A brief glimpse about Unnati !!!

This write up on Unnati was written by Sanchit few days back.

How the seeds were sown - Unnati was started by AID Gurgaon volunteers in Jan 2007. It was on their way back from Mobile creches that the volunteers came across a slum besides Rajeev Chowk. They decided to visit the basti and found enormous scope of improvement in the lives of the people. The most striking aspect was the need for education of the innocent children who spent most of their time playing or helping the parents in their jobs. So the volunteers decided to do something for them and hence came the idea of setting up a school near the basti itself. So it turned out that on Republic day, the school was started without any shelter on a piece of land lying vacant very close to the basti. Very aptly, the school and the basti were given the name "Unnati", meaning progress.

The beginning - It's been a long journey for Unnati marked by lots of ups and downs. The first real progress was made when the volunteers were able to find a room in Jharsa village (walkable distance from the basti). It was a significant milestone but was followed by another one when with kind help from Literacy India, the volunteers were able to find a regular teacher - Sumanji. Without doubt, a lot of credit goes to her as traveling everyday from Palam Vihar to mainstream Gurgaon is not an easy task.

Keeping the momentum going - Once the school started, the volunteers realized that the inhabitants lead a very hard life. It could not be taken for granted that once the school had started, the children will keep on attending on their own. The parents as well as the children had to be kept motivated all the time. So the volunteers kept visiting the school as well as the basti on a regular basis. This ensured that the attendance did not drop significantly at any point of time.

The Independence Day 2007- With Independence day approaching, the volunteers saw an opportunity to hold big celebrations which the kids would hardly have seen and experienced till now. And it did work! There was flag hoisting, singing of the National Anthem, sweets and lots of fun. The amount of fun that the kids had was evident from their faces. And it was realized that such events do mean a lot for the kids especially if they haven't had too many opportunities.

More bastis and loosing out on the original Unnati basti - As the days progressed, the regular drop in attendance started to give a few headaches to the volunteers. Even regular visits to the basti were not enough to keep the kids and their parents motivated. This was of-course coupled with the frequent migration of some of the families in the basti. Thus the volunteers had no other option but to look towards more bastis. If you've visited Gurgaon, you would know that there's no dearth of construction sites and thus the bastis. So they found out not one but three of them, located near the school. Today the school has a strength of around 60 children and the classes are held in two batches - 9.30am to 11.30am and 11.30am to 1.30pm. But there's a bit of an irony - that not a single kid comes to school from the basti from where it all started. The volunteers though have not given up and keep visiting the Unnati basti once in a while.

Republic day turnaround - Last month, Unnati celebrated its first anniversary on Republic Day - 26th January 2008. This time along with the flag hoisting, singing of the National Anthem and sweets distribution, the volunteers thought of something special. So the idea of holding a sports event came up. The events included relay race, ball-in-the-bucket and spoon-race to name a few. After the games, a prize distribution ceremony was held where kids coming out in flying colors in the games as well as academically were awarded medals and prizes. Apart from this, with the generous help of Hero Honda sponsors, school-bags, water-bottles, tiffin-boxes and study-kits were distributed. In the end, it was a well planned and executed event and the smiles on the faces of all the kids throughout the day said it all!

Looking forward - The volunteers are working hard to maintain the momentum that has been gained with enormous amount of hard work and dedication put in by the whole team of AID-Gurgaon. There are plans in coming April-May season to get a number of students admitted in recognized schools. If we can pull this off, it would another milestone in the chapter of Unnati!

Glimpses from Unnati:

Children busy at Unnati's School !!!

Volunteers also involved in interacting with children along with their teacher Sumanji !!!

Every child gets a limelight :) !!!

It takes time to build rapport with children !!!

Kids of Unnati !!!

Children doing the tasks given !!!

Children happy after getting benches for their school !!!

An empty shop which was converted to Unnati's school !!!

More such ad hoc schools are needed to bridge gap for the children who don't receive regular schooling !!!

Volunteers also visit the basti to encourage children to come to school and to interact with their parents !!!

Republic Day Celebrations @Prayas, Gurgaon

Given below are details of the Republic Day celebrations at the Prayas centre, Gurgaon in January 2008.

Volunteers from Evalueserve and Sparsh organized Republic Day celebrations at the centre to interact with the students. Varun, Abhinav and Ankit from Evalueserve and Sumit, Priyanka and Shweta from Sparsh volunteered and conducted the program. The volunteers kick-started the celebration by educating the children about the importance and relevance of the day by recapitulating the historical events surrounding the day This was followed by a brief round of introductions.

The volunteers organized a host of activities such as flag-making, poetry recitation and prize distribution. The flag-making session was started off by dividing the children into teams of five students. Each team was encouraged to choose a representative name and assigned a volunteer to guide them. The children were then educated about the structure of the national flag and each student was then provided paper and colours to make one flag. The children were told that their teacher Mr. Devendra would adjudge the best three flags and the students who made them would be acknowledged. The children spent considerable time and effort to make their own flags. The end result was terrific and choosing the top three flags proved to be a very difficult task. The students were then given their flags and photographed with their flags.

