Minutes of Meeting held on 31st March '09

A summary of today's meeting:

• Saturday's programme - to be held on April 4th, 2009. It will follow last week's agenda.
• Meetings with the Community Medicine HOD
• We are going to compile the statistical data collected thus far so we can analyze it and use it to see the progress we have made. Apoorvaa and Lalitha volunteered for this task.
• Pediatrician - We were advised to bring a pediatrician to survey the children there, as, when Dr. Thinesh visited to the slum 2 weeks ago, a large number of protein energy malnutrition cases were found. Bhavya and Lalitha would inquire into this.
• Vocational training - we are trying to find some programs in this area. Vasundhra has been doing research in this as well.
• Meeting - we are thinking of having a general body meeting early next week.
  
• Collecting data from the municipality - regarding the population demographics.
  
• Protein Packets - Dr. Thinesh to research the feasibility, cost, and contents of locally available protein supplements.
• Bridge - a large number of members have requested an easier way to cross the stream. Apoorvaa is now in charge of finding and acquiring a plank that can be used for this purpose.
• Legal - Thinesh to do some research on this front. In addition, Navyatha and Shilpa are to continue research comparing American and Indian NGOs and to give a summary of this information at the next meeting.

Updates for Week of 23/3/09

Here's a summary of this week:

• As Rifa stated in the meeting minutes, there is no program scheduled for this Saturday due to the long weekend and lots of people not being in town. We look forward to continuing our educational programme next Saturday, on April 4th. Visit back later next week for details.
• Our patient, Nagajyothi, was discharged from the hospital and her operation is scheduled on April 24th.
• Tomorrow, (Saturday) is CanStop's "Stree Spandan" dance recital. Proceeds go towards funding the drug bank for children afflicted with cancer. Please come if you are looking for something interesting to do this weekend and would like to support a good cause!
  See event on facebook

Minutes of Meeting held on 24th March '09

• Requirements for an NGO status- intricacies and the road blocks- summarized by Shilpa
• Legal Committee to recruit new members, in order to expand. So if you can help in anyway please contact Shilpa or Navyatha.
• The visit scheduled for 28th March’09 is cancelled.
• Thinesh, suggested provision of protein packets for the children, which will hopefully help in absolving the trouble of malnutrition.
• Health camp is a possibility in the near future, if we can work synergistically with an NGO to organize it.
• Appointment with CM HOD for 26/03/09- Rifa
• Vasundara to check on Chennai ITI
• Education planning committee to expand too.
• Malar to bring a financial update for the next meeting.
• Legal committee to meet on 25th March ’09.

Lesson Planning: Our Objectives

written by Bhavya K., our Educational Coordinator.

We, the Sangam India members have been visiting Ramavaram as often as we can. The smiling faces of the children of Ramavaram, and the love that they shower upon us each time we visit them made us want to help them in every way we possibly could. We decided to design our lesson-plans in such a way that would make their futures brighter.

Our primary goal is to inculcate healthy nutritional and sanitary habits etc. We have grouped these objectives under ‘health Awareness’. We made a head start n this during our first survey where we asked for the dietary intake of each child to help us assess the gap between their intake and required intake. Since then we have had several medical camps and several hand washing and tooth brushing sessions where the children have been taught the importance, need and correct techniques. We plan to teach them many more health-related lessons to give them a healthier future. One health lesson is included in each lesson plan along with the other activities.

Our second objective is to build a sense of team work and trust’ among the Ramavaram children within themselves and also with the Sangam India participants. Living in a community/society, we think that this would be a very important tool for them to progress and grow as individuals. Healthy competition will be encouraged and material incentives kept to a minimum. The aim is to make them understand that ‘united we stand, divided we fall’. We plan to achieve this by playing various games and having various activities like the stic-activity, blindfold games, sports etc.

