AID Delhi newsletter June 2007

8/14/2019 AID Delhi newsletter June 2007

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Association for Indias DevelopmentDelhi Chapter Newsletter

June 2007

Table of Contents From the Editors Desk

From the editors desk 1Project Updates

Aashayen 2 AID Gurgaon 2 AID Prayas 3 Khoj 3 Parichay 4

Youth Task Force 4 Volunteer Speak - Deepika Pant 5

Article - Roshan Jha 6

Meal a Month - Sahil Sethi 6

Testimony - Nishank Sha 7

Interns CornerCraft Workshop at Dilli Haat -PriyankaPande 8 Eureka Kits - Arpana Prajapati 9 Nutritious Research - Shwetaand Taruna 9

Funds - Ways of Contribution to AID 10 Toon of the month 11 First Impression on AID -Surya (Wife of Anuj) 12 Volunteer Profile

Darshan Mehra - AID Prayas 13

Contact us 13

Hello everyone, yet another month in AID andfor a change this month has gone so quickly at least fome. Yes there was so many activities happening arounin our family and when doing all those I couldnt everealize that its time for me to send the newsletter. Endof a month. Well before going in to the show let mtake the pleasure of welcoming our new voluntee

whove joined us at June. Hope youll enjoy y volunteering with us.

The month of June started with a memorablevent of get together of our old AIDers, and out ofthose old volunteers 6 of them are leaving abroad fotheir higher studies. It was just an event to wish them athe success from all our volunteers. The interesting pa

was it was supposed to be a farewell that day and aftthe event we realized that it wasnt a farewell. We wnot physically have them with us at Delhi but stsomewhere they will be talking about and thinkinabout AID Delhi. This is our strength .

Debamitro and Satadbi from AID Delhi and AID Kolkata attended a 2 day long convention foNandigram people in which people talked abouNandgram during the first week of June along wit

Students for Bhopal people and finally the staoppression ended with a huge rally. We celebrate

World Environment Day on 5th June by circulatinposters which created awareness on Global Warminand how we can try to reduce it.

As the year 2007 is AID Delhis year education, people are seriously working on taking oEureka kits to the schools of Delhi. We are also takinfor collaboration with Sparsh-ek prayatna, two more seinitiatives by some individuals at Vasant Kunj. All tmeets have been fruitful and by the first week of July w

may have a few more projects with us to support

There is also a plan of visiting the community market Defense Colony where lot of children beg and start new project there.

This is the very first time AID Delhi has starteto take Internship requests and we currently have fivinterns with us. Kalindi is working on arts and crafeducation at Aashayen, while Priyanka Pande is workion setting up a curriculum for arts and crafts educatio

which can be implemented in all of our AID projects.


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She already took a workshop for our Parichay

children recently on Paper Mache. Arpana Prajapati is working with Eureka Network of AID Delhi. As I wrote in the last newsletter we have got the Eureka kitfrom Tamil Nadu and almost the translation is over by now. So now we have both English and Hindi versionof it and that too online. Now Arpana will beapproaching the schools with the kits and beforeapproaching schools shell take classes at AID Prayas

with our kits. Last but not least, we have two studentsShweta and Taruna from S.N.D.T University, Mumbaidoing their M.Sc, food Science and Nutrition. They are right now working with Parichay on analyzing thenutrition value of the food which is given in ournutrition program and also they will be designing a 5color meal at an economical prize which will haveappropriate nutrition in it.

AID Delhi T-shirts designs is finalized and itsunder printing. We will have it with us by the end of first week of July. We also have started to plan for

AID Delhi Calendars 2008 and Arvinder is actively working on it. We request some seriously good photostaken by our volunteers at our various projects for thesame. Weve also talked to a person Mr. Aditya Ghari

who is a film maker and wanted to make professionalfilms for each of our AID project as a volunteer. We

will soon start to shoot. Swati Maliwal will be working on the project Ensuring transparency inPWD and research on SEZ' which has got fundsapproved from AID US - Anti Corruption team.

One more big achievement is that the book sponsored by UNICEF and published by Dorling

Kindersley, London titled A School like mine isreleased and it features AID Prayas as one of the 100schools around the globe which they choose. Theyvealso contributed 100 pounds as a donation to AIDPrayas and a copy of book to us.

Thanks to one and all who made all thishappen within a short span of time. Hope we will berocking more in the next month.

