Nanhi Kali Times April 2012

Transcription

1 Nanhi Kali Times April 2012

2 The month that went by The month of April is the most important time for every child. It is the time for final examinations and the efforts of the entire year are now put to test. We wish all the Nanhi Kalis the very best of luck for their examinations. This April we celebrated the first anniversary of our initiative in Delhi. As we celebrate this very occasion, we rejoice the formal commencement of Project Nanhi Kali in the Distrcit of Tuticorin in South Tamil Nadu. April is also the month when IPL fever hits India and Project Nanhi Kali was not far behind. Nanhi Kalis from Mumbai had an unforgettable experience watching their Mumbai Indians heroes in action. In short, the month that went by has been a perfect amalgamation of great hard work and a little bit of celebration. Team Nanhi Kali We request readers to share their feedback about NK Times. Please do write in to internal-communications@naandi.org. Your feedback if of great significance to us.

3 Nanhi Kali Spread Delhi 5500 Udaipur Sheopur 8137 Ratlam 2707 Kanker 4787 Chakan Hyderabad Mumbai Mahboobnagar Javanpada 6568 Nasik Vizag 9251 Chennai 3054 Tuticorin 5000 Map not to scale and the locations are for reference point only

4 In the news Mumbai Indians have been supporting the social cause of education through their Education for All campaign since Project Nanhi Kali is one of the NGOs selected under the campaign. They have been sponsoring 477 Nanhi Kalis from the Mahabubnagar region in Andhra Pradesh. Every year they invite 20 Nanhi Kalis to watch every Mumbai Indians match, played at Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai free of cost. This year as well, our Nanhi Kalis attended all the matches from 6th April to 16th May A talk was held on Gender disparity & Legal provisions by Ms. Zeba Kher, Lawyer & Social Activist as part of the Nanhi Kali annual day celebrations in New Delhi on March 30, It was a great exposure for the community activists and the Nanhi Kali coordinators and tutors who would in turn make aware all the Nanhi Kalis of their legal rights. We thank Ms. Kher and congratulate the NK New Delhi team for taking up this initiative!

5 In the news As mentioned in the previous edition of Nanhi Kali Times, Team Nanhi Kali has been able to initiate a new project at one of the southern most tips of India in a district called Turicorin in Tamil Nadu. In its first year the Project will be able to support over 5000 girl children in 2 blocks of Tuticorin, Tuticorin Rural and Ottapidaram. Both these blocks have a large population of landless farmers and the quality of education within the schools is not up to the mark. The project is supported by Sterlite Copper Limited. The project has received great response from the local administration both at the district level and the village level. Senthil Kumar, who is the program manager of Nanhi Kali Tamil Nadu, has been able to recruit an extremly dynamic and motivated team of a Project Officer and Nanhi Kali Coordinators. Along with him they have, visited all the villages and sensitized both the community and school administration about the importance of girl child education. On behalf of the Nanhi Kali family, we would like to wish Team Nanhi Kali Tuticorin the very best of luck for successfully executing the project.

6 In the news April 23, 2012 saw the employees of Novartis visit the children of Government Primary School Vinayak Nagar & Government Primary School Kulsumpura in Hyderabad. They organized various games for the children such as tug-of-war, drawing competition, etc. The happiness of the children is evident from their smiles. We thank Novartis employees for taking up this initiative and hope that they are back soon!

7 Ground Report The story of how Anita Bhuraiya became a role model for other girls in her village seems incredible especially when you consider that she is still in middle school. The fact that she has done this despite the lack of basic amenities in her village and the poverty of her adivasi family makes her story even more inspiring. Anita hails from the Umariya village of Bajna cluster, in Ratlam district, Madhya Pradesh. She comes from a tribal family, none of whose five members has ever stepped into a school. The dire financial situation of the family was not really conducive to studies and needless to say Anita s academic performance was being adversely affected. Being burdened with household chores like cooking and fetching water worsened Anita s plight. But at this critical juncture the Nanhi Kali project intervened and saved the situation. Anita became a Nanhi Kali in 2007 and with help of the Nanhi Kali team has improved considerably. Academically she has shown tremendous improvement and her teacher Halivada Bhagourais is of the opinion that she is one of the brightest students in the village. Anita is now an active member of the Nanhi Kali club, which is a student s body, which promotes the health, hygiene, and overall development of the girls. Indeed the inspiring story of Anita s development and growth is so heartening that Community Activist Mr. Kalu Singh holds her up as an example to all the girls in the village. We hope the wishes of her parents as well as her own come true and pray for the success of all her future endeavors.

