AID Delhi newsletter February 2008

8/14/2019 AID Delhi newsletter February 2008

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Association for Indias DevelopmentDelhi Chapter Newsletter

February

2008

Table of Contents From the Editors Desk

From the editors desk 1

Project UpdatesAashayen 2AID Gurgaon 2AID Prayas 3Parichay 4Youth Task Force 4Khoj 4Tara 5Nai Disha 5

Volunteer Speak Roshan Jha 5 Volunteer Speak Siddharh Goayl 6

Extraas 6

ArticlesCoexisting with Nature - Haripriya 7Environment around Us Dolly 8Economic Boom Difference on the life ofa common man Vikas Happa 8India Shilpa Singla 10

The Pretender Tamseel Hussain 11

Toon of the Month 12

Childrens Corner 13

Photo of the Month - Rupali 14

Behind the ScenePublications Team 15

Information Corner Selva 15

Contact us 15

This month February is the shortest of all an

things have been progressing in the same pace and thhighlight of the AID Delhi this month is clearly nothinother than the Childrens Event at the Aashayen. It wanot the event which displayed the skills of the childreat Aashayen but also an event which brought in thtalent and coordination capabilities within th volunteers of the project. The way the children weprepared in a short notice and the amount of effort th volunteers brought in to pull out a stunning show othe stage is simply speechless and I have no words texpress. This event also brought in the enthusiastic an

energy up in the volunteers of other projects to thinabout conducting such an event in other projects as weas AID Delhi wide. I hope there will be another jawdropping show soon on the cards.

We also had the budget this month and lot oannouncements like Rs. 60000 crore loan waived off fothe farmers and Income Tax limit has been increasefrom Rs.1 lack to 1.5 lack and when people are thinkinon the budget as one of the best one, just we can try tlook at the other side of the coin. Im not an economito analyze the budget and Im no where near to a

economist to see it in that point of view but just somshared thoughts with intellects and experts. Rs.6000crore loan waive off can be simply stated as bihogwash. In simple terms these 60000 crore is just virtual money which could be waived off. Its just aelection plank which is used at the time before electionto get back the seat. If the issue has to be seen criticallmost of the Indian farmers commit suicide in th Vidarbha region. If we closely read the budget, it sathat the loans will be waived off for the farmers whhold a land of less than 2 hectare of land and most othe farmers in the region of the worst affected in th

districts of Amravati, Washim, Wardha, AkolBuldhana and Yavatmal will not be benefited as thehold a land of more than 2 hectares and more over thloans are waived off only for the farmers who had takeloan from the bank and in many case it has been thprivate money lenders who will be benefited.


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Kishore Tiwari an activist and leader of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti quoted thatbeneficiaries from the Vidarbha region were 4.62lakh, with a total loan of Rs 1,116 crore, while therewere less than 3 lakh farmers in western Maharashtra,with a total loan of Rs 6,416 crore. If farmers holdingland upto five hectares were given the benefit, then68% of the farmers in Vidarbha will be covered.Prasanna Saligram a Jeevan Saathi of AID told that thebudget is simply mopping the floor instead of lookinginto the issue and closing the tap. Unless the tap is notclosed the water will keep flowing and the government will keep mopping. Also he compared the loanwaiving with the forward trading which just happens virtually and nothing is done at the ground. May bethe election at the year end will have a final say on theentire budget. I also hope someone will write adetailed analysis of the budget in our next newsletter.

With lots of thinking, I wish my readers aHappy Reading!

-Selva- Publications Coordinator,

- AID Delhi,- [email protected]

- +91-9891358457 / +91-9818248459

Thereafter our skit team showcased a findesigned & directed play whose inspiration had beederived from a special child in community itself. Title othe play was "Ek Saadharan Sikke ki AsaadharaKahaani (an extraordinary story of an ordinary coin)". Just as the title itself demystify, it was a story of a called "disabled" girl who proved herself to be ablest oall at the end of the story. Main aim of the play was t

create awareness among people & stress the need to bsensitive towards a person who possesses a distincharacter & needs.