The flag-making activity was followed by a poetry recitation activity. Each student was encouraged to recite poetry in front of everyone. The students then came up and recited poems learnt in the school.

Finally, much to the delight of everyone, sweets were distributed to all students at the centre. This was followed by a prize-distribution ceremony to acknowledge the hard-work put in by the students in the school. Essential stationary materials such as pencils, sharpeners and erasers were provided to all students who are capable of writing. The volunteers concluded the session by stressing the importance of attending the school regularly to all the students present.

The activity was well received by the students and saw good participation. The day provided the volunteers a great opportunity to interact with the students, who with their friendly demeanor lent warmth to the otherwise chilly day.

A journey called Unnati !

This video gives you a glimpse about our journey at Unnati. Hope you like it. Do post your comments too.

Independence Day @ Unnati

Hey guys,
This is an Update of Celebration of Independence Day at Unnati written by our volunteer Srinivasan

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Dear Friends,

What a way to celebrate the 60th year of Indian Independence and the 150th anniversary of the 1857 Freedom Struggle! To quote that ‘in every crisis lays an opportunity’ would just be a formality.

The Independence Day celebrations began in the early morning hours of August 15, but the foundation for this ‘unprecedented’ event was laid a couple of days back by two spirited men; Sachin from EVS and Shankar from Hero Honda. Shankar had an idea that was aptly supported by Sachin. The finale was a soul-touching Azaadi ka Jashn with our very own Unnati. It was a pleasant surprise that the volunteers list was dominated by techies from Hero Honda. The support cast included the Guru Sumanji (and her daughter Priyanka), Manisha (EVS), Isha, Manoj Rathi (Market RX), Asutosh and Tarun (EVS), Rajesh khanaaji, Kashyap, Kamal, Akhilesh (all from Hero Honda), Harkeerti and of course, yours truly.

Sachin, Shankar and I landed at ground zero at 7.30 AM and were amazed to see the young and adorable kids waiting for us. Sachin and Shankar had intimated them earlier about a possible celebration and we could sense that the kids were pretty expectant as this was their first. We also overheard the localites that the kids were anxiously wandering around Unnathi since 6.00 AM in the morning. Sumanji Sr. and Jr. were energetic from the very beginning; they spread the colors of independence on a beautiful rangoli. I was assigned the task of calligraphy. I beautified the wall with the letters of ‘Independence Day’. Forgive me if the letters look twisted and tweaked in the photographs. Meanwhile, Sachin and Shankar made the necessary arrangements for the all important ‘flag-hoisting’. The landlord was very supportive indeed. By 8.30 AM the trickle of volunteers began and by 9.00 AM we were 10-12 in strength

Rathi bhai took up the task of teaching the kids the importance of the day. They displayed tremendous enthusiasm during the ‘class’. He egged them on the verses of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. By 9.30 AM they were ready for the finale. Isha and Manisha kept themselves occupied with the little ones. The live-wire Kashyap captured those fantastic moments in his Handycam. The entry of a huge box of jalebis signaled the beginning of the flag hoisting ceremony. As we all sang the National Anthem in chorus, the tri-color unfurled itself and started rattling in the wind, making us remember those heroes whose blood sweat and tears brought us Azaadi.

Soon after the kids tasted the mouth watering Jalebis and called it a day. A short round of volunteer introduction then followed. We then left the place with a sense of fulfillment. This is just the beginning. Time shall stand testimony to all future events.

I would like to thank all the volunteers for their whole-hearted support in making the event memorable. Others need not feel left out, there is always another day. Life is calling…where are you?

Jai Hind. Vande Mataram!

Yours truly,
Srinivasan

Chidiyaaa Udd.......

It was a sad day for Unnati...

Nishank was leaving Gurgaon....

He is heading to US for his higher studies.... However, we were happy too as finally got what he was waiting for..

Guess what, it was Eisha's b'day too....

Hurrey...

Party time!!!...

Eisha brought Paties, chips (i just love them...) and cake for everyone.... Awesome...

Children were also very happy...

Oh shucks!!.. how can i forget Dairy Milk...(I hope everybody remembers this one.. )

She got Dairy Milk for everyone.... :)

Ahem.. Ahem..well i shouldn't say but I was really very hungry... forgot to had breakfast in the morning... but got so excited when I saw so many things to eat... :)

You can say i was like this....


as if i was seeing all this for the first time...

He was a bit confused ye kya ho raha hai... mummy ne to bola tha school mei padai hoti hai... par ye to bohot acha school hai ... :)

Now see how happy everyone looks ...


Kuch baaat hai Dairy Milk mei....

Well this was not all... after the school was over and all the kids were gone it was time to show your skills... eh? skills...Now you will ask me what kind of skills....

Look at this....



Manish showing his skills....