- Selva Ganapathy.R

AID Delhi

Project Updates: Aashayen

o Full time classes on Sunday have been started. Three girls from Delhi University are teaching children the art of painting & craft making.

o Plan to put posters in different colleges of DUgiving a highlight about our chapter & AID isalready underway.

- Nitin Gupt

AID Delh

Project Updates: AID Gurgaon

The preceding month for AID Gurgaon wasone with lot of activities. There were lots of apprehensions, anxiety and enthusiasm when weinitiated a regular school for children at Unnati.

Sumanji , who teaches children, is reallyworking hard since May 2007. Progress of few

children is really commendable. Apart from regularclasses, we also organized some fun activities for thechildren during our weekend visits. These funactivities inculcate playing indoor games withchildren, drawing, animation movies on laptop,arranging collage. These activities infuse interestamong the children and also motivate them to attendclasses regularly. Moreover, such a non-academicexcursion helps the children to grow in skills otherthan formal education.There was cloth drive and the collected cloths were

given to Goonj . Also, we raised sponsorship foreducation of two children for a year from LiteracyIndia under their Vidyapeeth project.

For next month, we intend to admit a fewchildren of Unnati in a local Govt. school. In futurewe plan to put more children in formal schools.

The major task in front of AID Gurgaon is torope in more volunteers. The lack of active volunteershas been hampering the normal activities. WithNishank and Deepak, two most active volunteers of the group leaving, the project stands on shaky

grounds. We need to start regular visits to MobileCrches, implement a proper team based structure forAID Gurgaon to increase the accountability amongvolunteers and need to streamline the meal a monthprogram to ensure efficient functioning of AIDGurgaon.

- Sachin TiwaleAID Gurgaon


3/13

Neha Sinha (new volunteer) and Pavitra (internstudent) joined us at Prayas While Pavitra will be therefor 2 months; Neha Sinha has committed to take at least1 day class in a week. Both were good at handling students and now small kids feel comfortable withthem.

Since number of students coming for the classes was too less in the beginning of the month, so we haddecided to visit the community and interact with thestudents and their parents and we did that on17/06/2007. Our efforts bore fruit as in the next class

we found students in great strength and nowadays they are highly motivated.

We also talked to Vipin who wants to work as aregular teacher at Prayas. We explained him everything about Prayas kids and what all is expected from him. Hehas agreed for a salary of Rs.3000/- a month to work

with us.He may be reporting with us from 1st

of July. Arpana will be teaching children of Prayas with ourEureka Materials from the last week of June along withUmesh.

- Anuradha AID Delhi

I would like to share my personal experience

with Prayas. When I started working with Prayas Ithought it was very challenging to teach these childrenbecause they are not as obedient and disciplined andsome time I got frustrated. But slowly with time I foundthese children wont bind with you without love andaffection and they won't like to be taught by you.

And today I am proud that at least few childrenhave learnt very well. During my initial days Gudiya and Reena used to come regularly but they just usedto come and go back with doing "Thoda sa kaam "given by any Sirji or Didi. But now they are sincerely trying to learn as much as possible. Both of them werenot able to recognize 1 2 3 4 5 earlier but now they arecapable of doing addition and subtraction very well.Besides them Suby, Saabreen ,Kavita , Ishrat,Afsana are

doing good job too . This is a great reward for any volunteer which also motivates them to work harder.- Darshan Mehra

AID Delhi.

The new curriculum has been introduced at the twrespective centres. The curriculum has been divideinto different levels. These include recognizinalphabets, writing and joining letters etc. To makthe process more effective worksheets werprepared for each level. We recently organized

workshop for our teaching volunteers to acquainthem to the new teaching strategies anmethodologies and the manner in which thimplementation process would accommodate thestechniques so as to fulfill the objectives of thcurriculum and achieve our outlined targets.

Following an assessment of the progress made athe two centres after thimplementation of the curriculum the varyincapacities of the children in terms of grasping th

details was identified. While a few have showtremendous progress such as Rekha from Jor Bagand Asha, Radhesham and Maya from Bikaji, thothers seem to require more time. It was thereforedecided to divide the kids into two groupaccordingly so as to ensure that each group gomaximum attention and the requirements of the twogroups as far as the learning process was concerne

was adequately and effectively met.

Blackboards have been used at the Hyatt centre. I was observed that using blackboards augmented thteaching process. The kids have responded to thinew teaching positively. They concentrate bettduring classes and grasp facts faster.