Our third objective is teaching them ‘values’. This would include importance of telling the truth, respecting elders etc. our fourth objective is the ‘etiquette’. We hope to achieve these two goals through reciting stories with a moral, enacting skits and plays with a moral lesson, etc. we hope this goal is acheived in conjunction with other activities g. sharing crayons while coloring etc.

Our fifth objective is to teach them ‘responsibilities and duties as a citizen’. This would include topics like teaching them to respect our national flag, our culture, public property etc. we hope to include field trips as a part of achieving this objective.

Lastly, we hope to encourage ‘creativity and entrepreneurship’ qualities in each child in Ramavaram as we believe it is a vital part of growing up.

Hence, with these six long term objectives in mind, we will sketch out each lesson plan. We hope we have covered the broad subjects which will help in their overall personality development. We hope to bridge the gap between what is taught to them in their homes and in their schools.

(I would like to thank my colleagues: Mounica, Vasundhara, Sriram, Nivedita, Navyatha and Thinesh, for helping me draw out these objectives which we hope to achieve slowly and steadily)

-Bhavya Krishna

New Website in the Works

We're working on a new website for Sangam India. This is being generously made by Tina Ye, a professional webdesigner from Boston, USA. She is hard at work making a new site that will be more exciting and hopefully have fewer glitches. This current design is about eight months old.

Currently, we're working on the outline for the new website. Please let us know if you have any ideas that you have about what should be included on the new site. We'd love to know about your opinions.

Educational Programme - Day 2, March 21, 2008

Yesterday's educational programme was a blast!

Unfortunately, however, it didn't go quite as planned. It turns out that the school-age children of Ramavaram were going on a field trip to Mamallapuram with a local missionary group. In the future, we hope that the adults of the community will be able to inform us about such scheduling conflicts in advance so we can better plan for them. However, despite this small disappointment, things still went well. The plans that we had scheduled for our this trip were quickly canceled as we tried to find a new activity to do instead with the younger age group that was present. Before we went to the slum, Tatthagath and I picked up a cricket bat and a few balls. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a great hit with the children. I was surprised to see that the kids there did not even have a cricket bat; instead, they used a simple plank of wood to get their fill of India's national pasttime. A new cricket bat and some balls were a huge excitement for them.

Getting the kids organized took some work, as it did last week. The kids there are, unfortunately, very unruly and they don't care much for instructions or organization. This is made worse by the prospect of cricket. However, with some work, we were able to get the kids into line and each one of them got to try to hit at the ball bowled by Bhavya or Pragnya. This was a lot of fun. Kids who were too small to hold a bat were assisted by Aadhar, Sanjay, and Ravi. Many of the girls, who were not so interested in cricket, instead played with some of our other members. They played name games and other activities which let them get to know our members.

Though we did not achieve our objectives, everybody - Sangam India members and the children alike - had a great, idyllic and wonderful time. The kids are so much fun to spend time with; and issues such as language barriers seem like less and less of an issue with them.

After our activities with the children, we spent some time seeing some medical cases, thanks to Dr. Thinesh. We visited Superraja, who had sustained a fracture to his legs following an accident, and we saw another child who had a severe skin rash. We also stopped by the home of Amudha and Meena, the two girls who we sponsored for their higher education. We got a new uniform for Meena, who had torn hers.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time yesterday, and a special thanks to those coming out for their first time: Navya, Bhuvan, Vidyalakshmi and Ravi. We hope to continue the scheduled programme again next week. Stay tuned for more details!

Click here to view the photos from this trip.

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Medical Visit, March 18

My first visit to Ramavaram today! What an experience to say the least! Swarmed by kids, teenagers, and adults alike...I was in for quite a shock! To FINALLY visit the place and see for first hand what Sangam India was all about was truly amazing!

My first visit saw a lot of cases of conjunctivitis. disposed medications..kinda like a mini “medical camp!” Apart from that, got to interact with the people there as well as the kids… such unconditional warmth and generosity! Felt something you can’t quite put into words to be able to help so many deserving kids… All I can say is that I am glad I am part of such a wonderful organization and looking forward to many more trips and experiences at Ramavaram!

