Weekend I Opener

Dear ones,

This is the story of Hire high school...

A small primary and secondary school run by a trust with limited funds at hand for the kids from the poor families residing in a slum belt called "Janata vasahat" near the Parvati hills in Pune... Two years ago, the student drop out rates at the school were pretty high and most of the students passed either by implementing a method called "copy" during the exams, or were pushed in the next standards to prevent the classes form closing down!

Enter the volunteers of the Art of Living... it all started when Mrs Kavita Jagtap, one of the school teachers did the Art of Living Part 1 course at near her residence at Bibwewadi Pune upon her daughter's recommendation. Since then Kavitaji has never looked back. She Started by organizing a Bal Chetana Shibir - a free workshop for the students of age between 8-15 years at the school. Soon more workshops followed and even some of the school teachers including the principal attended the Art of Living courses.









I was first introduced to the school on 26th January last year, when Kavitaji had invited me to engage in a dialogue with the students at the republican day celebrations of the school...



After the event, I had a discussion with the principal and the senior staff wherein they invited me to take another Bal Chetana Shivir for the students in 8th & 9th standard...
Since I was on a 1 month sabbatical between changing the employer, I happily complied and thus got an opportunity to witness a transformation in those 250 odd students. The drawing competition conducted on the last day showed us how much hiden talents these kids possessed that needed nothing else but a bit of kindling from our side...



Above: Mrs Kavita Jagtap, Principal Sir, and Rao uncle, industrialist and our mentor for the school project.

The workshops were followed by projects such as Mission Green Earth, wherein each student was given 10 seeds to grow them into healthy saplings before these were planted in the school surroundings! The project was an instant hit with the kids as they were asked to treat these saplings as their own babies - the kids gave names to their babies and maintained a chart of how their babies grew over the months :-)









Our volunteered did not stop at just imparting the knowledge and instilling the right attitude in the students. They also took care of the students needs... many students came to the school barefoot and without a uniform. All such needy students were identified and provided with uniforms, backpacks, and shoes. This was possible through the generous donations form the strong AOL community in Pune. Also this year, sweater were distributed to these kids to combat the chilly winter mornings around the Parvati hills!





Overall the feedback we received from the staff so far is quite positive and we are sure the students will go ahead to become the pillars of strength for the nation!!!

JAI GURU DEV!
Sandesh Sawant
Social Transformation Evangelist,
Volunteer/Facilitator, Art of Living / WAYE / IAHV.

Last week 190 students of Hire high school were provided with sweaters. This became possible through the generous donations from people like you. Here are a few snaps from the distribution event...



R to L in below snap = one of the schools teachers who has undergone the part 1 course, sunil poddar our south zone coordinator teacher, school principal who has also undergone part 1 course, and the other school teachers...



Thanks to Kavika madam who coordinated the whole activity right from the inception of the idea to finding the wholesale dealer, identifying the needy students, finally executing the distribution event at the school and not to forget for taking the snaps for us!!!

Wish you season's greetings and happy new year 2011!!

Dear Ones!

M sure u had a blast at the last nites concert with the one & only AOL star guitarist Vikram Hazra! What a night it was full of energy & devotion!!

This mail is to request your support for a service project undertaken by the Art of Living volunteers at a secondary school in Pune...

A bunch of us are donating a large number of sweaters to the students of a high school in Pune on a charitable basis. The students come from low income group families living in the slums in & around Parvati hills in Pune. We are looking for boys' n girls' sweaters of good quality in bulk quantity. Therefore we are looking for vendors who can supply these cloths in discounted prices. Let me know if you have any vendors contacts that may help us in this. Also, if you feel that you have received a lot in your life and would like to help these less fortunate ones this winter season, your are most welcome to contribute at the earliest :-) Just pick up the phone n call me on 9423076562 NOW!!

To give a little more background, myself and a group of Art of Living volunteers have taken up commitment for the upliftment of students of Hire High school since more than a year now.



