Closed Doors ??? - N.B.T Nagar Govt School

The denial of a person’s right to education is equally a denial of his right to exist as a free and productive human being. For without education, the individual is condemned to the prison of his own ignorance, tortured over his lack of opportunities, and, more than likely, consigned to a life of poverty, underdevelopment, and oppression.

In most cases, however, it is not a matter of will but of resources. In the developing world, especially, many governments simply do not have the infrastructure to provide their young people with an adequate education but it is an entirely different matter when a government willfully seeks to deprive its people — or a group of its people — from receiving an education.
Sadly, this is the scenario at the Banjara Hills N.B.T Nagar Government School.

When team ~Pankhudi visited this place last week, what we heard was an awful fact. If you had an option to choose between Maruti and Mercedes which one would you choose? However, these school children have no option. All they have to do is wait…, wait till the government changes.

It’s not about cars, it’s about their education. There’s a new school building that was constructed for these children; huge and spacious when compared to the present building which accommodates nearly five grades in a single room. To their misfortune, these children are not being shifted to the new building just because the local people do not want the politician now in power to inaugurate the school. And for the politician to change, these pitiable kids have to wait until the govt changes; even unsure if it would actually do.

These are the pictures of the old and new school buliding. Imagine students from first to fifth standard studying in one single room waiting for their dream buliding to be inaugurated. Hope these politicians & people realise that the Future of their own kids is much highly valuable than the local politician or politics. I recollect a statement of Albert Einstein which said
“ I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn “

Cheers…

~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad

SIDUR - 11th Feb Visit

For all those who are new let me just give an intro what is SIDUR is all about?
SIDUR is a associate of Child Line (1098), where in they home orphans, street kids and run away kids, they do receive some corporate help. Pankhudi Hyd team is associated with SIDUR since a long time. All the previous visits which we have carried on actually for building a relationship between us and kids over there.

So we actually planned this visit for 3 main activities.
1. Permission for Clothes distribution for all the kids there from the funds whcih we pooled up.
2. Review the health of the kids there.
3. Assess their educational Levels as we were informed that few students there dropped out of school due to lack of funds.

We planned to be at the place by 10:30 in the morning. Ramesh along with his friends was the first to be there. I along with Prabhanjan and Jyostna joined a little later though.Initially we drafted all the kids names and their educational standards.
We were quite satisfied with their progress and we realized that the information that few kids had dropped out from school, was actually false.There was only one kid who dropped out from the school, who actually dropped out because he wanted to go back home.

Three others who have cleared their intermediate first year are working part time and plan to continue their studies next year, as they were more interested in a course which would earn them a job early.Many others are regular to school and are showing good progress.By the time our analysis was done, we managed to distribute some sweets and chocolates, which were brought by a friend of mine (Swetha) as it was her birthday and she wanted to distribute them to all the kids over there, she could mark here presence though.

Then we talked to the management there and got the permission to get a tailor and take measurements and get Clothes stitched for all the kids there.The management was quite responsive and very happy. Thanks to the management for a quick permission to go ahead.
Also, we enquired about the medical facilities and were told that a doctor visits them every Friday and he takes care of their regular Health.

So now, we were left with enough time to play with the kids. We encouraged Samba (the kid who dances really well) and he sprung into action again. Every body was charged up with his dance. Few kids also teamed up to sing a folk song, which we also plan to have properly recorded for a campaign to create awareness among the rural uneducated public.

We had spent some time teaming among ourselves and joining them and playing different games and when we thought we might have spent half an hour, to our surprise it was almost 4 hours that we were there and it was also time for their lunch.
Hence we closed our day’s session on a positive note that we actually got the permission to offer clothes to kids, which we assumed would me a mighty task.

P.S : And the immediate coming week, we had gone there with a Tailor and have taken all their measurements. The clothes shall be stitched and given to all those kids there sometime during Mid-March. We thank all those People who had contributed Monetarily, and Physically for this task.

Hoping to see such continued support and continued service to these kids….

