As we enter 2009 which by far is one of the most tough years that we will face in our lives because of the financial mess and it’s impact on the markets and the economy of the world , we also enter a phase at Sneha-Sparsh which will test our resolve to do something good. 2008 was a satisfying year if not fulfilling! And the owness must go to the people in the TEAM who have worked hard on the ground. J
There have been others who have worked hard online and strived for excellence even in this non-profitable cause. We as a group want to move ahead and set new standards for ourselves. Of course these are not so great times in terms of the time we can spend on the work and various personal reasons (though all happy reasons!) have eaten up time of each. We as a group together share the common happiness that has come along while working together and to enjoy each other’s happiness and success is the main reason behind the strong bond that we all share.
In my visit to India during the December of 2008, I roughly interacted with all of the TEAM and below is a brief outline of what we intend to achieve. Of course , putting in pure financial terms , this is just the benchmark , we wish to produce “alpha” i.e. we wish to outperform.
SS Plan for 2009:
1) Monitoring the coaching of two kids for Engineering from Narayana coaching center.
2) Look for opportunities to get more kids into Engg/Medical/NDA coaching/entrance exams based on their class 10th , 12th results.
3) Monitor the tuitions held at Gupta Coaching center , Palam for our students.
4) Get the next batch started at tuitions at Gupta coaching center as soon as the board results are out and students are decided about their streams.
5) Hold counselling/mentoring/taching sessions for children at Don Bosco.
6) Fill their requirements of any material related to studies like stationaries etc.
7) Start a computer teaching regular workshop for the classes 6th to 12th.
8) Organising cultural and team/trust/confidence building activities with kids at Don Bosco.
9) Ad-Hoc small short term projects.
Let me take the opportunity to wish Pankaj , Meenakshi all the very best in their new personal endeavors(marriage) , Vishal on his professional initiative(Pacifica consultants). Also to each other member for their continued hard work in their professional and personal life.
Remember that we ourselves have determined what we are up to and it is our own resolve to do something constructive , let us prove what worth are we!
All the very best to us and let us make dreams into realities.
Regards,
Anil
Coordinator-Sneha-Sparsh.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Helping children to make their own future !!
We live in a world that forces us to live on its own terms. Whether rich or poor; sheltered or unsheltered; happy or unhappy; loved or unloved — our humanity encompasses all these facts of life. Striking a balance in this world is difficult — when we have the means, we don't have the modes; and when we have the modes...no means!!
It is most true when we see beyond ourselves…beyond the daily nitty-gritty's of our lives…to other people, who lack what we don't and who are blessed, what we are not with. We all know that somewhere deep in our hearts, we have the desire, strength and a wish to help, support and ameliorate the conditions of people who live different lives than us. Physically, emotionally or for that matter financially, we can and do help, in our own small or big ways, in making the underprivileged sections of our community sustain better lives, all by themselves.
We are Sneha-Sparsh. We are a team. We help children to be like US. Educated, learned and informed. We want them to take decisions for themselves, for their future, for the people around them. We, at Sneha-Sparsh feel that if we are able to give them an education/learning that they can depend on for a lifetime, we have made a difference. And we feel blessed to be the facilitators of that.
We were born in Aug 2007 and started this initiative with Don Bosco in Palam Village, which shelters and cares for those children who don't have a means to sustain themselves. From their education to enhancing their talents, Sneha-Sparsh is actively involved at each step with Don Bosco in preparing these children for their lives ahead.
Our motivated team takes care of their academics like tuitions, to making sure that the bright ones go for higher studies like engineering. Apart from these, we also try to organize cultural programs, extra curricular activities and sports-related events.
What we are trying to do here is to enable these impressionable children to strive for a better life. We love to see them smile for every new pen, pencil they get or every new book they love to hold. We love to see them play with colors and appreciate their confidence when they achieve standards they set for themselves.
We at Sneha-Sparsh feel that it's not about us, but what we can do to make these children define their future, themselves…
Suparna.
It is most true when we see beyond ourselves…beyond the daily nitty-gritty's of our lives…to other people, who lack what we don't and who are blessed, what we are not with. We all know that somewhere deep in our hearts, we have the desire, strength and a wish to help, support and ameliorate the conditions of people who live different lives than us. Physically, emotionally or for that matter financially, we can and do help, in our own small or big ways, in making the underprivileged sections of our community sustain better lives, all by themselves.