Kudos to the whole gang for starting Sangam India!

Click here to view the photos from this trip.

CanStop: "Stree Spandan”

Canstop is a great organization which focuses on cancer awareness and prevention in the Chennai area. Dr. Arjun Rangarajan from Canstop worked closely with us back in September 2008 when we held our women's camp and since then we have wanted to continue working with them on projects in the Ramavaram area.

This Sunday, April 29th, Canstop will be hosting "Stree Spandan," a traditional Indian dance recital features styles as varied as Odissi, Manipuri and Bharatanatyam. All the proceeds will help to fund their charitable work.

Here are a few lines from Dr. Arjun about next Sunday's event:

Dear one and all,

Canstop cordially invites you to our fundraiser for the year. We proudly present "Stree Spandan” a classical dance performance featuring renowned artists Smt.Shovana Narayan, Smt.Sharon Lowen and Smt. Gopika Varma, together on the same stage for the first time in Chennai.

Date : 28th March
Time : 6 pm
Venue : Narada Gana Sabha

The proceeds of the show will go into our Corpus Fund for the “Drug Bank” - for the purchase of the drugs for continued treatment of children afflicted with cancer.

Tickets are priced at Rs.1000,700,500,300 and Rs.100 for the balcony.
For enquiries please contact the helpline at 2628-4256 or call me at 98410-61578.

We sincerely hope you can come and help support the drug bank and the kids who rely on it.

best wishes,

Arjun

To find out more information, please contact the number listed above.

For more information about Canstop, you can check out their website or their facebook fan page.

See event on facebook

Medical Updates

Earlier this week, Dr. Thinesh went with Sangam India members Nivedita, Vasundra and Vandhana to the slum to combat a recent epidemic of conjunctivitis that we discovered on our previous visit to Ramavaram. We'd all like to thank Dr. Thinesh for taking the time to come to the area to help treat the people there. About 10 children were treated for conjunctivitis. A variety of other medical complaints were also addressed on the same day. Hopefully we will soon have a short statement from Dr. Thinesh about his first visit to Ramavaram and his experience there. Click here to view the photos from this trip.

Also occuring on the medical front:

• Nagajyothi, our patient from Ramavaram with chronic suppurative otitis media (unsafe type) was admitted into a hospital this week and has been recieving treatment. She will hopefully be operated on next month.
• We are working with one lady who has had complications postpartum. She is in the process of getting her tests done and will receive treatment soon.
  

Upcoming Events - Educational Programme, Day 2

Tomorrow is Day 2 of our new Educational Programme at Ramavaram. Last week was a success, and we've planned out tomorrow's activities as well. The children will be divided into 5 groups, like last time, with at least one Tamil-speaking Sangam India member per group to act as a mentor.

We will do a small name game again so that everyone can learn everyone else's names, followed by tomorrow's main activity. Every child will be given a sheet of paper and some crayons to work with. They will be asked to draw what they want to be when they grow up, and there will be a small discussion afterward in the small groups.

We hope to take this chance to discuss with the children the importance of vision and personal goals. We also want to stress that the goals are reachable if they make the effort to work towards them, and if they take their education seriously.

After this activity, the weekly hygiene lesson will happen, tomorrow's topic being brushing teeth. The children will be taught how to properly brush and the importance of brushing twice a day.

We hope that tomorrow's session will be just as educational and enjoyable as last week's, if not more so. We will be sure to let you all know how it goes!

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Minutes of Meeting held on 17/03/09

• Trip on 18/03/09- With Thinesh, to deal with the acute spread of conjunctivitis
• Summary of trip on 14/03/09- Bhavya- on the educational program ; Rifa- survey on health and vocational training
• Cases being followed up: CSOM (unsafe type) ; Post-partum complications.
  