Then came some beautiful young girls withlaudable performance on "Dil hai chota sa, choti aasha". Everybody cheered them up with applaud &appreciation.

Innocence of these lovely young girls wafollowed by a sheer different image of a woman & the

stepped onto the stage with thunder in her voice- Jhaki rani Laxmi Bai, epitome of courage & strength. Lateone by one all children from fancy dress team camdressed as great Indian men & women like SubhasChandra bose, Indira Gandhi, Sania mirza etc, theemanated immense confidence & hope.

To add a pinch of pure entertainment came oudance team with a spell bound performance on "Mauzhi Mauza & Das bahaane". This team won the hearts oeveryone with their impeccable moves & confidencThe best part was the surprise entry made by kavita, thinspiration of our skit team. From the initial stage o

this event we wanted her to be a part of this event buwe couldn't. But nobody would have ever thought th way she came onto stage amidst the dance teamperformance & surprised everyone. It was ainexplicable movement for all of us who have seen heexpressing herself in her very own ways.

To conclude, without labeling individual efforI would only say that behind a successful event there a determine team. I hope we would continue to keethe spark on.

As we all keep the best for last, so we chose

end this event by expressing our gratitude towards sompeople who has always been very supportive &concerned for us.& we ended this event till another beginning (Ichoir) Jan gan man.. Jai hind!

Thanks & RegardDolly Sharm

[email protected]

This month has been a milestone for Aashayein.We celebrated our first event on 17th February after amonth of preparations.

We started our preparations with segregation ofour volunteers into various sub teams for activities likeDance, Fancy dress & skit. All teams visualized theirgoals keeping in mind the interest & caliber of thechildren, & then followed them with equal efforts &

commitment.

Event started with an opening word by Vijaybhaiya, he shared his manifold experiences with kids.He emphasized the need of understanding children'smentality by their parents & not to bring them to dosomething with no will.

Project Updates: AID ashayen


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The month of February, 2008 although theshortest of the year was never short of activities in AIDGurgaon. The Gurgaon Public Transport Campaigntook a few positive steps as we held a couple ofmeaningful meetings with our volunteers, AID Delhiand Literacy India. This helped us to strategize about

the future course of action. So we have decided to workin three phases for the campaign where the first phase would involve gathering public support, the second would involve media and the third would beapproaching the government again.

The first phase of the campaign has already started andas a first step, we went to the MG Road and tried tointeract with the general public and got their signaturesas well on the petition. We also went to a few traininginstitutes in Sector 14, Gurgaon and did the same. We

are also working hard to spread the word about thecampaign online. March is a crucial month for thecampaign as our planned deadline for Phase I is onMarch15. With a few new enthusiastic volunteersjoining AID Gurgaon in the last month, we areconfident that well see some results in March.

Unnati and Prayas have been going well, especially afterthe success of Republic Day celebrations. Theattendance has gone up considerably and we are doingour best to ensure it stays on the higher-side. We havealso started to create the profiles of each student in

Unnati. This would help us to keep a track of theirprogress. More importantly, it would help us to identifywhich students will be marked for admission to regularschools in the coming academic season.

All in all, it has been an absorbing but interestingmonth. And we are looking forward to keep themomentum going into March.

Sanchit Sharma,AID Gurgaon

[email protected]

AID Aagaz1. Joining of 3 bright volunteers from this wekendRicha, Sachin & (forgot name:) ) Arun pls make surthey're added to the group.2. Infomal admission of the 3 sisters Pinky, Rinky &Sinky to the govt school (they will be admitted formal

from next session starting May, but will be attendinclasses now onwards. (For future, Govt Schooadmissions activity we will now resume from May, nowexams are due)3. Interaction with Govt school teachers regardinchildren of Aagaaz community admitted there (not very good response, I'll be following up on that).4. Darshan has brought a white board:)5. I've put up requests for second hand books &sparingly used copies in Shatabdi Vihar E-3 & E-apartments, let's see what response we get. If it work

we could use it for resource mobilisation.6. Willingness of Ryan and Cambridge schools foeducation of underpriviliged children.

