“Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart”

I would like to thank Samiksha Foundation for giving me opportunity to fit in someone’s heart. Yes, a worthy weekend spent at an oncology ward with children fighting cancer.  I’m really proud of Samiksha Foundation for their initiative of taking care of the children’s education while they are under treatment.

We with our volunteers have been visiting Samiksha at the oncology ward for the past few months. We spend time in teaching the little brains. They are really wonderful kids. Teaching from A, B, C for a 3 year old child to maths, science etc up to high school children is all a good time for us. The kids are all so active and eager to learn. Few kids are teaching us small tricky puzzles and few are upcoming magicians who are teaching us small magicsJ. We do spend time playing after our serious studies and most of the time we lose and the children win. The kids love and enjoy seeing such elderly people losing to them. Within couple of weeks the children have become our friends. They do recognize us by our names and we do the same. And, in fact some of my little friends there call me on my mobile and ask me when we are going to see them again. They are happy to be with us. The first time I went there and met them I was really upset thinking, life is so very unfair for the kids. But, soon I realized the reason for me being there and told myself we should make those children smile while we are there.

“Are we seriously teaching them?” I do ask this question to myself several times. The only answer I get is yes we do teach them written knowledge, but we learn about hope and how to smile in tough situations. It feels so very nice when a child grabs my hand with love as soon as I get in to the hospital. I’m thankful to theinnocent and unconditional love from the little hearts.

When I don’t see a child with whom I was interacting earlier, I miss them. But, that’s a real fact, Cancer is a difficult disease. Hoping and praying to see each child be cured soon and go back to their regular lives.

I read the lines below somewhere:

We organised a birthday party for 8 kids in the oncology ward. Our storytellers Anushri and Ambika started off with a beautiful Japanese Farmer story.The children listened enrapt to the story which had a different setting. They had a lot to imagine. Then they were encouraged to make little japanese hats with paper and straw. A simple thing that made them smile putting it on their bald heads.They wanted us to take fotos of them with these new hats. Then Lioness club of Bangalore West sponsored the event by bringing in some guests and distributed fruits to the children. Mrs. Bhatnagar donated handmade mobile pouches to all the children in the ward. Our special guest was – Member Secretary of a Laughter Club of Bangalore. She presented some interesting insights into laughter and its importance. With her skill and communication abilities she drew the kids out into peals of laughter and taught them some laughter exercises.

At the end of this short program, the volunteers at Samiksha, the guests from the women’s groups and children at the ward were seen smiling ear to ear. We realised the immense possibilities of laughter as an exercise!

We captured some of it on video.To see this and the pictures please go to:

https://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/October292011StorytellingAndLaughter#5669335308163960402

https://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/October292011StorytellingAndLaughter

Cheers to all our October birthday kids!

I have witnessed the impact of the Samiksha Foundation on the lives of children with cancer as well as their families.  On the first day that I arrived, I immediately noticed from what was written on the chalkboard that there is a definite structure to the children’s day.  They begin the day by doing lessons in math, reading, or any other subject with the volunteers present.  After lunch, the children spend their afternoons playing games, drawing, or just talking to us. By the second day, I met Dr. Manjari, who explained the other activities that the children partake in, such as prayers, yoga, and storytelling.  I also met Ambika, the storyteller who has worked with the foundation for the past two years.  Although I don’t understand kannada, the way she narrates her stories to the children is impressive and never left a question in my mind as to what it was about.

On a more personal note, the children that I have met at Kidwai are tremendously sweet, funny, and a pleasure to spend time with.  In the beginning, I was a little worried that they wouldn’t feel comfortable with me, especially because I cannot speak Kannada.  However, by the second day of volunteering, the children eagerly waved and smiled at me and would grab my hand to show me their newest drawing or book that they wanted to read. What’s more, I realized that my rudimentary Kannada became a source of entertainment for the kids, and they were the ones who were teaching me to say things correctly while simultaneously trying to stifle their laughter at my pronunciations.

While spending time with these children, it is easy to forget that they are suffering from a chronic illness that they must deal with on a daily basis.  I spent one morning teaching the English alphabet to a young boy and his eagerness and determination to correctly learn the alphabet by heart was amazing.  He would write out each letter from ‘A’ all the way to ‘Z’ many times over in order to achieve perfection. There are endless such incidents that I could describe ,because the children have not lost their appetite for learning despite having to take time away from school to undergo chemotherapy.

My time with the Foundation is something that I will remember always because not only are the children inspiring, but the two teachers, Ms. Parvathy and Ms. Vidyavathy, who spend time with the children every single day from morning to afternoon, are so inspiring. Their good-heartedness and constant encouragement to the children is something that is very special to see, and I would like to thank them for allowing me to volunteer alongside them.

I am very impressed by the Samiksha Foundation, and the enthusiasm and graciousness of Manjari Bhatnagar, Meera Srivatsan, and Sandhya Sharad who run the organization and play an active role in making sure that the foundation lives up to its expectations by consistently arranging programs for the children and spending time with them as well.

Sagarika Satyavada

NYU student. Summer Volunteer at Samiksha Foundation. Posted with Sagarika’s permission

I am Aparajita Kayal from Kolkata. I have finished my post graduation in Mass Communication from Jain University. As a part of our course we were guided to do an internship for two months, where I joined “Samiksha Foundation” on 19^th July.

I got to know about this foundation through a friend. It was a totally a new experience for me. I was really nervous because I did’nt know  how to help an NGO. I was assisting two teachers, Parvathi ma’am and Vidyavathi ma’am with subjects like Math’s, English & Drawing for children taking cancer treatment at the hospital.

