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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