Aid Delhi Newsletter April 2009

Association for India’s Development

March 2009

Delhi Chapter Newsletter Editorial

Table of Contents Editorial

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Project Updates AID Aashayein AID Gurgaon AID Prayas AID Jaagriti Jamghat Khoj Parichay Tara

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Dear Volunteers, It’s again a pleasure to meet you all through our yet another informative e-newsletter from an eventful April. The mercury which is increasing has no effect on our volunteers who are running the projects at the same pace at what they were doing earlier. In fact they are doing it better from time to time. I also take this opportunity to salute their high spirits which keeps them involved in all these activities despite heat. This newsletter presents quick updates from the happenings of the projects across Delhi. There is an experience shared by a German intern with our partnering association Khoj Foundation. With summers on and colleges going off we are looking for more interns who would do more productive work. We also have an article from a young and new volunteer who’ve shown concern for environment. With more such people our environment cell would definitely go places. With the celebration of Earth day and plans of celebration of Environment Day at different corporate during the World Environment Day, we are definitely proving a point. The newsletter also carries a poem by Shubham in Hindi. It’s always good to see Shubham consistently contributing for our newsletter. After a long time I’ve also shared one of my article which focus on child adoption. Hope AID Delhi volunteers would also come forward to learn and spread the message about adoption. From the treasury side we neither are doing good nor bad on our funds status. With RBS starting to fund us through their payroll deduction our funds status show a better growth but still the status of Meal a Month is getting weaker with time. I’d request every volunteer to pledge MaM and contribute towards the same. We are also spreading our reach to more people by supporting projects at Bhalaswa Lok Shakti Manch [its report is attached in the web version of the newsletter] who are fighting for their rights with the Government even after rehabilitation. Our association with the GM Free India Coalition gets better as the I am NO Lab Rat campaign takes its next phase. We are

Children’s Corner

lgkjk – eksuh Volunteer Speak – Alva Bonaker

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Articles Is Delhi is getting Greener? - Dhiraj

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Child Adoption – Selva

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Relief and Rehabilitation – Report from BLSM

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Feedback

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Poem of the Month – Shubham

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Contact us

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getting ready to a series of action at Delhi. We are looking for a full timer for the campaign. Anyone interested can please contact me for the same. I also take the pleasure of all our new volunteers and thank the one’s who’ve been there all the time!. I promise you a pleasant volunteering experience with AID. Hoping to hear more from you in the coming edition of newsletters ☺. Happy Reading to all!...

Project Updates: AID Gurgaon

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Selva Ganapathy [email protected] +91-9891358457

Project Updates: AID Aasahyein • •

There has not been any classes happening at Aashayein in the last month and we don’t have any updates from the project. Volunteers have come together to define an objective to the project and would be giving a new life from this May. We would come up with updates the next month which would share the objective of the project and the plan of action. Contact Person: Prachi ([email protected])

• •

Aggarwal

2 children, Tara and Vinod admitted in DPS Shiksha Kendra; 2 more students, Vikas and Dolphy admitted in a private school near their residence. Classes at Unnati and Disha streamlined to have different batches for two hours each to achieve the following objectives: o No child in second row o all children get adequate attention o Senior and junior children called in Children at Disha get to use the extra benches at Unnati Electricity lines and submeter put in at Disha. Appraised the newly formed CSR cell of AT Kearney of the activity of AID. The AID Gurgaon website updated to incorporate latest happenings; hits increase. Increased website link presence on social networking websites and messengers; links posted on net to increase hits and increase relevance in Google results; immediate spurt in people being redirected to volunteers

Project Location: Gurgaon Sec 31, Jharsa Village

Regular Volunteers: Sheetal, Sonam, Deboshree, Anindita, Neeru

Regular Class timings: 10.00 hours – 13.30 hours

Timings: not yet finalized and interested people may contact Prachi to get the same.

Regular volunteers: Anshul, Puneet, Rachit, Shankar, Rashmi

Selva Ganapathy [email protected] +91-9891358457

New volunteers this month: Abhinav, Rohit Contact Information: Puneet – 9811621209 Anshul - 9873469546 Anshul Sachdev +91-9873469546

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Project Updates: AID Prayas Raj is supported by Linkan & Rashi to take his sessions. The sessions are planned for all Saturdays from 3PM-6PM at the New Center. You can reach Raj @ 09871826168, if you wish to join him.

