Pragati-2009 off to an exciting start

Pragati 2009 – Connect, Share, Leverage. Pragati 2009, a first of its kind conference for all the grassroot projects supported by Vibha, started this morning at Vishranti Nilayam in Bangalore. At 9:00am today, Pragati 2009 kicked off the first day with participants from 29 NGO projects and volunteers from across India and the US. Ron Victor, the President of Vibha and a long time volunteer came from San Jose, CA to attend the conference. He is the CEO of Quantawav, a stealth-mode startup in wireless networking and is one of the founding volunteers of Vibha.

Why do we do this again?

Every year, about 20 or 30 of us wake up at 5am on a weekend and assemble at the pavilion in Lake Phalen before sunrise. We organize a fantastic race. At the MN action center, we organize quite a lot of fundraising events- be it Bowling, Cricket, cultural shows and the like. And we often enjoy organizing these events. Sometimes I tend to forget the real joy that we are working for- and that is making a difference in the life of an underprivileged child. I chanced upon the following photo slide show at the website of The Hindu, one of India’s leading newspapers in a piece titled, ‘India’s Little Laborers’.

Health Camp in Pune

If you think you can, you can!
This is what comes to mind when Vibha volunteers, along with organizations Rachana & Door Step School (DSS), conducted two successful Health Check-Up camps on 18th & 26th of April, 2009 for 300 kids from various slums and villages in and around Pune. Watch a video capturing the experience below.
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When a Cyclone Strikes … (Update: Reports from the Ground)

For the villagers of Sunderbans devastated by Cyclone Aila, the long road to recovery has just started. The flood water has receded and most villagers have gone back to their homes, or what remains of their homes. The flood has destroyed many of their huts and carried away most of their precious belongings. Many people do not even have clothes to wear, apart from what they were wearing when they fled to escape the gushing flood waters. The saline water has infiltrated ponds and cultivation fields, and thus robbing many people of their main source of livelihood. There is still an acute shortage of drinking water and food in many areas.

When a Cyclone Strikes …

An area blighted by seasonal floods encountered one of the worst during the waning days of May 2009.  Destroyed crops, salinated fresh water ponds, breakout of communicable diseases, short supply of medicines – such are the dire circumstances in the coastal areas of Sunderbans, West Bengal, India today.
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Cyclone Aila [...]

Visit to Aural Education for the Hearing Impaired (AURED)

On Jan 2, during my visit to Mumbai, I visted a project there called “Aural Education for the Hearing Impaired”. AURED as most of you know is a project we fund in Mumbai that works with children that are hearing impaired. Here is my report from the visit.
AURED pretty much survives on grants and foundations. [...]

Door Step School and the “Child Friendly Builder”

On December 29, 2008, I visited Pune. Along with a few Vibha volunteers from Pune, I first visited DSS (Door Step School) and met Rajani Tai and her staff. I introduced the “Child Friendly Builder” campaign to her – something that’s been on my mind regarding getting the overall community involved in making sure that [...]