Shruti TiwaAID Aaga

[email protected]

AID PrayasIt could have not been one of the good months foPrayas. But we all are committed, no matter what thsituation will be, weekend classes are taken on any cos Although we had crunch of volunteers this monbecause of many reasons like - exams, vacations an work and other commitments, all classes went as wplanned. Few points that I can say about month of Febare:-1> In weekend classes we stressed on maths. Wcovered addition and subtraction. We encouraged themto relate maths problems with their life experiences.2> Darshan, Vikas and kanan are taking night classeand covering English in those classes. Childreattending those classes have really shown improvemen

in their understanding of English. Now they caunderstand many words and sentences much better analso why they are spoken.3> we also inducted two new volunteers Garvita anUdita this month. I hope they remain regular witPrayas.

Project Updates: AID NoidaProject Updates: AID Gurgaon


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We made few plans for future too:-1> Kanan suggested that many new volunteers looseinterest because they don't get chance to teach properlyand regularly. This problem arose because we have nofix curriculum and therefore we preferred one volunteers taking one subject and keeping track of

children in that. But now we are trying to finalizecurriculum for children and now matter who teacheswill teach according to that. We are still on working onthis.2> Another thing that I observed that some volunteersare more regular than others and taking this cause moreseriously. And spending much more time than others. Ifear that they would burn out and stop coming toclasses. Therefore I am suggesting that a volunteer can'ttake more than 4 classes in a month. Yes I understandto implement this well need to have solid regular

volunteer base.3> we also planned to take classes for average studentsat different time. So that more attention could be pay totheir needs. But this plan has also gone in cold baggagebecause of lack of REGULAR & Committedvolunteers.

Nikhil [email protected]

We have developed few nice photos of all previousevents in Prayas and got a notice board too. Few kids

have made drawings and we will stick them too.So the idea is to make that small class more like aninteresting place for kids.

About night classes, We were doing good andfocusing on English a lot but suddenly found that kidshave to work hard on Hindi as well, so now a days nightclasses are more like confidence buildup class, we aretrying to develop a kid as a whole through story telling,through moral education, through drawing, storyreading etc.This way classes are going good but thetarget is still far away to be achieved, and kids are

working hard with the volunteers.

Darshan [email protected]

Khoj board meeting has decided to have weektargets and follow up of it. Regular classes at all centeralong with Tuesday visit to American School anSaturday visit to Prabhat Tara have been conducteregularly. Trip for the children to the NehrPlanetarium and childrens park has been good. Th

research team is heading well with a set of committevolunteers in the selected 25 signals on the ring road oSouth Delhi. A rescue operation is also being followeup along with CWC. Tie up with CEB has helped imaking health report cards for the children and CEB also actively helping us in the research related project. Afund of Rs,1.00000/- has been received from MonnFoundation. We also have a plan of getting a vehicle asoon as possible which will be used for mobilizing thresources of Khoj across all the selected researccenters. Once the research is over apart from

approaching government about the rehabilitation pla we also have a plan of starting education for tchildren. We had a Big Volunteer meet on Februar10th to display the results Khoj have got in the past twyears with the contributions of all our volunteers. Khovolunteers were also a part of the Streetplay held at Icollege by AID Delhi. We also will be soon starting ouclasses back in our Delhi Haat Center. A few morchildren have been put to schools along with their helof parents. They are performing well at the schools.

-Selv

- Khoj, AID Delh- [email protected]

- 921146734

Project : Parichay

1. Parichay has a masala stall at ST and the saleswas more than Rs.9000/-

2. Selva has started his science class with thechildren and so far two classes have been held

3. Deepti a new volunteer is teaching drawingclasses for the children

4. Deepti will also take charge of the website soon5. Childrens newsletter have been released6. New Parichays Gyan Ganga project is rolling

slowly with the survey part on. A projectproposal has been sent to HCL for supporting.