The visit to Mrs. Sangeetas residence by the kifrom the Jor Bagh centre turned out to be a funlearning experience. Music, food, a bathing and art and craft session was arranged for the kids. The

were also gifted a special health kit which includedtoothbrush, toothpaste, comb, nail cutter etc. Shplans to continue organizing such visits to heresidence for the children every month.

We have been joined by a new Volunteer fromPhilippines. Joan is pursuing her Masters Engineering. She volunteers at Jor Bagh and Bikaji

- Ritesh Kuma AID Delh

Project Updates: KhojProject Updates: AID Prayas


4/13

Activity highlights: 1. Sale at Microelectronics: 8,100 (approx)2. Priyanka Pandey conducted a workshop on

Paper Mache for the kids at Parichay. Severalother session of this workshop are yet to be

conducted. We will post a detailed report on thecompletion of the workshop.3. Priyanka has also taken up the responsibility of

illustrations of stories and books.4. Selva is all geared up to take up the

responsibility of HELP classes.5. For the very first time, Taruna and Swetha are

helping us compare and analyze the nutritional value of the food, served under the Nutritionprogram. We hope that, in future, this wouldhelp us choose food with better nutritional

value. Moreover, we will soon arrange a series of cooking competition among the women topromote the best practices in cooking.

6. Nitin is working on the aesthetic part of the website.

Current Volunteers : Naval, Pow, Priyanka, Shashank,Krishna, Navneet Somani, Nitin, Selva and PuneetaInactive Volunteers : Yogesh, Neeraj, and Jwala

Puneeta Chugh,Parichay.

AID Delhi.

Introduction Youth Task Force is a youth group committed to fightagainst corruption and to ensure transparency andaccountability in the Government. This group has beenbrought together by JOSH in collaboration with AIDDelhi. Youth Task Force mainly comprises of studentsfrom various colleges in and around the capital.Students from several prestigious institutions including IIT Delhi are joining this movement. Slowly but surely,

we are inching towards our goal.Objectives

To expose the corruption which has plagued thesystem.

Spread awareness about the Right toInformation Act, 2005 (RTI) .

Project Updates: Parichay To mobilize the masses to use the RTI to fighcorruption.

To establish a transparent and accountabsystem, one in which we can trust.

Activity highlights The month of June has been one of the mos

successful months for YTF. We have got the maximumnumber of committed volunteers. Also we have beeable to structurize our team AND make a websitspecifically for YTF.

The following teams were formed1. Networking Team

2. Website Team

3. Fund Raising Team

4. Research Team

5. Issues

Issues: These include issues like Roads , Hospit,Govt. Schools,,Buidings ,Traffic , street lighhorticulture,drainage,solid waste management, stranimals,etc on which we can file RTI's

The website team consists of Sidharth Goya Abhimanyu Sanghi, Roshan Kumar Jha ,a Anand.They have made the website in a recorperiod of time. Check out : www.ytfindia.org.

We have filed 10 more RTI's on roads thmonth.

Soon we will be going for printing of 100 Tshirts for YTF as a fund raiser. The design othe T-shirt has to be finalized.

We are having regular weekly meetings at IDelhi every Saturday evening.

Youth Task Force has decided to collaborat with AID US anti corruption team in thecommon effort to reduce corrruption.Themembers of YTF have agreed to do physicainspections for RTI's of AID US volunteers ona case by case basis.

- Chirag Kapoo

Volunteer Coordinator AID Delh

Project Updates: Youth Task Force


5/13

I am Deepika Pant, pursuing masters in AppliedPsychology from Delhi University.

I have been associated with AID Delhi sincepast 10 months as a volunteer for the Khoj I describe

my experiences with Khoj as that of learning, self realization & growth . While teaching street children Ilearned the very fact that children who appear differentin appearances and habits from us are not so differentin their feelings, emotions & aspirations. I realized theimportance of all my trivial and ostensibly non trivialacts in making a significant difference in the lives of these kids. Becoming sensitive about the feelings &needs of children belonging to a totally different sectionof society has been an awakening experience for me.Even after possessing a masters degree in Education I

wasnt much familiar with the Non Formal aspect of education. Khoj helped me to gain first hand experiencein the same.