Cheers…
~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad

Republic Day Celebrations

Date - 26th January, 2007

Location - Kakaguda Govt. School, Secunderabad.

Team ~Pankhudi - A total of 26 members for 26th Jan Event



Enthusiastic about flag hoisting, excited with a flag pinned up ontheir dress, getting game for the cultural events- this is how therepublic day celebrations started off at govt. primary school,Kakaguda, Secunderabad. It was the volunteers day as well as therewas good attendance of volunteers. So, may be that also added up tothe excitement of the kids in the school.
Flag hoisting was the first event wherein pankhudians helped theteachers of the school arranging the flag and hence hoisting itsuccessfully. It was great to be there at a school as a serviceactivity with a patriotic feel within. Well I am sure all volunteersmust have been nostalgic about good old school days and then the JanaGana Mana..woow that was awesome. I am sure it was worth waking up alittle early compared to other days and rushing to the school.



Dandia, group songs and not to forget the thing “Burra Katha” (whichwas a wonderful performance by one of the students) were allmemorable performances. Cheers to all the volunteers who were thereto get the kids together for practice sessions and made it a greatexperience altogether. The main round of applause goes to Pattu (Mr.Monterio), whois associated with the school and has helped us associate ourselveswith the school, and had given us the pleasure of serving the school.

After the cultural event, our volunteers distributedchocolates; and the kids were game for the sports events. With alittle time gap, we started the sports by dividing the kids intogroups.We had lemon and spoon race, running race and three leggedrace. The competitive spirit in the kids was appreciable, aseverybody was vieing to win when we announced prizes forthe winners. All the Volunteers really need a goodround of applause for the successful completion of the sports events. All of them were key participants in arranging the events.

On an Concluding note, the winners were given away the prizes and the rest were motivated to be more sportive for the coming events.
Putting it in nutshell, it was a great and memorable republicday, cherishable for a long time.Hope to have more of such events ahead and see more active participation of ourvolunteers.

Cheers…

~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad

Visit to St.Teresa’s Tender Loving Care!

Place: St.Teresa’s Tender Loving Care

Date: 18th December, 2005

Team ~Pankhudi : Adept (Praveen), Klueless (Krishnakanth), Sumanth, Shilpa, Divya, Ramesh, Rachna, Nitin & Harini.

This Sunday was our first visit to an orphanage as Team ~Pankhudi…

We arrived at the orphanage, just when the kids were getting ready for their bath. So we were asked by the sister in charge of the place, Sister Teresa, to come over and take a look at the backgrounds of the children in the home.
As the horrific stories of abandonment and bureaucratic battles unfolded…we couldn’t help but feel very sad for the plight of these young and beautiful children. Sister Teresa showed us snaps of kids they had found abandoned in dustbins, empty street ways and desolate corners and told us stories about the long standing battles between the government and the couples willing to adopt. The sad state of affairs really brought tears to our eyes.
Finally after an hour of listening to sister’s heart rending stories we were allowed to meet the children…

We were led into a room full of about smiling and welcoming faces…the average age of the children there was about 5…
It was wonderful to get introduced to all the adorable little kids…they were so excited to introduce themselves to us and so were we. We had taken along chocolates, biscuits and sum toys with us.

There were about 30+ kids in the orphanage…and ironically all were girls. Being a large group we could easily go around and mingle with all the kids…the kids were so excited about telling us their names…they were thrilled when one of us distributed the chocolates to them…each of them tried to get our attention in their own endearing way. It was such a treat to watch them recite A, B, C, D’s and numbers which they had learnt from the sisters. They wanted to play with our watches & mobiles…and told us about what they had done earlier in the day. Soon it was time for their lunch and we had to leave but before that the children sang songs for us.
It was very touching to watch them sing…



Finally it was time to say our good byes and the kids questioned us if we would come and meet them again, some of them even suggested that we come and …it felt really sad to leave them and go meet them the next day home…as for the little time that we were with the kids we had grown as attached to them as they had to us. We promised the kids that we would come back again the next weekend. It’ll be a joy to meet them all again.