7. Agra trip planned for the mid of march.-Selv

- Khoj, AID Delh- [email protected]

- 9211467341

Project Updates: Khoj


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Day after day after day, I have crossed a millread lights and a million jhugis, a million housemillion commercial buildings. I have experienced brashness that has become the city of New DeBustling and shoving, millions of delhities move itandem every morning, afternoon and evening, towaa singular goal: a glorious career. School, colleguniversities and even the media, sells the idea o

beautiful life, full of gigantic amounts of money ahow if one strives towards it all, somehow everyone attain nirvana! So every morning, about 99.9999%individuals wake up and do exactly the same. Far frnirvana, this seemingly charming process, breselfishness, dissatisfaction, intolerance and mimportantly disdain for all the "lesser" mortals whonot and mostly cannot engage themselves in gloriously ugly process of factory like behaviour.

In enter the poor, the lesser privileged or hosee it, those who were just bestowed by bad luck to

born in such circumstances. Quick to judge, a majoof us, walk by thinking: if they wanted, they cochange their fate, they could make a difference. AfterI did. (I promised a positive article didn't I??????)

YET there are others, who let open their heaready to feel, they understand, realize and mimportantly act. There is a fraction, probably a vsmall fraction of Indians, who wake up every morni with a resolve to make a difference. A difference only in their lives; though positive action; but in lives of in numerous others, by spreading knowleand awareness. Volunteers.

With a full embodied life, filled with a famresponsibilities, studies and also a career, thextraordinary individuals inexplicably find time more importantly that drive to instill that tiny seedmetamorphosis.

Seemingly easy as it might seem, with a varof alternatives to choose from on how to spend onidle time, it is not always easy for everyone to chothis substitute. It requires great amount disciplineforge on ahead, day after day to continue and to try amake a difference.

All stories are not sweet and neither is this one. Witheart willing, ready and charged with a strong resodisappointments can be hard to take. Teaching a groof students whose presence at the next class is uncercan make you wonder, what sort of difference onreally making, a tiny inconspicuous scratch? Or a hdent??!!!

Project Update : Tara

This month Tara performed well. Children aregoing to school regularly.We have arranged cycle rickshaw for all 15 childrenbecause children had started traveling in buses, which isnot safe at all for these children.

Children who are not going to school are taught byVolunteers.Classes are regularly going in the center and children areenjoying the games and study.

We also arranged a polio van on Polio day. Polio vancame to the community andpolio drops were given to all children who were below 5years.

Now we are planning to admit some more children tonearby MCD School.

- Sanjeev Sharma- AID Delhi

- [email protected]

Volunteer Speak : Shruti Panwar

When the world of writing opens to anythingand everything one can fathom, the creativity and thepen stalls.( Or in today's world, the keyboard.). With anopen invitation, to write about anything I pleased, I wasstunned by the following fact:There were just too many things to write about.

After much deliberation I have decided to writeabout something positive. About that spark of hope,however tiny, that glitters to signal the presence of somesign of consideration in the human kind.


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Not clear about his future, Not clear about hisgoals. Till then his life had some purpose, he knew whaexactly had to be done...He had to get a job. He had toget a job so that his family could be financially secure,so that his family could stay happy and thus he wouldbe happy. For him, personally, he had never thought

anything beyond that, that was it, the end, the end ofhiaspirations, his energy, his passion, his life.

and from then, started the life of the machine, which itried to capture in one of my previous posts. He wasgetting into the exact life which i was always afraid of.He had started to live the "The Life for a Resume."The Life of doing innovations for the sake of it, tryingto compete with others, getting the work done before iwas scheduled, covering more and more work portfolioall this and more so that his resume looks good. He wa

trying to squeeze his life into that A4 size resume notknowing that he was strangling, suffocating himself, noknowing that, later, when he will look back, thisresume will mean nothing more than a piece of paperfor him.

