Self-employment Training Program for Past
Students of Ekal
FTS Guwahati conducted a self-employment
training program for students passed out of Ekal Vidyalaya. The
village Ammuni in nagauv jilla saw a collection of 350 students.
There was a Power Point Presentation on the opportunities for these
students to earn money, living in their own village without
migrating. The success of this program has motivated Sri Nathan
Bagadiya, Secretary and Sri Arun Kumar, Vice Chairman to organize
more such programs in other Ekal Villages under FTS Guwahati Chapter.
A Training Program
To Empower Tribal Women
Smt. Sathyashree Priya. E.,
Chairperson, Mahila Samithy, FTS Kochi
FTS and Mahila Samithi, Kochi organized
training program for SHGs supported by BPCL on June 7th
&
8th.
There were 46 male and female
participants, of different age groups. They were trained on Mushroom
Cultivation by Smt Anitha, Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council and
making dry flowers bouquet of different shapes and sizes with
bio-degradable papers and environment friendly materials by Smt.
Sudhakshina and Dr. Namitha.
These sessions were followed by a formal
Inaugural program at 4.30 p.m. by Smt. E. Sathyashree Priya,
Chairperson, Mahila Samithy who also welcomed the gathering. This
was followed by an address on ‘Self
Help Groups - A Banker’s perspective’
by Shri.P.K. Venkita Raman, ex-banker and member of FTS. Shri S.
Muralidharan, Shri P.K.Krishnamurthy and Shri Suryanarayanan
distributed mementos (Umbrellas) to the participants. Smt. Bhavana
Pareksh, Vice President, Mahila Samithy and Smt. Muralidharan gave
away dress sets to the two Acharyas and the three karyakarthas (who
had accompanied the participants) recognizing their services rendered
to the Ekal Vidyalayas.
Second day started with the training session on
the actual procedure for the formation
of SHG by Adv. N.N.Girija.
THE
UNSUNG HEROES OF EKAL
Recently
I received a copy of “INCREDIBLE
CHAMPIONS” by N.Chandrasekaran
published by Partridge India.
This
book
is an interesting and well thought effort in bringing out various
professionals who
are contributing significantly to the society. It explains how
exemplary professionals see opportunity in challenging times and
circumstances to serve a large society.
The
book covers 25 most inspiring social activists from Tamil Nadu, and
one name in this list is our own Dr. C. SATHEESH KUMAR (Project
Coordinator–EVFI)
The
excerpts from the book:
“Satheesh,
who was born to a middle class, conservative family, went ahead to
pursue his ambition of serving
society. He was qualified to become a doctor (BAMS) in Ayurveda
medicine from Coimbatore. After passing out he joined
a social work project in Arunachal
Pradesh where he worked for 2 years serving 10 tribal villages, after
which he went back to Udagamandalam, Tamil Nadu and joined J.S.S.
college of Naturopathy and Yogic Science as a lecturer and it is
during this period Satheesh met his mentor Sri Shyamji and pursued
his ambitions to educate tribal children.
His
location in the Nilgiris District helped him to go ahead with this
mission. Over the years, he has become a leader and mentor for many
in the organization, and has been able to significantly impact tribal
children’s
education, bring in more volunteers and work on the large
requirements of the organization.”
Currently
he is also involved in Arogya foundation of India, Home remedies
project in Coimbatore.
These
great efforts from a person of humble beginning are worth emulating.
FTS Coimbatore celebrates Silver Jubilee
Friends of Tribals Society, Coimbatore chapter
celebrated Silver Jubilee of FTS on August 31 by organizing a drama
event by cine fame Kathadi Ramamurthy. They had 2 plays, one
exclusively for all Rotarian clubs in Coimbatore. Packed audience not
only enjoyed the humor but also came to know about EKAL VIDYALAYA and
its activities.
FTS took this as an opportunity to honor top 10
Acharyas of Ooty Anchal. The awards were given away by Sri
R.L.Maheswari, Treasurer, FTS Coimbatore and Sri Uday Chandran,
President, Rotary Coimbatore Manchester.
Rakhi in Ekal Village with people from
Sharjah
A 50 member
team from Sharjah visited Ekal
Vidyalaya. It was a wonderful and a
first of its kind experience for all
of them. The village children were very excited and waiting for
their arrival. They demonstrated shloka chanting,
yogasana very happily. Together they celebrated Rakshabandhan Utsav
there.
Ekal Vidyalaya won the ‘Impact
Contest 2014’
Harvard University conducts a Model United
Nations Program (HMUN) each year at Hyderabad India.
