Hurreey Picnic Time!!!!

Here is how Nishank describes it:

The volunteers who went for the picnic were Manish, Rachit, Saikat, Sachin and me.

For Manish and Rachit it was the time they were interacting with Mobile Crèches kids. The bus for the picnic started from Mobile Crèches center at 11 o'clock. There were total 40 kids and all were excited about going for a picnic (these kinds of outings are rare things for them!!!). The bus it seemed was a little bigger for them as they were sitting in a very disciplined manner. (I was expecting lot of hulla gulla J)
The bus took around an hour to reach Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary. In the bus we were trying to talk to the kids but seems they were more engrossed watching the sceneries outside. After reaching the sanctuary we had a group photo with the kids. We never expected that we could get such a serene and natural surroundings near Gurgaon. At that time we also came to knew that children from another Mobile Creches center too have joined us for the picnic and soon we had a bunch of around 80 kids. After going inside the sanctuary, first we went to a small gallery containing posters of different migratory birds along with detailed information about them. The children were looking at them with lot of curiosity.

Then we moved on to go near the lake where most of the birds were there. The lake had some marshy areas to keep the birds at bay from people visiting there. After reaching near the lake we realized that we were missing binoculars. (After all there is a difference between a sanctuary and a zoo). However, the children enjoyed even seeing the birds from a distance. Rachit and Saikat were busy photographing birds using zoom of the camera. Manish and Sachin were busy ensuring kids were not running here and there.

After spending some time near the lake all the children gathered near a tree. There we all sat down and few of the children recited poems. Even Sachin recited a poem for the children which the children followed in chorus. After spending some time there we realized that it was lunch time for the children. We finally decided to return to the bus. While returning we realized that we had come along a long way. The kids were going in small groups. They were asking lot of questions out of their curiosity which we were trying to answer in our best capacity. J For the lunch we went to a park just next to the sanctuary. All the kids were made to sit in a big circle and the lunch was served for them.

After the lunch the children started running here and there and were enjoying playing among the greenery. We also had a brief drawing session for the kids where they were supposed to draw watching the natural surroundings. Then children were then given toffees. Finally it was the time to wrap up and go back.

While returning the bus had to stop near a railway signal for about fifteen minutes. The children got a chance to see "Chuk Chuk Rail Gaadi". Finally the bus reached Mobile Crèches center at 5 o'clock. The children were very happy that they went on a picnic. It was really nice to see their smiling faces.

If you want to watch the complete album for the Mobile Crèches picnic, you can follow this link (courtesy Rachit) :

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chawlarachit/MobileCrechesPicnic?authkey=5oQJkMTYt3Q

Hope we keep having similar events for children in the future.

Republic Day - Initiation day for Project Unnati!

Nishank experience of the day:

I tend to remember that on last Republic Day I was watching “Rang De Basanti” in PVR. The movie was great and thought provoking too. There was a scene in the movie where the actors were sitting in a bar and complaining “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta!”

Well how easy it is to just watch the surroundings around us and shrugging off that nothing can be done!

But coming forward and bringing some change is a different game.

Unnati is supposed to be one such example.

I am sure we all want to see a developed India where there is an equal opportunity for all to succeed, where every child can go to a school. Where no child has to spend his childhood working day and night to earn a living instead of being able to play with his friends. Where people are not trapped in a vicious circle of poverty but have a chance to lead a decent life.

But just having a dream is not enough. The question is how much does it matters to us to achieve that dream.

We have an excellent opportunity to bring the change we envision. Being the youth of the nation we have a great responsibility on our shoulders as how we are going to shape up the future of the country.

There will always be only 24x7 = 168 hours in a week for us even if we yearn for more. In this limited time only per week we have to manage our time between our work, our family and friends, our hobbies and anything else we want to do. Things won’t change in a weekJ. But slowly and steadily if we move towards the goal, with our collective efforts we can achieve a lot. It’s not just about doing things here in Gurgaon, or being part of AID Gurgaon. It’s about asking ourselves as what role I am going to play and why. It’s about though being anywhere in India, or even outside India, but working towards bringing the change. But when we are able to do something near our immediate surroundings then changes are most perceptible.

When we come ahead for volunteering we are helping people who may be totally strangers to us, but still we share a common bond among us. They may be quite lagging in terms of education, income etc. when compared to us. But they are also citizens of the same India. Globalization and economic development shouldn’t remain a prerogative of few who are able to get decent education and get plugged-in in the system to enjoy benefits brought by Information Technology, Outsourcing, Foreign Direct Investment etc. Off-late we have seen that gap between Haves and Have-nots is increasing day by day but at some point the trend needs to be reserved. And for that we need to do something about it. It’s responsibility of each one of us.

Or else there is a simple solution. We can simply sit in our air-conditioned offices, sipping a cup of coffee and saying, “Is desh ka kuch nahi ho sakta!”

