Unnati off-league...

The first day when I took slate in my hand. This is what I wrote....Peoople of different cultures living at the same place, sharing same problems, fighting together for living....
I am proud to take responsibilities.. do you!!....
I want to study but i have my sister to carry...
Bread pakoda at his best...:)

Deciding the Strategic Moves

Here is how Sachin describes the visits where the next moves are decided. The best part of these meetings are that they can be very well called Volunteer Informal Meet. The new volunteers and the old volunteers very well merge with each other and decide the future course of action.

During last week we visited Unnati on Sunday, 18th February. We went to Unnati around 2 p.m. We gathered all children from jhuggi and started our regular classes. This time, environment of class was different than our routine classes at Mobile Crèches and Unntati. Children were assembled on green grass under blue sky in a perfect natural world. We divided children into two groups. Gyanesh, Anurag and Aakash were busy in teaching one group and on other hand Manoj, Vineet, Rachit and Jivtesh were managing the second group. Meanwhile Sumit, Manish and Ashutosh also joined us and helped in handling the kidsJ!!!

Nishank and Anil bought slates for the children. Mahesh and Arun were ensuring that every newly admitted child should get slate and chalk. In between for some time a flock of sheep also joined our classesJ!!!! We carried out our classes till 4:30 p.m. At the end we distributed books to some bright children. We also went inside the basti for some time as few of the volunteers had joined us for the first time and they wanted to see the condition there.

Before departing, we had a discussion on following points:

* Hiring a full time teacher for Unnati if children continue to show interest towards studies

* Addressing health related issues of the community i.e. creating health and hygiene awareness in the community by arranging Heath talk with the help of Dr Vineet, distribution of medicines etc.

* Meal a Month program of AID.

* Arranging AID Gurgaon monthly update meeting for all Volunteers and Donors

* Sending monthly update of AID Gurgaon activities to all Donors with a ‘Thank You’ note

* Finding alternatives for distribution of collected clothes.

* Reaching out to more volunteers in Gurgaon, especially for creating buffer for smooth functioning of the projects.

* Collecting funds in a more systematic way for the future spending

We have collected funds of 2.5 k on Sunday (Thanks to all Donor-cum-Volunteers). Now we are growing rapidly, first time in history AID Gurgaon witnessed so many volunteers together (total 15 volunteers) (Thanks to all)

Hurreey Picnic Time!!!!

Here is how Nishank describes it:

The volunteers who went for the picnic were Manish, Rachit, Saikat, Sachin and me.

For Manish and Rachit it was the time they were interacting with Mobile Crèches kids. The bus for the picnic started from Mobile Crèches center at 11 o'clock. There were total 40 kids and all were excited about going for a picnic (these kinds of outings are rare things for them!!!). The bus it seemed was a little bigger for them as they were sitting in a very disciplined manner. (I was expecting lot of hulla gulla J)
The bus took around an hour to reach Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary. In the bus we were trying to talk to the kids but seems they were more engrossed watching the sceneries outside. After reaching the sanctuary we had a group photo with the kids. We never expected that we could get such a serene and natural surroundings near Gurgaon. At that time we also came to knew that children from another Mobile Creches center too have joined us for the picnic and soon we had a bunch of around 80 kids. After going inside the sanctuary, first we went to a small gallery containing posters of different migratory birds along with detailed information about them. The children were looking at them with lot of curiosity.

Then we moved on to go near the lake where most of the birds were there. The lake had some marshy areas to keep the birds at bay from people visiting there. After reaching near the lake we realized that we were missing binoculars. (After all there is a difference between a sanctuary and a zoo). However, the children enjoyed even seeing the birds from a distance. Rachit and Saikat were busy photographing birds using zoom of the camera. Manish and Sachin were busy ensuring kids were not running here and there.

After spending some time near the lake all the children gathered near a tree. There we all sat down and few of the children recited poems. Even Sachin recited a poem for the children which the children followed in chorus. After spending some time there we realized that it was lunch time for the children. We finally decided to return to the bus. While returning we realized that we had come along a long way. The kids were going in small groups. They were asking lot of questions out of their curiosity which we were trying to answer in our best capacity. J For the lunch we went to a park just next to the sanctuary. All the kids were made to sit in a big circle and the lunch was served for them.

After the lunch the children started running here and there and were enjoying playing among the greenery. We also had a brief drawing session for the kids where they were supposed to draw watching the natural surroundings. Then children were then given toffees. Finally it was the time to wrap up and go back.

While returning the bus had to stop near a railway signal for about fifteen minutes. The children got a chance to see "Chuk Chuk Rail Gaadi". Finally the bus reached Mobile Crèches center at 5 o'clock. The children were very happy that they went on a picnic. It was really nice to see their smiling faces.

If you want to watch the complete album for the Mobile Crèches picnic, you can follow this link (courtesy Rachit) :

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/chawlarachit/MobileCrechesPicnic?authkey=5oQJkMTYt3Q

Hope we keep having similar events for children in the future.