April ’09 @ Prayas Admissions at Nai Disha & Moonlight As I was writing the updates of March ’09, it was 12.30AM Midnight and our volunteers were going of to sleep with slightly tensed about what would happen the next morning for the admissions of the children at Nai Disha. Today we proudly announce that a total of 21 children got admitted at Nai Disha (Sec 29, NOIDA) and another 5 at Moonlight Public School (Sec 15A, NOIDA). That is, a total of 26 children attend higher quality schools and now receive better education than before.

Regular Classes: Pioneer – Tuesday, Thrusday 20.30 hours – 22.30 hours Eureka – Tuesday, Thrusday and Saturday 18.00 hours to 20.00 hours. Class – II – Monday, Wednesday and Friday – 20.30 hours to 22.30 hours and Saturday and Sunday 16.00 hours – 18.00 hours.

The efforts of all our regular volunteers have been a key ingredient to this success and every time I get a chance to write about them I have a new achievement from them to talk about. The volunteers that made this happen are: Darshan, Vikas, Rajat, Rajiv, Tarun, Nikunj, Charu, Anuradha, Sugandha, Selva, Abinash, Anant, Anand (in no particular order of relevance, but as a solid team).

Darshan, Kannan, Rajat, Anand, Rajiv, Sugandha, Charu, Nikunj, Arun, Raj, Tarun, Priyanka, Vikas, Poonam, Aakanksha, Sonia, Sonika

Regular Volunteers

New Volunteers this month Rashi, Anvita Shukla, Daisy Singh, Abhinav, Dilip

Raj Starts Activity Sessions with the children Project Blog

One of our veteran volunteers, Raj Bansal, has come back to active volunteering in the past 3 months and has been an active part of educational activities at Prayas. He has started up an activity session on Saturdays where the children are engaged in team building and collaborative games, alertness building sessions, science sessions, and a bit of silent meditation. This has been well appreciated by the children and there is a good attendance on all days for the same.

http://aidnoida.blogspot.com Special mention Abhinash (Full timer) Contact: Arun: 099109-08774 Rajiv: 098119-81809

The most surprising thing I found was one day when all 12 children present were in a sitting mediation position and silent for almost 5-6minutes. This experience, in my close to 3 year engagement with the children of Prayas, was the most silent 5 minutes that I had. And so, here is a marvelous effort by Raj at managing this class and engaging the children in a constructive way.

Arun Raj +98-9910908774 [email protected]

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Class Timings: 4 - 6:30 PM (Monday-Sunday)

Project Updates: AID Jaagriti

Volunteers: Anchit, Abhishek, Anirban, Sahil, Siddharth, Pritika, Anurag, Paulami, Sukriti, Richa.

Activity Updates 1. Jaagriti Volunteers have been successful in

Project blog: http://jaagriti-india.blogspot.com

getting 11 Children admitted in a nearby primary government school. The project teacher helped us out in the paper and logistics work. Thanks to him. The school was earlier not ready to take them as these people are migrants. But after much persuasion, we have been successful.

Location: Near Sector-13 Metro Station

Anchit Goel [email protected] +91-9818115226

2. Classes are going on well at the project and

we have observed a lot of progress in the learning habits of the children. The children are keen to study and now their parents have also come up themselves and are showing great interest.

Project Updates: Jamghat As there are more updates from Jamghat this month we would be releasing Jamghat’s quarterly newsletter which would provide the updates of the last quarter. Please follow the web link in the html version to download the newsletter of Jamghat. You can also follow the link given below to get the same.

3. We had a small Volunteer meet in April and

many new Volunteers also visited the Project and have shown interest in taking up skill based classes over the weekends.

http://delhi.aidindia.org/bethechange/images/stories/ newsletter/jamghat%20newsletter.pdf

4. Pragati Education Society has also agreed

to take up children in their project for poor children. Classes will be held from 2-4 pm, 6 days a week in their school premises and children will be provided with all the school infrastructure facilities etc.

Project Location: Ladoo Sarai and Jamma Masjid Class timings: All the days Volunteers: Suchita, Abhinav

Activities for next month: 1. Plan a skill based learning program where

Contact Information: Amit Sinha - 9818705715

each volunteer will take up a skill for a period of 2 months and teach the children. 2. Monitor the progress of the children at school and in classes. 3. Fund Collection Drives and a Volunteer meet. 4. Association with Pragati Education Society for regular teaching of the children.

