Plans for Sunday's Medical Camp

The details for Sunday's medical camp have been just about finalized:

• The camp will begin at 12:30 and will last for approximately two and a half hours
• We have several doctors coming - and thank you for volunteering your time!
• This is going to be a general medical camp, with a focus on men, since they have had no specific camp to address their needs in the past. However, it will be open to all people.
• The camp will be held in its usual location, at the Ramavaram slum, in the laundry facility area that has been generously given to us. Our email is info@sangamindia.org and our telephone number is +91 9789901650. Click here for directions.
  

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• We need all the volunteers we can get to run this camp, as many of our members are tied down with exams. Please let us know if you can help run this event!
• This will be our final medical camp of the year, and probably our final major event for the year as well.
  

Hope to see you there!

Directions to Ramavaram Slum

The Ramavaram slum is located directly off of Poonamallee High Road. The nearest landmark is the MIOT Hospitals.

After reaching Kathipara Junction travel down Butt Road and turn right to Mount Poonamallee Road (towards Porur.)

Travel for about two kilometers. You will come across the bridge. Beyond the bridge is MIOT Hospitals. The Ramavaram slum is located before this bridge and is the immediate right before it.

View Larger Map | View in Google Earth (.kmz)
This information will be posted at http://www.sangamindia.org/ramavaramdirections.html.

Ramavaram Video Clips

On our first visit to Ramavaram, on March 8th, 2008, Alex Myla took a short video clip of our activites on his cellphone. It shows a little bit of the slum, the riverbed where the residents wash their clothes, and some of our members playing with the children and distributing food.

Though the clip is a little short and blurry, it captures some of our earliest moments and it also shows more of the slum than can be demonstrated in pictures.

On Sunday's Diwali trip (October 26th, 2008), I took a similar pan of the Ramavaram slum. Watching these clips together demonstrates the effect of the recent rains on the Adyar river, which is now quite full.

Medical Camp, Sunday November 2nd

There has been a little confusion regarding this Sunday's medical camp, but we are happy to announce that its still on. The camp will be conducted by some of the postgraduate students and interns at Sri Ramachandra University. It is going to be this Sunday, November 2nd, and it will be in the afternoon (around 12PM.) Stay tuned for the official timing which will be announced as soon as possible.

The afternoon timing was chosen because, first of all, most of the doctors will be busy before then. Secondly, many of the residents work on Sundays, and by having it in the afternoon, we may be able to reach them as they come home from their work.

We really need help to run this event! We need doctors, of course, to practice - currently we have only two confirmed. If you are a doctor (intern or postgraduate student) and are interested in working at this event, please let us know! In addition, we need volunteers to run the camp itself. Please let us know if you are interested in working with us. Our email is info@sangamindia.org and our telephone number is +91 9789901650.

Hope to see you there!

Idealist.org Profile

We now have a profile on idealist.org, a website started by the NGO Action Without Borders, which "connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives."

Various NGOs from around the world put up profiles on this site, along with their events, promotional materials, campaigns, and activities. They put in jobs and volunteer opportunities and find other NGOs with similar projects to collaborate with.

Its a great idea and it has a lot of potential to enhance the activities of all these groups through the power of the internet.

Take a minute to check out our idealist.org profile. We hope that we'll be able to work with other groups and find more help through this excellent resource.

Visit our idealist.org profile

A New Way to Celebrate Deepavali

Yesterday’s trip to Ramavaram was quite fulfilling in many respects. We have been collecting clothes for quite some time with the intention of distributing them house to house, but we were never quite able to mobilize such an operation. Now that Deepavali has arrived, in addition to the torrential rains, it seemed like the right time to do this.