They announced the "Impact Contest 2014" in which
participating delegates were allowed to nominate an
NGO of their choice which works towards the UN Millennium development
goals. They were asked to prepare a 3-minute video for a campaign to
support the NGO. The NGO whose video has the most online
popularity was to receive an award from them. The fund collected
by HMUN India from their charity initiative this year was
to be awarded to the winner. Our youth member Shyam Sriram
nominated EKAL Vidyalaya. Shyam visited Amrakavas village at Alwar,
Rajasthan to capture the good work being done by EKAL team and
presented his video. The nomination was accepted and the campaign was
on for about 20 days.
The participants were judged based on few
factors (i) legitimacy of the organization (ii) the online
popularity and (iii) their impact towards their communities.
We are delighted to share with you that
Ekal Vidyalaya won in this competition (shared the first
place with another NGO based at Hyderabad). This is very
prestigious for EKAL for having won this recognition in a visible
public forum. EKAL would like to also thank the volunteers who
participated and shared their LIKES in Facebook during this campaign.
Our heartfelt gratitude for all the support
right through this campaign!
Sriram and Sujatha
Lucknow Ekal Carnival
Ekhal Abhiyan’s Lok Siksha parishad, Lucknow
chapter’s ladies wing celebrated Rakhi, Theej and Sri Krishna
Jayanti.
Ekal carnival was conducted on 19th
July at Lucknow city. About 35 stalls
were there in the carnival with handmade Rakhi, Bangles, Saree,
organic fertilizer etc. About 300 families participated in this
carnival. During
the event lot of competitions like fancy dress, rangoli, cooking
competition etc. were held. With this
program they were able to collect donations for 5 schools.
Ekal Abhiyan Mahila Nagar Sangthan Vargs
Prof Manjushree
Himachal Pradesh is fondly known as Devbhoomi
and Devlok. It is the land of Lord Shiva and Parvati. True to its
testimony Mother Nature
has blessed this hilly terrain with abundance of rare and valuable
vegetation, fruits, herbs, vegetables, flowers, lush greenery, clean
water from the
glaciers and gods and goddesses
spread fragrance and aura of
spiritual energies to encompass
the humanity.
Ekal Abhiyan reached Himachal in 2001-2002.
Presently Himachal Pradesh has been divided into two administrative
units as Himachal and Himgiri. Two Mahila Vargs were organized for
both the areas. There are 4 anchals in Himachal and 5 anchals in
Himgiri. Ekal is functional in 3,430 villages in this hilly terrain.
Three hundred fifty full time volunteers face tough challenges during
rough weather.
Ekal Teachers are all young women.
This fact makes it more significant that we involve greater support
of urban, semi-urban and village women
in Ekal Abhiyan. Around 90,000 people have taken Ekal membership in
the villages, because 70,000 children are getting education in Ekal
schools of Himachal. No wonder around 1600 Ekal school are supported
by Swavlamban collection (local resources) by local, Ekal volunteers
(not full-timers).
The Himachal Bhag Kendra Mahila varg commenced
on 20th
July 2014 in CHOWARI Kendra of CHAMBA district. 85 women volunteers
from 4 anchals Chamba, Nurpur, Palampur and Joginder Nagar,
participated in the
varg. Some were from anchals, but most of them were from sanch kendra
(30 schools centres) and Ekal Vidyalaya Gram Samiti. These women
provide authentic evidences of social change taking place in Ekal
Villages certainly due to Ekal.
These women volunteers termed as Free Timers or
samiti members of Ekal are basically trained in six subjects in the
Mahila Varg.
1. Quality of Ekal Vidyalaya: Regular visit to
Ekal schools to encourage and inspire the teacher and to supervise
the school functioning.
2. Matri Bhojan: Thirty ladies of Sanch Kendra
form the ‘Mahila Mandol’ to organise Matri Bhojan for 30 Ekal
teachers who come for Abhyas Varg every month on definite date. Thus
a bond is established between Sneh Sampark Parivar and the teacher.
3. Ma. Yasodha Yojna: Seva Patra (we call it
nandan patra) is kept with the lady of the house to collect one or
two rupees a day to support poor children’s education. Just like
Ma. Yasodha brought up Balkrishna born to Devki, urban affluent
ladies can bring up poor village children by sponsoring for
their welfare and education through small savings.
