iVolunteers @ Car rally for blind!

This year’s Rally for the Blind was scheduled for Sunday, 29th March 2009. The event was organized by Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC) with the support of the National Association of the Blind and sponsored by Chennai's Savera Hotels.

After a quick briefing session on saturday,the volunteers where ready to 'volunteer' for the event!

More on this - with the volunteers views,SOOON:)

“Do you care to spare some time and thought?”

1.0. Introduction

In our mission to reach out and spread awareness on the various social issues and inform individuals about volunteerism and how one could volunteer, this month we had another wonderful activity committed to spread awareness on ‘Community development’.

 

iVolunteer in association with the HOPE FOUNDATION held a community activity at the Hope School premises to hold the INVOLVE activity for February 2009 – Community Work.

 

Involve-is a string of feeler activities which is otherwise called as a one-off event. This event strives to attract volunteers in Chennai and to raise the sprit of volunteering among already volunteering individuals.

 

Involve objective

 

• Newly enrolled volunteers get to hear, see, do and feel volunteering activities at this event
• A volunteering opportunity open for volunteers who cannot engage themselves in long committed volunteering works
• To create a database of potential volunteers.
• To celebrate the spirit of volunteerism

 

Involve – 2 (2009)

 

This is the second Involve for the year 2009.The core idea was to create awareness on the community and educate volunteers how they can help and pitch in. The community chosen for the activity was ‘Kannagi Nagar’ Community at Thoraipakkam where the Hope Foundation has been working closely for the community’s development.

 

The idea was to indulge the volunteers in some community work followed by an awareness session on how a volunteer can help in a community’s development.

 

 

2.0 Invite Sent

 

http://www.goergo.in/?p=3706&id=3

 

Note : Was featured in ERGO

 

3.0 The event

 

The Hope School is an English Medium School that has grades up to 8^th Standard, students from the Kannagi Nagar Community study in this school.

The day began at the school with scrubbing, painting & cleaning up trash. It was amazing to see all the answer papers and trash stacked up religiously for future use.

Target – 2 rooms had to be cleaned neat and 1 kg classroom needs some painting.

With 10 brilliant, cheerful and passionate volunteers – work moved so fast and work was lots of fun!!

By Lunch,we were done with the painting and the cleaning – HURRAH!Post lunch we heard from Ms.Manjula,the principal on the school and the difficulties the kids go through and also about the community.

It was heartening to see the passion and dedication of the Staff of the school who are doing all that they could  to teach , support and stand by these children who come from very difficult backgrounds abd stand as the strong pillar and watch them grow into beautiful, strong and sincere men and women of tomorrow.

Completely tired and happy to have been useful and absolutely joyous to have brightened up the classroom of the KG kids, the volunteers waved cheerful adieus to all.

5.0 Volunteers Speak

Vinod ,iVolunteer

“Some things I learnt through the activity-

-         Having seen girls belonging to one of Chennai’s notorious slums fluently deliver a monologue in English, I will never again make assumptions about what people are capable of achieving

-         The passion of the project coordinator and her support group was very admirable and I would love to develop some of the some passion in my interests and activities

-          My knowledge of sandpapering, painting, sweeping and mixing distemper was greatly enhanced during the event!

Overall was good fun and very satisfying. Totally worth driving across the city and spending a Saturday there. The volunteer group was a fun group and it was easy working as a team.

I have tremendous respect for the people involved in the project for the kind of work they do. Have a lot of respect for the kids as well, to come from that background and be able to work hard at mastering new skills and knowledge. Hats off to them!”

I hope to make the time to continue contributing to the project in some manner in the near future”

Liffy Thomas,iVolunteer

“I was reminded of the story of Tom    whitewashes the fence from 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' by Mark Twain even before I could start my work at the Hope School, Thoraipakkam.

But, unlike Tom who tricked his friends saying that he got the most amusing work to do and handed his job of whitewashing the fence to one friend after another, the bunch of us did not have to make any such excuses.

