Mad Pings - November 09

Blesson Gregory

November, 2009

A few years ago, a group of friends decided to Make A Difference—to the lives of children around them through the powerful tool of education. Many others joined hands with them and we are three years young now! On the occasion of the anniversary of MAD being registered as a charitable society, the PR team is bringing you Pings—the national newsletter of MAD. Pings will bring into your inbox the MADness from all the cities across the country. Stay tuned!

We are winners of the InDiya Shines Award!The reviews just kept pouring in from donors, well-wishers, alumni and of course, the volunteers. Getting to read the reviews was probably just as awesome as winning the award. Read more on the MAD Blog. While we had to work hard to get that one, another one came along, totally unexpectedly! We have been awarded the Karamveer Puraskar and are now ‘Noble Laureates’ and will be participating in the conclave held by iCONGO at New Delhi in November. It is recognition of the awesomeness that we have been generating over the last few years in the lives of our kids. We couldn’t have had a better gift on our anniversary. Hopefully, these awards will give us the necessary exposure to grow both in terms of volunteers and funds. This is not just an award. It is a call for action!

When the festival of lights arrives how can MAD volunteers miss the opportunity to celebrate with the kids? Diwali celebrations brought in cheers in MAD centres across the country. It was all about sweets, crackers, smiles, fun and masti!

New Centres

Coc Nagp

hin

ur @

Bal M

andir

@Y

Sans th

M CA

Boy s’ H

a

ome

. Mo

re o n

the

blog

.

ome

i@P

na Chen

’s H ildren h C o a

VR

ots And l

more

…..

Most orga nis p retty muc ations expand. But Hyderabad - Rainbow School in h More recruitment exponentia exploding (growing we are at an l rate), both Musheerabad with 60 kids centres an d voluntee in terms of Hyderabad - 23 new MADiacs join the Cochin - Udaya Colony and Govt. rs ranks during the recruitment at SecunGirls Home As a volunteer I felt overjoyed looking at the smiles derabad Mangalore - Baalikashram, [of the kids] that were passed upon me and it is Dilli - recruits more volunteers through a Infant Mary's and St. Aloysius indeed an ecstasy that these smiles still continue, multi-day publicity campaign across Delhi Boys' Home especially knowing that we become the reason for campuses it. Preethi Shankaran, Chennai ss! e en Bhagyashree, one of the centre heads from Nagpur, has birth dates of all the kids in her centre and she never som e Aw misses to wish them! She also has been collecting drawings and other creations by kids in her centre.

Mumbai tied up with NMIMS’s Social Responsibility Forum (SRF) for JOYFest, which celebrates the joy of giving. All funds raised through the fest will be donated to MAD. More details. One day, I went to the centre for a different purpose and one child ran up to me n said, "Akka, Lets do class now." I told him no class today and his face gave me a sad 'smile'. I was sooooooooooo happy that this happened and the kids were so eager and wait for MAD class every week. Kaavya Ramachandran, Chennai

MAD kids and volunteers were on MTV (Wassup) along with VJs Bani and Vineet. They also got a chance to meet Mini Mathur, who arrived as the judge for the craft-o-rama competition held for the kids.

Cochin took the kids from St. Mary’s for an engineering awareness session and the kids from Joachim’s for a dance workshop.

The processes and systems The things we do to ensure our kids get only the best of everything Hyderabad put all volunteers through a 6 hours high intensity training session

Monitoring and review, the MAD way— detailed document Trivandrum held a

Dilli held their

Join the conversation!

monthly meeting to obtain feedback from all the volunteers and share views about teaching methods/improvements, receptiveness of the kids and operational issues

MADness

teacher training session for an entire bunch of MADiacs, eager to prime their 'teaching genes’

Cochin held an Out Bound Training programme for all volunteers. Find out just how much fun it was from the blog

Mangalore had some volunteers participating in the K.M.C. [Kasturba Medical college] annual heart run

Trivandrum MADiacs [a heady mix of the old members and the 'fresh from the oven' ones] got together after a real long time for an eveving of fun, frolic and finally, some serious brain storming

Trivandrum went green as they became a part of a green earth drive - a rally in which some volunteers joined in and a painting competition in which our kids took part added to the awesomeness

Thanks to Ashish Asopa, Karthik MADhavan, all city VP PRs, the national PR team, and everyone else who contributed to this edition of Pings. Until next time, adios!