Selva Ganapathy [email protected] +91-9891358457

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Project Updates: Khoj

Project Updates: Parichay Project Highlights 1. A major activity at Parichay the previous month comprised of purchase of books, stationary, uniform, and several other things, whose list would run into large paper sheets if I were to mention them here. While it is a pleasure to see that kids are getting into higher classes, it takes a lot of time and efforts to actually arrange for the different types of pens, stationary and other paraphernalia. I think, next time onward we would need a volunteer who could take care of this activity dedicatedly. 2. Kids visited Gyanodaya and interacted with the new battalion there — overall a wonderful experience. 3. Three interns from IGNOU visited Parichay. They would be spending a total of 25 days. They have started gaining an understanding of the teaching aids and the different units of Parichay. Later on, they could contribute by exploring the local market for the marketing of spices. These interns have positively lent their contribution by raising awareness about the project for the mentally challenged. The interns approached the local school authorities and informed them about the project. 4. We will be putting up stalls at the offices of Nokia and Ford. 5. The monthly sale @ STM was approximately Rs. 9,100

1. Meva lal and Neetu have taken the charge in teaching the children. 2. Children from R.K puram have gone back to their village 15 days back so no classes are carried out. 3. Immense increase in the regularity of children from ber sarai. 4. Education trip to Adventure Island on 23rd with 50 children. 5. Children celebrate poori choole at prabhat tara during the Saturday sessions☺. 6. Increase in concentration and discipline of children is observed during the last 1 month sessions. 7. Now teaching sessions are conducted both at IIT flyover and Ber Sarai. 8. School going children are more regular because of the Auto facility. 9. We are searching for the Dance training institute for Ganesh who is from bikaji camma place. 10. Khoj foundation's face book account was created and project pictures and activities are updated through it for more outreach. 11. Need volunteer to make annual report. 12. Teacher Meva Lal has worked with Salam Balak trust for last 5 years. Project Location: Ber Sarai and IIT Flyover Class timings: 15.30 hours Volunteers: Shashank, Annie, Gouri, Amrit, Neetu, Abhinav, Ritesh, Suneet, Kailash

Events planned in next month: Regular Stalls Project Location: Tukhmirpur, Bhajanpura.

Special Mention: Alva a volunteer from Germany who was interning with us for the past couple of months.

Regular Class timings: Any day and anytime Active Volunteers: Selva, Prasad, Sahil, Akanksha Purohit Contact Information

Contact Information: Zubair- 9868486272 Pawan- 9810406998

Vijay Bhaiya – 9810753425

Selva Ganapathy [email protected] +91-9891358457

Puneeta - 9971500333 [email protected] 5

e/kq ds fy, fdrus gh fj’rs vk, exj dgha Hkh ckr ugha cu ikbZA mlds ekrk&firk gjne fpfUrr jgrsA

Project Updates : TARA Project Location:

,d ckj e/kq ds fy, ,d fj’rk vk;kA e/kq ds ekrk&firk dks yM+dk vkSj mldk ifjokj cgqr Hkk;k vkSj e/kq dks Hkh yM+dk ilan FkkA ns[krs gh yM+ds okyksa dks e/kq ilan vk xbZA ysfdu yM+ds okyksa us ngst dh ekax dh rks e/kq us vius ekrk&firk ls lkQ ‘kCnksa esa dg fn;k. ^^eSa ,sls ?kj esa dHkh Hkh ‘kknh ugha d:axh tgka ngst dh ekax dh tkrh gksA bl ckr dh xkaB cka/k yks fd ngst ysuk vkSj nsuk nksuksa gh vijk/k gSA** bruk dg dj e/kq ogka ls pyh xbZA

Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia. Regular Class timings: Monday, Wednesday and Friday (2 to 4 pm) Regular volunteers: 1. Kulsoom Rashid Ameen

2. Mithun Gomes

3.

e/kq ds eka&cki dks igys rks cgqr xqLlk vk;k vkSj mUgksaus lkspk fd ikl&iM+ksl okys Bhd gh dgrs Fks fd yM+dh dks T;knk i<+kus fy[kkus dh D;k t:jr gSA i<+kbZ ls bldk fnekx [kjkc gks x;k gSA

