Visit to Ramavaram and Clothing Donation

Also see: Fire at Ramavaram, A Summary, and Plans for the Future.

Today we made a somewhat impromptu visit to the Ramavaram area to visit the residents of our community and to assist in a clothing donation project. The donation project involved three organizations: the Sai Samithi of Porur, Vishranthi Charitable Trust, and Sangam India. We played a very small role in the project but were nonetheless grateful for our chance to be a part of it and to interact with our community members in Ramavaram.

Clothes to be donated were generously given by Vishranthi, an organization based in Alwarpet, Chennai. The clothes were delivered by truck to the Sai Samithi in Porur a few days ago. Members of the Sai Samithi diligently categorized the clothing based on sex and age. In addition, members of the Samithi went to the community on Saturday, contacted its head, and gathered information about each of the families in the community that were affected by the disaster. They then gave each family a token with a number that corresponded to their own data. This systematic collection of information and the use of tokens allowed the operation today to proceed without problem. In addition to clothing, a packet of rice was also given to each family as well.

A small group of Sangam India members came today to assist, in some small way, with this operation. We spoke to the members of the Sai Samithi and we learned much about how to organize and run distribution projects. It was very impressive to see the dedication in their work. In addition, we were happy to have with us a doctor, Dr. Usha, who saw a several medical cases, giving advice and treatment to them. Finally, a number of our members came simply to spend time with the children.

As we were leaving, a number of large trucks came and many of the group elders boarded them. They will be going to their new location to inspect the area, and if all goes as planned, the entire group will be moving to the new area sometime tomorrow. As we conclude our work here with these people, we feel a little sad to be parting with friends, but hope that this will be a start to a good life for them.

A heartful thanks to the Sai Samithi of Porur for running this project and to Ms Sundari Jayaraman and Ms Savithri Vaithi of Vishranthi for providing the clothes.

View the rest of the pictures from today's visit

Food Relief at Ramavaram

Today's food distribution activity went smoothly, and we are all happy with the results. We would like to thank the local Maa Tarini (Bengali) Mess in Porur for providing us with 300 packets of curd rice on short notice. Thanks to the excellent leadership and administrative skills of our members, especially Pamela, Vandhana and Sivaprakash, today's distribution was uneventful and organized.

Everyone was seated on the ground in lines, and we announced that until everyone was seated we would not start the distribution. This measure was instated to prevent chaos and unfair allocation. Everyone was polite and calm, which allowed us to get through the work quickly and efficiently.

Thanks to everyone who was there, especially those who are new to Sangam India - Lekha, Adya, Ashita, Usman, Prabhakaran, Fathima, and Divya. We have not yet decided on a plan of action for tomorrow, but we will update soon, as soon as a decision is made.

In other news, we are still waiting to hear updates on the government stance regarding these people. We are also still in the process of creating a list of items that each family will need. If anyone can help us develop this list and assign cost to each item so that we can work with our donors, please contact siva.paturi@gmail.com.

Thank you again for your continuing solidarity and support.

View the photos from this trip.

Upcoming: Food Relief, June 17

Also see: Fire at Ramavaram, Call for Help, Yesterday's Response, and news articles (1, 2, 3).

We are continuing our efforts to aid the Ramavaram residents during this time of need. We have done our best to satisfy some of the immediate needs for the residents with our project yesterday. Items such as clothes, plates etc. will have to wait as these donations are still on their way as well.

Today, we are conducting a food service at the field adjacent to the slum to serve the residents. We are leaving at 4:45 and we hope to finish our work within an hour, before it gets dark. We will be serving each of the residents a packet of curd rice for them to eat tonight.

Thanks once again to all our volunteers and supporters and we'll report back later tonight on the event.

Trip to Ramavaram Today

Please see: Fire at Ramavaram, Call for Help, and news articles (1, 2).

As we described in the previous posts, we're heading out to Ramavaram today to give necessary articles to the Ramavaram residents to help them cope with their losses yesterday.

