~Pankhudi Bangalore

~Pankhudi Bangalore has been working at Sri Ramana Maharishi School of Blind (SRMAB) since a year now. We have set up the computer lab and have been teaching the blind kids to perform some basic tasks on computers using JAWS software.

More Photos here

We are looking forward to expand our activities and start a new computer lab in some time. Also, we are planning to start English Classes at the blind school soon. Volunteer requests and other requirements will be posted soon. Keep checking.

Pankhudi Foundation in partnership with Mukta Foundation has been conducting English classes in the above school for 5th, 6th & 7th std students since last two years. Apart from the regular classes, some latest developments are given below:

a) We have recently started to take some guidance from Ms.Subhoda, a teacher herself with over 15 yrs of experience & runs her own school called - Bhandhavya, a intermediate school (for both special & normal kids). She has been advising us various aspects like, how to teach kids using games, music, story telling, handle larger counts of kids, material, tracking etc.

b) Apart from the regular English teaching, we also wanted to improve the standards of the school in terms of their infrastruscture (toilets, drinking water, safety etc). In this regard, we met Mr.Vijay Bhaskar, Principal Secretary for Education in Karnataka, who was very happy with our initiative & assured us his full support.

To conclude, we have completely removed the usage of pen & paper in the classes. We’r trying to make them comfortable in english language by using story-telling techniques, drawing, songs, games, group discussions etc.

Sarkari Hiraya Pathshala:
Location: Near NR Colony, Basavanagudi
Time & day: Every Saturday, 9:00 am to 10:30 am

We are looking out for dedicated volunteers for this activity. Any one interested in volunteering, please call Vivek at 98450 80313.

Pankhudi All India Meet 3 - Reflections

An event Pankhudi volunteers wait for, year after year, All India Meet (AIM)  was hosted this time by Bangalore Chapter from  22nd to 25th Dec ‘2007. This was the third one in continuation with the earlier ones held at Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Pankhudi Foundation’s All India Meet 2007 on child-related issues was attended by several speakers, volunteers and representatives from different parts of India.

Hours of discussion sessions were followed by an overnight team outing to ‘Nandi Hills’ which rejuvenated the participants on the concluding day of the conference.

SRMAB Sports Day

The Annual Sports Day for Sri Ramana Maharishi School of Blind (SRMAB) happened on 17th November 2007 in the school campus itself.

Pankhudi volunteers assisted the teachers in executing and coordinating the games at the Sports Day.

Check out some of the pics above. Enjoy maadi.

As part of IBM’s On Demand Community initiative, the Gelveles On Demand Community Week was organized from July 27th to August 4th. The plan was to set up team volunteer opportunities in 10 US locations as well as Brazil, Mexico, Australia and India. Teams will be assembled in West Chester County, NY, Atlanta, Lexington, Raleigh, Gaithersburg, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Austin, Southbury, Boca, Bangalore, Hortolandia and Mexico City.

As an IBM ODC Bangalore initiative to support this event, we planned to spend a day with poor students. Inspite of Bangalore being a High-Tech city, yet 70% of the local population is under the darkness and unaware of the technical expansion going on. Hence we IBMer’s took up this oppurtunity to make children/people aware of the scientific evolution and how they could contribute towards the growth of the society.

Volunteers from the various IBM locations all over Bangalore came forward to take up this cause a day-long event full of activities for the children. We divided the bulk of students in 2 groups to facilitate better management, former watching Educational movie while latter group was playing Treasure Hunt/Games. After 2 hours the groups were interchanged and the same schedule followed.

Manu Gupta
IBM Bangalore

On 1st April 2007, the Bangalore chapter of ~Pankhudi Foundation participated in the monthly Seva Day organized by Sri Rakum school for the blind in Indiranagar, Bangalore.

The previous day (March 30), we collected all clothes at Aarti’s place and sorted them out into bags. WE later dropped them off at Sri Rakum school and decided to be a part of the distribution process that would happen on Sunday, April 1st.

Sometime after 9AM, we entered Sri Rakum’ s premises to see a long line already in wait for the goods being donated.

Items like bags, medicines, Braille sets, talking watches, stationery, among others were being distributed.

Food was also distributed to the needy and generally people were happy during this sunny day.

In order to be a volunteer distributing these items away, we should have given our names a day before Seva day happens. Since we didn’t know this, we resorted to observing:

We later spoke to Acharya Rakum and he mentioned a shortage of Braille items and other articles which the visually impaired would find really useful. There is a place in Tamil Nadu where these kind of goods are usually sourced from. The following is the address:

Worth Plastics
48, New Thiruvalam Road,
Katpadi, Vellore-632007
Tamil Nadu
INDIA
Phone: 0416-2243939
2242739
Email: vir_worth@sancharnet.in

Acharya Rakum also gave us a list of items and their cost which gave us an idea of how to start Seva Days of our own, if the time and opportunity arise. This list of items is with me and would be helpful if we need to procure the same whenever required.

So far, ~Pankhudi Bangalore has been associated with teaching slum children, collecting clothes, toys, and books for children, and developing supporting teaching material.

Beginning this month, we have embarked on a new initiative through Ganesh, Anusha, and Magesh. Here is what Ganesh had to say about the wonderful news:

“I am very happy to inform you all that we have succesfully set up the foundation for computer education in the Ramana Maharishi School for blind, JP nagar. Last weekend me and anusha started computer classes here. We started with some 4 kids and 1 teacher. They were very happy with the class. Since all of them knew english, language barrier was not a problem
They have some 6 properly working systems now. Myself and Magesh have given these computers for service and upgradation yesterday. Now the next target is the kanagpura center which was set up by the same organization. This place not only has blind children, but also children with all sorts of disabilities. It would really be great if we could do the same kind of service at kanagpura also. As a first setp towards this we can go and visit kanagpura. Kanagpura is nearly 30 kms from bangalore. This should be one hour ride. Can we go here this saturday?? We can go in bikes Those who are ready please reply back. We can start saturday morning and be back for lunch. It is preferable to go on saturday because, sunday they will not be working. so we will not be able to get a clear picture of what is going on and what are their requirements.”

GREAT GOING, TEAM!!! LET’S KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Six Pankhudi Volunteers step ahead and participate in the Blood Donation Camp held at NIMHANS on 21st Jan’ 2007 by Lions Bloodline Bangalore - www.lionsbloodline.com

NIMHANS is a premier super specialty Govt Hospital in neurosciences and one of the hospitals where maximum head injury/accident cases come to and blood is needed urgently.

This step would really be helpful to someone in urgent need of blood. We would encourage all of you to register at www.lionsbloodline.com and you might be able to help in some way.

Cheers’

Yatin.

Great news!

One of our volunteers, Yatin Sethi, was given an opportunity to speak about volunteering in ZEE TV Kannada. Here are the links:

Short Video (1 min) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHoDpKJPZe8
Full Video (6 min) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS-eMKU5_VI

Congratulations!!!

Nagaraj is a kid of 17 years who always wanted to complete his secondary school (10th class) studies. But due to financial problems in his family, he started working from his childhood as a barber. He currently works at a barber shop in Bangalore everyday from 6 AM - 10 PM.

We helped him in this situation and provided him with textbooks and notebooks for his studies. We also guided him on his career path and motivated him to study further for a better future. Now, he studies a little every night and is getting ready to give his exams in March 2007.

We hope that he would be able to fulfill his dream of getting a better job after studies and help his family in a better way.

Cheers’

Yatin.