 Though they are suffering from cancer the children are full of enthusiasm and patience for learning.  I thought that local language would be a problem for me, but as the days passed by, I got friendly with them and I realized that language is not an issue. All you need is a smile on your face and the friendly nature. In the 5years that I lived in Bangalore, I have never learnt Kannada but believe me in these two months, they made me understand it and now at least I can understand what they want from me. Those kids are really wonderful. Many times I saw them crying out loud in pain. Even then they maintained a proper routine to come and sit with the books. The purpose was to make them study because they are missing their schools for treatment.

The foundation organizes birthday celebration for the children every two to three months. It’s very exciting and they enjoy it the most. Story telling sessions are very important for children after study period which refresh their mind and also it brings a sense of morality in them. And also I have noticed how silently they sit and listen to stories.

These two months internship was a very touching experience for me. I wish all of them get well soon. I really want to thank Sandhya ma’am for allowing me to help these children. I had good memories with them and I will miss them. I had good experience in teaching them, making them learn new things. I enjoyed working under Samiksha Foundation and also I am very thankful to Parvathi ma’am and Vidyavathi ma’am.

On this day, a group of volunteers joined us at the ward and lined up as many kids we could find in all the paediatric wards at Kidwai Hospital. Each child was presented with a small ball with their names on it. Manu set up a basketball hoop in the play area and we got the children to shoot a few hoops.  The volunteers – Shobana, Thishya, Thrishna, Sabareesh, Aparajita, Basavadatta, and all of us regulars ended up playing ball with the children outside the ward.

Imagine  a hundred children with one colourful ball each. It was a sight to see the smiling faces and great to hear all the laughter ringing around the ward. Nurses and Social Workers joined us in the play and we all had a great happy morning! On that bright beautiful morning, a lot of dreams were realized.

Thanks to all who made this event so much fun!

When we started working at the Kapoor ward in 2009, we had one librarian and 2 of us would volunteer twice a week for about 2 hours each day. Today, the foundation is proud to have, at this one location: 2 regular teachers, 5 regular volunteers for hands on work on 2 week days for 6 hours each day and almost 20 more who come in on weekends. Other than this we have so many individuals and groups who regularly visit us, contribute and follow our work online or on site. We also have a virtual presence at The Cancer Awakens website: www.cancerawakens.com of which we are very proud.

We sincerely thank all those who have contributed to our mission. Particular mention should go to The ANNS Rotary Women’s Group (Projects) headed by Ms. Asha Patil and Ms.Nandita Sanghani, Dr. Shankar Prasad, Youth For Seva headed by Mr.Venkatesh Murthy, the residents of Brigade Millenium (Jacaranda Block), the Prestige Acropolis Ladies’ Group coordinated by Ms. Ritu George, volunteers from IBM Whitefield office headed by Rupak Das and Satish Iyengar, Punith Basavaraj and his friends, Ms. Chitra Suryanarayan, Mr.Rajinder Chopra, Dr. Shobana Iyer and Ms. Priti Rao and Ms. Jhanavi Mohan from Mallya Aditi International School.

Special mention goes to the young volunteers from 10th grade to 12th grade, who come in very often to tutor the children and help out with various activities at Kapoor ward.

Our work speaks for itself. Please continue to visit us at www.samikshafoundation.org and help us reach out to more children affected by cancer.

Cheers!

We hope you do not have to come back to our school ever again! Cheers to your new life!

There are many such success stories we cud share but for sake of privacy of the kids, we will not be putting them all up on our website.

I was struck by the cheerful and positive atmosphere in the Kapoor ward of Kidwai Hospital, the morning that I visited. There was no reflection of discomfort or ill-health in the children’s eager, smiling faces. Their absorption with school work and reading seemed total. One of the girls in the ward was being medicated through an intravenous drip. She was sitting and reading, heedless of the drip.

I could see that Samiksha Foundation is fulfilling more than a felt need in the children’s ward of the hospital. It is a dream for children to be surrounded by books, stories and people to assist their learning needs, even in the hospital environment. The learning activities must surely be having a healing effect on the psyche of the children being treated there.

I am glad I dropped by to visit the Kapoor ward. I wish Samiksha Foundation’s work more strength and good cheer!

Charumathi Supraja

Freelance Journalist, Bangalore,India

Charumathi visited Samiksha at Kapoor Ward, Kidwai Memorial Hospital on 13^th Jan, 2011.

Manjula is a teacher’s trainer (I understood) in the govt college for teachers. She spoke in perfect and pure kannada with such confidence and clarity that we were all left open mouthed at the recital. She covered the entire chronology of Gandhi’s life, year wise, from his Sabarmathi days to South Africa, upto the Freedom struggle and Satyagraha movement.  The children sat listening to her intently and wide eyed. The mothers in the ward who usually just sit and watch their kids do their activities kept nodding in agreement and appreciation. Everyone was eager to answer the questions we put to them and wanted more information. Manjula’s son is 3 years old undergoing treatment for a tumor on his kidneys. He clung on to her while she spoke to the group and when he cried for attention, she gave him a quick look and continued very seriously saying, ” just one more minute. Let me also tell them about the other great leader whose birthday is today and we should not forget”.. She went on to talk about Lal Bahadur Shastri.

We are very grateful to Manjula for her eager participation. Her extensive knowledge retention is admirable. More so, her ability to speak in public and teach is truly inspiring. I hope that Manjula will continue to be part of our learning program at the Kapur ward. We will be grateful to her if she continues to share her knowledge with us and our children.

Thank you Manjula!