.. Office Bearers 2008-2009 ..

Pankhudi Foundation
Office Bearers(2008-2009)
Experience, Learning, Initiatives

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

The experience was great and different from the other posts that I have held so far. It involved not only interactions within the team but gave me an opportunity to interact with the external world as well. Networking is not an easy task and involves great deal of persuasiveness and confidence and I guess that my success in working as a PR Rep has augmented these personal attributes to a great extent. My team members have been of a great support during my tenure, helping me when in need.

It feels great when organizations network or collaborate with you reaffirming the faith and confidence that it has on you. On the whole' its been quite a fruitful experience, networking with various organizations, interacting with the media to gain visibility etc, all towards making Pankhudi an organization, one of its kinds. In my opinion, the planning and implementation faired quite well. For all events, networking etc, planning ad been done well in advance and regular monitoring was done to see if things were well in place. The team members were quite supportive and helped in making it all a big success.

I've always believed in a collective approach. One cannot work in isolation and volunteers of any organization are its core strength. I've been in regular touch with the volunteers- either through the Google groups or via telephone. I have organized meetings at regular intervals for all the members so that we can discuss not only the activities that are taking place but also so that each member gets to know the other.

Its quite laudable to see the work the other chapters are doing. Its all because of the efforts of the Reps/Heads along with the support of their team members. The work done by the others is fabulous and I hope that the same kind of zeal and determination is seen in the future as well.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: When I go on the weekends to teach the children and they come running towards me.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Shahzad Wakeel

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Mr. Pankaj Ghanshani

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

As a member of Pankhudi- I learnt to love, learnt to love selflessly, learnt the importance and warmth of a touch. Also, got exposed to how the visually impaired played cricket, danced, produced cardboard in a cardboard factory!! As a part of Content Cell, I prepared the study material for Computer Typing and other basic lessons for the visually impaired. Overall, it was an energizing and a humbling experience.             

Here are the my major initiatives & achievements:

• Connecting Pankhudi Bangalore to Enable India: To get an idea on how to teach the visually impaired, to get a lot of free study material and assistance on using that.
• Starting the culture of deciding the study / volunteer schedule on gmail groups.
• Preparing basic computer teaching style and study material for the visually impaired.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Watching a visually impaired student giving a brilliant dance performance at SRMAB, Bangalore.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Ram Kumar

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Ms. Jyotsna Bobba

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

This year was very fruitful and amazing for me as a PR rep central cell. Not only as a PR this year made me interact with a lot many people dealing with other areas when it comes to writing articles and organizing campaigns through which i had a good learning experience. Along with LOA (letter of appreciations) dispatching challenges, volunteer drive, drafting media content and of all designing a one liner and an article for the volunteer drive which was very successful this year. A lot of teamwork in Sahayata drive. A very good learning through Foodiebay Campaign. I had a lot of improvisation in planning, organizing and mass communication.

I interacted whenever i am required with all the reps. I remained in regular touch with PR head, Finance head and President.

My achievements & Initiatives in Pankhudi are LoA Regularization, Campaigns and Drive planning and overall implementation etc.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Every time ,everyday i worked with Pankhudi was memorable. It is a pleasure to work for it.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Surya Adavi

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Ms. Vidha jain

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

It was a pretty good experience. For me the best part was probably interacting with a lot more people from Pankhudi chapters across India which I didn't do as a regular volunteer. We spent more time structuring our teaching activities in Delhi.

I met almost every volunteer in the Delhi chapter and got to work with them during our Protsahan activities which was fun. Overall, the experience was great!

My achievements & Initiatives in Pankhudi are overall support to activities - both teaching and otherwise, due to regular attendance.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Some of the best have been while teaching when one of the children really understood what you were trying to teach them and responded. I remember teaching some of the younger kids maths or english and seeing them finally understand concepts they've been trying to learn for a while. That is really a good feeling.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Nitin and Naval, both have untiring patience and dedication towards our cause.

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Mr. Naval Kishor Chaudhary

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Now Pankhudi Delhi Chapter has started the Daily Protsahan Classes with the help of hired teacher. The enthusiasm is great in the new volunteers and they are capable enough to give and implement new ideas for betterment of the activities in Chapter Level.

One good thing which I had noticed is the commitment of the volunteers, which was always there when the conditions were not favorable, no space, and bad weather conditions.