At present I am doing my internship with anorganization which works with school children with theaim of making them self reliant. This organization isendeavoring to fill in the gaps in the development of anintegrated personality, by focusing on - Self Sufficiency,understanding Communication and Bridging the same,strengthening healthy Family functioning andRelationships. The efforts include inculcation of Morals,

Values, Ethics & Discipline in the upcoming generation. As a part of my internship, I am involved in a

theatre workshop organized by this organization for thestudents of Salwan Junior Public School in the schoolpremises. The workshop stipulated for a period of 28days is based on the following theme: Achieving Happiness I Can Do It.Though conducted by NSDtrained professional, this workshop is not all aboutteaching acting skills or giving exposure to the conceptof professional theatre activities to students. Rather it

aimed at overall personality development of the childrenby providing them with means for creative expression, asetting to foster their imagination and an environmentfull of pleasure and joy.

The major purpose of the workshop is to offerall children the opportunities & channels of emotionalexpression, facilitating acceptance of their own &others emotions and strengthening their emotional,social & cognitive development.

Thus, the workshop focuses on inculcation o various important life skills in children, which includesenhancing confidence & self esteem, fostering lovcooperation, empathy, trust, faith among studentsdeveloping a sense of discipline, time managemenresponsibility, team spirit and leadership abilities.

To achieve the abovementioned aim, differen

kinds of interesting, enjoyable, well planned alogically sequenced activities and games are usEfforts are made towards character building through thplay way method. Wide variety of activities like pappencil exercises, ball games, improvisation, ad makietc. are the medium of instruction and expression. Mosof these activities encourage children to use theimagination, creativity, communication skills a

various other psychosocial competencies.

Hitherto, the workshop has been quit

successful in providing an established platform for thoutlet of suppressed emotions to all the students, and ihelping them to come over their inhibitions anincompetencies in a non challenging & non threateninenvironment.

My one month of internship has made mponder over the significant aspect of education that habeen either lacking completely in our school curriculuor is in its nascent stages. With major emphasis oacademics, inculcation of skills in students to grapp

with the struggles and challenges of life has been totalignored. Its essential to teach life skills for thpromotion of healthy child and adolescendevelopment. Life Skills facilitate in the development healthy patterns of behavior and also help prevent somkey causes of child and adolescent death, disease andisability. Its necessary to start imparting life skills at early age so that these young children grow into maturhealthy, contributing and responsible members of thsociety. It also contributes significantly to thsocialization process. It can be said that, life skeducation assists in the development of psychosoci

skills that are required to deal with demands anchallenges of everyday life.

Thus, with life skill education the quality of lincreases- as it aims towards bringing out positivchanges in each individual- by making him aware aboissues like HIV/AIDS, violence, child abuse, suicidsubstance use disorder, racism, conflicts, environmentissues, world peace etc. at a very broader level.

Volunteer Speak: Deepika Pant


6/13

Keeping this in mind, I am developing a moduleon Life Skills Education for adolescents, which includes

various intervention strategies and other exercises thatcan prove effective in inculcating various importantskills such as decision making, creative thinking,problem solving, self awareness, empathy etc.

I am keenly interested in conducting life skills

and counseling sessions for the different student groupsinvolved in various projects of AID as in my view development of better individuals is an essentialprerequisite for the development of a better society.

-Deepika PantKhoj,

AID Delhi

These caste tags are solely on the basis of statisti According to a survey the average Gujjar's househoincome is 1.5 lacs per annum. Many of them arprosperous, owning properties and doing businesPeople must learn that Quotas are declared not on thebasis of protests but after a detailed study of thcommunitys background and the other data availabl

There are guidelines in the constitution which define th

conditions of reservation.In the early 20th century Gujjars with somother OBCs attempted upward mobility since at thatime it was higher Hindu status that was the Goodtoday some of them are claiming ST status, today it education and jobs even if it means downward castmobility.

Because today ..... The Lower is Higher !!!- Roshan Jh

YTF AID Delh

When I joined AID as a volunteer in August 2006, wasnt too enthused by the concept of Meal a Mont(MaM) . It was something I had never heard of beforeIt seemed like just another way to ask for donationfrom volunteers. But after having volunteered with AIDfor a year now, I have come to realize the power and thimportance of Meal-a-Month.

What is this MaM ? MaM is a form of moneta

donation to AID activities. The cost of one Meal different for all of us. To some, it is a Rs. 15 thali at thlocal cafeteria while to some it may be the Rs. 300 Pizat the nearby joint. At AID, we ask you to contribut

what YOU believe is the cost of YOUR single meaevery month.