New volunteers this month: None

cgqr fnu chr x,A e/kq ds ekrk&firk ds fnekx esa ,d gh loky xwatrk jgrk fd bl yM+dh dk D;k gksxkA bldh ‘kknh gks Hkh ik,xh ;k ughaA fcuk ngst yM+dk dgka ls feysxkA

Activity Updates: Most of the children have moved out, gone back to their villages or new cities with their parents. Events planned in next month:

blh chp e/kq dks ,d Ldwy esa v/;kfidk dh ukSdjh fey xbZA og nksigj rd Ldwy esa i<+krh vkSj ‘kke dks ?kj ij V~;w’ku nsrhA /khjs&/khjs ?kj ds gkykr lq/kjus yxsA mlds firk dh nqdku Hkh vPNh pyus yxhA vc e/kq ds ekrk&firk e/kq ij ukt djrs ijarq mlds fookg dks ysdj mudh fpUrk vkSj Hkh c<+rh tk jgh FkhA

Looking for a new site or collaboration with another organization. Kulsoom Rashid (President, TARA) +91-9871551545

Children’s Corner: lgkjk

,d ckj e/kq ds ?kj mlds pkpk&pkph vk,A [kkuk [kk&ihdj lc jkr dks Nr ij cSBsA e/kq ds firk ls mlds pkpk us dgk]^^HkkbZ lkgc! e/kq ds fy, vkius dksbZ fj’rk ns[kk gS ;k ughaA** e/kq ds firk cksys]^^fj’rs rks cgqr vk, ij dqN cs
- eksuh

e/kq uke dh ,d yM+dh FkhA e/kq dks i<+us dk cgqr ‘kkSd FkkA og ,d xjhc ifjokj esa tUeh Fkh] mlds firk dh ijpwu dh NksVh lh nqdku FkhA mldk ckjg lky dk ,d HkkbZ FkkA e/kq [kwc i<+uk pkgrh Fkh] mldk v/;kfidk cuus dk liuk FkkA++ ‘kke ds le; og vius ?kj ij dqN cPPkks dks V~;w’ku i<+krh Fkh rkfd og viuh i<+kbZ tkjh j[k ldsA e/kq :iorh gksus ds lkFk gh cgqr xq.korh Hkh FkhA e/kq dsa ekrk&firk dks fnu&jkr mldh ‘kknh dh fapUrk lrkrhA 6

pkpk us dgk]^^ ,d ifjokj gS rks tgka e/kq jkuh cudj jgsxhA yM+ds dh eka ,d laLdkjh yM+dh pkgrh gSA vkSj gekjh e/kq lqanj] lq’khy vkSj f’kf{kr gSA ,slh vPNh yM+dh mUgsa Hkyk vkSj dgka feysxhA yM+ds dk viuk iq’rSuh dkjksckj gSA vki dgks rks ckr pykÅaA**

vius ekrk&firk ds eu dh ckr e/kq ls fNih u jg ldhA og cksyh&^^budk dkjksckj c<+kus esa eSa budk lkFk nwaxhA ;s dkjksckj ds vuqHkoh gSa vkSj esjs ikl f’k{kk dh rkdr gSA esjh f’k{kk budh esgur ls fey tk, rks ge cgqr rjDdh dj ldrs gSaA eSa dkjksckj esa budk lkFk nwa rks dkjksckj rks vkSj Hkh ped mBsxkA** e/kq dk ;g QSlyk yM+ds vkSj mkdh eka dh Li”Vokfnrk ls izsfjr FkkA

vxys gh fnu e/kq ds pkpk yM+ds okyksa ls feyus x, vkSj e/kw ds ckjs esa muls ckr dhA yM+ds dh eka us dgk]^^ge dy gh yM+dh ns[kus vkrs gSaA** pkpk us Qksu ij e/kq ds firk dks [kcj dj nhA

vkt e/kq viuh llqjky esa vius ifr dss da/ks ls da/kk feyk dj pyrs gq, cgqr lq[kh gSA e/kq vkSj mlds ifr ds dkjksckj dh cgqr rjDdh gqbZ gSA

vxys fnu yMdk vkSj mldh eka e/kq ds ?kj igqapsA vkSipkfjd ckr&phr ds ckn e/kq dks ns[kus dh ckjh vkbZA yM+ds dh eka us e/kq ls mldh i<+kbZ] ukSdjh vkSj :fp;ksa ds ckjs esa cgqr lh ckrsa dhaA e/kq yM+ds dks Hkh ilan FkhA yM+ds dh eka us e/kq dh eka ls dgk]^^cguth] gesa rks vkidh csVh cgqr ilan gS] th dj jgk gS vkt gh bls vius ?kj ys tkÅaA**