We are Sneha-Sparsh. We are a team. We help children to be like US. Educated, learned and informed. We want them to take decisions for themselves, for their future, for the people around them. We, at Sneha-Sparsh feel that if we are able to give them an education/learning that they can depend on for a lifetime, we have made a difference. And we feel blessed to be the facilitators of that.
We were born in Aug 2007 and started this initiative with Don Bosco in Palam Village, which shelters and cares for those children who don't have a means to sustain themselves. From their education to enhancing their talents, Sneha-Sparsh is actively involved at each step with Don Bosco in preparing these children for their lives ahead.
Our motivated team takes care of their academics like tuitions, to making sure that the bright ones go for higher studies like engineering. Apart from these, we also try to organize cultural programs, extra curricular activities and sports-related events.
What we are trying to do here is to enable these impressionable children to strive for a better life. We love to see them smile for every new pen, pencil they get or every new book they love to hold. We love to see them play with colors and appreciate their confidence when they achieve standards they set for themselves.
We at Sneha-Sparsh feel that it's not about us, but what we can do to make these children define their future, themselves…
Suparna.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Sneha-Sparsh: "The caress of Love"
It has been a journey of sorts I must say, and it feels a great privilege to write about the journey which has involved people of such caliber, such status and most importantly people with such compassion. Punctuated by ups and downs, or should I say with its share of crests and troughs, we find ourselves in a more assured situation, a situation which we only imagines around a year back.
It has been satisfying to say the least but not without relentless efforts of some ardent workers.
It all started with a thread on an orkut community (Jat-World) which I happened to revive at least after a year in the summer of 2007. The thread was an idea by Anil Pahal and it related to helping out distressed girl child. And it was to provoke the youth to come forward and contribute to a social cause. I take the credit of re-igniting the flame and I consulted the author and other people I deemed suitable for taking up such a task. Within a week, we had a young and enthusiastic group raging to go (but no body knew where?).
It was pretty obvious to call up for a meeting of people concerned and decide on how to start up the things. I recall Myself, Anil Pahal, Pankaj Chaudhary, Vishal Malik, Amit Tomar, Kuldeep and Neeraj Yadav to attend that meeting and discuss about the work for two hours and we concluded nothing. I guess it was so important to have calming influences of Anil Pahal, cheerful exuberance of Pankaj, determinism of Amit Tomar and Vishal idealizing the role of Devil's advocate.
There were couples more of such meetings and searches for a place to start our work with our limited resources (especially of time) and in the meantime we were joined by Sumit Dalal and Meenakshi and the team looked pretty complete to take off. With some brain storming and analyzing we decided to kick off ourselves from Don Bosco Aashalyam,Palam Village where around 150 children of all age groups are sheltered (almost all of the kids are either orphans or abandoned). The reasons for choosing don Bosco as the starting point were very strong , first of all we were influenced by the way they manage things and also a proper functioning place would smoothen our entry into such kind of work.
The work took an official start on 21st October, 2007 and we started with interacting with children of classes 9th to 12th and knowing them first and then helping them out with any of their material requirements, spiritual requirements and most contribution has been to their intellectual growth. One of the most satisfying things that have happened to me personally has been teaching those children with a glitter of hope in their eyes affirming the view they have that YES! They have some who care for them. And that is exactly the vision we have, it's the hand of care that we wish to extend to them. We wish to be their mentors, their caretakers. Some of them have amazing talent and it is pretty surprising that they are not at all shy in front of people but off course one has to instill that level of comfort into them.
Befriending them we moved to the task of helping them out with their studies and as exams approached we hired professional tutors for them so that they can excel in their academics. We must always analyze their performance keeping in mind the difficulties that they have confronted with all these years. But still it is so overwhelming to find some marks in the range of 90's.That incredible for me.
Going ahead, we on 27th April decided to implement a few important changes in our methodology. We will shift our role from teachers to mentors. I believe more professionalism in their academics (which can be brought about by hiring professional tutors for them) will move them even higher intellectually and academically and we will constantly comfort them with our roles of being their friends and caretakers. We must now counsel them, listen to them, laugh with them and at times confront them as well, thus showing all different shades so as to make their life as vivid as possible. Of course it will tax on our individual strengths and also on our resources but we are hopeful of finding similar thinking people and I feel there is no dearth of. It's only the task of reaching such like minded people.