A volunteer who wants to donate money for a sociacause can do it under any pretext be it buying bookbags or clothes or even for administrative expenses. Thessence of Meal-a-Month is that it not a donatiocompaign. It is not a Caption under which money

collected. Meal a month is a form of expression of thsentiments of the donor.We at AID believe in the philosophy of Sangharsh,Seva, Nirmaan. All three require commitment, hardwork and some amount of care on our behalf. Whenwe talk about the upliftment of the poor, we mustrealize that we are talking about providing them basicamenities. Food is the basic necessity of man. Lack ofood is the first sign of Poverty. We at AID, in oustruggle to fight poverty and to work for thunderprivileged, believe that food is an amenity that wcan all work for and provide to the needy.

Meal a Month: Sahil Sethi

Article: Lower is Higher ! (Hot n

Happening)Roshan Jha

Police Posts , vehicles werel sat on fire, railway tracks were damaged, roads blocked, bandhs andprotests all over the state, many killed and many injured; all these only to achieve 'degradation'. Yes it'strue and its happening in India.

Currently the Gujjars community fall underOBC (Other Backward Caste) but to gain the quotabenefits of the ST (Scheduled Tribes) they are

demanding to get included in ST list.In Rajasthan theMeena ST community (comprising 10% of the totalpopulation) overwhelms the civic services quota.Opposing the Gujjars protest Meenas are also taking their agitation to the streets afraid to accept the Gujjarsas a Scheduled Tribe. There was severe clash betweenthe two. 11 lives were lost in the whole affair.

But there are many innocent lives also whichthey are taking indirectly.Is this not selfishness ?

Though miscreants do understand the consequence of blocking Traffic and Bandh they do not stop. A critical

patient or an accident victim might be deprived of timely medical help which could lead to death. The victim may be a friend or a close relative of theircommunity. More to say,setting on fire public transport!! They must be taught after all loss to public property isin nobody's interest and it is a national loss.

The Gujjars are notified as ST in Jammu andKashmir and Himachal Pradesh. They fall in the OBCcategory in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh and Maharashtra.


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Meal a month, and some other forms of Directeddonations, is the only way AID raises money. We donot go to charities or funding agencies for money. Wedo not go to Corporate and beg them for a slice of theirCorporate Social Responsibility. At AID, we believe inIndividual Social Responsibility. More than 60% of funds raised by AID Delhi come from Meal-a-Month.Besides, there is no vested money laundering in MaM.

AID Delhi is as transparent as an organization can be.MaM is not merely about raising money. It is aboutshowing that you care. Some volunteers try to quantify their volunteering skills by claiming that they should notpay MaM when they are already engaged in volunteering in the form of teaching, writing, designing etc. In my opinion, there is no limit to volunteering. One shoulddo as much as one can do. MaM does not ask for much,merely the cost for one meal a month. None of our

volunteers live in a hand-to-mouth situation thatprevents them from making such a contribution, over

and above the other forms of volunteering which they do.I proudly donate Rs. 100 as my Meal-a-Monthcontribution to AID. It does not mean that I havehundred rupee meals all the time. Nor does it mean thatits the maximum amount I spend for meals. But it iscertainly a reasonable figure. It is not used to feedanyone but the contribution I give is used in someprojects / activities which makes a person, or his family to learn to earn his food.. Or the money can go foradministrative expenses, for the fellowships of our full-time volunteers, for buying books or clothes when weneed them.

When I contribute my MaM , it is not a directeddonation. Nor am I thinking about AIDs over-dependence on MaM for its expenses. I would havegiven the same amount even if AID had gotten enoughmoney from a single individual to take care of itsexpenses. This donation to me is a way to show tomyself (and to AID) that I care. No matter how much I

volunteer for AID, I will never say that the volunteering can make up for my MaM contribution.I know there are many who read this want to actively do

social work. Many of them are registered volunteers of AID. But personal or professional constraints or merelethargy of action hasnt let you do anything so far. Iimplore you all to come forward and contribute toMeal-a-Month. The gesture itself is enough to removeyour lethargy. It will not only symbolize that you care,but will make you come forward and show an activeinterest in AID Delhis activities.