One thing that has been especially educational for me is understanding how important it is that we approach a community with a strong view towards their needs. Because of all the difficulties that people have been facing at Ramavaram, it was imperative that we pay attention to their immediate need for food and clothing and that we address it as soon as possible. It is something that has been difficult for me personally to handle in a way that is not at odds with our strong belief in moving the community from dependence on others towards self-sufficiency. Sometimes it is important to deal with the concerns at hand before trying to move on to bigger things. Small steps are the only way to move towards a better relationship and understanding between us and those we are trying to help.

Overall, I think it was one of the best ways that I have ever celebrated Deepavali. It is the festival of lights, after all, and what better way to bring light to our surroundings than to make a few lives slightly easier for a short while, at least?

Happy Diwali!

Photo: Wikipedia

Good morning everyone!

On behalf of everyone at Sangam India, we wish everyone a Happy Diwali. We hope you all have a wonderful day on this festive occasion and remember those who may not be so fortunate enough to celebrate it.

As Ahrar wrote yesterday, we had our Diwali celebrations yesterday at Ramavaram and we all had a wonderful time sharing our day with the residents there.

Deepavali Varthakal!

Diwali Celebrations

To celebrate Diwali, we decided to hold a clothing drive for the residents of Ramavaram. This event had been in the planning for the past few weeks as we had people send us clothing from all over the world. The clothing drive began at 7:30am where we divided ourselves into four groups. Each group was responsible for distributing the clothing to their respective blocks they were assigned to. The clothes were sorted according to the ages and genders of the family members of each household. This made the distribution not only more organized but reduced the chances of any problems arising as well. Aside from the clothing drive, we also decided to distribute food to each household. This was done based on the complaints we had received regarding the shortage of work due to the rain. Each family received two kilos of rice and lentils that would help them for a few days.

All in all, today’s trip to Ramavaram was an overall success. We were able to distribute the food and clothing smoothly and I got to see some newcomers: Zuhra, Zahara and Praveena. We hope to see you at more of our events!

Special thanks go to Vasundra, Pamela, and the rest of the girls who helped organize the clothes. Without them, this event would not have been possible. And of course, thanks to everyone who generously donated their clothing to support our drive.

Happy Diwali!

Click here to view photos from this event.

Diwali Preparations

Here are some photos from our Diwali preparations that currently going on. Our members in the girls hostel have put in a phenomenal amount of work in sorting, folding, and organizing the clothes in order to prepare a package for every household in Ramavaram.

The project starts tomorrow at 10AM. We'd love to see you there! Please contact us if you want to help in the distributing of clothes.

If you have any clothes (new or gently used) that you would like to donate, now is a great time to do it. Please let us know as soon as you can. Thanks to everyone who has donated clothes and made this effort possible!

Click here to view the rest of the photos.

Also, as we mentioned before, we are purchasing 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of dhal for each of the patients. This is to help to recover from the very heavy rains. We did the same thing earlier this week and it seems like the food was really needed. The weather hasn't gotten better and so we'll be doing it again. Please let us know if you'd be willing to sponsor this, as it is a very expensive project.

Diwali Clothing Drive and Next Food Donation

Diwali Preparations

Diwali: The Festival of Lights.
Photo: Wikipedia

Do you have any new or gently used clothing that you won't be using? Would you like to donate it for a good cause?

Diwali, the Indian Festival of Lights, is coming to Tamil Nadu on Monday, October 27th. We have decided to celebrate it this weekend (either Sunday or Monday) by a clothing donation. Our aim is to give an article of clothing to each of the residents of Ramavaram. Many of the people at Ramavaram have one, or at most, two, articles of clothing. The importance of this activity is further highlighted by the heavy rainfall which has an adverse situation on their lives.

If you have some clothing to donate and can get it to us before this weekend, please contact us. We'd really appreciate your donation!


Food Drive

Ganesapuram subway in Pulianthope, Chennai, on Tuesday.
Photo: The Times of India

A day after our food donation, and the rains have been coming down hard. Today was especially heavy and we were all glad that we gave the food yesterday. It has undoubtedly been put to good use feeding the families of Ramavaram when work is scarce.

