having their breakfast two kids named Durga and Manjula cleaned the place by mopping. It is good to see that the kids cultivate the habit of doing the work on their own.


We then planned for some extracurricular activities. The kids were asked to recite poems. Few of them came forward and show casted their talents.



Later we organized drawing completion for them. Sridhar bought charts for the competition. Karthic and Mathi grouped the kids based on their age. There were around four groups. Each member took in charge of one group. Topics were assigned to them and they started the competition.



After the completion of the competition Muthu, Sridhar and Mathi evaluated the results. From each group three winners were selected and the winners were provided apples. The Participants also received the apples at the end. The kids felt very happy which could be seen in their eyes. We left the place with joy.

Winners with their apples. Four groups, with first prize kid in the middle, second prize kid in the left and third prize kid in the right.

And also Udhayam conducted its first weekend meeting on saturday. We discussed about the various activities and aims of Udhayam for its near future. The meeting was very succesful, as various ideas cameforth, and one important suggestion from the meetings was "Udhayam members from Bangalore will travel to Chennai on the month of September to meet the Chennai team, and together we will plan for variuos other activities for Chennai team.

Udhayam Members from left to right: Muthuselvan, Aarthi, Hema, Karthick, Mathi and Sridhar

~Hema

62nd Independance Day Celebration

Even though this topic is not a part of Udhayam Activity, I would like to share my experience which I had on our 62nd Independence day. I went for a tour with my brother and friends to explore the beauty of Uttar Karnataka, North Karnataka and JOG falls. There we stayed in a place called Kemmannagundi(ups and downs with red soil) on 14th August night. The very next day, early Morning, the day of Independence we noticed a school nearby the room where we stayed.






The School name is Iyyer Primary School. At the time we saw, the school Headmaster was hosting the flag. So we rushed up there with some biscuit packets. They welcomed and gave us chocolates and in turn we distributed the students with the biscuits. We could not understand the language they were speaking (Kannada) and we don’t know them previously. The only thing is we all are Indians. Have the spirit within you and do serve the nation.

Bharath Maatha ki Jai..

Jai Hind..


Intouch,
Mathi.

UDHAYAM Activities on 8th August,2009

As a part of our week-end activity, on a fine sunny Saturday morning at 7.15AM, We seven Members of Udhayam which includes Mathi, Shanmugam, Sridhar, Suresh, Hemavathi, Aarthi and Gomathy went to the Ejipura Orphanage. There, few students were ready to go to school. Usually we will provide them with fruits and sweets. But, this time for a change we decided to provide them with Morning breakfast. So, Hema and Aarthi sponsored for Idlis. We bought them 100 IDLIs along with Sambar, Chutney and Idli Podi. There were 27 kids.



(Gomathy serving the kids with Sambar)

Above and Below:Kids waiting for their turn

As soon as I start distributing the Banana Leaf, Hema, Aarthi and Gomathy served them with Idli, Sambar and Chutney. We noticed that none of them start eating until we served all the Kids.

All of a sudden, they started their prayers to thank the Almighty and after that they started eating. I have no words to express the happiness which we felt on seeing their faces which was glowing like an 1000watts bulb. Later Kishore, Sriharsha along with two new members Palanichamy and Janson joined us.

Kids singing the prayer song

After having their breakfast, they themselves cleaned the place and formed a Queue in front of the Almighty and started singing the prayer song in both Tamil and English. Finally they concluded their prayers with the National Anthem.

Saluting after the National Anthem

From the song they sung, I noticed that they thanked the Almighty for creating them in this Wonderful World, they were asking to provide them with good shelter, health and food , asking to give them good memory power to study well, confidence to face any problem and they were thanking everyone who were supporting and helping them. I don’t know how many of us were praying daily.

Sridhar interacting with the kids

But these kids are praying daily before they leave their orphanage and before starting to have their food. Then the school going kids left and we started playing with the remaining kids. Our friend, Suresh started teaching them how to write their names in Tamil. At Last we all left the place with a feeling that it would be good if we provide them breakfast as we did today instead of sweets and snacks.

Then Shanmugam, Sridhar, Suresh, Kishore and Sriharsha and I started to Yelahanka School by 10.30AM. Actually we planned to replace the old and damaged sintex water tanks with the new ones. But, after reaching there, we came to know that some other NGOs were committed with that work.

Students having Natural Treatment for Chicken-pox at the Yelahanka School
So, we then visited the bedrooms of both the boys and girls and noted down their requirements. They used Bunker cots which has three racks. The middle racks are not having any support on its side and due to this last week one of the student fell down from the cot in his deep sleep. We immediately enquired for a local carpenter and called him to the school. There are totally 21 cots which have to be provided with side support on both the sides of the middle rack. Based on the requirements the carpenter gave us the estimation amount and it is around Rs.7500. There is no proper Lighting Facility and Fans inside the bed-room.