Current plans are to give the following to each household:

• A bedsheet
• A packet of Marie Gold biscuits
• A vessel for carrying water
• Soap
• Toothpowder

Items such as clothes, etc. might take a few more days to come. Please see the call for help post below if you can help in any way.

Today's trip leaves at 4:15 and we hope to get started as soon as we can. You can contact the Sangam India phone line if you need help with directions, etc: 9789901650. Please call the corresponding phone numbers below if you have any aid to offer.

Educational Programme, 13th June, 2009

Today’s educational programme, even with only a handful of children and just a few SI volunteers, turned out to be one of the most successful and rewarding days yet. Most of the children have not yet returned from trips to their native places for holidays, so it was an excellent opportunity to give the children one-on-one attention.

Today’s activity was a simple one, using picture books with moral stories, such as The Fox and the Grapes, The Dog and the Bone, and other similar stories. Pamela started by reading about five short stories to the children, after which we asked the children to tell us the stories using just the pictures.

All of the youngsters basked in the glow of our attention, praise, and affection. It was a truly heartwarming experience to see how happy they were just to have us spend time and give them our attention. After the main storytelling session, some of the children spent one-on-one time with us, reading to us, with some prompting and assistance. A couple of the children read in English, but with almost no comprehension of what they were reading. Although they started to lose attention after a little while, all of us truly felt a connection with the children today. We did not lose even a single child – all of them stayed from beginning to end. This was truly a success for us, a first-time event. The children ran after us as we left, asking us to promise to come back next week.

We are hoping to find good ways to incorporate the stories into a larger scheme of activities that will engage the children and harness their creativity. As always, please let us know if you have ideas on how to do this.

Another development is that several of the secondary school children have approached us for assistance with school fees. We will be paying them next week, after meeting with all of the children and their parents. Each child has to pay Rs. 525 (approx. $11) for the year. If you’re interested in sponsoring a child, please let us know in the next couple of days. We will provide an update as soon as we find out more details.


Click here to view the rest of the photos from today.

Upcoming Visit - Summer Visit Day 1 - May 2, 2009

Summer vacation has begun and most of Sangam India's members from Ramachandra are now scattered around the world, spending holidays at home with their families. We would like to do our best to continue our weekly visits to Ramavaram to spend time with the children, so we have asked Safwan, one of our members who is a resident of Chennai, to take charge for the next one month. Since we do not have a lot of manpower right now, we have decided to put the lessons on hold and have games, storytime, and other such activities that are easy to carry out and enjoyable for the children. The first such visit will take place tomorrow, Saturday, May 2.

If you are interested in attending, please email us at nivedita.gunturi@sangamindia.org or sriram.ramgopal@sangamindia.org. We will put you in touch with Safwan.

Happy May Day to all of you!

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.

Republic Day

Today Nivedita Gunturi, one of our members, gave a short speech at the Flag Raising Ceremony on this Republic Day. She spoke briefly about how our group was formed, the activities that we have done so far, and about our responsibility as youth and residents of India towards people who are underpriviledged.

The audience was composed of many faculty and students from a large number of batches and it was well recieved by everyeone.

We hope that this might increase some awareness about the conditions in slums in India and inspire some to reach out to people who are in need of help.

Happy Republic Day!

Ramavaram Food Donation, November 26th

As described in previous posts, today we carried out our project to distribute food to the residents of the Ramavaram slum.

The situation in Ramavaram worsened dramatically overnight - indeed, the entire slum has been submerged by the floodwaters.

Last night, when they were sleeping, the residents were woken up by policemen giving them the instructions to vacate their homes immediately as the floodwaters were rising. They were vacated to a nearly school complex near the Nandambakkam Police Station. It is good that the State Government acted quickly in this regard or it is very likely that lives may have been lost.

This morning, we spoke to the residents by telephone who conveyed these events to us. We were saddened to hear this and it gave some urgency to our work - though it was a small gesture, at best, given the immense problems they were facing. Our group today was small but we were organized and able to get the work done efficiently. Nazneen, Vasundhra and Pamela did a wonderful job of organizing the work. A small group went to get the dhal while another met with Hema Aunty to get the rice. Meanwhile, Shankar and I went to locate the residents.