• We worked on plans for the upcoming trip on Saturday, primarily involving the educational program for children.
• Activities to mainly revolve around team-building.
• Objectives for the Educational Program were laid down; In order of priority they are: Health awareness, team-building, values, citizenship, etiquette, creativity enhancing activity.
• Vandhana and Vasundhra to work on translation of skits to Tamil; the skits are to be enacted by the children in their allotted teams/groups.
• Meeting with the HOD of Community Medicine is also on the cards.

Trip to Ramavaram Tomorrow

Tomorrow a few members from our group will be going to Ramavaram to treat what appears to be a minor epidemic of conjunctivitis. This was noticed on last Saturday's trip to Ramavaram. Several members will be accompanying a doctor on this trip.

The trip will be leaving at 4:30PM.

If you are interested in going, please contact us at +91 9789901650.

We had a board meeting today, and Rifa will be posting the minutes of it soon.

Photos from Saturday's Trip

Some more photos from last Saturday's educational trip. Generously contributed by Jaba:

See the rest of the photos from this trip.

Recent Developments

We've been at work at a couple of things over the last few days:

1. The educational programme that was kicked off yesterday was a big success. We see a lot of potential for it going forwards. We need help to run the sessions and to plan the sessions. If you are interested in doing either, please let us know. If you can volunteer for one weekend a month, that would really go a long way to making this programme a success and a positive force in these children's lives. If you have any ideas on activities we could do, please let us know as well - we'd be grateful for your help.
2. Medical care: this has been another ongoing issue this week. A few months ago, Nagajyothi, a resident of the community, came to our attention for having a dangerous form of a middle ear infection. She required surgery, but due to the ensuing monsoon season, this never happened. We finally are making progress towards getting her that surgery; hopefully in the next two to three weeks. In addition, we are now trying to assist another young lady with post-pregnancy complications. As Nivedita pointed out, there seems to be an epidemic of conjunctivitis in the community and we are going to try and get some doctors out this week to help them.
3. The board meeting: is scheduled for this Tuesday at 4:15. All are invited as usual.

Children's Programme, Day One - March 14, 2009

Today's educational programme with the children got off to a wonderful start. We were a bit concerned at first that we would not have enough Tamil speakers, but as usual, it worked out. The actual programme turned out slightly differently from what we had planned, but overall we all felt that it was successful.

After arriving at Ramavaram, it took us some time to figure out exactly where to gather the children. We tried the side of the road, but it became difficult with passing buffaloes and cars. So we decided that we should cross the water and go into the field. Some of us, especially some of the girls, were slightly reluctant, but in the end everyone rolled up their pants and waded straight through the stream.

All of the children were collected into a circle, where we worked on learning names. Soon they were separated into 5 smaller groups, with one Sangam India member per group. Each child was given a paper with pictures to color - the Indian flag, a house, a flower, and an apple. The children were taught the importance of sharing the crayons that were provided, and of returning everything at the end of the activity. Everyone from the ages of 2 to 12 involved with the activity, and seemed to enjoy it. Each group leader explained the importance of each item and conducted a discussion in the small groups.

After a brief break, we had a learning session on handwashing. One of the children came to the front of the group to show what he had learned the last time we held a handwashing lesson. With plenty of interaction and audience participation, Malar conducted an excellent lesson.

Overall, I think that today was an excellent chance for us to see that given the proper circumstances, our group can really make a difference in this community. The children are very responsive, and even more importantly, the parents were actively involved in our activities. The sight of fathers sitting with their children, drawing and coloring, was a truly heartwarming one. We hope to take our lessons and curricula to the next level soon, and maintain a good education scheme.

In addition to the children's programme, Ritika, Sindhura and Rifa conducted a brief survey of about 15 houses, regarding occupational status, health status, and educational status in those households. The results will be published after information has been gathered from all the houses.