- Sahil Sethi AID Delhi

I have been asked to write my experience wit AID Delhi/Gurgaon since I have been associated withit for more than a year. But sadly I have moved oufrom there after my wonderful association for morthan a year.

Prior to coming here, I had some experience in volunteering during my sojourn in Mysore and Puand I wanted to carry it forward in Gurgaon. I havbeen mainly associated with Mobile Crches , an NGO

working for children of construction site workeUnnati , an independent project of AID Gurgaon forthe education of children living in slums and LiteracyIndia , an NGO working for the education ofunderprivileged children and women.

I started as a volunteer here, visiting to MobiCrches on weekends but slowly I also got involve

with managing other affairs related to AID Gurgaolike interacting with new volunteers, raising fundhelping with publicity part, overseeing the overfunctioning, etc. I never thought I would get so muchchance of active involvement.

The best part of AID is that it provides a totallfree platform where anyone can contribute in the waone likes to do. From my college days I had thought odoing something for the underprivileged, but never gothe right direction and opportunity. That time I used tothink that just helping in a good cause at personal levis enough. But after being a part of AID, I realized tha

volunteering is much more than that. It also requireinvolving other people in the process. AID helped mbroaden my perspective on various social issues anhow the various problems of society are interconnectedespecially through the fruitful discussions during CSand ORs and the informative mails from time to time.

At AID it is really heartening to see so manyoung people involved in one way or another, joininhands together to bring the desired change in thsociety. Being involved in volunteer visits, spreadiawareness among people, discussing on relevant issue

raising funds for supporting causes, helping otheNGOs, involving more and more people, these are jusfew of the ways in which one gets to work with AID

And the learning is tremendous especially in deali with real-life problems and working out solutions fthem. It gives me the feeling of being a responsiblcitizen of my country and doing something for it, annot just cribbing about the system around us. AID hareinforced my belief that every individual has thcapacity to bring the change in society. All one needs a vision to foresee that change and the passion to workupon it.

Testimony: Nishank Sha


8/13

As the AID's slogan goes, "BE THE CHANGE", so Iam trying to live by it. It is just the beginning of my association with AID and I am sure that it is a long way to go. I would also like to say my thanks to all thepeople whom I have come to know through AID and

who have provided me support and guidance in carrying forward the activities.

- Nishank Sha

AID Delhi / AID Gurgaon

Interns Corner

Craft Workshop at Dilli Haat The craft workshops at Dilli Haat are aimed atspreading local crafts from different states of thecountry and keeping their tradition alive and also giving them a contemporary edge. There was neither age limit

nor was it required for the participants to have any previous knowledge of the crafts. As a result thestudents that attended these workshops were womenand children all trying to utilize their summer vacationsin a better way.

The various workshops offered in the ten day program were:

Pottery Paper Mache Madhubani Paintings Miniature paintings Glass Paintings Soft toys Paper crafts

Keeping in mind my objectives for designing acurriculum for the AID children, I concentrated onthe activities that:

Are exciting and fun for the students The end product is both aesthetic and useful Requires low cost raw materials and low or no

maintainace costs Are easy to catch up and build on creatively

So I began my lesson with pottery and Paper Mache.

Pottery: Within the first class itself I realized that I had wrongjudged the difficulty level of this particular craft. Greskill is involved in making the most basic pots. It is art that doesnt come without a lot of practice andevotion. The materials required for pottery are - Aelectric wheel, Clay that has been kneaded well, watsmall piece of sponge and a piece of thread. During th

workshop I realized that potters should have a vesteady hand and lots of patience. This being said thresult, after ten days of toil, is more than gratifying; see a lump of clay turn into a creation is moastonishing.Once you learn the technique, it is up to the individualimagination to shape their ideas.

Paper Mache This is a simpler and quicker craft. I learnt to makepreparation of primarily newspapers that starts t

behave exactly like clay, only it is less liable to breakaits lighter and doesnt require a baking kiln! It is al very inexpensive. The raw materials required for Paper Mache aNewspapers (3 parts), Edible gum (1part), Chalk plast(2 parts), Fevicol and water for sticking, Plywood forelief work, small mirrors for decoration.In this workshop I learnt to make toys and relief woron plywood (called Doriwork and its originated Haryana).

Both the workshops that I attended were veryinformative and at the same time I had a lot of fun. I amnow looking to forward my learning to studentinterested in crafts.