As we passed by the slum at Ramavaram, we were all awestruck by the flooding there. Here are a few pictures of the slum that I took on the way back:

The school where they have been relocated to has been generously provided for by the State. Of course, school has been canceled so it is not in use now. While they have a roof over their heads, the families have to deal with the crowded conditions of having 8-9 families living in each room.

Once we met them, we began distributing the rice. One of our contacts in the slum, Nagappan, had prepared a list of each family that had been relocated. We gave each family 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas.) In all, 105 parcels were given - a total of 210 kilograms of rice and 52.5 kilograms of lentils. This is a very small contribution, considering the size of the group and their needs during these difficult times. However, having been relocated, and out of work, we hope that it can make a small difference to them. In addition, more than the food, I think the fact that we showed up made a big difference. They were very happy to see us and our demonstration of solidarity with them.

One thing which strikes me, personally, is the immense perseverance that I see in the slum. They have difficult lives, and their problems increase immensely when it rains and floods like this. They have lost many of their personal belongings in their rush to leave the slum. However, despite these problems, they have positive attitudes about their current predicament and seem to be holding up in situations that would make most people (including me) feel very hopeless.

We'd like to thank Hema Aunty (that is, Mrs. Hema Trivedi) for coming out today as our special guest. We'd also like to thank her for helping to sponsor this event as well as for providing the vehicle that was essential for this project.

Click here to view the photos from this trip.

Food Donation Visit Confirmed for Tomorrow

As a follow up to the last post, the visit is confirmed for tomorrow. We will be serving 2 kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of thoor dhal to each residence to help them come with the torrential rains of Cyclone Nisha.

The trip will begin at 4:30PM, rain or shine! Please bring an umbrella and dress suitably if you plan on coming.

We really need volunteers so if you can come, please contact Nazneen at +91 9940443757 or email us at info@sangamindia.org.

If you are willing to sponsor our event, please let us know. Our expenses are given here.

Thanks very much to Nazneen and to Hema Trivedi for making this trip possible!

Photo: Accuweather

Medical Camp, November 2nd, 2008

Yesterday Sangam India held its final health camp for the year 2008. Although we had already conducted a medical camp earlier on in the year, we decided to hold another one out of the request of the Ramavaram community. The camp began at 12pm where we got off to a bit of a slow start. Many wanted to have their lunch before the camp began but when it started, it got busier and busier. The patients were asked to register so that a log could be a kept on who was being treated. They were then ushered to one of the doctors who prescribed them medication for their complaints. Finally, the patients proceeded to pharmacy where they were given the drugs prescribed to them. Most of the complaints required simple treatment but a few had complaints that required follow up. This was noted down by Jaba.

The camp lasted for a total of 3 hours where approximately 45 patients were seen. In addition, patients from the slum across the street also came in to get checked up.

All in all, the camp was an overall success. The patients were happy with the treatment they got. I would personally like to thank Drs. Amish, Shihas, Tripthi, Arjun and Prashanti for sacrificing their only day off to conduct the camp and making it the success that it was. I would also like to thank the newcomers, Varna, Noora, Vidya, Vandhana and Naseema, who monitored and managed the camp smoothly. We hope to see more of you at our camps next year!

Drs. Amish and Prashanthi working with patients.


Thanks to Drs. Arjun, Amish, Shihas,
Tripthi, and Prashanthi for coming out.


Group photo at the end of the camp.

Click here to view the photos from this camp.

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!

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 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.

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.

Women's Camp with CanSTOP, Ramavaram, September 21, 2008

The Women's Camp was held on Sunday, September 21st, and was quite successful. The camp began from 10 and lasted till about 1 in the afternoon.

We were honored that the CAN-STOP Organization joined us in conducting this camp. This organization, run by Sundaram Medical Foundation, focuses on cancer screening camps as well as general medical camps for underprivileged populations in Chennai. We would like to thank Arjun Rangarajan, an intern at Sri Ramachandra University, for his immense help in arranging this project.