Infact I must say he is very good at it..

I also learned from him that I should also start practicing it.... It can always help you as an alternate career option...

So after everything was cleaned it was time to sit together for a serious meeting.. humm.. AID Gurgaon was about to have a serious meeting....

Guess what... the meeting turned out to be 'Chidiya ud' competition...

Chidiya ud..
Maina ud..
Kauwa ud...
Bhais ud...

ud gayi ungli... Ooops I got out.. :(

But competition was still going on and all the volunteers were busy keeping their eye on their fingers ki kahi galat janwar pe na ud jaye...

One by one volunteers were getting out... and competition was getting tougher.. but in the end we had two champions...

Champ Manisha and Champ Eisha.... ( Clappings for their maiden victory... )

Well I'm practicing hard these days to win the next AID Gurgaon Chidiya Ud competition...

How about AID Inter Chapter Chidiya Ud competition... Its not going to be easy to take over the AID Gurgaon team..

Check out the AID Gurgaon champions...



Many people asked me that what is all this happening...

I think social service is not about just carrying jhola and moving everywhere... its about joining with people.. its about making good friends.. its about having fun ... its about spending fun time with kids... its about you.. its about them... its about all of us...

Its about bringing the change....

being the change...

I am proud to be the part of AID Gurgaon

Dance Dance Dance

Dance Dance

I just love dancing.. so when Shilpi told me that she can get her dance teacher at Unnati to teach dance steps to kids, I got excited...

Wow...

Dance...

I started waiting for the weekend when the dance teacher will be visiting Unnati...

I reached the class in the morning and this is what i saw:

Awesome... :)

Everyone was dancing :)

Even the boys were learning classical dance...

1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2,

All the hands in the class were moving on this rhythm...

Children were really loving it...

They even made Himanshu dance with their moves:



Check out our spiky :)

Doh!!.. what to say about him... Looks like he is trying to fly...

Tara and Durga came out to be the best dancer and in the end also showed their dance to everyone....


Well this was not the end... after the fun time it was time to study...

Eisha (our visiting teacher from outside India :)) started the class with numbers...

1, 2, 3, 4, .....6, 7, 8..

It reminded me of my childhood.. how hard it was to remember that 8 comes after 7 and 7 comes after 6.. ufff.... I really couldn't understand at that time that why can't the 8 come after 6!!!.. they are easy to remember, isn't.. aaah.. only God knows the reason..

After the numerical class it was my turn... and i started revising them about chuha...

RAT MAT CAT NAT ... i don't know what all...

Hey do you guyz saw... Unnati is now all changed... Have a look at the board... its changed from the black board to white board....

Check out our posters..

I would give the credit for all the changes that are recently going on at Unnati to Eisha... she is a Gem of a person... She is teaching the kids with full dedication..

Hats off to her..

Guyz.. Unnati is progressing!!!..

Spiky..

Hey people did i tell you about spiky...


Naah...

We have a child whose hair style is no less than hair styles of models..

I guess he can easily replace all the models in the Garnier hair Gel advertisement...

Here is our spiky...

Girls vs. Boys

First of all sorry, sorry, sorry...

I know i'm very late... but despite of all the efforts by this mean world to stop me... I am here to tell you about the Unnati's visit...

Well well, we started the day with some english class, teaching the children about how to greet a person when you meet them for the first time...

How du du du... (basically that means How do you do?)
I am phine, Thanku ...
Wat is yur name?

I hope from the title you all must have got an idea about what i'm about to tell you...

The WAR which is going on since years and still no decision has been made...

The historical war between girls and boys... We decided to finally make an end to it by having a hot competition between girls and boys...

Well everybody know that this is just a formality and its unanimously known that who should win... but we still thought of having it so that the other party feels comfortable... :)

If you guyz remember we had a similar competition sometime back in Mobile Creches and you know how won :)

Girls and boys were separated and Unnati was divided into two teams.... Girls were on the left side and on my right were boys...

Questions started...

Datto ko english mei kya kehte hai... Teeth

Sir ko english mei kya kehte hai... Head

Ungaliyo ko english mei kya kehte hai... Fingers

Girls .. Boys.. Girls.. Boys..Girls.. Boys..

and teams started answering one after the other... I was impressed by the way they were answering the questions...

Though both the teams earned the same points no. of points but boys were answering in a better way :)

Ofcourse

Well its obvious too.. :)

We raised the level of questions and the war started again...

Questions-Answers, Questions-Answers, Questions-Answers

both the teams were fighting and volunteers got equally involved in the competition...

Slowly, the competition which started with a close fight finally got completed when one team took over the other team with few points....

Do you want me to tell you who won...

Ofcourse Boys!!! :)

I know now people are going to kill me after reading this post.. :)

Happy Unnati!!!...

What do you think.....

Thanks to all the people who have been reading this blog regularly since its first few articles...

Now we would like to hear from you..

Please let us know about your experiences and what more could be done to improve...