A number of ideas were floated within the Chapter Level and one of them after scrutiny at Chapter Level was introduced to the Central Team. After the approval of the Central Team and coordination, a month long campaign was conducted in association with FoodieBay.com. This was a new experiment and I think we were able to achieve, what we had planned by this campaign.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Welcome smile on the faces of the kids at Priyanka Camp :)

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Vidha Jain

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Mr. Ram Kumar Koppu 

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

I enjoyed the planning of chapter activities, team work and learning. It was good experience.

I spent most of the time on sustenance of Bangalore activities like Computer teaching @SRMAB and English teaching @Govt School. We started new activities like Communication skill development program for Visually impaired students at SRMAB and Collection drives. We can do more. I hope in near future I can spend more time on new activities as well.

My interaction with the volunteers always casual...I never had formal communication with the volunteers. My decision was right as we have 99% volunteers are young. I hope they too enjoyed it.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: My association with Pankhudi for a last 1 year :-)

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Vivek Rajasekar

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Mr. Vinay Golchha

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

I have volunteered for a few more NGO's before joining Pankhudi. In each of these NGO's I have noticed that it the ‘neswarth’ commitment of the members that was the main energy towards driving all the activities. Same was the case in Pankhudi. The difference in Pankhudi, which I observed was that the mass appeal and the collaboration between different volunteers working, irrespective of the geographical boundaries has been remarkable. Hats off to the seniors, for designing such a system. Experience in Pankhudi has been really like working in a very professional environment. 

One of my most important learning -- If you want to have success in any activity, you have to be fully committed towards it. Know yourselves and your priorities. And then based on those decide how much you can be committed.

We had planned many activities for the chapter, most of the activities we were able to perform really well, with spectacular results. During the last year, we have been able to connect to many new volunteers. Also the bonding within the existing volunteers has increased a lot.
Major initiatives: Training for teachers, Collaboration with CLR for training teachers.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Visiting the Sweekar kids was the most memorable moment I have at Pankhudi.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Krunal Desai

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Ms. Padmaja Eturi

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Content cell is really appreciative, last year but we could only present our work for the first quarter. We have to work a lot to get involved. Interaction with volunteers was okay but can be still improved. I hope that going forward Content cell members become interactive with each other, as well as with rest of the chapters.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Balkalakaar event

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Ms. Madhura Walvekar

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

About  1 1/2 yr Newsletter has been coming out every month without fail.

My achievements & Initiatives in Pankhudi are initiating, stabilizing and improving the monthly Newsletters.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: time spent wid krushi kids and nbt nagar,banjara hills kids are my memorable moments.

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Mr. Sunil Agiru

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

I learnt lot of things like management skills, communication skills and loads of patience and most importantly to be self dependent. All the time i spent with the kids was memorable.

Ms. Nivedita S Ghonge

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

The overall experience was good. We have started weekday classes for younger drop-out kids ( 1st to 4th std) and working right now for getting them admitted to schools. Also a new activity (Pankhudi Sahyog Project) was started at Nachiket Balgram to help the 10th Std kids with their studies before the board exams. Also we have started documenting all the activities and tasks.(thanks to the unending efforts of Krunal). But still we have miles to go before we can say that all our activities are going fine and on track. Even now we face the old problems like lack of classroom (for Protsahan classes), lack of regular volunteers for weekday batches, no exact syllabus. We need to work on all these aspects and improve our activities. Since being out of Pune for long time and then coming back and joining a new job, I kind of got caught with office work and could not contribute as much time as I should to Pankhudi.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: It was in Bangalore when I went first time to SRMAB. I was really amazed to see what all those blind kids could do and felt they are so much better than any of us in so many aspects. God bless those kids!

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Krunal Desai (Pune) / Ram Kumar Koppu (Bangalore)

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Mr. Nitin Kumar Sharma

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

I learned a lot about working in a team of volunteers. I also came to know that teaching children is more a learning experience. A lot of planning was done but real difficulties lies in execution of those plans.  Overall I had real learning and good experience as a chapter head.

I did really well in planning about the things to be done for better work on “Protshahan”. 

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: We took all the children of Okhala slum to a picnic at Zoo. And I really enjoyed being part of it.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Namita Dalmia

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Ms. Divya Senthamil Selvan

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

It was very great though I couldn’t participate much due to various issues, I was also handling join Desk for a sometime when I structured well. Hopefully next year I will be able to give much time for this and we have again started visiting Saidapet slum with fresh energy. New volunteers like Pandian are very enthusiastic.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Each and every moment

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Shahzad Wakeel and Surya Adavi

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Mr. Madhukar B Raju

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

A great mix of things. It has been a major learning on human responsibilities, emotions, real life, children and of course getting to know so many dedicated and devoted people (fellow members).  Being pulled more into employment responsibilities at work have not been able to devote much of my time to Pankhudi over recent days, but hope to participate more in future.