Oh I yet have to start regarding the update on activities!

When we reached Unnati the children became excited and started making noises. We tried to gather all the children at one place. But they were not listening much to us. Some of the elders there intervened and helped us in keeping the children disciplined. We had plans of distributing slates and toffees to the children. We had taken 70 slates with us, but soon we realized that it was not enough. We got a bit confused as how to proceed ahead. But anyways we decided that the elder children would be given the slates first followed by the younger children. We decided to first note down the names of the children.

It seemed to be an arduous task. Sachin and Sumit were trying to placate the children. Deepak took the lead in between and children spoke following him, “Hum sabko padh likh ke bada aadmi banna hai”! That time we didn’t have a pen and paper with us. Then Mr. Mohd Rafi (I hope you guyz have not forgot Shahrukh and now we have Mr. Rafi) immediately arranged it for us. He is the owner of a tea-stall there and he is one of the few people to whom we had a talk initially regarding our plan of teaching children there.

Manoj started jotting down the names of the children along with Ravi. They jotted down the names of the children to whom slates were to be given. Then we started calling each child by his/her name to handover the slate/chalk and other children clapped with it. Meanwhile Deepak was busy in taking the snaps. Amit, Ankit, Rachit and I were busy opening the packing of slates and handing it over for distribution. The parents where happy that something good was happening for their children.

When we had distributed few of the slates we saw that few of the children have already started writing down their names on the slates. It was really nice to see that. One by one our stock of slates were finished and still few younger children were saying that they too want the slates. We told them that we will soon arrange the slates for them too. At that time the toffees came handy as we said that we will give toffees to them and told children to stand in line. After that we handed over the toffees which appeased the younger children. Even few of the elders said that they too want the slatesJ and that time we said that today slates are only for children.

We also had a chance to interact with the parents and some of them were asking regarding schooling for their children. Even some of the adults there want to learn reading and writing. It was a really nice experience and a bit unique way for celebrating Republic Day for us.

Once we go to that place, it makes us wonder that how these people are living in so abject poverty. How they must have faced this gruesome winter in their patch-like homes. What is the future going to be for these children for whom the present is in this dire condition? How much these people can think of education for their children when they are surviving on hand to mouth existence and not sure of what they will earn the next day.

And the most important question is, “Will things ever change for them? “

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AID Gurgaon New Project - Unnati

AID Gurgaon NEw Project - Unnati

After successful running of AID Gurgaon Mobile Creches, now with Nishank's continuous efforts we have a new project in our group. Nishank named it as Unnati. The project has been started from scratch and volunteers will be working without the support from any other NGOs. I believe the volunteers now are experienced enough to make this project a success.

Here is how Nishank describes his views:


Hi all,

Here is a brief update on the new project to be initiated by AID Gurgaon. There is a slum area which is located 5 mins drive from Evalueserve’s office (near Rajeev Chowk, close to Delhi-Jaipur highway). The slum area is called “Ret-Mandi” by the people there. On Saturday, January 20, 2007 while returning from Mobile Creches, Sachin, Munish, Sumit and I went for the survey of the area. The basti consists of more than 50 families with around 150-200 children.





The basti is on a barren land where people have put patch-like shelters. The basti is around 6-7 years old and some of the people keep coming and going if they are not able to get any work. Most of the families there hail from Rajasthan. The people there are basically daily wage earners surviving on hand to mouth existence. Their occupations vary from working as mason, labourers, making ropes, selling things on thelas etc.




The children there have no access to education. Some of the children there have been to school earlier, but had to leave their studies in between. There we met a boy “Shambhu” who has studied till class 5. His father was asking if Shambhu can be admitted in some school. We talked to few more people there and their responses were really good. They told that hey would help in every possible way if we start some teaching activity there. Even the children there want to study. The parents said that since there is no school nearby they are not able to send them school. Moreover affordability is an issue for them as sending to school means expenses in fees, uniforms, stationeries etc., that too when they have no regular source of income. Finally we returned from there and told that we would come the next day too.




Yesterday Sachin and I went to talk with more people there. We gave Shambhu a Hindi Storybook, a notebook and a pen. He even read aloud a paragraph from the storybook. Seeing him other children also told that they want notebooks. Even some of the adults there told that they want to learn reading and writing. There are children of all age groups. They were busy playing with their customized toys. Few of the adults there told that teaching these children is next to impossible task as these children won’t listen to us. We told that we will try our best and asked them to be a bit strict when we will start classes thereJ !!! We also took few photos of the children and the place there. The children were very excited to get themselves photographed.



We are planning to start classes there on Saturdays and Sundays. (On Saturday from 3-5 p.m. and on Sundays from 2-5 p.m.) Here we should strive for overall community development here rather than only the education of children. In this slum area no NGO or Govt. body visits and there is a lot of scope and challenge to do something constructive here. We will have to start things from scratch here. One of the possible names for this project can be “Unnati” as these people really need some development.