- Priyanka PandeIntern

Final Year Architech Student,

SPA, Delhi


9/13

Eureka Educational Kit

I use the clich Development of India

because no other phrase can convey the vigorreflected in it. Though I have been indirectlyassociated with AID as a donor toward Meal-a-month program, it was only in May-end that Idecided to intern with AID. I wanted to work towardmy objective of seeing a progressive society and mybeliefs suggest that education is the best tool toachieve this objective.

Keeping in view this aim, I decided to take upa project in Child Education and was therefore,assigned Eureka. The success of this project in

Tamil Nadu and the great response it has receivedfrom the schools in the area is a pre-cursor to itsinitiation at AID-Delhi. The project aims to developthe reading skills of children and is equally effectivefor those who missed the opportunity of formalschooling. It comprises of sets of intelligentlydesigned charts, crosswords, and games at differentlevels, which allows kids to exercise their cerebrumactively.

As an intern, I designed these charts andcrosswords, i.e. hand-wrote them. Though small, it was

a great activity for me because while penning down each word, I kept imagining how it would be conveyed to thechildren. Our first focal point in the roadmap forEureka is to use these sets with the children of Prayasand inspect the results. The feedback will have to bethoughtfully incorporated in the current kit, before wetake the same to the MCD schools in Delhi. Thedevelopment of guidelines for teachers and feedback forms is in process. Another significant achievement

was to get another student of my college as a volunteerfor this project. Umesh is currently working withIndusLogic and will be available part-time for Eureka. Ifaced many challenges while working on the project.

The words of appreciation from Selva and Anirban, forevery small task work the same wonders as motivationpills.

There are several cons to being a volunteer investing time and money. But the deliverable isfabulous. You can stand tall and talk of deficiencies ina system without a pang of guilt.

Education is one sector that forms the backbone of adeveloped society. As a volunteer, it gives me immensatisfaction to be given an opportunity to make difference to the most important segment of society children. I am looking forward to July as a month full oachievements for Eureka. We should be seeing at lea10-15 schools using this kit.

Treat this as a call to cheerleaders of Develope

India! Lets share and contribute our knowledge.- Arpana Prajapa

InterMember Technical Sta

Prepaid TeamGENBAND Technologie

Noid

PARICHAY se PARICHAY Nutritious Research

A search that began in an attempt to fulfill threquirements of an academic course resulted ienlightenment- enlightenment about the fact that truphilanthropists still exist, sincere efforts are strewarded and qualities of innocence, genuinity, anconcern have not faded away from the face of thEarth.

The above lines refer to our interaction witParichay, an organization working for the upliftment ochildren surviving under difficult conditions. We weasked to evaluate the ongoing nutrition program o

Parichay as part of our Masters internship. Out of ouexperience of visits to other NGOs or organizationsrunning nutrition programs for children, we expectethat Parichay too must be serving staple dishes likkhichdi or dal-chapati to the children as in a mid-dameal program type of set-up. We had not expecteanything served to children that was nutritious, include

variety in dishes or was even eaten by the childrhappily.

However, we are glad to say that we have beeproved wrong. Our interaction with Parichay has madus realize that the food served here to the children apart of Nutrition Program has all the properties which

we had expected to be missing. The food servincludes variety and is relished by the children. Caretaken to consider the childrens preferences for foo

while preparing and preparations are such which aliked by the majority. It is ensured that each child eathe food provided completely before leaving thpremises. All this truly reflects the sincere efforts of thorganization to ensure the availability of good qualifood to these children.

This is my first testimonial for AID an organization, whichis a great platform for thoseseeking to satisfy their penchantfor Develo ment of India.


10/13


11/13

- Picture - Kalindi,Intern, Aashayen

- Thoughts - Selva / Chirag AID Delhi

Toon of the Month


12/13

First Impression on AID - Surya (Wife of Anuj)

It was a blazing Sunday evening. Airconditioners had lost hands down to the ever rising mercury. It was then that Anuj asked me if I would liketo attend the AID eeting. Ever since my marriage tohim in February this year, I had been dying to meet

Anujs AID family. I was delighted with the invitationand got ready in a jiffy.