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eksuh

eksuh esjs izfr izxk<+ izse j[krs gq, vk’p;Ztud :i ls vkLFkkoku gS vkSj ifjp; ds izfr mldh J)k fdlh riLoh dh riL;k ls Hkh vf/kd etcwrA eksuh eq rel="nofollow">s NksVh lh Hkh [kq’kh nsus ds fy, cM+s vkSj dfBu iz;kl djus dks rRij jgrh gS] eq>s FkksM+k lk Hkh lq[k igqapkus dh mldh vkrqjrk dks tc eglwl djrk gwa rks ikrk gwa fd esjs brus lkjs iz;kl mldh fu’Ny Hkkoukvksa ds le{k ewY;ghu gSaA

e/kq ds firk us dgk & rks ge fj’rk iDdk le>saA** yM+ds dh eka us dgk&^^ysfdu ,d ckr gS----- tks eSa vki yksxksa dks igys crkuk pkgrh gwaA** ;g lqurs gh e/kq ds ekrk&firk ds psgjs dh ped Qhdh iM+ xbZ] u tkus D;k ckr gSA t:j ngst dh gh ckr gksxhA

eksuh ds firk fjD’kk pkyd gSaA mlds firk ds vykok mlds ifjokj esa lHkh vf’kf{kr gSaA

yM+ds dh eka us dgk&^^esjs yM+ds dk dkjksckj rks Hkxoku dh d`ik ls Bhd py jgk gS ysfdu esjk csVk flQZ nloha ikl gS] firk ds xqtjus ds ckn dkjksckj dh ftEesnkjh blds da/kks ij vk iM+h rks i<+kbZ v/kqjh gh jg xbZA vkidh csVh rks bruh i<+h&fy[kh gSA**

ebZ&twu dh rirh nksigfj;ksa esa dsUnz ij fctyh u gksus ij mls yxrk fd og essjs fy, ia[kk >yrh jgs] esjs yk[k euk djus ij Hkh Hkkstu ds le; rks mldh og bPNk bruh cyorh gks tkrh fd esjs gkFk ls ia[kk yxHkx Nhu dj og gok djus yxrhA ^^ljth! cl ftruh nsj vki [kkuk [kk jgs gSa] mruh nsj gok djus nhft,A** ,d nks feuV ia[kk Mqyk ysrh rks eSa mlds gkFkksa ls ia[kk ys ysrk ijarq mu nks iyksa ds fy, esjs fy, ia[kk >yuk mls fdruk lq[k nsrk] eSa mldh vk¡[kksa esa LIk”V ns[k ikrkA I;kl ls O;kdqy fdlh O;fDr dh I;kl ‘khry ty ls cq>kbZ tkus ij tSlk r`fIr] lq[k dk vglkl gksrk gS oSlk gh Hkko eksuh dh vka[kksa esa gh ugha mlds jkse&jkse esa g”kZ ds :i esa yf{kr gksrkA

e/kq ds ekrk&firk lksp esa iM+ x,&^^ u tkus bl yMdh ds HkkX; esa u tkus D;k fy[kk gSaA eqf’dy ls rks ,d txg ckr cuh rks yM+ds dh v/kwjh i<+kbZ vkM+s vk jgh gSA e/kq rks bl fj’rs ds fy, rS;kj ugha gksxh] vkSj ge Hkh dSls de i<+s fy[ks yM+ds ls mldh ‘kknh dj ldrs gSaA**