4. Upahar Samman Yojna: Once in a year on the
occasion of Sankranti, Onam, Lohri or Deepawali these ladies of
supportive group play the role of Abhibhavak and honor the respective
teachers and the sevavratis publicly by giving them gifts in the
presence of Gram Panchayat or Gram Sabha and respected people of the
city.
5. Organise vanyatra or school visits for
cultivating donors and city volunteers.
6. Organize Mahila Samiti to execute different
programs for Prachar - Prasar, strengthening the organization and for
raising funds for Swavlamban.
Similarly Himgiri Bhag Mahila Varg was held in
Kullu on 22 and 23rd
July 2014. 70 women participated. They represented five
anchals-Shimla Rodu, Sirmore, Kinnor, Kullu and Anni.
In both the events, local samiti members of
Ekal have given full support of every kind to make it successful. The
self-confidence
and leadership command of the village women
who did not even
know how to hold the mike, are worth appreciating.
Chennai FTS Bazzar
The Mahila Wing of FTS Chennai Chapter
successfully organized 8th
FTS Bazaar on 18th-19th
July 2014 in The Park Hotel, Chennai. It’s a 'Sale Event' with the
noble objective to support Ekal Vidyalayas in Tribal & Rural
Areas. The profit from this event was given to Ekal Vidyalayas
supported by FTS-Chennai Chapter.
The Chief Guest and Sponsor for the event
Smt.Rajshri Narayan Rathi
inaugurated this gracious event
As part of Corporate Social Responsibility,
Bank of India,
a leading Public Sector bank - adopted 20 Ekal Villages during this
Financial Year. Shri.Sripada S Rao,
Zonal Manager &
Shri.E.Shanmugam, Senior Manager –
Administration from Bank of India,
Zonal Office – Chennai presented the Cheque worth Rs.4.00 Lakh to
Shri.K.K.Maheswari, President-FTS Chennai Chapter, Smt.Krishnaa
Bhaiya, & Smt.Sadhana Mimani & Smt.Vimala Damani, Immediate
Past President of Mahiala Samithi -FTS Chennai.
More than 40 stalls were put up by various
business establishments
Though it is an event of sales, the
FTS-Chennai chapter - Mahila Samithi members actively promoted the
cause of Ekal Vidyalayas to the visitors and other signatories
attended this event
Hourly Lucky Prize coupons were sold during
the event.(3 participants were selected as Lucky Prize winners for
the hour and gifted with some essential household
items. The participants bought coupons for Rs. 25 /- worth to
participate in this lucky draw. More than 3000 Hourly Lucky Prize
Coupons were sold during the event)
SHSS's first NCC meeting held
Shri Hari Satsang Samiti (SHSS), member
of Ekal Abhiyan conducted their first National Co-ordination
Committee (NCC) meeting on June 14 and 15 in Mumbai. Established in
1993, SHSS is the cultural society of Vanavasis imparting Sanskars to
tribal community. It has 21 chapters across India of which 5 are
National chapters and 16 are State chapters.
“Ekal” In NYC ‘India Day Parade’
Prakash Waghmare, Ekal Nat’L PR/Publicity
Committee
Every year, on the occasion of India’s
Independence Day, New York City witnesses the largest fun-filled
“India Day Parade”, in North America and this year was no
exception. The parade, which is in fact an expression of public
celebration of ‘Independence Day’, is convened each year by an
umbrella organization called “Federation of Indian Association
(FIA).” This year 40 floats and 25 walking-dancing groups,
representing multitude of ethnic, religious, social and cultural
Organizations took part in it.
This year’s parade had special significance
to “Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation, USA.” For the first time in its
history, ‘Ekal’ participated in this eagerly awaited parade with
throngs of volunteers from Edison (Staten Island is part of it),
Wayne, Philadelphia and Connecticut chapters who wanted to emphasize
their support for the ‘cause’ that was dear to their heart. The
primary objective of Ekal’s participation was publicity and
exposure to the Organization and thereby reinforces its prominence in
NY, NJ, Connecticut areas.