As already noted there in the previous postings, immediate action should be taken to repair the windows. We called one local person from an Engineering Workshop. He conveyed us that it cost around Rs.900 per window to cover with steel sheet and Rs.1250 per window with fiber material. In total there are around 40 windows to be repaired immediately. This is going to be a challenging task for us.

Damaged Windows which doesnt have frames at all

In the Mean-while 4 new members introduced by Kishore joined us at Yelahanka School. The new members are Sivaraman, Anbarasan, Rajendra Kumar and Karthikeyan.

Here too I noticed many disciplinary and punctuality things among the students. They have formed various committees like House Keeping, Sports, Cooking, Washing etc., every day by 6pm they have to assemble in the class room to give the attendance. They have a separate note for each and every committee. The students have to log their complaints which will be noted by the Correspondent and she will reply for the complaints, the next day. On priority, action will be taken. Every month, the Secretary of the school will have a look on these notebooks and complaints.

We bought some sports items like Volley-ball, foot-ball, basket-ball, Ring-ball, Skipping rope, shuttle bat with corks, cricket bats with balls, and diskers which cost around Rs.2600. They are in need of gas cylinders immediately. So we replaced 4 empty cylinders with the refilled ones which cost Rs.1400.

Playing with the Skipping rope
We have found sponsors for helping the school with infrastructure development. Now we got the hand-written statement for the infrastructure development (like Fans, Tube-Lights, Water Filter, and Windows) from the correspondent of the school. So, with these we can proceed with further activities

I thank everyone supporting Udhayam and special thanks to Hema and Aarthi for their contribution to Ejipura School.

Intouch,
Mathi.

Udhayam Activities - August Update

Hi all, Greetings from Udhayam Welfare Foundation. I'm pretty much happy to inform that our Second release of Udhayam Welfare Foundation's Monthly magazine "Vidiyal" was released today. I take this oppurtunity to thank Mathi and Sridhar for their wonderful job in editing the magazine and releasing it. Also I thank all the contributors for the magazine. I will post a link to the magazine soon.

Meanwhile this month we're planning to carry on the following activities as part of our Udhayam Activities.

1. Registering the Group - Mathi and Sridhar went to the registrar office on last saturday, and it looks like, the memorundum and Rules and Regulations form should all be typed in Kannada, and all the forms to be submitted for registration should be in Kannada. Because of this we're also thinking of registering the group in Tamil Nadu.
2. AET Activities - We've already paid the monthly fees for Manjula and Nandhini, and we're also planning to buy the kids dresses, toys, notebooks, and some food items. From now-onwards, we're planning to buy only healthy foods like dates, fruits etc, instead of sweets.
3. IGIA Activities - We're planning to repair/buy new water tanks to the school, as the old ones were in pretty bad shape. Also we've found sponsors for helping the school with infrastructure development, but we're waiting for the hand-written letter from the school management, with which we can start the activities, with the help of the sponsors. Also we're planning to buy Sweaters, Mats, Pillows, Blankets for the kids, as the climate in Bangalore is getting colder everyday, and the kids were really struggling without these basic amneties.

And about our regular visit to the school, last sunday, Mathi, Sri, Gomathy, Karthi, Shanmugam, and new members Kishore and SriHarsha visited AET orphanage. There they distributed the dates (sponsored by Supriya) to the kids. Apart from the dates they also distributed Mangoes, and Oranges to the kids. And the monthly school fee of Rs.540 for Manjula and Nandhini was also paid. Here are some of the snaps we took on last week's visit.

From Left to Right: Front Row: Sathish ; Arnold ; Hemanth ; Gurukiran
Second Row: Sankar ; Gunasekar ; Abhishek ; Vijay
Third Row: Ajay ; Vijay ; Abhi

Fourth Row: Naveen ; H.Harish ; Praveen ; Harishkumar S

From Left to Right: Front Row: Durga ; Ramya ; Geetha ; Jancy

Second Row: Manjula ; Supriya ; Navya ; Akila

Kids enjoying the dates sponsored by Supriya


Mathi distributing mangoes to the kids

Karthik helping the kids with peeling the Oranges

I'm really happy to announce that from mid of july, around 6 new members joined our group. Also we're getting good support from lot of people. But the sad part is there is not enough volunteers to carry forward the weekend activities.

I would be happy to hear from volunteers who can help us in weekend activities. Also I'm eagerly waiting for the comments from all of the members.

I once again thank you all for your wonderful support.

~Muthu Selvan.S