The forecast for the rest of the week is not very good and the families in slums like Ramavaram will, as always, be the hardest hit.

Because of this, we have decided not to serve curd rice as planned during our Diwali trip and instead we are going to be serving raw materials, like we did yesterday. In difficult times such as these, this goes a lot further in helping the residents.

As posted before, this is an expensive endeavor. It comes to approximately Rs 6,500 (USD 130) to feed 100 families. If you would be willing to sponsor this food for even a few houses, please contact us. It would make a big difference!

Ramavaram Food Donation, October 21, 2008

As discussed in previous posts, today a group of Sangam India members went out to Ramavaram to distribute essential food items to each household in the Ramavaram community. Our aim was to deliver to each household the following items:

• 2 kilograms of uncooked rice
• 1/2 kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas)
• One packet of Sunfeast biscuits

The biscuits were a last minute addition, due to a generous donation by Swathi, and they were certainly appreciated.

We had a good turnout at the slum today, with plenty of new members. We were very systematic in our efforts to make sure that no house was missed - and no house was. As we gave the food to the houses, we asked everyone if they knew of any cases of fever (which might be due to malaria) or diarrhea. The incidences of both tend to rise sharply when there are heavy rains. These cases were treated. Fever cases were treated with antipyretics and the people in the houses were advised to visit the hospital if the condition worsened or if it continuted. Diarrhea cases were treated with oral rehydration solution (ORS.)

Though 2 kilograms of rice only lasts for a short period of time in households as populated as these, we hope that this small measure can help these families in some small degree. It was clear that the offer was appreciated as the families were truly grateful of our desire to help.

As the rains continue, we may have to repeat this activity to help the residents of Ramavaram as much as we possibly can. We see it as our duty to aid them in this time of difficulty. Here is a breakup of our expenditures:

1. Rice, 2kg: Rs 39
2. Toor Dhal, 1/2kg: Rs 26

Though this comes to a mere Rs 65 (USD 1.30) per household, covering one hundred houses in total cost us Rs 6500 (US 130.) This is a somewhat heavy cost for our group to bear. We thank people who have donated to us in the past who made this possible. If you would be willing to sponsor even a few houses, it would be of great help to us. Please contact us if you can be of any help.

Click here to view photos from today's event.

This effort would not have been possible without the dedicated work of Pamela and Vasundhra, who took charge of this activity. In addition, we are deeply appreciative of Anand Trivedi and Shilpa Menon for allowing us to use their vehicles. Finally we'd like to thank all of our first-time comers: Samson, Amrutha, Kiran, Kirshnaja, Manmitha, Tejasvini, Sheetal, and Jananee. They all did a terrific job and were very dedicated to the work at hand.

Food Expenditures

Yesterday, Pamela, Vasundhra, and Shilpa went to go purchase the food that we'll be giving out later today.

Here is the breakup of their costs:

1. Rice, 2kg: Rs 39
2. Toor Dhal, 1/2kg: Rs 26
   

The total is Rs 65 (USD 1.30). We've bought one hundred sets of this to feed one hundred families, coming to a total of Rs 6,500 (USD 130). 2 kilograms of rice, however, will only be sufficient for about 2-3 days, depending on the size of the family.

If the rains last, this activity may need to be repeated to ensure that the people at Ramavaram will have enough to eat.

If you would be willing to sponsor this food for even a few houses, please contact us. It would make a big difference!

Sangam India Calendar

We've made a calendar on Google Calendars to allow people to keep track of upcoming events. We'll do our best to keep this as up to date as possible as we know there are people who would be interested in having an up to date schedule of events online.

Of course, if you are interested in something, its always better to inquire about it as events are liable to change.

Click here to view the full size calendar.

The calendar can always be seen at its URL: http://sangamindia.org/calendar.html.

We'll have a link to the calendar on our main page as well as on the blog so that it will always be easily accessible.