8 Employee Focus This month, we bring you the story of Tarannum Khan of Kanker, Chhattisgarh. She is an extremely motivated and hardworking person who believes in the Nanhi Kali cause. She joined Naandi as a Gram Siksha Sahayogi in Working with zeal and enthusiasm, Tarannum won the trust of the community and children as well as her colleagues and superiors in the project. On February 16, 2008, she was promoted to an Academic Resource Coordinator, the position she currently holds. Tarannum comes from a family of strained economic means comprising of her parents, two sisters, one younger brother and grandmother. She is the only earning member of the family. Tarannum wants to help the poor and needy children of her block to enable them to complete their education and reach for their dreams. Her hard work and dedication managed to help children in her block score more than 90% marks in their class V Board examination. She wants to thank Naandi for providing her with the opportunity to work achieve her goal. Tarannum has completed her graduation and is currently pursuing a Masters in Sociology. In her spare time, Tarannum likes listening to music and watching TV.

9 Being a part of the change David Hogg is the Chief Sustainability Officer of Naandi Foundation and has made India home for the last 40 years. He is passionate about organic farming and it is under his leadership that Naandi is working with more than 60,000 tribal farmers providing them with the opportunity of creating sustainable livelihoods and recreating the forest by planting 6 million trees in Araku Valley. N ot a day goes by when I do not acknowledge with gratitude my good fortune at being born to a mother who was educated, well nourished and free from the vices of smoking and alcohol. I am of the fortunate minority on the planet who do not feel the disabling consequences of the widespread epidemic of neglect of women and the girl child. It is for this reason that I feel the Nanhi Kali programme is so critical for nation building. And it s not about numbers, for 80,000 may appear insignificant in proportion to the millions needing support. Rather it is about setting a standard, a benchmark and a challenge to a still tamasic civil society and administration. It is about reversing a millenia old crime against humanity, the neglect of the girl child and womanhood. This is the age when this finally gets corrected and Nanhi Kali is the torch bearer in this movement. In the nineteenth century the numbers of courageous suffragettes was small and in less than 100 years their noble effort changed humanity s mind on voting rights. The Nanhi Kali effort is no less noble and also needs the full support of progressive minds around the world. It is the next step on the way to universal justice. In Araku our integrated livelihoods programme has 9,000 Nanhi Kali smiles and laughter to greet us in even the remotest tribal village or hamlet. Just a few years ago such a support in this remote tribal region was unthinkable. But today it is a reality and these children grow amidst millions of newly planted fruit trees, all part of a re-greening of their land. This now must evolve an unstoppable momentum for the transformation of Mother India and where better to start than with the girl child, the future mothers through whom (let us remind ourselves) 100% of India s citizens must be born. The cure for the girl child epidemic is at hand and the time for establishing the universal Nanhi Kali gold standard is now.

10 Get Inspired!!! The team working in the Nanhi Kali project inspires many individuals across the world. But sometimes it so happens that the team gets inspired by one motivated individual. Thomas Bobby Philip is one such person. Thomas works for Nokia Siemens in Bangalore and regularly takes part in the annual World 10K. This year he decided to run for a cause. He made Nanhi Kali the cause of choice. As of today Thomas has raised INR 134,000 for the cause. He talks to us about what it feels like.. One of the important criteria was to select a NGO who was reliable and had good growth plan. I did see that Nanhi Kali fit very well with my requirement. This has been my first experience at raising funds for a cause and I am thrilled to see the positive response I received from people. Almost everyone I contacted gave a whole-hearted response and also complimented me for taking up this initiative. I also inspired another colleague to take up a similar fund raising initiative. My target for the next year is to influence around 5 colleagues to take up similar fund raising project. Its inspiring to see the Nanhi Kali team working selflessly for the noble cause. You bring light and hope to so many children and their families across villages. Do continue with similar initiatives and we will see a much better future for the children of such families. Hearty thanks to each one of you.

11 Team Nanhi Kali Times Jolly MC, Jayeeta Basu, Jatin Tiwari and Dhimant Chovatia