As per the tradition, this 34th
annual parade took place on ‘Madison Ave’, starting at 42nd
street and concluding at 24th
street. This year’s theme was ‘Colors of India’ and therefore,
the whole parade was immersed in colors, colors, and more colors
everywhere. The grand marshals of this parade were Bollywood stars
Sunny Deol, Raveena Tandon and Vivek Ranadive, the first Indian owner
of a basketball team in NBA history. Indian Tennis ace Leander Paes,
was a special guest. India’s Consul General in NY, Hon. Shri
Dyaneshwar Mulay and New York City Hon. Mayor Bill de Blasio started
the procession at 1PM by leading ceremonial Bands, ‘Lezim’ troops
and Indian drummers. This year, the parade was watched by a record
crowd of over 200,000 people; add to this the TV/Social-Media
coverage and print media exposure.As per the limitations of Ekal- 67 volunteers
(27 Ladies, 40 Gents – 15 youth among them) participated in this
11AM to 3 PM event. The Herculean task of coordinating minute details
of this event was spearheaded by Shri Jyotindrabhai Patel, Regional
President, who also came up with the conceptual idea of decorating
the ‘Float’ with a village-hut and a school class in session. The
float was wrapped all around by banners and slogans.
People involved in making this parade a success
are aplenty: Ekal info-paraphernalia (handouts, flyers) for public
distribution was provided by Kalpana Fruitwala and Pooja Shah. Jayesh
Patel, Prakash Waghmare, Prajna Khisti and Parveen Sharma monitored
the procession while Sanjay Phanse, Nanda Mounasami, Neera Tulsiyan
clicked the pictures. Shri Devkinandan Thakurji Maharaj of ‘Bridavan’
led the Ekal’s flotilla procession. During the parade, the youths
distributed several thousand Ekal bookmarks in the crowd surrounding
the parade while Satish Karnik and Deenbandhu Tulsiyan distributed
Ekal flyers at the end-point of it. All men volunteers wore blue Ekal
t-shirt while all women volunteers wore dusty-brown Ekal t-shirts.
Our volunteers carried two dozen banners,
making the float the most eye-catching, and most photographed (by
public) group of people. While marching in the parade, the
volunteers, from time to time also resorted to loud slogan - ‘Sponsor
a school, Dollar a day’, in
unison. Not only the public and the commentators of the ‘Grand
Stand’ took significant notice of Ekal’s presence because of all
this, but also, the media covering the parade paid more attention. TV
Asia, BU4 and CNN took Jyotindrabhai’s ‘moving-interview’
and ITV interviewed Jyotindrabhai and Prakash Waghmare. For this
parade, Ekal volunteers, not only gave their valuable weekend time
but also paid for their t-shirts and the lunch at the end of the
parade. Kudos to our overseas volunteers!
EVF Australia completes 10 years
I was fortunate to be an official photographer
of this wonderful fund raising charity event organized by Ekal
Vidyalaya Foundation of Australia, celebrating the 10th Anniversary
in Sydney. Among the eminent invited guests were Member of
Parliament and Secretary to the Minister for Communications - Paul
Fletcher and Consulate General of India - Sanjay Sudhir.
Currently Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of
Australia is sponsoring more than 700 schools in India. Approximately
30 new schools will be opened in the near future as more people
announced to sponsor the schools at this event. Among those were
Seema and Sanjay who announced to sponsor 10 new schools. More funds
were raised by auctioning ex-Australian
Cricketer Bret Lee’s T-shirt ($1600), painting drawn by a young
artist - Mili ($1000) and by selling raffle tickets. Some of the
renowned Dance Academies in Sydney participated (without
any monetary gain) with their
performers and choreographers at this event and made it a huge
success
More Photos:
Amber Desai
Photographer, FotoKnack Photography
EVF USA's AGM in Cincinnati
We, at Ekal Vidyalaya take Swami Vivekananda’s
vision of taking education to the
poor child as our mission. While we raise just one dollar for a
school, we leverage it with the work provided by on-the ground
volunteers and intense
support from our well-wishers. To bring all our well-wishers together
and motivate many others, Ekal Vidyalaya is hosting its Annual
Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio from October 3 to 5, 2014.
Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA will work to
significantly enhance its contribution. Please join us in Cincinnati
from October 3-5 and share your experiences and suggestions!
Awesome work by Arogya Foundation
Akshaya Sekhar, USA
“One
person can inspire one village”,
this very mentality is what propels the people of Ekal in lending a
helping hand to those in need. A valuable lesson I’ve learnt over
the course of my stay is that it isn’t the amount of people that
attend these summer camps that truly counts, but the lessons you walk
away with, that you implement in your daily lives. Sometimes all it
takes is the drive and dedication of few
to really make an impact. After all how did Ekal start?