Ramavaram Visit, October 19th, 2008

Pamela organized a trip to Ramavaram yesterday, on the 19th of October. They spent a few hours in the slum playing with the children and talking to the adults. On their visit, they learned about the profound effects of the recent heavy rains on the slum. Here is what she wrote about her experience and the decisions that followed:

The visit on the 19th of October, 2008 to Ramavaram got us more information about how to go about helping them. The condition of the area was worsened by heavy rains over the past few days. Looking at all of this made us realize our responsibility of providing them with food and clothing. Event though medical camps are very essential from our point of view as medical students, it is our duty to fulfill their present needs. We are hoping to distribute rice and dhal to all the families within the next few days. We wish this effort will bring some change in the community.

As a result of this trip, we have decided to take immediate action to provide food security to the residents in Ramavaram. This was described in last night's post.

Today a group of Sangam India members will be going to the markets to purchase food to give to each house, which are as follows:

• 2 kilograms of uncooked rice
• half a kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas)
• a small amount of puli (tamarind,) an essential South Indian cooking ingredient
  

There are approximately one hundred houses total in Ramavaram, so we plan on giving each family this quantity of food.

Once again: we need volunteers and funds for these projects. This is going to be an expensive, but necessary, emergency expenditure. If you can help sponsor this food for even a few houses, it would be a great help. It may need to be repeated in the following weeks. We'll be posting information about our expenses as it becomes available. Please contact us if you may be able to help.

Photo: The Hindu

New Plans for the Monsoon

The North East monsoon is coming through Chennai, bringing heavy rains to the city. This has an adverse effect on underprivileged populations such as the one in Ramavaram. Because Ramavaram is situated on the river-bed of the (normally trickling) Adyar river, it is more susceptible than other areas to the effects of flooding. The water leads to flooding and spoilage of improperly stored food. In addition, it also has indirect effects with equally profound implications. The working force in the slum depends on the day's income to feed their families. When the rains come, it becomes impossible for them to find work, as many of them find work outdoors, or on the streets. This leads to the disastrous effects of malnutrition for entire communities.

Following today's visit (more on this later) we have decided on taking a step to prevent the food shortages in Ramavaram. We held a small meeting today to consider the present needs of the residents and how to best help them. We determined that the best way to help would be to give out food to each family in the slum. This would go a help to mitigate the acute effects of the rains by giving them some food security. Pamela and Vasundhra have taken on the responsibility for this immense task. Currently we are planning to give 2 kilograms of uncooked rice, as well as half a kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas) to each household. This would provide some much needed calories and protein to the families. As we go to each house, we will also seek out any cases of diarrhea and fever. Diarrhea can be treated with oral rehydration solution. Cases of fever, which may be due to malaria, need to be immediately referred to a hospital. The incidences of acute diarrhea and malaria both increase sharply during the rainy seasons.

In addition, we have taken another decision to serve cooked curd rice to the families during the Diwali holidays. This will provide us with another chance to provide the residence with a nutritious meal. As stated previously, we are going to be giving clothes away to the residents as well. This will also help some of the acute problems they are facing.

Though food relief may not be considered as a sustainable solution to the problems we see at Ramavaram, its critical that we help our friends in this time of need! We plan to purchase the supplies tomorrow and deliver it Tuesday, as fast as we possibly can. Please contact us if you would able to volunteer or sponsor these projects. We'll be needing a lot of help!

Photo Credit: The Hindu

Current Activities at Sangam India

Here is an update on our activities. We have been busy with academic workloads lately, so things are going a little slow, unfortunately. Nonetheless, we have a number of plans:

1. Tomorrow, Sunday, October 19th, we have a visit to Ramavaram scheduled. We plan on spending time with the children there and teaching some hygiene lessons to them.
   