But it was going to change soon, and the changesurprisingly did not come from the more happeningmalls, or the posh pubs of noida, rather, it came from aslum community in Noida. It was one of the friendsfrom his college, who had introduced him to this NGOworking in Noida.

Well he dint have anything else to do on the weekends,and so he decided to do the so called "Social service"But before he started, he wanted to understand, why hewas doing this.Was he doing this so that he could tell every one that his doing social work. so that whenever some one calledhim, he could tell that,"yeah.. hi ,.. you know what, I go and do some NGO worknowadays. " ..hmm... May be , may be not....

But what priority did it have in his life ? well , a moviedefinitely had more priority.Isnt it..????

Was he doing this for his own satisfaction ? thatwhenever he gets some free time go spend some timewith the children and get that feel good factor "of doingsomething good". Was it..???Dont know... may be .. may be not...

Yet, they plough on, slowly and steadily hopingto chip on those rusted fabrics of society. That dismalportion; which is subjected to the harsh andinconceivable realities of being a human being. Lost,forgotten and ill treated, they are subjected to the richerman's will and wrath. The rich man floats around in his

existence, with a heart full of disappointment, anger anddissatisfaction, vending out his hateful feelings at thedrop of a hat, on the first weaker person he encounters.Forever claiming himself to be more: knowledgeable.Daisaku Ikeda (protagonist of Nichiren's Buddhism)once said: "Modern society has lost sight of the humanbeing and become deadlocked on many fronts. There isno denying that the inner spiritual realm has beenneglected and all too many people are obsessed withseeking comfort, ease and pleasure in external things.Without surmounting the fundamental human delusions

of greed, anger and foolishness, we will not be able tosolve the many problems that the world faces today."Sometimes, it makes me wonder, should there be asocial movement for the middle and upper class of thesociety more than anyone else? Is it not them who needthe help the most? An education which teaches the worth of a man more than something created by theman: fame and fortune. A way to channelize all that isaccomplished on an individual realm, towards the realmof society, towards the realm of living beings?But then, am content to know and see, thoseindomitable individuals who wake up every day and

strengthen their day to make this a "BRAND NEWDAY." A new beginning, a new change, a new life

Shruti [email protected]

Its been six months now and surprisingly it

had been satisfying. He was happy. A happinesswhich had no past or a future ,may be, just thepresent. A happiness which had no reason. But, hewas happy.His college days were over, and it was time for him tojoin one of those MNCs. And when he joined thiscompany, he was a bit scared..., a bit confused....

Article : When I look back - Kannan


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Was he doing this coz he really cared for themand wanted to bring in some change there. Was it...?

Dont know.... I really dont know...

He started going there. Started spending some time withthe kids there. It was good. He was happy. But then like

all those gals who had rejected him, the kids were also nogoing to accept him initially. For the first few weeks nokid went to him to learn. He just went there every weekend, satthere amidst all those noise they made,... he was trying to find somesilence in that noise. He was happy.

One day one of their 'sir'jis asked them to do "chappanadhik paintalis" and one gal dint know how to do it.Trying to find the answer from somewhere she went tohim and asked"Sirji, sirji. ye kaise karte hain..?"

Well he dint know what chappan or paintalis meant. Forthat matter he dint know any number beyond pachis inHindi. But he dint want to tell her that. It was for the firstime some one was coming to him to learn something.Instead, he said,

"acha... dheko beta, ye toh bahut hi aasan dediya woh sirji ne..main aapko thoda jyaada tough deta hun. dus + pantrah. dhektehai kar paogi ki nahi..? "

"kar paoongi sirji, abhi karke laati hun".with one of the cutest and naughtiest smile she left for

doing the problem.