The functioning at Don Bosco will be smooth under the guidance of never tiring Sumit and I really hope for some concrete results at the end of this year.
For new people, I only have the advice that you could be coming in for an experience of lifetime, a satisfaction you never have attained with any other activity, a peace of lifetime. If you have any doubts, please feel free to contact personally either me or any of my team members. And if youth is not going to do it , then who has the energy and the will-power for the same ?And if youth is not going to do it , then who has the energy and the will-power for the same ?
Regards,
Anil Singh
Co-ordinator – Sneha-Sparsh.
It has been satisfying to say the least but not without relentless efforts of some ardent workers.
It all started with a thread on an orkut community (Jat-World) which I happened to revive at least after a year in the summer of 2007. The thread was an idea by Anil Pahal and it related to helping out distressed girl child. And it was to provoke the youth to come forward and contribute to a social cause. I take the credit of re-igniting the flame and I consulted the author and other people I deemed suitable for taking up such a task. Within a week, we had a young and enthusiastic group raging to go (but no body knew where?).
It was pretty obvious to call up for a meeting of people concerned and decide on how to start up the things. I recall Myself, Anil Pahal, Pankaj Chaudhary, Vishal Malik, Amit Tomar, Kuldeep and Neeraj Yadav to attend that meeting and discuss about the work for two hours and we concluded nothing. I guess it was so important to have calming influences of Anil Pahal, cheerful exuberance of Pankaj, determinism of Amit Tomar and Vishal idealizing the role of Devil's advocate.
There were couples more of such meetings and searches for a place to start our work with our limited resources (especially of time) and in the meantime we were joined by Sumit Dalal and Meenakshi and the team looked pretty complete to take off. With some brain storming and analyzing we decided to kick off ourselves from Don Bosco Aashalyam,Palam Village where around 150 children of all age groups are sheltered (almost all of the kids are either orphans or abandoned). The reasons for choosing don Bosco as the starting point were very strong , first of all we were influenced by the way they manage things and also a proper functioning place would smoothen our entry into such kind of work.
The work took an official start on 21st October, 2007 and we started with interacting with children of classes 9th to 12th and knowing them first and then helping them out with any of their material requirements, spiritual requirements and most contribution has been to their intellectual growth. One of the most satisfying things that have happened to me personally has been teaching those children with a glitter of hope in their eyes affirming the view they have that YES! They have some who care for them. And that is exactly the vision we have, it's the hand of care that we wish to extend to them. We wish to be their mentors, their caretakers. Some of them have amazing talent and it is pretty surprising that they are not at all shy in front of people but off course one has to instill that level of comfort into them.
Befriending them we moved to the task of helping them out with their studies and as exams approached we hired professional tutors for them so that they can excel in their academics. We must always analyze their performance keeping in mind the difficulties that they have confronted with all these years. But still it is so overwhelming to find some marks in the range of 90's.That incredible for me.
Going ahead, we on 27th April decided to implement a few important changes in our methodology. We will shift our role from teachers to mentors. I believe more professionalism in their academics (which can be brought about by hiring professional tutors for them) will move them even higher intellectually and academically and we will constantly comfort them with our roles of being their friends and caretakers. We must now counsel them, listen to them, laugh with them and at times confront them as well, thus showing all different shades so as to make their life as vivid as possible. Of course it will tax on our individual strengths and also on our resources but we are hopeful of finding similar thinking people and I feel there is no dearth of. It's only the task of reaching such like minded people.
The functioning at Don Bosco will be smooth under the guidance of never tiring Sumit and I really hope for some concrete results at the end of this year.
For new people, I only have the advice that you could be coming in for an experience of lifetime, a satisfaction you never have attained with any other activity, a peace of lifetime. If you have any doubts, please feel free to contact personally either me or any of my team members. And if youth is not going to do it , then who has the energy and the will-power for the same ?And if youth is not going to do it , then who has the energy and the will-power for the same ?
Regards,
Anil Singh
Co-ordinator – Sneha-Sparsh.
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