I had myself conducted a Balchetana Shivir for around 250 of these kids earlier this year in Feb when I was on a sabbatical (See snaps). A few of their teachers have undergone the Art of Living course and one of them became a Part-1 teacher in the last batch of TTC. Recently our team of volunteers also conducted Nava Chetana Shivirs for the adult members in the slums where these students reside, This was done to facilitate a more complete transformation at the family level to make our efforts more sustainable.



If we are able to perceive good results in the school (reduction in number of dropouts, exam-copying cases, etc), then we can use this project as a trend setter for the rest of secondary schools in Pune. I believe the feedback received from the school teachers so far is quite encouraging. And as many of you are aware, we are planning to conduct the free Bal Chetana Shivirs for the students of all government schools in PMC (the permission letter has arrived); after we did it successfully on a very large scale in the PCMC schools earlier this year (See Report).

Hoping for the contributions to pour in soon as always:-) Thanks in advance.

Best,
Sandesh

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Hello dear!

Last weekend I visited a place called "VigyanAshram". It was phenomenal. After I posted a few snaps from the visit on one of he social networking sites, many of my friends asked me what is this place. So thought of scribbling a short writeup on the same...

VigyanAshram is a vocational training institute come research & development lab. Hence the word "Vigyan" - Science... It also inculcates the concept of Gurukul system of education. Thus the word "ashram". It is an outcome of vision set by one man, late Dr. S.S. Kalbaug. It is a place where vocational training is imparted to village youth to make them tomorrow's entrepreneurs across innumerable villages of India!

VigyanAshram is located on the picturesque terrains near Pabal village some 60KM away from Pune on Nashik road. You have to first travel for around 55KM to reach Rajgurunagar and then travel 10-15KM more to reach this place next to Pabal village. The later part of road is a bit narrow n slightly rough. Overall it takes 2 hours to reach the place if you drive at decent pace. You need to inform their operations team in advance about your visit so that they will make the necessary arrangements for you to take a guided tour of their campus. One can even organize a study trip for students of a secondary school wherein specific workshop activities can be organized for the groups of students from std VIII, IX and X. I am going to propose a visit by the SSRVM staff as well as parent & management committee in the next meeting at the school.



It takes anywhere from one hour to four hours to take a look at the various research & development project being carried out at the institute depending on the inquisitiveness of the visitors. I went there with my team of Net Impact Pune Professional Chapter so we ended up spending the whole day there with lots of in depth discussions on the green energy projects being carried out there. As a matter of fact Net Impact Pune is helping out in a couple of research projects being done out there in a pro bono manner.



The major highlights of our tour were visit to the "Fab Lab" setup in collaboration with MIT USA and a discussion with Mrs. Kalbaug who overlooks the project after the founder expired a few years ago. Amma (as she is lovingly called a the ashram) shared with us her valuable insights on practical learning which are worth spreading to every nook & corner of the country if we want to revive the educational system of India. My interest in electronics was tinkered upon playing with the tiny LED battery assembled by one of the students at cost less than a 100 bucks.



If you spot any school dropouts (preferably min. 8th std pass) who got bored by the mark-based theoretical rote learning edu system that we follow in most of the schools and kids who are inclined towards doing practical experiential self-learning, this is the place you want to enroll them into... they will blossom into Einsteins and Kalams of tomorrows India. The institute offers a one year residential course where students learn through practical learning so much so that they can go out and start their own something in the small scale industry with confidence. I strongly believe that this will put checks on the tendency of rural youth running to cities in search of a livelihood which is resulting in a variety of sustainability issues in the country.



This much of intro is enough for now... if you really feel like you want to change the face of education in India especially in rural areas of this country, I suggest you visit the place once with your friends and colleagues. You are welcome to join our Net Impact team to bring in that change through your conscious actions to help such institutes prosper in all parts of India. Besides we are so much fortunate to have a platform like the Art of Living, where we have so many opportunities of empowerment through meaningful service that too in a variety of projects and areas!!! Guys we have the backing of Meditation and Yoga with us, we can "make anything possible" in the words of the MIT fab lab at VigyanAshram. Like they say in YES!+ it's a great idea to implement a good idea!!!

All the Best,
Sandesh

P.S. check out www.vigyanashram.org for more information of the institute. And don't forget to give me your feedback or write me at sandesh dot sawant at gmail dot com.

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