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lkr lky igys eksuh tc igys igy ifjp; vkbZ Fkh rks mldh HkkoukRed vfLFkjrk ds dkj.k d{kk esa vusdksa rjg dh leL;k,a vkSj :dkoVsa iSnk gks tk;k djrh FkhaA mlls cM+h eqlhcr ;g fd u rks ugkuk pkgrh Fkh vkSj ckyksa esa da?kk yxkuk rks cki js cki---- mldh ek¡ ds fy, egk;q) thrus ds cjkcj gh gksrkA bl egk;q) dh [kcj rd eksuh dh d.kZHksnh fpYykgV vkSj Hkkxk&nkSM+h ds dkj.k nwj&nwj rd fcuk ijksa ds gh igq¡p tkrhA NksVh lh ckr ij :B tkuk] d{kk ls mB dj pys tkuk] lkfFk;ksa ls >xM+k djuk vkSj lkfFk;ksa }kjk lkekftd cfg”dkj gksus ij [kwc jksuk vkSj esjs ikl vkdj vuqu; fou; djuk fd eSa mlds lkfFk;ksa ls mldh cksy&pky fQj ls djok nwaA ^^lj th eq>ls dksbZ ckr ugha djrkA eq>s cgqr cqjk yxrk gSA** ^^ljth vki lcls dgsaxs rks lc eq>ls cksyus yxsaxsA** ^^lj th vkids dgus ij eSa ckj&ckj lcds ikl cksyus tkrh gwa] rc Hkh dksbZ esjh ckr ugha lqurkA eq>s lcus vyx dj fn;k gSA** ^^ljth vkius dgk Fkk rks eSaus lcdks lkWjh cksy fn;k rc Hkh ;s yksx eq>ls nksLrh ugha j[krsA**

eksuh dk mu fnuksa dk vdsykiu] mldh cspSuh vkSj mldh vk¡[kksa ls cgrs eksVs eksVs vk¡lw] mldk tk+j&tk+j jksuk eq>s vR;f/kd nzfor dj nsrk vkSj eSa Hkh mlds :Bs lkfFk;ksa ls mls fQj ls lewg esa ‘kkfey djus dh vuqu;&fou; djrk] vius vkSj muds fj’rs dh nqgkbZ nsrs mudk HkkoukRed CySdesy rd dbZ ckj eq>s djuk iM+rkA ^^ljth dksf’k’k rks cgqr djrh gwa ij dqN i<+uk fy[kuk vkrk gh ugha** mlds ,sls eklwe tqeyksa ij cM+k izse vkrkA vkSj lkr lky ckn-----eksuh ifjp; dk ,d egRoiw.kZ LrEHk gSA og ifjp; ds 22 cPpks dks i<+kus dh ftEesnkjh iw.kZ euks;ksx ls fuHkkrs gq, Lo;a lkroha d{kk esa igqap pqdh gSA ifjp; leqnk; ds fy, gh ugha vfirq vius Ldwy ds cPpks ds fy, Hkh og vuqdj.kh; mnkgj.k cu pqdh gSA viuh Hkkoukvksa dks ‘kCnksa dk tkek igukuk og c[kwch tkurh gSA mldh bPNk gS fd og MkWDVj cus] ij mlls igys og ,d cgqr vPNh uUgha f’kf{kdk vkSj l’kDr ysf[kdk cu pqdh gSA &fot; cktisbZ

fdruh ckj eksuh esjh lykg ij CySdcksMZ ij fy[k dj ckdh lkfFk;ksa ls ekQh ekaxrh ijarq esjs gLr{ksi ds fcuk ckdh ds cPps mls vius lewg esa ‘kkfey u djrsA vkSj ;g lkjh e’kDdr ikaMoksa dh egkiz;k.k ;k=k ls de nq”dj rks dHkh u jghA cPps gj ckj dgrs]^^lj vkids fy, ge fQj ls eksuh ls nksLrh dj jgs gSa vxyh ckj ,slk djsxh rks ge fQj ugha djsaxsA**

+91-9810753425

Volunteer Speak – Alva Bonaker Internship with KHOJ Foundation I am Alva, a student (BA South Asia Studies) from Germany. After studying one semester at the JNU in Delhi (till Dec. 2008) I wanted to do something more practical and therefore got into contact with KHOJ Foundation where I started my internship in January. I came to the teaching sites Bekaji, R. K. Puram and Ber Serai every day where I supported Neetu in teaching the children. Since KHOJ did not have any written account about the background of the children my main task during the internship was to create profiles about the kids. I travelled to South India in February and continued working with KHOJ in March till 14th of April. Instead of Bikaji (where KHOJ arranged a rickshaw which takes the children to school every morning) we hold classes at IIT Gate flyover then.