He was happy. some one had gone to him for learningsomething for the first time.From the next day it was learning more than teaching forhim.kids teaching him daye, baye, and he teaching them left, righThough gradually more and more kids started going tohim for learning, there was one kid who always sticked tohim. Our "chappan adhik paintalis". He should be there,

then only she would start studying. More than a student,she was a lil sister to him.

Now he knew, why he was doing this. It brought somepurpose into his life. It brought some passion, some passion toachieve something for some one other than himself. He knew thathe could stay happy now only if his this new family ishappy. Kids were happy to see him, they were happy to bwith him, and he was too.Thus went one of the most satisfying six months of his life.

But things cannot move so smoothly right. Itwas on the day I came back from the vacation with mysmaller family, I learnt that there was govt order toremove that slum from there. I learnt that although theNGO had fought a lot to oppose it, they could not.They had closed this center.

and again I was left all alone in that road.

I was again getting into the exact life which i was alwayafraid of.Once again I had started to live the "The Life for theResume."The next weekend, in the evening..., I went for a longwalk, I walked a long distance through those 4 laneroads in Noida thinking about the meaninglessness ofthis life and about my meaningless future, and one ofthe decision I took during those long walks was to movto bangalore, to share the happiness of my smallerfamily.

It was after a long gap of 6 years I went back to Noidaagain. I went for that walk again, on those straight fourlane roads of noida, thinking about the past.A traffic jam...I saw her, my lil sister....Mychappan adhik paintalis.She was begging for food...... ???????A police man was walking towards her. He slapped heron her face. caught her by her hair and pushed her tothe side of the road.

I ran towards her,God, I did not have the courage to look at her face.,She had...she looked at me, recognizing me, she asked,

"Why Sirji, why, why did you leave us alone...?"

What should I say...Oh God, I could not save my lil brothers andsisters.

KannanAID [email protected]


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Given below are few ways in which you can

help the underprivileged and to bring a change in

society !

Development of India to a great extent will depend onhow we citizens of India contribute towards it.

Everyone has the potential to play a major role when itcomes to bringing a sustainable development, whichcaters not only to the rich but also takes care of thepoorest among the poor.

It doesn't remain a choice, but a moral responsibility forus, especially the educated lot to do something for theunderprivileged. We need to look beyond our personal

lives and see in what ways we can bring the change we want to see in our society.

Simply waiting for things to change or blaming thegovernment and the system won't help either. It is not aquestion of just bringing the change, but how quickly we can bring the change. There are still millions ofchildren in need of education, lakhs of families devoidof a stable source of income for their livelihood,thousands of villages which lack even basic facilities,hundreds of cities which need much more development,

dozens of states struggling to move ahead and onenation which still faces problems of varying magnitude where everyone's contribution is required.

When it comes to managing a nation of 1100 millioncitizens, we need at least a million citizens who arewilling to play an active role in the development of thecountry by looking beyond their day-to-day lives toextend their help in building an India, where everyonegets a chance to move ahead in life, irrespective of where or how s/he is born. Where the citizens come

ahead to play an active role in public governance,tackling social issues, creating an economic system where everyone gets a chance to earn a living andhelping the poorest among the poor so that no one isleft behind.

To start with, one needs to see how and in whacapacity one can contribute. It doesn't matter whetheryou are within India or outside India. We can startworking from wherever we are, in whatever position weare. All it takes a will to do it and finding out the timefor it.

There are many possible ways to make a start. You can

extend help in many ways such as:

--> You can join a volunteer group in the city you live.Or you can volunteer for any of the NGOs in your cityIt can give you a good hands-on experience plus gettinga chance to connect with like-minded people. (www.indianngos.com is a directory of all the listedNGOs in India)

--> Teaching children who can't afford to go to schoolor who need help with their studies but can't afford

tuition. You can start teach Computers and English tothe children too, who want to learn but have no accessto it.

--> You can help a child going school by sponsoringhis/her education and interacting with the parents toensure that the child gets proper education

--> You can visit any slum area in your city and can dosurvey like the condition of people living there, facilitieavailable to them like health, sanitation, water,electricity, etc., the state of education of the children

living there, etc. Even you can start teaching a group ofchildren there.