2. The medical camp has been delayed because of scheduling difficulties with CanSTOP. CanSTOP worked with us in running the women's camp. They are a wonderful organization that does a lot of nonprofit work, especially with cancer prevention. We hope we can have this on the weekend of November 1st and 2nd. As stated before, it will be a general medical camp, with a focus on men. Stay tuned for an update!
   
3. Finally, Diwali is coming around the corner and we are in the process of sorting out the clothes and preparing them to be given away. This will happen next Monday, on the 27th of October.

Due to the upcoming exams, we are short of volunteers. If you are interested in participating in any of our events, please let us know! You can email us at info@sangamindia.org or call us at +91 9789901650.

If you are use facebook, you can become a fan of CanSTOP. You can also check out their blog at http://can-stop.blogspot.com/.

Kumudam Article Translation

After some delay, here is a translation of the Kumudam Article that appeared about us on September 17th. Kumudam is an immensely popular Tamil biweekly which is read by Tamil speakers around the world. Below is the translation:

These are the students of Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai. Having established a socially-conscious organization named ‘Sangam India’, they are involved in many service-oriented activities without making much noise. They aim to improve the living conditions of poor people.

Hundreds of other medical students are also members of this organization. Where does all this responsibility come from?

Says Nivedita, a second year M.B.B.S student who started the organization: “In Ramavaram, which is close to our college, there are 96 houses. These are all huts. They cannot afford even three square meals each day. We would see them everyday on our way to college. We could not tolerate to see our fellow human beings suffer so much. We started the organization with the sole purpose of helping them. The organization that was started with just two people currently has hundreds of students as members.”

Says Bhavya, with a very hopeful voice, “For now, we have just adopted the Ramavaram area. We are going to supply food and medical facility. Students that have stopped school due to lack ability pay fees will be sent to school. With the help of our post graduate students, we run medical camps and give free medical check-ups. All in all, by improving the quality of life for these people, we want to make them stand on their own legs.”

Where does money come from for all this?

“Our pocket money, of course. We have more than 3000 students in our college. Even if each one of us contributes Rs 100, it is a lot.”

Is there time in the midst of your hectic medical courses?

“We have the heart to help!”

Amidst youngsters that ‘pick-up’ and ‘drop,’ these responsible medical students are the real stars!

Below is a scan of the original article, in Tamil:

குமுதம்
17.09.08

Thanks once again to Kumudam for the great publicity, and to Malathi Ramgopal for the translation!

visit: kumudam.com

Facebook and Orkut Groups

We invite you all to show your support for Sangam India and join as members of our groups on the social networking sites, Facebook and Orkut.

The Facebook group has been started several months ago and has grown to over two hundred and fifty members. The Orkut community was just started last month and is just beginning to grow. Considering that several of our members discovered us through Facebook, we feel like it has been a success.

If you are a member of either Facebook or Orkut, please take a minute to join! Not only is it a great way to show your support, but we hope to make these sites into communities where people can have active discussions. In addition, we'll try to keep them up to date with events that are scheduled and in ways that people can get involved.

Join the Facebook Group

Join the Orkut Community

Thanks for joining! Don't forget to invite your friends.

NOTE: for the Orkut link above to work, you have to already be logged in with Orkut. If you have any difficulty, just log into Orkut and search for "Sangam India" (in quotes) and our group should be the first to come up. Look for the icon of the smiling child and you'll know its the right group.

Letter from Pa. Vijay

Pa. Vijay is a famous lyricist and poet in Tamil Nadu. He has composed numerous film songs for movies - most notably, two songs in the recent hit, Sivaji. He is also the winner of the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in India for his work in the movie Autograph.

Pa. Vijay read our article in Kumudam Magazine (September 17th, 2008) and was inspired to write a letter to our university, congratulating us on our work.

Below is the Tamil letter that he wrote as well as an English translation, provided by Ramachandran Ramgopal.

Poet Pa. Vijay
Chennai - 89
16th September, 2008

Respected principal,

Greetings!

I saw last week’s Kumudam.