My major initiatives & achievements  includes Pankhudi Newsletter which was started by News Desk and supported by Design Cell and am glad that its going forward very well.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: My first class at Govt School the first day I was with those wonderful children.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Vivek Rajsekhar

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Mr. Yatin Sethi

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Overall an amazing experience, got to learn a lot from managing teams to organizing events. Can't wait to come back to India to get involved again.

Being involved with the Bangalore team for long time, I had a diverse role in the team. Although I was assigned Finance Rep role, but I was actively involved in organizing events, managing the team, PR work - blogging, managing groups, etc, and several other roles. I was well connected with the volunteers, although not all of them. Organizing various events helped me touch base with all volunteers at some or the other point of time.

I knew all the cell-heads and chapter reps and had regular interactions with them. This helped to transfer knowledge of activities that they were conducting and also to learn more about their chapter needs.

My major achievements & initiatives were:

• Chapter Level - Organizing events, Managing the team, PR work - blogging, managing online groups, etc.
• National Level - Finding support for Pankhudi from various non-profit, industry and CSR leaders, Evangelizing Pankhudi's idea to other non-profits.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: AIM-3 gathering in Bangalore

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Mohan Murali

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Ms. Smriti Dey

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Its been a wonderful experience and a great learning to be a part of ~Pankhudi. The most important lesson I am learning here is to deal with different kinds of people. How to handle kids with love and care. How to plan and implement the strategies made during discussions.

I am having a very good terms and bonding with all the ~Pankhudi members of Mumbai as well as members from other chapters. Never had any conflict or bitter discussions with anyone. Got a different level of support and co-operation from fellow ~Pankhudians.

Had a nice interaction with all the Central Cell heads and got a nice support and guidance from Krunal, Namita, Shahzad, Surya, Aditi, Ram. Didn't got much chance to meet some of them in person, but they were there whenever I needed them on calls / mails.

Major initiatives & achievements: Being a part of ~Pankhudi in Mumbai, planned and conducted cultural and educational events, creative activities, maintaining a good volunteer base, following up and getting in touch with some other NGOs and social entrepreneurs for seeking their support and co-operation, active volunteer for teaching in ~Protsahan classes, designed course structure, working on standardizing teaching plans & techniques, making New Year Cards.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Republic Day Celebration in Suman Nagar Balwadi.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Shahzad Wakeel

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Ms. Swati Yedekar 

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Working in pankhudi Pune team (till Feb’08) had been a wonderful experience. It is a team that thinks together, acts together and laughs together :) The team members had a very good rapport and this was one of the main reasons behind successful implementation of the classes for Wakdewadi slum kids. The classes were very well organized and co-ordinated among the team members and focus was on how well the child learnt. The teaching methodology was adopted according to the child’s needs, understanding and grasping ability and not according to what the teacher felt.

I had interaction with most of the chapter volunteers on a regular basis and we cud at ease discuss our ideas & concerns, work out plans and implement them. I was good at planning &implementation in my chapter and this was entirely due to the team work put together by all the team members.

I regularly interacted with Cell Heads Shahzad and Namita.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: There were many such moments...everytime when we got together to go to Manavya or Sweekar... the Protsahan kids' dance performance at Shiamak dawar's show... all the celebrations that d team had together :)... i might ve missed out on a few more :)

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Krunal Desai

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Mr. Siddarth Pooboni 

Experience, Learning & Initiatives at Pankhudi

Hyderabad chapter could not much as all volunteers were not available or moved to different areas. We are trying to establish the work again.

My most memorable moment in Pankhudi: Health camps, weekend classes, general visits to places to meet and spend time with people were the most pleasing moments being in Pankhudi. Team work was the one thing I loved most.

Most inspiring person for me in Pankhudi: Surya Adavi

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Leadership Development Group (Pankhudi LDG)
Krunal Desai, Aditi Kulkarni, Namita Dalmia, Surya Adavi, Ram Kumar, Yatin Sethi, Jyotsana Bobba

To join any of the teams, please send an email to: join@pankhudifoundation.org
Please also visit ~Pankhudi Community on Orkut

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