CSR in AID Gurgaon

With efforts of the volunteers finally we were able to successfuly form a fully functional CSR team in the first company Evalueserve. Wouldn't you like to know why i mentioned it as fully functional?

Here are the few points lined up:

• Successful completion of winter clothes drive
• Successful execution of teaching program of the house boys within the company by CSR volunteers
• Success of bottoms-up approach in forming a CSR team
  
• Involving CSR volunteers in other AID Gurgaon projects such as Mobile Creches
  
• Growing volunteers every month
• Donation drive
  
• and lots more

Now the plan is to form similar CSR teams in other companies in Gurgaon. A list of companies have been identified and bottoms-up approach will be used to form the core of the CSR team.

Keep checking this post for the updates....

Kids Ralley...

Mobile Creches celebrated 'Bal Adhikar Diwas'

This saturday was somewhat different. It was late morning and we all reached Mobile Creches with the usual plan of teaching kids. To our suprise what we all saw was something different!!! All the kids instead of being inside school, were standing outside with posters and banners in their hand. It seemed as if some army is ready to attack.



I was surprized but then someone told us that there is a awareness rally organized today. All the kids were supposed to form a group and walk in their community. Kids were carrying posters in their hands with different messages written on it.

This was their fight for education.

Whoops... then what to think, I also took a poster in my hand and became part of the rally.





I could imagine the rallies in 1940s for the fight for freedom. This was very much the same for these kids.

However, this was fun!! fun for them and fun for all the volunteers.

We all were moving in the small lanes of the community (designed like jalebi, we were moving round and round from one lane to the other) with shouting aloud the messages that were written on the posters. Everyone from the community were looking us (which we all wanted) and trying to read what was written on posters.

Though there was no teaching that day, we were not able to teach something to kids, but i learnt one thing from the ralley "We don't value things that we get with ease, the value of those things are only known to those who are deprived of them"

Bhaiyya aa Gaye :)

A wave of enthusiasm ran through the kids as we reached the Mobile creche - our lethargic bodies too got charged the moment a loud "bhaiyaa aa gaye" fell on our ears. This seems to have become a routine now (no wonder we are excited to meet our little friends every saturday).

This time Shashank got a jigsaw puzzle (animal pictures in every jigsaw) with him that attracted a lot of kids [chorus: bhaiyya main bhi khelunga]. We thought of fostering team work in the kids and divided the ones that were interested into three teams. Each team was given a separate jigsaw puzzle to solve. The desire of being the first one to solve was so strong that they focussed on our lip movement and waited for the "Start" signal. Some of them of-course did not wait :D.


Initially we thought that this exercise would be difficult for the kids. However they proved us wrong. One of the team was extremely quick at knitting the pieces together. I could see the glitter in their eyes everytime they were able to piece an animal together. They quickly finished their jigsaw and I began telling them the animal names. There was haathi, saanp, cheetah, sher and another one whose name I was unable to recall. Without much hope I asked if any one of them knew it's name. No one replied. I let it go by.

While some of the kids were busy with the jigsaw I looked around to see what others were up to. One of the groups that was being taught by Priyanka was making a lot of noise. I went closer to see that Priyanka had drawn a human figure (it looked more like a ghost..he he- don't tell Priyanka ;)) and marked the various body parts. She was explaining where nose, hair, teeth etc. fit in. She asked me if I could take a quiz since she had finished teaching. I agreed and quizzed the kids by placing my finger on the body parts. They answered quickly confirming once again that they are quick learners. Priyanka had already taught the kids Twinkle twinkle little star (with actions) so I tried my luck with teaching "Johnny Johhnny Yes Papa". Frankly I had forgotten the verse when Priyanka remined me the lyrics. My actions combined with my verse's hindi translation ("jonny beta tumhe cheeni khaee hai- nahi papa" ;) ) made the kids laugh and gag. I am hoping that they would remember the song (and the hilarious actions :D) the next time I pay them a visit.

Priyanka then taught the kids how to write their names in English, which they picked up quickly.


Meanwhile it was Munish's turn to teach the younger kids and face the heat :D. It really is not easy teaching kids alphabets however he did a good job.


Ashwini (aka Dhoni - as suggested by the Mobile Creche teachers :D) taught another group extremely deligently.


Rajesh too taught kids in his very unique and energetic "samajh aa raha hai na bhaisahab" andaaz.


As we were about to leave , one of the kids came to me and said "Bhaiyya wo nevla tha". Quickly the animal whose name I had forgotten flashed before my eyes. I cursed myself for not being able to relate the figure to the word. I looked at the kid and mumured "Hats off buddy - way to go!".