CAN-STOP's gynecologist, Dr. Sunantha came for the camp. She was a very kind and understanding doctor who treated not only a variety of gynecological complaints but also general medical complaints for the women who came to the camp. In addition, she also screened the women for cervical cancer via a Papanicolaou (PAP) smear. Accompanying her was a nurse, Sister Jeevitha. We were also glad to have with us doctors from Sri Ramachandra University - Dr. Shihas Salim, Dr. Prabhu, Dr. Ashmitha, and Dr. Arjun Rangarajan who saw cases as well.

In addition to the medical work, we also provided reproductive health education to each of the camp visitors. Lalita and CAN-STOP's social worker, Ms. Sujatha, instructed a group of female volunteers on teaching points for sexual and reproductive hygiene which included important topics such as breast self exam, menstrual hygiene and sex education. These lessons were given individually to the women who utilized the camp.

We arranged the camp tent this time in a way to create a fully enclosed area to guarantee the highest amount of privacy to the women being examined. In addition, we insisted that the male volunteers coming wear lab coats and that no cameras be used during the camp time, to guarantee privacy with the women, establish a professional atmosphere, and build trust.

Our main problem was with camp attendance. Though we anticipated this and tried to improve the attendance by publicizing it for it twice and distributing a flyer, we were able to treat about 20-30 people. This forces us to confront some of the difficult cultural realities of the camp - that women are undervalued members of their societies, that they will not take the opportunity to serve themselves without having finished their duties of cleaning, cooking, and laundry work, and that women are scared of coming to see a doctor for a gynecological exam though they are aware of the health benefits. These are all aspects of culture that, despite the difficulties, will have to be confronted head on. Despite this, we consider the camp to be a success because we did treat a significant number of people and we were able to learn more about the community from it.

Due to our rule regarding photographs, there are few pictures from this event, which are included below:

Sriram, Nivedita and Sivaprakash stand with visiting Drs. Arjun, Ashmitha, Shihas, and Prabhu



Group photo of the Sangam India and CanSTOP volunteers

Thanks to everyone who came out and volunteered! We saw a lot of new faces, including Nimeshika, Vaishnavi, Swetha, Sivaprakash, Priya, Mulatu, Kivina, Nandini, Ritika, Jaba, and Varna. We were also excited to have a guest from England, Gautam Bagga. Lalita, who organized this camp, did an excellent job in terms of research and with the immense practical work involved in running a camp.

For more information on CAN-STOP, please visit their website at http://www.canstop.org/ and their blog at http://can-stop.blogspot.com/.

Women's Camp Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our women's camp at the Ramavaram slum. We are going to be addressing issues including gynecological complaints, PAP smearing for cervical cancer, general medical complaints, as well as explaining to women about maintenance of proper reproductive hygiene.

Today a group of us went again to the slum to spread the word about the camp and to make sure everybody knew about it. We hope that this will increase the attendance at the camp.

In other news, our Sangam India flyer has been updated with the new phone number and with updates to our past events. Please feel free to print it out and share it with anyone who might be interested!

Woman's Camp is officially on!!

It's my pleasure to announce that our Woman's Camp will officially be held this Sunday after there was concern that it might be canceled. The camp will be conducted between the hours of 9am to 4pm. A variety of services will be carried out including screening for cervical cancers, gynecological examinations and the importance and awareness of breast cancer. We hope to see some new faces at this camp so please come out and show your support! See you Sunday!

Sangam India Culturals Poster

We were able to put up a poster for the Culturals event at Sri Ramachandra University. It has some information about our group, what sort of work we do, and how people can get involved. It included flyers for people to take. Sneha did a great job by additionally distributing flyers at the reception table.

We'd like to thank Saumya Chintamaneni for her immense effort in getting the poster up! Also we would like to thank Ashwin for giving us permission and Anand Muthiah for helping to distribute flyers from his Vitagen stand.

We hope that our poster and flyers increased awareness of our group so more people can get involved.