Project Kanyaratna Yojana

         

How Surekha became a KanyaRatna
Let me share an experience with you while we are working on KanyaRatna project. Last month, one of our young volunteers, Shri. Shankar Potdar came to the office of Vande Mataram Foundation and told us about one poor family living in a slum area of Malad where a lonely woman is struggling hard with her three daughters. I told him to call the mother to the office. Next day Shankar brought the lady alongwith her daughters to the office. A pale and weak mother stood quiet and could not speak for few moments. When we reassured her about our intention to support her, she slowly started telling the facts of her life. Married with a rickshaw driver, she had to support her husband by doing some household work in neibouring colony. As usual, Mr. Kadam, her husband, had the habit of alcohol and was also very negligant for his health. They had two daughters and when the lady was pregnant for the third time, her husband was fighting his battle with TB which was not treated in time.
The third daughter when borned found to have hearing problem and the condition of Mr. Kadam was also getting worsened. Within three months he died in front of his eledest daughter who was alone at home at the time.
The entire burden of family fell on the weak shoulders of the mother. Actually, her first priority was the three month old child with hearing problem. But she had no option but to go to the nearby colony and do the household work for the livelihood of her family.
Today the third daughter is six years old and goes to the school of handicapped children in Kandivli.
When the family came to our office, I was stunned when I looked at the elder daughter who is 14 years old. She looked pale, underweight and nervous. I was told that she had just appeared for the 10th exam and waiting for results. Shankar told me that Surekha the elder daughter, weighed only 20 kg and facing several problems. She had arthritis and could not make movement of her left hand.
We decided to adopt all the three sisters and did all the investigations for the elder one. Now she is taking medicines and tonics and we hope that she will improve slowly. She is so weak that anytime she can fall a pray to TB or heart problems. We intend to first settle her health problems and then send her for college education. The second daughter is in 9th standard and we will support her in education, health, sports etc.
We are searching proper medical treatment to the third daughter who needs a quality hearing aid.
The mother herself needs medical support to have a healthy life.
Dear friend, although Mumbai is a rich city, there are several such needy families and children looking for support.
Kanyaratna Project : Vande Mataram Foundation makes special efforts for supporting those girls from below poverty line families and rehabilitates such girls who are mentally challenged, handicapped or orphans. It provides the girls with basic needs like food, clothing, medicine, education etc.
Girls from the age of birth to 13 years are selected from BPL families. A weekly home visit by the co-ordinator is arranged to monitor the development of the girl. Total educational, Medical, Cultural support is given alongwith basic needs as per the situation.

International Inspiration-Sports for developement

      
  • Personality Development Camp for S4D children
  • A unique PDC was organized for the children attending S4D sessions. The camp was held from 16th May to 19th May 2011 at Prabhat colony BMC school, Santacruz (East). Nearly, 100 children from 16 BMC / private schools H east and K east wards participated. 15 CSCs and 15 volunteers managed the PDC everyday from 7 am to 5 pm.

    The daily timetable was as follows :
    7 am to 9.30 Morning prayer
    Warm up exercise
    Small games
    Group songs
    Main game
    Group discussion

  • 9.30 to 10.00 Breakfast
  • 10.00 to 10.30 Writing in notebooks
    (Several posters containing general knowledge, group songs, national anthem, Quotes by eminent people etc. were displayed on the walls of the common passage. Every child (5th to 7th std.) was given a notebook and a pen to write the information for himself.
  • 10.30 to 12.30 The children are divided in four groups and sit in different class rooms. We had arranged faculties to teach arts like Rangoli, drawings, handicrafts, indoor games, story telling, group discussions, making Best out of Waste etc. Everyday different people came and took lessons for the children.
  • 12.30 to 1.30 was lunch time. Every child had brought a plate, bowl and a glass from his home. The children will sit in line for lunch while a few selected ones will serve the food. Nobody to start eating before the common prayer in Sanskrit. After eating the food everybody will wash his plate, bowl etc and keep them in their classroom. Then the remaining small batch will eat along with the teachers, faculties, volunteers and guests. One day we had ‘Mook Bhojan’ meaning ‘Silent Lunch’. Nobody will ulter a word for 45 minutes. Demanding or serving is done by actions only. This was unique, successful and everybody enjoyed.
  • 1.30 to 3.30 was the time devoted for group activities, cultural teachings like Dance, Music, Drama etc. Memory game, clay playing, GK test etc. A group of college students came to impart skills of leadership, time management, presentation etc. Several competitions were also organized for the children.
  • At 3.30 again all the children used to come together for fun songs, snake show, route march etc. At the end, a group prayer for the Motherland used to be held before giving a soft drink. At 5 p.m. every child will go to his home. The CSCs, volunteers and co-ordinators used to have a daily meeting to overview the day’s proceedings and discuss the next day programs.
    On the last day, a grand function was held to conclude the camp. Famous poet and social thinker Shri. Hastimal Hasti was invited as the Chief Guest. The function started at 4.30 p.m. with lighting of the lamp and prayers. A group song was sung and the co-ordinator Mr. Sachin Khedekar felicitated the chief guest with flowers & momento. The chief instructors. Ankit Inamke gave the four day proceedings in brief to the audience. Several parents had arrived for the concluding function. The prize distribution and certificate distribution was done at the hands of the chief guest. Mr. Sinnarkar gave a small speech about S4D activity and the objective of conducting the camp. The chief guest, in his speech, lauded the work being done by UNICEF, BMC and V M Foundation for the benefit of the children of municipal schools. Then the cultural program started. Various items like group dance, break dance, magic show, drama etc were beautifully presented by the children. Everybody enjoyed the event. A few parents and children expressed their feelings regarding S4D and PDC. Ultimately, the function got concluded with a soft drink for everybody.
    No fees were charged to the students. The entire expenses of food, traveling, education & sports material, art material etc was done by S4D and VMF. The CSCs and volunteers were paid conveyance allowances.

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