Aegis India

Monday, May 01, 2006

Starting to SMILE [AEGIS Adopts first Mobile school]

Date : April 30th 2006
Place : Kondapur

We are more than pleased to announce that AEGIS India has adopted a mobile school (Samyuktha has dubbed their Mobile Schools as SMILE) and will be funding this school in the months to come.

After we got a very positive response from most of the AEGIS India members on adopting a Mobile school, we worked closely with Samyuktha foundation in identifying a school; we choose a school in the slums abutting Satyam office in Madapur.
Prasanna and I met up with Srikanth of Samyuktha at a medical camp being organized in a slum in Kondapur and passed on an initial amount of 5000 to Samyuktha foundation; out of the 5000, 3000 will be spent towards the monthly expenditure (which would be a reoccurring expenditure we will have to bare to maintain the school) incurred towards hiring a teacher and maintaining the basic services. As the school is in tatters and needs to withstand the down pours of the monsoon, we would be using 2000 of the 5000 for building a more robust shack.

We are planning on using either Tin or asbestos on an iron frame for this school, in a way we will be experimenting on building a structure which is strong as well as economical, well we plan on using the help of the community which would benefit from this endeavor.

We are also exploring the possibility of getting AEGIS India as a NGO body. We will shine more light on this once we have had a word with the authorities and have an understanding of the registration process.

We would like to extend our warm gratitude to one and all are helping us build this voluntary community, they say a journey of million miles starts with a small step, so here we are taking our first steps towards realizing our objectives and ideals, wishing all of us the drive, the energy, the ardent will to go all the million miles. Please carryon with the great support spread the word… and let’s spread more SMILES :-) :-) :-) :-)

Pictures from the Medical camp held on Sunday at a slum in Kondapur where Samyuktha foundation runs a mobile school

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Samyuktha Mobile School

Date : Saturday 25th March 2006
Place :Vicinity of Madapur, Hyderabad

The Trip
It was promising to be a hot hot hyderabadi summers day, with the sun just preparing to let loose his wrath. We (myself, srikanth from Samyuktha, Prasanna, Manikandhar, Nagaraja & Ranjit) reached a clearing in one the most posh colonies of Hyderabad, before us was a small shack and some foliage, srikanth who knows this place like the back of his hand led the way in to the foliage , and we followed him. What we saw just a few meters in to the foliage bowled us out. There were 100s of small shacks spread across the hill side, with drain water meandering all across the place; it was a settlement of construction labor well camouflaged from the world beyond the road (Inidan army might want to use some help from these guys in hiding their army bases :-)).

The School

We started a hiking expedition to the top of the hillock , negotiating the boulders and staidly going up the hill and as we were moving up we heard the kids shouting in chorus... A, B, C, D, E…….

The sound was coming out of a small shack on the top, we approached and peeped in and to our astonishment, there was no teacher (s/he had gone to attend a teachers training program being organized by samuktha), it was just a bunch of kids religiously chanting their daily lessons.

The Idea
This is one of the many schools which samyuktha foundation has setup to educate the kids of construction labor, these laborers typically root themselves in a location like this for a couple of years and move on in search of fresh pastures.

The idea of these mobile schools is to give the kids and their parents a taste of education, and help them understand the value of it.

Srikanth who has been with this foundation from about a year, explained that it costs them around 3500 a month to operate such schools. These schools have a make shift class room in a temporary shed, a black board and a teacher who is hired for about 1300 + traveling expenses. Each such teacher is trained to do her job better by a monthly teacher training camps held by samyuktha.

The children of the school greeted us with warm smiles and were courteous enough to spread a red carpet (oh ya it was a red carpet) for us and asked us to sit on it.

Our Meeting after the Visit - Thoughts
We headed down the small hillock and planted our selves under the very tree which obscures the sights of these shacks from the rest of the world and had a long chat about what we might do to chip in and help.