nks pkj jkst Bhd pyrk vkSj fQj ogh jkedgkuhA dHkh&dHkh rks eq>ls ukjkt gksdj viuh dkfi;ka&fdrkcsa d{kk esa gh fc[kjk dj vius ?kj Hkkx tkrh vkSj xyk QkM+w vUnkt esa mldk jksuk tks ‘kq: gksrk rks eq>s mlds ?kj tkdj mldh eku&eukSvy djuh iM+rhA ,sls esa rks ckdh cPps mlls vkSj Hkh ukjkt gks tkrsA dgrs gels rks yM+rh gh gS] ljth dks Hkh ugha NksM+rhA eq>s le>kus ds lkFk dHkh&dHkh Mk¡Vus Hkh yxrs & ^^ljth! vxyh ckj vki ml udlM+h dks eukus tk,axs rks ge vkils ukjkt gks tk,axsA** 8

Right from the beginning I liked working with KHOJ and set my heart on the children. I saw street children selling and begging at the rickshaw so many times before and it always made me feel bad and helpless. So I was really happy to get into personal contact with them, share at least a short time with them and help them in learning reading and writing Hindi as well as counting and writing the numbers. It was amazing to see how these small children handle their extremely difficult situations on the street like grownups, how joyful they play and laugh if the get the chance, how thankful they are to learn something and how cleaver they are indeed. Furthermore they have been really patient while talking with me considering that my Hindi is very limited. The language was certainly the biggest problem I faced and to some degree it prevented me from interacting more active with the children. The profiles can not be seen as a complete analysis of all the children not only because of the language difficulties, but also due to the fact that the children come irregularly, some of them only very rarely and a huge number of them is very young (between the age of 1 and 5 years). Nevertheless I developed a great interest for the background of the children, their families and the extremely vital exchange which they maintain between their villages and different places in South Delhi. From the interviews and from Zubair I got to now some very interesting stories about their experiences and everyday life and a very broad idea of mine is to collect more stories in order to write them down. Besides the teaching sessions I got the opportunity to take part in KHOJ activities such as Saturday sessions at Prabhat Tara, the AID India annual celebration in January and the "Holi" festival which I enjoyed very much. Through all these activities as well as in the office and at home when I wrote small reports and developed the broad outline and layout for the annual report I got some insights into NGO activities, work and structure. To sum up I have to say that I really enjoyed the time with KHOJ. Even though it seems short in the review it was a great experience and I am very thankful to all the members of KHOJ and the children who made it an unforgettable time for me which gave me some very valuable new insights, impulses and perspectives. Alva Bonaker [email protected]

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Is Delhi is getting Greener? – Article by Dhiraj Acharya

Child Adoption – Article by Selva

This question is running on my mind from last couple of years, still unable to find answer of that. At one side I am able to see reports from Delhi Government that they have planted 1 lakh saplings in year 2008-09 and at another side I can see river bed of Yamuna which has lost its Glory. Supreme Court has always ordered not to build any infrastructure on river bed of Yamuna, but who listens? If government is not following the law then from whom you can expect? I am a daily commuter to Noida from Azadpur. It was blissful journey from outer ring road when I see lots of green trees. But now I can lots of project working going on like Signature Bridge, Common Wealth Games Village work. I used to enjoy my journey more whenever I cross Akshardham temple to Noida. The trees on both sides gave me immense Joy and pleasure, but now these area is also victim of Common Wealth Game.

Is common wealth is more important than the life of Delhites? Is earning money is the only work we human have to do? Who are the Culprits? Government, me or you. Yes it’s all of us. We are running away from the truth that we have consumed so rapidly that natural resources are finally going to vanish and we are heading towards hell. We all are responsible for climatic change, indanger mammals. We are still repeating the same mistake, rather then making things good we are making it worse.