--> You can raise funds to support a worthy initiativegoing around your place. There are many educationprojects which needs funds to buy stationeries anduniform for the children, to pay the salary to a hiredteacher for the children, or any other similar projectwhich needs money. Even if people donate as little asRs 50 or Rs 100, it adds up to something. You just needto ensure that the money is being spent in a proper

manner.

--> You can form groups focused on CommunityDevelopment to work in certain areas of your town,where you can go to a small basti/slum area and caninteract with the people living there.

Article : Few ways in which you can help Nishank Sha


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You can talk on various issues to them like womenrights, education of girl child, options of vocationaltraining for the people to make their livelihood better,maintaining hygiene in their area, what Govt. should doin that area, making them aware of their rights etc.

--> You can organize a health camp in a slum areawhere there are no health facilities provided by theGovt. Also, you can make aware the people living there

to avail facilities and free medicines offered at Govt.Hospitals. If they say that they are facing any problemwith that, you can visit the hospitals with them to talkwith the doctors and staff there.

--> You can help in mobilization of resources especiallywith items like old clothes, books, stationeries, toys,educational material etc. There are still many peoplewho lack the proper clothing to wear and thousands ofchildren who crave for books and toys but cannotafford to have it.

You can organize an old clothes drive in your colony,company, among your friends etc. and can distribute itwhere it is needed, especially for the winter time. Youcan also ask people to donate old books and stationeriesso that the other needy children can have them(www.goonj.info is an NGO which specializes inmobilization and distribution of old clothes)

--> You can work on making Government moreaccessible to common man. The tasks can include filingRTI applications, especially on the behalf of those who

don't know how to go about it, checking the working ofPublic Distribution System, checking with departmentslike PWD, meeting government officials in your districtto bring some issue in forefront, etc.

--> You can organize a visit in a small group to a nearbyvillage over a weekend to see the real face of India. Stillaround 70% of the Indian population lives in thevillages. You can do a "gram-survey" there and meetwith the villagers to collect the basic info like the levelof literacy, the facilities available in the village, what the

Govt. is doing for the villages etc. You can bring to thenotice of the district officials if you don't findsomething in order there.

--> You can give presentations, talks; organize groupdiscussions etc. among your peer groups to spread moreawareness about the different social issues.

--> You can get the needy children enrolled in thenearby Govt. schools, who can't afford studying inprivate schools. The education standard of many of theGovt. schools have fallen to a great extent and itbecomes our duty to interact with the staff in the Govtschools to ensure that the children coming there aregetting a proper level of education. If needed we canmeet the district officials to escalate the issue if there isno proper day to day running in a Govt. school.

--> You can visit any orphanage, old age homes,NGOs, any place taking special care for the needy etc.in your city and can devote your time there.

--> You can help with the publicity of a particularinitiative by writing about it, sharing photos related to ithrough blogging etc.

--> Many NGOs and social work groups need help wittheir IT needs, especially in developing their website.

You can help with their website management.

* Even if you are not able to find a volunteer group, yocan collaborate with 3-4 people and start working insmall groups. It can be as simple as teaching 3-4children over the weekends who are not able to go toschool. There would be many people to provide youguidance as how to go about it. Education plays themajor role when it comes to building a better future.The more number of children we can educate, the morself reliant they would be in future. (http://h2o-india.blogspot.com -- insights from a project I was

personally involved in)

* You can become an informed citizen. Government istrying to create transparency at its own level. However,it will need an active involvement of the citizens to keea check that everything is in order. Right to InformatioAct, Accessing Government reports and publications,filing PILs and petitions are few of the ways in whichwe can bring an issue at the forefront and can drawattention of Govt. towards it.

We need not leave everything at the mercy of policymakers but should try to take an active part in it,especially when it pertains to the lower class ofpopulation, villages, agriculture etc. when the affectedpeople are not in a position to raise voice on their owndue to lack of information.