To summarize our talk (which was a mixture of emotion, feeling and ideas) we concluded that

We would start funding a mobile school once we have enough funds to see us off through two months.
We plan on starting this activity in the month of May so that we at least have funds to support for the first two months in to this as buffer. Also to make sure that each of our members refer as many other friends to this group so that we can raise more funds and plan for more activities.
Looking at the number of active members involved, we feel the need to raise the minimum monthly contribution from Rs.100/- to Rs.150/-, people who are willing to contribute more than this are more than welcome and we would also appreciate if some of you could pay the annual amount at a time.
In the eventuality of having surplus funds, we would be using these funds to sponsor bright kids form these mobile schools and other identified government schools for a better educational experience at government residential / public schools with a humanitarian face.
Assiduously work towards bringing in more members in to the group.
Try and spend some time with these kids and the teachers, hopefully at least once every three weeks.

Monday, December 12, 2005

The Blanket Day

The "Blanket Day" program conducted by groups Aasara & AegisIndia has been a great success. More than 130 destitute people lying on the footpaths have been benefited because of this in Hyderabad & Vijayawada. Out of these AegisIndia contributed 50 blankets & others by Aasara, which actually started off this great program. This initiative permeated to other places as well - It has been conducted in Vijayawada by the Professors of Koneru Lakshmiah College of Engg. who are active members of AegisIndia.

This program was conducted on 10th of December & it started off

from Mehdipatnam at 10PM. Then the blanket distribution went on covering people in Lakdi-ka-Pool, Koti, Imliband Bus station, Nampally, Khairatabad, Ameerpet, Secunderabad.... The program was conducted in Vijayawada too on the same day from 7:30PM. We would all thank those who are continuously supporting & participating either directly or indirectly in making the activities successful. Thankyou friends.

Friday, November 25, 2005

A Chance to serve the poor........

Hey,

There is an initiative of collecting old blankets/clothes/woolen wear to distribute them to those destitutes shivering on the footpaths in the deadly cold waves of Hyderabad this winter. If you can spare some time of looking in your home of some old blankets & woolen wear which may not be of use for us, it can serve a great purpose.

Just drop in a comment here if you have some point. Spread out the word - for a noble cause. Those who can spare some money/new blankets too are welcome. This program (date to be announced shortly) will have a direct chance for you to directly participate with your contributions or if you cant spare time, one of our members will collect & give them to the needy on your behalf.

Monday, November 21, 2005

An Educative & Fun Session with children of RK Bhavan

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This

program which was conducted on 2oth of N0vember 2005 was a great fun for both the members of AegisIndia and the children at RadhaKishan Bhavan in Nanalnagar, near Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad.

As a part of this program, we all had a great fun since the morning. The program started at 9:30AM. It all started with the members being introduced to the children in an innovative way - making the children guess others' names with some imaginative thinking; and then proceeding to the indoor game sessions which the children have enjoyed like anything.

Then the students performing academically well were given prizes. Importantly, all the prizes given were all knowledge giving ones - like Dictionaries, Biographies of great personalities, GK books, Good Story books, Drawing books & Crayons depending on the age of the student.

Later, all the children have taken oath of APJ Abdul Kalam's 10 principles for students.

After this indoor activity, we all had a great fun in the playground. It had been a long while since we all had been into the ground playing all those games which flashed our childhoods into our minds. The games ranged from 7 PENKULU, Shuttle, Handball to Cricket.

Then we presented few maps of World & India and some general books to be put in the library.

In brief, this session was made informal to make sure every child was a part of our program. In the end, we had a lovely time and more importantly, a great memory & joy which we cant get elsewhere.

- Members, AegisIndia

Friday, July 08, 2005

RK Bhavan Students benefited from AegisIndia

We, the members of AegisIndia feeling the social responsibility on our side are contributing to the society – mainly towards Education. We are helping children who need support of any kind for their education. So far, we have helped 13 children in the last two months.

To make it more consistent, we have selected 8 students from one of the institutions run by the Hyderbad Children’s Aid Society. This was established by VK Dhage long ago. You can see the photo of VK Dhage (MP that time) along with Dr. Sarvepalli Radha Krishnan during the inauguration below.

These are the profiles of the children whom we are supporting for this year - 2005.

1. Name: C. Kavitha

Father’s Name: C. Subhash

DOB: 16-8-1996

Class: 1^st Class