Cheers…Team Hyderabad

Krushi Homes - January 1st `07

Attendees- Surya, Sunil, Karthik, Ramesh with 15 of his friends, Vasanth, Prabhanjan, Jyotsna, Revathi, Sadhana and two of her friends.

To start the New Year in style, we visited Krushi homes on January 1st. The start of the year was marked with excitement and celebration, for the kids as well as our team. Reminding us of a previous meet, this time too there were equal number of volunteers as the kids. There were 30 kids and 26 volunteers were inn for the day. We had taken some Stationary like Books, Pens, Pencils, Erasers and Sharpners, Rulers etc. We had also taken some pairs of clothing to distribute among the boys there. Though we got both boys and girls apparel from the drive, we had to sort boy’s clothes here as it was a Home for Boys.

We had four new members from GNITS, the college where we had given a presentation last week. And also, around 15 students, mostly Ramesh’s friends, had turned up from Srinidhi College; the college where we had recently started our Donation Drive. The girls from GNITS had got a cake along with them. This had served a dual purpose for the occassion. It was also one of the boy’s Birthday there, and we could add to his happiness by having a Cake cutting celebration. Also, we gifted him a a car with some special feature of emitting smoke while it drove.. Technology you see.

As known, there was no way we could miss a dance session at Krushi. And this time around, the guys were equipped with a Public Audio System, to satiate their urge for a Dolby effect. To add up some spice, Vasant had given some warm up for his muscles. The kids loved his performance, and some of us actually envied him too..

Tired by the long dancing session, the kids took a break to grab some chocolates and a couple of cake pieces. Rejuvenated soon, they then took onto some Gaming session. As evident to their obsession to music, they choose to play Musical Chairs. Yielding to their pleasing request, we played the game with some volunteers also taking part to test their might with the kids. But as always, the kids proved their upper hand. The Winner and the Runner up were given a Video Game and a Bike as Prizes. The next game was “Dog and the Bone”. The two teams choose their names and the game went on for more than an hour, when we had to conclude the game abruptly and declare both the teams as Winners, as it was getting too late for their lunch.

We then gave the clothes we took and asked the Warden to distribute them according to the sizes. Done with it, we bid Adieu to the kids. The kids invited us to celebrate the coming Sankranthi festival with them with some Kite flying masti sessions. Sure to get back, we left them into their lunch session and made our way back with the Joy of starting the New Year on such a Pleasant note..

To View the pictures, check out http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/pankhudi_hyd/photos/browse/94d6

Cheers
Team Hyderabad.

Our Christmas Visit

“Coming together is the beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success”——Henry Ford.

Place 1: Missionaries of Charity.

Date: 25th December 2005

Team Pankhudi: Adept (Praveen),KK (Klueless), Sumanth, Ramesh,Shilpa, Pranathi, Soumya, Bindu, Shailaja, Sandeep.

We the team Pankhudi , reached Missionary Charity by 9:30 am today. We were welcomed into the portals by parrots with red beaks……haan many cute little kids who had their lip-stick session 5 min back. We found children of all age groups here, from kids below 1 year to 15 years. They are altogether 55 in number. They were of all kinds but, basically orphans. Some were mentally retarded ,physically defected and even normal kids as well.The kids are being sent to 3 schools,one St.Andrew’s and two other telugu medium schools.We greeted Merry Christmas and distributed chocolates. Music was being played and 2-3 girls were dancing, adding color to The Missionary Charity on this auspicious Christmas Eve.

The children seemed to be mal-nourished and the orphanage conditions are unhygienic. Now the tragic stories…………..

A 1 ½ year old kid Anish was laying on the bed.The sad part of it is this Anish, has some problem with the spinal chord and has to permanently lay on the bed, can’t sit, stand or play around like other kids. He is’nt having proper senses and even defected eyes.We tried feeding him with bits of chocolate but all went in vain as we were told later that he is given only horlics everyday .God!!! How is he surviving only on horlics in that gloomy dark room on a tiny bed??? My friend Soumya brought him out and we could a little smiling Anish. He was realizing that he’s been brought out.