Let’s join hands together and do something for cause, cause not for someone else, but for us. Dhiraj Acharya [email protected]

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I’m not a father but still I have many children!... sounds crazy. I mean, I play a mentoring role of a father to some children whom I interact with☺. Lot of us do it and everyone loves to do it. I don’t know if I’m right, but the word Child has more energy than what e = mc2 has, probably Einstein failed to observe this. If the word child has much higher potential then imagine about the word Children… They multiply. I’ve been observing it for quite a long time at the projects which we do. We all used to listen to stories when we were young, and our ancestors use to tell us stories which have angles in it and with all exclamations listen to them. I always had a question that where these angles come from and how do they look like and the answer would be Angles are gifted by GOD but silly Selva still asks a question Don’t they have Mom and Dad and the reply would be yes their Mom and Dad both are :GOD”. Sweet isn’t it. When I was in school I heard about orphanage and children living there who didn’t have Mom and Dad with them and I always fantasized visiting there just was curious to relate how these angles looked like, whether they have white cloths around them with a feathery wings. Our comic writer’s imagination is so poor which gets intruded into the readers as well and we’ve always seen angels like that, may it be in comic books or in movie stories. During my college days I got a chance to visit an orphanage [I used to call it as a temple as I feel angles live there]. I don’t know if my childhood fantasies still was in me or not but I swear I could see none other than angels [both the male and female versions. No gender discrimination: P] in front of my eyes. Why I call them angels is because they don’t know who they are and also don’t know who I am but only give a smile to me and other all the time and say that we are in the world to make others happy. I don’t know if the institution taught them this but I know that children speak from their heart and these are someone special. I also explored about how many such institutions in India exist and got to know there are thousands. Then I also got to know that there is a process by which one can adopt a child.

I was pretty impressed to know that there is a chance of adoption. I say it’s a chance for us but if we carefully read it, it’s a hope for the child a new world, where the child can explore more about love and affection for a father and mother. I decided there that I would adopt a child in my life. I’m not a person who gets emotional immediately, at the same time I’m not a person who sees relationships as professional, it takes time for me to get into emotional attachment with anything and once I get attached then there is no stopping and this is something I felt emotional very immediately, but later I realized that after adoption I should certainly tell the child about the history behind him / her, so that I fairly give an opportunity to him / her to choose his / her own life. I would like to play a role of a mentor and that doesn’t mean that I would not pour my fatherhood to the child. The definition of adoption could differ and have any meaning for individuals, but all it holds is a new ray of hope for the children which would make a difference to not only the child. So friends why don’t we all take the word forward and encourage adoption in and around us. After all we live in India where we adopt to live with every thing which we don’t like and are not happy with. [Should I quote example for this as well??, no offence meant :D], but the child adoption does make us happy!!!.. Let’s make a new world for us and for others. We are running a group for promotion and creating awareness among the public about adoption and the group is called as Peoples Group for Child Adoption in India. Once can join the google groups to receive more knowledge and information about adoption / adoption agencies etc from subscribing to [email protected] . We also launched our website recently and you can browse through the same at www.pgcai.org . Nishank an AID Volunteer started this movement and now its spread across the country. Selva Ganapathy [email protected]

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Releif and Rehabilitation AID Delh is working with Bhalaswa Lok Shakti Manch which is majorly run by women of the community. They are people who were rehabilitated eight years ago by Delhi government from the banks of Yamuna. They are fighting for their basic rights for such a long time and we’ve been able to help them by organizing funding for the campaign from AID Austin. Recently they shared their quarterly report which is available in the pdf form from our html version newsletter. The same could be downloaded from the following link http://delhi.aidindia.org/bethechange/images/stories/ newsletter/bhalaswa%20report%20%20dec%5C%27o8%20-%20feb%2009.pdf For more details about [email protected]

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Feedback Dear All! We’ve been ensuring a better version / content of newsletter everytime. We would be happy to know your feedback on the content we post and the kind of articles we share. We would also appreciate if you take time to write down your views and how you prefer to read a newsletter so that we can improvise in the coming times. If you are writing your feedback on a particular project update section / articles / toons / children’s section please do keep the author in cc. You can share your feedbacks in the mail id given at contact us session. Selva Ganapathy, On behalf of AID Delhi publications team.

Poem of the Month – Shubham Jain

Shubham Jain [email protected]

Feedback: [email protected] Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9818248459 Send your Cheques to Selva Ganapathy.R Department of Chemical Engineering, Publications Team - AID Delhi Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi - 110016 Hauz Khas Phone: +91-9891358457, +91-9818248459 12