I read the article about Sangam India, your students’ service organization in Kumudam.

It touched my heart when I find that your students are performing social service by starting Sangam India with feelings to serve humanity during their learning years.

The mission of their organization is similar to ours and it makes me very happy.

My admiration and greetings to you, principal of this college and fellow professors for rendering cooperation and to the hearts of over three thousand students who are participating in this organization.

Dear students, though you are in the midst of those who have studied medicine but use it as trade, and you are still studying medicine, let your efforts to serve humanity succeed.

Thank you!

Best Wishes,
Pa. Vijay

We would like to thank Pa. Vijay for taking the time to write to our college. It was very exciting to receive such hearty congratulations from somebody so accomplished!

Visit: http://www.pavijay.in

New Tamil Flyer

Uma Krishnakumar, a Chennaite who blogs in both English and Tamil, volunteered to help us translate our flyer into Tamil.

Here is the new சங்கம் இந்தியா சிற்றேடு (Sangam India Flyer.) As a counterpart to the English flyer, it shares the same design most of the content as our English one. Of course, for those of us that don't speak or read Tamil, we still have our English flyer.


சங்கம் இந்தியா தமிழ் சிற்றேடு (.pdf)
Sangam India English Flyer (.pdf)

With this, we hope to have more success in getting our message across to a broader base.

As usual, please feel free to print it and share it with people you know!

Thanks to Ms. Uma for her translation, and thanks as well to our proofreaders, Ramachandran Ramgopal, Apoorvaa, and Pamela for helping her with this task!

Sangam India Newsletter, October 2008

Hello!

One month and a few happenings later Sangam India brings to you this newsletter for the month of September.

We dedicated this month to the women of Ramavaram. Setting up and conducting the Women’s Health Camp was not as challenging as bringing the women out of their haven of domestic chores. We thank CanSTOP for all their support, medical and otherwise, that made this camp a reality. Though the more startling reality is that a home-maker’s health is so important, and yet so horribly neglected. If you are involved in work similar to ours please make an effort to educate women, especially working women, to take better care of their health.

Acknowledgement in print (Youngistan in Action- said The Hindu) has always motivated us. We’re happy to inform you that now even vernaculars such as Kumudam are aware of our work and are extending their support. For further details about this you could refer our blog www.sangamindia.org

The road ahead will include a Health Camp for men, distribution of clothes for the festive month of October, and a pit stop. Due to inevitable distractions such as University exams, Sangam India will not initiate any new ventures from November till the end of December. This time will see less activity and ground work, but the drawing board for new ideas for 2009 will always be functional. Please feel free to work on it.

We hope the festival of lights brings you good luck and prosperity. Sangam India wishes you a Happy Diwali!

Rifa Khan
Sangam India.

To join our mailing list and get monthly updates into your inbox, please visit http://list.sangamindia.org.

Upcoming Plans for 2008

Today we had a small meeting to discuss our upcoming plans for the rest of the year. Many of our members have University exams coming up this December, so as a result, we won't be as active until January.

Our basic plan includes holding a last medical camp, this month. Tentatively scheduled for October 19th, we plan on addressing men's health as well as general medical complaints for all other groups as well.

Diwali, the Indian celebration of lights, is coming on October 27th. This is traditionally celebrated by the giving of clothes to family and friends. Over the last 3 months, we have collected a large volume of clothing. We are going to be dividing this up to give something to each of the residents of Ramavaram.

In addition to this, we are going to send group to Ramavaram to spend some time with the children. This will promote the friendships that we have made with them. We have plans to make 'lesson plans' of sorts to teach the children valuable lessons in hygiene and sanitation as well, which we will work into these trips.

Because of the upcoming exams, we are short on volunteers for these events. If you are in Chennai and if you would like to participate in any of these events, please let us know! We need all the help we can get. Please contact us by telephone +91 9789901650 or by email at info@sangamindia.org if you are interested.