A kid was sitting on the floor to one corner of the door, with all his fingers in his mouth …I noticed that he was sitting in the same posture for the 2 hrs that we’ve been there.He is utterly mal-nutritioned ,seemed to be a bag of bones. Even he seemed to be mentally retarded. The happy part was he ate the chocolate we gave him when feeded by one of his friend there at the orphanage.

The most horrible part was, a girl child of the age of 6-7 years with some skin allergy and having wounds bleeding on her face. I couldn’t just stand that but geared up myself saying “looking at her seems so awkward to me, how is that girl surviving with such an allergy?”Anyway when working for a social cause we should have the mettle to bear anything and everything. Its been told that she is been brought from a dustbin in a place, Guntoor and she has that skin allergy by birth. But, I feel if attended by doctors properly she would have been alright by now. One kid was mentally retarded. He was craving for touch. So, we fondled him.

These kids will be given breakfast (idli, dosa etc.) and lunch. We’ve seen the orphanage kitchen. It seemed very insalubrious. Some kids of 1-2 years age group were just playing around. Today being Christmas I think they are well-dressed. Two other visitors came and distributed apples and books. There are not many nurses but, orphans of the agegroup of 12-15 years are taking care of small kids. Unlike St.Theresa’s kids these kids seemed ignorant and illiterate.They were not asking us when we’ll come next. On the whole I can say they are happy with the chocolates that we gave them.

Chat with the sister……….

They don’t Allow adoption and people keep coming on special occasions and sponsor lunch or dinner for kids.They contribute soaps, hair oils etc. The doctors visit this place as if on government duty. We couldn’t leave poor Anish out there…….Overall very bad state.

Our voices…….

How can we help them? How do we improve the conditions there? Are theseconditions indomitable??? What can we contribute there?
Thanks to holy Mother Teresa for providing asylum to such poor babies.We need to visit that place once again .

Place 2: St.Teresa’s Tender Loving Care

Team Pankhudi : Same team members.

To keep up with the word we have given to St.Teresa’s kids we visited that place around 12 am.The children there entertained us and we reciprocated as well.We had the Christmas cake and then departed,saying “Bye Bye Doctors, Bye Bye Doctors,Just now”:)

Cheers…
Team Hyderabad

Visit to Subhodaya School

Date : 9th December `06

Place: Vidyarthi Subhodaya School,Yellareddy Guda,Ameerpet. Time: 10:45 am.

Team Pankhudi : Surya, Sunil, Abhishek, Jyotsna, Padma, Krishna & Preetam.

We gathered at the school by 10:45 am. We had a caring welcome from the kids and we could clearly see the excitement by every child’s expression. We started the day by a customary interactive introduction session and despite the fact that most of the kids were from the local slum, the surprising element was they were able to comprehend and reciprocate in decent English. Students were divided into four groups explicitly- Red, Blue, Yellow and Green.

We saw healthy competition among them when we carried out events like Singing, Dancing and Pictionary during the earlier part of the day. We had good number of kids turning up by taking the initiative to demonstrate their flair with interest. The lunch break was at 12:15 and kids from 1st std. to 4th left homes while the others stayed back. We guys finished our brunch around 1:15 and resumed the sitting at 1:30. During the later part of the day, we conducted Quiz among the high school students for which the response was not up to the mark and we personally felt that, given proper guidance along with sufficient resources they would shine well. After the quiz we conducted Antakshari and Role-plays.

The response for Role-plays was very captivating and every guy out there enjoyed it. Couple of students also enacted like their teachers which was quite interesting. End of the day, we handed over the education material to the Library and informed the students to collect it whenever required. The students thanked and expressed their gratitude. We promised the students a very soon come back and our best efforts to cater with all the basic requests.

The major requirements what the school needs is good Teaching faculty and Infrastructure. Even with very low resources, students were very enthusiastic and bright. Given proper supplies and guidance, we are sure even they can make a difference.
And with our dedication and their cooperation, we are sure to see the School achieve much better standards in the course of our Association.

Cheers…
~Pankhudi Team Hyderabad