On my way to Dilli Haat, I wondered what lay before me. Whether I would be meeting a gang of fiery revolutionaries, a set of boring philosophers or maybe amixture of both. On reaching the meeting spot, I was agreeted by hellos and quick introductions. Before Iknew it, I was part of the group and by the time we

walked up to the Delhi stall, light humor was in the air.Obviously, the picture I had painted about the AID

volunteers had been completely washed out. Whatstood before me was a group of friends in their 20s withcareer, family, relationships and lot of cool fun on theirminds. I was still unable to understand the world of

AID.Once settled around a table, it was time for

some serious business. The senior guys i.e. those with arelatively long experience with the organization kickedoff the discussion and gradually others joined in.Initially, relatively new volunteers were reluctant tospeak but eventually, they too got involved. Everyonehad a story to tell, an experience to share, a typicalproblem to boggle the minds and practical and not so

workable solutions to their problems. In fact, I was very surprised when a volunteer said that they needed a

person who would be regularly teaching the kids.

I thought, that was because the new teach were unaware of the extent of syllabus that had bcovered by the predecessor. Instead, I was explaithat the real problem was that the children did not leunless they could relate to their teacher and for ththey needed regular interaction with him or her. course, as it happens in all meetings, there w

deviations but that was when Anuj did the tough jobsteering the discussion in the right direction with a hahitting statement. All in all, the session was provinbe an eye-opener for me.

Apart from the weekly meeting, this was meant to be a farewell party for six volunteRiputapan, Gunjan, Ritika, Nishank, Somen Priyanka who were soon to move to the USA pursuing their higher studies. Somen somehow coulmake it there. Of course, AID Delhi might loose tphysical presence of its precious members. according to most, it is just a temporary loss. Thmembers were given the onerous task of extendsupport to AID from their respective universities abring many more with the tide. On a lighter note, e

volunteer was asked to find a replacement, so that projects he or she was involved with, would not suf

Jokes apart, all knew that each individual member of AID family, with his energy, strength and involvem was a unique and irreplacable asset. Finally, samosas, chaat and lots of chilled water, future plan

AID were discussed.


13/13

Feedback: [email protected] Web: http://delhi.aidindia.org Phone: +91-9213797167Send your Cheques toSelva. Ganapathy.R Department of Chemical Engineering,Indian Institute of Technology,Delhi - 110016Hauz KhasPhone: +91-9891358457, +91-9211467341

Publications TeamEditors: Selva, Puneeta, GauriCoordinator: Selva

The meeting was concluded with aspecial mention for Selva. He had achieved the feat of

writing an article in Shuddha Hindi for the Parichay periodical. Of course, the query of one and all was, if the same had been actually written by him. He answered

with a proud smile, Arrey yaar, you can call up Vijay Bhaiyya if you dont believe me. I think, none woulddisagree that his writing truly symbolizes the magic of simple words expressing deepest emotions.

It was good-bye time. Of course, two hours withthe AID volunteers were an extremely short time tointeract but the hot weather did not allow us more time.It struck me that sadly, a metropolis like Delhi did notoffer a single roof for its young activists to sit under.On my way back, I realized, my perception of AID hadchanged.AID members are not less ambitious or career-mindedthan other youngsters of their age, but they want tospread knowledge to as many as they can.They do not have extra hours on hand but the shear

will to take out time to give a hand to those who needit.They are not satisfied laughing and partying amongstthemselves but want to bring a smile on every personsface.They know that they might be able to make only ascratch of a difference but it still makes all thedifference to them.They are not a group of ordinary youngsters butextraordinary human beings with a vision.

- Surya Malik,

Wife of Anuj Grover.

Volunteer Profile

Darshan Mehra Volunteer Coordinator - Noida

Coordinator - AID PrayasDarshan as the name describes, has got a philosophictouch and a very kind heart...Darshan is one of thregular volunteer at Prayas..he is very practical andlittle emotional when dealing with kids...he is vpopular among kids for telling them stories and makipaper boat after the class.....He had recently visitParichay and shared his experience with us so that wcan learn something from it and can apply in Praytoo....he is very energetic and we can find maximunumber of post in Prayas group from his side...a goocoordinator always tries to motivate other volunteealso...Nowadays he is busy in finding a regular teacfor Prayas kids.....We will all like to thank him for be

with prayas- Anuradh AID Delh

It takes one Rambo to save the world, It takes one Hitler to bring down the RAF, It takes one Krishna to change Arjuna's mind, It takes one Indus valley civilization to change mankinIt takes one wooden horse to bring down Troy, and It takes one Darhsan Mehra to keep us going at Prayas

-Arun R AID Del

Documents

AID Delhi newsletter June 2007