From now on, instead of conducting a party for all the children whose birthdays were during the month, we plan to give each of them a small gift on their actual birthdays. This will give them greater joy than having to wait for a party to be conducted at the end of the month, along with others.

Since it is the holiday season, there has been a lot of movement of visitors in and out of the wards. We have observed that many of these distribute bakery products, which has not gone down well with the doctors and the children’s diet. So, this time, we decided to bring about Fruit Awareness, and gave out moosambis to those in the ward instead.

We are also proud to say that one of our children, Ayesha, has been learning magic from the stage magician Nagendra, and will be on TV this week. She will also be performing for the other kids at Samiksha before she gets discharged this Saturday.

The family of Saraswathi and Ramesh , Sashi Venkat were guests at the celebrations and we are grateful for their contribution. After 2 hours we had to actually tell them to go back to the wards and get some rest.

The party was sponsored by Ms.Shashi Venkat and her mother. We really appreciate their gesture.

Everyone had a happy and peaceful  afternoon!

Dr. Manjari invited Mr. Rishi and accompanied him to the ward. Dr. Shobhana and Mrs. Meera ably acted as interpreters between the children and Mr. Rishi, and Mrs. Vidyawathy and Mrs. Parvathi, as always, organised the activities for the day for his visit.

The Samiksha Foundation would like to thank Mr. Rishi for taking an interest in its work and spending time with the children, who were very happy to meet him. We would be honoured if he could continue this association with the Foundation.

Pictures of this day can be seen on the gallery or the Picasa page.

Stuffed toys and books were given as gifts to the children, who were born in April and May. They were: Santosh, aged 13; Kiran, who is now 7;  6 year old Latika, who came to the party with her IV drip, looking serene and calm; Lokesh, also aged 6, who was full of excitement; and Jeevan and  Tilak, who turned 4 and seemed rather lost. Our new volunteer, Punith, helped out with the party and the program.

We also took this opportunity to distribute our new lot of school kits to the children, as most of the old students have left. At this time, we have  also observed that more than 20 of the children are under the age of four, making it difficult to include them into the main education program with the older ones.

We look forward to good ideas and sponsorships for the June/July birthday party. Happy birthday once again to the six summer  children!

http://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/ChildrenSDay2009#

A detailed description of the event is also present.

Children’s Day was another landmark day for the Foundation and for the children at Samiksha.

We are now in collaboration with a Theatre in Education group named Script People’s Theatre. We had a wonderful afternoon of playback theatre with them during which they heard personal experiences or favourite stories of the children and enacted them on stage. Among the most hilarious and engaging themes played back were the story of the Hare and the Tortoise and actor Ramya’s visit to a child at the hospital ward.

As always, the dramatists were rewarded with lots of laughter and applause, and the children told them to come back every week.

We are grateful to Rajesh, Venkatesh and the moderator Umesh, as well as their team for the wonderful performance. Their website can be found at http://playbacktheatre.wordpress.com.

In a conversation with one of our tutors, Mrs. Hansa Rau, one of our children had expressed a desire to meet the actress Ramya. Mrs. Rau learned that Ramya was at a shoot in her neighbourhood, and grabbed the opportunity with commendable presence of mind. Much to our delight, Ramya immediately agreed to visit us.

I went to the ward early in the morning, accompanied by Thishya and butterflies in my stomach. I had quite a few apprehensions about celebrity presence and media coverage. We wanted it to be a pleasant and quiet surprise for the children, without fanfare of any kind.

To our considerable joy (and relief), Ramya came in on time, with a whole lot of enthusiasm and a lovely smile. She spent a happy half hour with the kids and their moms in the ward.

The children, and their parents, were overjoyed. To say their happiness knew no bounds is an understatement. The child who wanted to meet Ramya was speechless, but all smiles. Our morning was made, too, by a plethora of hugs and handshakes.

Thank you, Ramya. I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we did, and hope you will continue your association with us.

I would also like to thank Thishya, Manjari and most of all, Hansa and her sister Chitra, for making this happen.

- Sandhya Sharad

Photos of the event are on our new gallery and can be found at this link.

This was supervised by Manmohan Iyer, Sandhya Sharad, and Manjari.

Samiksha Foundation also took part in the proceedings, and set up a stall at the event, which was run by our trustee, Mrs. Nanjundeswaran, and our founder director, Mrs. Sandhya Sharad.

The Peace Games are an event held across the world. Each set of Games is organised privately, but a report on the Games for the year is published by the United Nations. The Games aim to promote peace and friendship by getting children and youth together to play sports.

First, a few speeches and messages sent from the UN official on Sports and Development and the President of FIFA were delivered. All the participants then took an oath to promote peace in the world.

Teams were made and the youth present played games of cricket, football and hockey. Various side activities such as carroms, card games and basketball shootouts were also set up.

‘Youth’, as in young at heart. The participants in each sport actually ranged from age four to fifty plus. The senior citizens of the street were the enthusiastic audience. They were also given medals for their contributions to the society.

Samiksha Foundation flyers flew. So to speak. Nearly everyone could be seen holding one. Several people signed up to be volunteers.

Students of a local school, as well as the residents of the street and their families, took part in the activities. The Games served their purpose – friendship and fair play had been of the utmost importance, and even teams that lost their matches would celebrate the fact.

The Foundation was happy to have been part of the event, and would like to thank the organizers, the people of DN Street and the volunteers and children who helped out. Special thanks to Archita Narayanan and Thishya Ramesh for all their help.

- Aditya

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