As usual, we had a few medical cases which we have requested to come to the hospital. Also, there seems to be a small epidemic of conjunctivitis among the children. We will take a doctor with us in the next few days and try and treat this as best we can.

We are all looking forward to next week's program, which we think will be great. We are in need of Tamil-speaking volunteers, especially men. If you are interested in coming out, please email us or give us a call, we'd love to have you.

See the rest of the photos from the trip.

Visit Tomorrow to Ramavaram

Tomorrow we are going on a visit to Ramavaram to begin our weekly curriculum with the children there. We discussed this with the people in the community in last week's meeting and the reception to this idea was very good. It was requested that we meet in the afternoon, so this is what we are going to be doing.

The trip tomorrow plans to be at Ramavaram at 4:00PM and the session will begin at 4:30. Please let us know if you'd be interested in coming!

The program is in development; this week's session will be more of an introductory one in nature. If you have any ideas, please let us know.

The aims of the sessions will include lessons on positive thinking, moral behavior, and health and hygiene. We might also teach other things, such as English language, in the future.

Visit to Panchayat School, March 4, 2009

written by Mounica S., one of our deputy board members

At one of our previous weekly meetings, it was agreed upon that we should take a step forward and start the children's education plans. Malar and I were put in charge of surveying the two local schools the children attend - the Panchayat School and St. Thomas Mount.

On Wednesday last week, we set out to finish what we were assigned. We took the bus to Mount road and walked through many bylanes and finally reached the Panchayat School. We had decided to visit this school first, without any prior intimation.

We spoke to one of the teachers we came across and explained the purpose of our visit. She directed us to the headmistress who was reluctant at first to give out information - she had misunderstood our survey to be a government investigation into the number of dropouts at the school. After we assured her that we were just students from a private organisation, she seemed more at ease and was ready to give out the necessary information.

Thanks to Malar's communication skills and her ease with people, we got all of the information we needed.

• Four teachers, including the headmistress, teach the children five subjects - maths, science, social studies, English and Tamil in a government-approved activity-based learning approach.
• Since the teaching and learning is activity based, i.e. the children are promoted to the next 'class' only after passing the previous level or task, admissions are taken year-round.
• The working hours for the children are from 9:30 to 4:10 including a recess and a lunch break.
  
• Two subjects are taught in a day
• Drawing and painting are the only extra curricular activities for the children.
• The children are given a midday meal which is comprised of rice with sambar everyday, egg three times a week, sundal on Tuesday, and potatoes on Friday.
• It is a completely government-funded school, i.e. the children are provided books, uniforms, stationery, and a mid-day meal absolutely free of cost.

After finding out the necessary information, we thanked the teachers for their time and patience and as soon as we stepped out, the children from Ramavaram and some of the other children surrounded us, asking us to visit them again.

On the whole, it was a pleasant experience for both of us, as we got to see the children after a long break. It was certainly touching that they remembered and welcomed us.

Ramavaram Trip, March 8, 2009

Today we had a wonderful trip to Ramavaram that most of us have agreed was quite productive and a great kickstart to this year’s work. Six of us were there, one of whom was Saikiran, who was there for the first time. We decided to hold a small meeting with some of the community elders, including Ponnuswamy, Pitchaimani, and Santhanam, and along the course of the meeting many other individuals joined us.

The topics discussed were our plans for them, what they would like from us, and how to execute all of these plans. We explained that our main goals for them are:

1. children’s education, both formal and informal
2. the general health and well-being of the entire community, and
3. ensuring that everyone is employed and can take care of themselves.

They were happy with the goals that we have set and expressed their enthusiasm and agreement.

The first change that we are making is that we will be starting a weekly educational program for the children. We have instated a lesson planning committee that is in charge of detailing the curriculum, headed by Bhavya Krishna. She will need help and those of you who are abroad and would like to help in some way with Sangam India work can certainly contact us to get involved with this. The goal is to make learning fun for the children and to encourage them to think big and set and reach ambitious goals.

