| Dreams
turn real!
Photo
1 A joint effort of Singapore Airlines and Singapore Tourism
Board made it possible for our children to realize their dreams
of traveling abroad. 11 children from our 3 girls’ homes
received an opportunity to visit Singapore between 9th and
12th of May, 2008 alongwith their Programme Coordinators.
The entire expense of travel, boarding, lodging and also of
visiting places was taken care of by them. Not only this,
they also took care of a medical emergency wherein, one of
our girls had to be taken to a Doctor as she suddenly became
unwell.
At
Singapore, the children were taken on a Night Safari and then
to the zoological park to have breakfast with Orangutans.
On a trip to Santosa Island, they enjoyed Luge, Cable Ride,
Dolphin show, 4D Animation Show, Underwater World and what
not.
Shopping rides to Boogie’s Village, Mustafa Shopping
Center and China Town and delectable cuisine formed a part
of the schedule.
Shows such as ‘Songs of the Seas’, Bird Shows
and Animal Shows tugged at their heartstrings as the children
kept talking about them for days.
A certificate
was presented by the Captain of the Flight in which the children
traveled, which marked the beginning of wonderful and memorable
moments ahead.
Skirmished
Summers!
One-week
camp was organized between 25th and 31st May, for the children
at our Greater Noida Home. All children from all our homes
participated in the Camp and enjoyed learning new skills.
A range of articles such as scented sand candles, decorative
glasses, rag dolls, bead jewellery and coasters were developed
by the children for the purpose of fundraising. The fund raising
team led by Ms. Isabel Sahni, one our mentor mothers organized
this ‘learning through fun’ activity.
Another
volunteer, Martin Honel taught the children how to create
Balloon lamps, Pom-poms and sceneries, handprints, paperweights
made of clay.
Besides
these creative workshops, children also participated in debate,
extempore, essay writing and poster making competitions. Mr.
Daman Dev Sood, another volunteer conducted a workshop on
Possibility Thinking.
The
Camp winded with an evening full of cultural programme and
prize distribution followed by a joint celebration of Birthdays
of all children born in the month of May.
In
Feature !
An enchanting article on our Alumni, Ms. Swasthi Udayan and
her life at Udayan Care Home featured in ‘andpersand’
magazine in the month of May, 2008. Extensive details of our
organization also found many interested readers.
Corporate
Collaborate !
As a part of Corporate Mentoring Programme, Xansa
India invited all our girls from Greater Noida
home for lunch at their office on the 6th of June. A video
conferencing was organized between our children and the CSR
Chief, Ms. Gayatri Mohan, who was in Chennai at that time
and wanted to talk to our girls. Discussions on global warming
followed games and the children spent a good time learning
new things.
American
Express organized training for our 17 children
on
Personal
Effectiveness at their office in Gurgaon on the 7th of June.
This was a full day training packed with activities such as
personality grooming, table manners and professional etiquettes,
dressing sense, time management and team building. Certificates
of participation were presented to the children.
Volunteers from Google organized
an event on environmental issues at two of our homes; Greater
Noida and Mehrauli on the 18th and 19th of June respectively.
Children from rest of the homes joined too.
Essay
writing and Poster making competitions were organized and
the children were briefed on various environmental issues
such as ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Green House
Effect’.
The
team performed a very interesting skit on saving trees and
made presentations on effects of pollution and on saving the
environment.
Oriental
Zaika, a restaurant in Neeti Bagh invited our children
from Greater Noida Home for lunch on 26th June 2008. Its owner,
Ms. Rekha Vohra Bhalla sponsored this event. Children enjoyed
Chinese cuisine, which was different from their regular menu.
Adidas
continued with its efforts to make ‘sportsmen’
out of our children. As a part of their intervention, the
Adidas team took children of Gurgaon Home to watch live cricket
match at Firozshah Kotla.
NGO
Collaborate !
Youthreach continued to support our children
by providing them with tennis coaching. Mr. Jaideep and Mr.
Naresh coached our children at Panchsheel Club. Also, dance
classes were held under the skillful guidance of Mr. Feroze
from Ashley Lobo group. Family Vision, another
non-profit organization visited our Sant Nagar Home and showed
CDs and DVDs based on Value based Education to our children.
Later, they presented us with 4 suitcases full of such CDs
to be distributed to our other homes. This effort was made
in collaboration with Oriental Bank of Commerce who organized
funds for dissemination of CDs.
National
& International Camaraderie
!
Four students from Bluebells International School, New Delhi
started teaching our girls at Sant Nagar while some students
from Modern School joined us to complete their 50 hours of
Social Work. A talented bunch of research students from Punjab
University, Allahabad Agricultural Institute (Deemed
University), Lady Sri Ram College and University
of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun joined
us in carrying out various researches. Thus, all our homes
received opportunities of meaningful interaction with a number
of volunteers from Delhi and outside.
Kristen
Benson from Australia, Nikki Hartley, Jyothish
Krishnan, Sonya Nanda, Adrien Lane, Dave Prager, Jenny Steeves,
Katherine Rollins and Caitlin E Mason
a biologist from USA, Steve Pearson and Jesse
George-Nichol from Princeton University, USA Keren
Williams and Danielle Laograo from
UK and Hannah Behrendt from Germany volunteered
with us at our various homes
Our
Scorebooks !
Six of our children who appeared in Boards this year passed
out with flying colours. Pinki, Ruchi (Greater Noida Home)
and Kiran (Sant Nagar Home) passed out class XII with 80%,
72% and 60% marks respectively while Neelam (Greater Noida
Home), Jyoti (Mehrauli Home) and Sachin (Mayur Vihar Home)
passed class X with 75%, 68% and 59% marks
respectively.
11
children scored above 90%
marks while another 11 scored above 80% in
their classes. 4 girls and 3 boys received A+
grades in Primary section.
Building
Capacities !
-
Participated in a training programme on ‘Utilization
of Volunteers’, organized by Joining Hands
and conducted by Dr. Ajanta Chakravarty.
-
15 children from 4 homes participated in a programme ‘GENext’,
that was organized by Doordarshan on the issue of ‘Drug
Abuse and Youth’.
-
Were a part of National Convention on Child Rights,
organized by Open Forum at National Bal Bhawan.
-
As a part of our capacity building programme, two interns
from Punjab University did a Research study on ‘Essence
of Relationships in Institutionalised Children’.
-
Attention- seeking Behaviour and Reinforcements were a
few issues taken up under our Para Counseling
Workshop during these two months. Our Mental
Health Programme continues to be supported by Home
of Hope.
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