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* For people working in corporate sector, joining theCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) teams in theirrespective companies can be a good idea. Generally theCSR teams sponsor various projects and have a team ofvolunteers from the company who do a site visit. Ifthere is no CSR team in your company, then you caninitiate to form one by talking to upper management

and your peers. Most of the companies willing supportCSR initiatives as it adds good PR to the company.Moreover, through the corporate sector you can reachmany people who have the potential to donate forworthy causes and helping in create a healthy corporatecitizenship for your company.

* If you are currently outside India, then thecontributions become limited as the scope of field workreduces a lot. However, there are several ways to extendthe help. You can raise funds to support a particular

initiative or NGO in India. You can read about varioussocial issues and work on spreading social awarenessamong the fellow Indians living at your place. Also, youcan do case studies, prepare presentations, scrutinizegovernment documents, do website management, writearticles or blogs, propose new solutions for a problem,finding out the best practices adopted by differentNGOs while working for various issues, etc. Thoughthe contributions can remain mostly intellectual but itwill definitely count in the long run.(http://aidindia.org/ad/chapters/?seeChapters&USA -There are around 35 chapters of AID India in US and

also chapters in Canada and Australia)

* Find a social issue which is very close to your heart,something on which you really want to work upon. Itcan be anything ranging from eliminating child labor,working on rural development, women rights, educationfor the poor, fighting corruption, environmental issues,etc. Find something where your passion lies, doingsomething which will give you the most satisfaction.A good way to go about it can be gathering variousstatistics about a particular social issue, knowing the

government policies towards tackling that issue, whatNGOs in that field have been doing so far, what are thebottlenecks associated with it etc. Once gaining a fairperspective and in-depth knowledge on the issue, youcan start discussing with other people and can get intouch with people who have been already workingtowards that issue. (www.indiatogether.org,www.infochangeindia.org, www.aidindia.org are goodplaces to start with)

* Talk among your friends about different social issuesDiscussing these issues with the people whom youknow creates the best impact. The more the number ofpeople will know about a social issue in the rightperspective, the more they would be concerned doingsomething about it. The more we spread the word

among other people, who in turn talk to other peoplecan end up in involving a lot more people in theprocess.

At the end it will matter as how we come forward tobring the change. We all can really MAKE ADIFFERENCE if we start doing something, instead ofwaiting for the right moment and right opportunity tocome. The time to act is NOW!

If you need any kind of help to start volunteering orcoming up with any initiative related to social work andneed any kind of help, then please feel free to contactme. I would be really glad to help in whatever way I canYou can mail me at "[email protected]"

[email protected]


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Childrens corner : Newsletter by Parichay Children


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News: AID Delhi celebrates Independence day at all of its projects along

with the children.

- Toon : Kalindi Sharma,- Coordinator, AID Aashayen,

- [email protected]

Toon of the Month


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Feedback: [email protected] Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167Send your Cheques toSelva Ganapathy.RDepartment of Chemical Engineering,Indian Institute of Technology,Delhi - 110016Hauz KhasPhone: +91-9891358457, +91-9211467341

Publications TeamCoordinator: SelvaEditors: Selva, Puneeta, Gauri, Pallavi, Charu, KunalDesigners: Selva, Arvinder, SaurabhWeb Designer:Anirban

Photo of the Month: rvinder Singh Rooprai

Event:AID Aashayen Childrens EventPhotographer: Arvinder Singh RoopraiDescription:After the splendid celebrations at Aashayen were over, all the children were running after the rosesand flowers ......Darshan got hold of one of the bouquet, which was actually presented to Selva during the recognition ceremonyat the end of the event.All the kids were running after Darshan for the roses and he held it high and denied to give away the roses .....but who can stop the roaring tigers...Children jumped over chairs and over one another ... and finally bouquet was go went and gone ... into pieces.....

AID Delhi newsletter February 2008

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Transcript of AID Delhi newsletter February 2008