They have also asked us to help them in rebuilding two bridges which collapsed in the recent flooding. We will further discuss the best way to go about this in a way that does not go against our policy of engendering an independent, self-sufficient way of living.

We were very happy to hear that two Sisters from the nearby St. Thomas Mount Church have volunteered their services to teach the preschool age children everyday in a daycare type format if the community can build them a small Balwadi. We are hoping to get involved in this project so that we can also use the space on the weekends for our programs. We will of course share any updates we get on the subject.

We also discussed vocational training and the general occupational status of the community members. Many individuals, especially women, have expressed their interest in being trained in some vocation and in receiving some assistance in finding jobs. This is still a project in progress, as our search for local vocational training institutes continues.

We were approached by several people who had medical complaints, whom we briefly evaluated and advised to visit the hospital outpatient department.

We will be visiting about ten houses every week to evaluate their status, needs, and management plans. This will start from this weekend’s visit.

Overall, we are very happy with our progress today. We all felt an overwhelming sense of goodwill and friendship that we hope will continue as we follow through with these ideas and plans that we’ve started out with. We would like to thank Vandhana, Sivaprakash and especially Saikiran, who jumped right in even though it was his first time at Ramavaram, for helping us immensely by assisting us in overcoming our language barrier.

Sangam India Newsletter, March 2009

Hello!

We sincerely apologize for the sabbatical. Now that we’ve taken care of the technical snags, Sangam India is back to work!

The algorithm of bringing our ideas alive involves planning, informing you (the member), execution and assessment. The Newsletter for the month of March gives you a synopsis of three brainstorming sessions involving all of these aspects.

Plans for the upcoming months include:

• vocational training for women
• subsidizing the cost of reconstructing a bridge that gave way during the November floods
• fun, informative weekly education sessions for the children, in which we will be working synergistically with the existing local tutor
• organizing a field trip for children with 100% attendance at school to work as an incentive to encourage them to take their formal education seriously.

The recent trip to Ramavaram on the 8th of March brought to our notice the various health ailments and the concerned people have been advised to seek medical help immediately. Sangam members posted in different departments of the free clinics will be present to assist them.

Above all, we seemed to have earned a modest amount of good will, as uninhibited opinions, queries and requests came free flowing in the last visit to Ramavaram. Building on this, we have a visit planned for the upcoming Saturday.

Games, recreational activities and lesson plans for the children have been chalked out. A review for implementing more plans is also on the cards for the weekend peeking round the corner.

We would really appreciate your feedback. One aspect in which we especially need your input is in the development of lesson plans. If you have ideas, suggestions, or would like to volunteer your time for developing our curricula, please feel free to comment on our blog (www.sangamindia.org) or email any of the concerned board members. Here’s wishing you a Happy Holi from the Sangam Team.

Rifa Khan
Sangam India

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

Minutes of the meeting- 09/03/09

Plans to unfold over upcoming months:

• Women’s employment (vocational training)- To contact Andhra Mahila Sabha, Chennai ITI- Ayesha
  
• Make arrangements for the basic amenities such as blankets, utensils, story books for the children- Collective effort
  
• Work synergistically with the local tutor to make lessons more fun for the children.
  
• Bridge construction- Only to subsidize the cost- to encourage a self sustaining attitude
  
• Field Trip- As an incentive only for children with 100% attendance at school.
  
• Mounica gave us a briefing on the Panchayat School and the details of it’s functioning.
  
• Shift visits from weekends to weekdays- for the convenience of the Sangam volunteers
  
• Decide on a lawyer to work for the NGO status- Shilpa

Plans for the week ahead (till Sunday 15th March’09)

• 11/03/09 (Wednesday)- People with ailments that require immediate attention are to come to SRMC for a check up.
  
• 15/03/09 (Sunday)- Games, recreational activities and lesson plans to be worked out- Bhavya, Mounica, Navyatha.