A boy from Chicago traveled to over 200
villages throughout India, and gained from that a sense of
understanding and perspective of all the obstacles those people must
overcome on a daily basis. It is one thing to hear and see things
through internet, television, newspaper articles, and another to
observe their surrounding and environment for yourself. I feel that
creating your own vision rather than seeing it through others’
eyes is the make or break for some to really step up and achieve a
greater understanding than what meets the eye. For this reason I
found this exposure to be an
unforgettable privilege that the
Arogya house has not only been so welcoming, but allowed me to have
direct involvement in the project process.
My particular sector of involvement was through
Arogya Foundation: Managing Malnutrition and Anemia through home
remedies. Over the course of my stay I traveled to several villages
including Thudiyalur, Mettupalayam (Gopanari village), Boluvampatti,
SandhegoudhanPalayam, and Thenmanallur. I traveled to the local
schools and villages and administered HBT Anemia tests on women
and kids; the people’s ages were
ranging 15-30. Astonishingly, the
demography of over half the population was a blood level of below 6,
proving the theory that women
and children are malnourished.
For the people with levels of 9.5 or below we
supplied Ayurvedic medicine for 15 days and people with severely low
count of 6 or below were given a 1 month supply. Alongside us, were
two doctors from Australia and London who were conducting oral and
eye examinations for those within the villages, and giving
presentations to the kids about the importance of oral hygiene. I
learned the effectiveness of home remedies in comparison to using
western medicine; I can say from
personal experience
that western medicine only puts a
bandage on the complication and is used primarily as a quick
fix.
Ekal Abhyan Monthly Update Chart
Abhiyan Karyalaya (ABK)
EKAL
ABHIYAN
|
Monthly
Report Chart (MRC)
|
Reporting
Month: 30th
June, 2014
Publication: 31th
July, 2014
|
SN
|
|
Heads
|
Figure
|
1
|
(I)
|
Anchal (
Project Area) |
228
|
2
|
|
Sanch (Cluster) |
1945
|
3
|
(II)
|
School (New
School – 6390) |
54241
|
4
|
|
Student
|
1500291
|
5
|
(III)
|
Seva Varti
Karyakarta (Full
time worker) |
5775
|
6
|
( IV)
|
Saptahik
Pathshala
(Weekly
classes for the villagers) |
44709
|
7
|
|
Attendance
(Weekly)
(A) |
1065222
|
8
|
(V)
|
No.of Motivational
Assembly |
1792
|
9
|
|
Attendance
(Monthly)
(B) |
48384
|
10
|
(VI)
|
No. of
Awareness Program
(Mobile Video Rath) |
22
|
11
|
|
No. of
Public Meeting |
376
|
12
|
|
Public
Meeting Attendance(Monthly) (C) |
151333
|
13
|
|
No. of
Contact Program |
590
|
14
|
|
Contact
Program Attendance(Monthly)(D) |
62580
|
15
|
(VII)
|
Total
Public involved (A+B+C+D) Program |
1327519
|
The programme
went ahead by Ekal video screening and power point presentation which was
followed by question & answer session.
Presentation was given by Mr. Shankar Chelaram of Ekal UAE and the
closing remarks were given by Mr.K.K.Taori and the meet ended by Indian
National Anthem.
This conference
had brought volunteers from across India, US & Canada and astoundingly
raised Rs.1 Crore for this purpose. Ajay
Singh, Project Co-ordinator for EVF-USA, informed the gathering about the
state-of-the- art approach adopted by ‘ Ekal-India’ to administer and monitor
various aspects of 'Ekal’.
The chief guest
in his address focussed on the priority of Government of India on the promotion
of skill development and entrepreneurship, particularly in rural and urban
areas.
Dr. Dinesh
Tyagi, CEO-Common Service Centre explained the concept of Common Service Centre
and its role in rural and tribal areas.
He also laid great emphasis on developing heart to heart relation with
the tribals to gain their confidence.
I visited the
Ekal vidyalayas near Mysore, in Karnataka to get the first-hand experience of
how the schools are run. If one of the
people in USA took time to see how the less privileged coping without proper
facilities it would be clear how lucky we are.
The first
Vidyalay we visited was in Boochalli on 14th August 2014. It was well organised. There were about 16 students who greeted us
with ‘JAI SHREE RAM’ as we entered. I
was very impressed as I had never heard the phrase used as a greeting. We all encouraged them to keep studying hard.
We liked how the
school were run and how the teachers take extra effort to keep the learning
experience unique and fun for the kids. .jpg)
The introduction
speech was given by Dr.Satheesh, after that
all the karyakarthas of Coimbatore were handed over a packet of crackers
and sweets as gifts. The crackers were bursted and home made food
with variety of dishes were served in banana leaf.