Each of us caught on to the sand papers, dusters, brooms and paint brushes to give the kindergarten room an all-new look.

This month’s Involve was a great experience for more reasons that one. We all had a helluva lot of time. Above all it thought me about caring and sharing.

I was really impressed to see the enthusiasm in some of the other volunteers. Somebody who never held a broom in hand was dusting and cleaning the rooms. Another person came to the event just because a friend of his could not make it and yet another was keen to show her artistic skills to the children.

The principal of the school also impressed me. I admire her for taking the ‘Road less traveled’ and her efforts in uplifting these children and their homes.

 

Little drops of water make a might ocean. And in this case our time spent brought in smiles to a classroom.

 

We need to spread the word about Involve further!

 

Sridhar,Ivolunteer

As I love to do social work and  I am interested in share my living I am participated in this activity / event, as I was not aware of the iVolutneer, however, I want to be part of this activity. Coming the event, I felt very happy to part of it and had a good fun with the group. It’s nice to have work with likeminded people. I was already involved same kind of events, so I had a privilege to meet same kind people and had a good experience in mixing colors JJ Its good to be part of iVolunteer and would like to involve in further activities, if time permits

 

6.0 NGO Speak

Ms. Manjula Saraf –Principal Hope School

“Thanks a million for all the effort that you took in bringing such great volunteers to the school- a dentist, a journalist, a business man, an IT professional- a great combination. I appreciate their heart to serve and the sincerity in their approach towards a cause. It's difficult to find such people these days. The UKG room looks so bright and colorful and the other teachers and children feel left out.

You all did a great job and I thank you from the bottom of my heart and look forward to meeting all of you again.”

You can view the pictures here

Orientation workshop for volunteers(held on 17th Feb)-feedback+pix

The Orientation workshop held at CWDR on Feb 17th was super sucessful with 8 volunteers coming together on a weekday!

Some feedback form the volunteers who attended the Induction programme- 

Anuradha:

"It is a nice idea to conduct all events at one NGO or the other. It was nice to see Prathana who is positive and motivated. It was great to see staff of CWDR and to know their activities. The group activities made the session interesting and of course the snacks made it lot more fun."

Chandra Babu

"I thought the program would be just a presentation. But contrary to my thoughts, it also a fun filled group activity based orientation program that impressed me. I really enjoyed .My perception about volunteering is that its scope is limited to only few areas.But from the program I got to know that it has huge diversity and endless.I also learnt the Do’s and Don’ts of volunteering which will be very helpful in future. I really appreciate the iVounteer group as it is associated with more NGOs and providing the right opportunity for people who are ready to volunteer in their interested areas."

Prema:

"Was a good show, the orientation made us aware to an extent what IVO does and How we can contribute to the society our great little ways.  A feeling of contentment to see like minded people who want to hold hands and make a difference to the world."

Vinod:

"Overall, it was definitely worth the effort of driving 50 kms to get there. Even though a lot of the information presented is available on the website, there is no substitute for inter-personal learning. You hear a lot more opinions and viewpoints.It was also inter-active and informal and there was no drag or boredom at any point in the programme."

You can have a look at some pictures here.

So this is for the volunteers who missed out the opportunity to attend the Orientation workshop.We would be having one again soon,will keep you posted!!

--

Anusha

Peace walk -22nd February-against Genocide

Hi,

Indians Against Genocide have a peace walk on Sunday(Feb 22,2009)against the unreported cases of brutalities by the Srilankan army.

To join the walk and to gather more details on this walk kindly visit http://www.indiansagainstgenocide.org (Details in Tamil and English).

Kindly do forward the information to all friends and those you feel might be interested.
Ps:Pix can be disturbing.

‘You can change your city’-Involve activity

Date - 31^st January,4pm - 6 pm

Location - Janaagraha office, Chittaranjan Road, Chennai

1.0. Introduction

INVOLVE 1, the first event for 2009.While planning the event; we decided that this time the core issue would be civic issues and the Chennai city.

iVolunteer has recently partnered with Janaagraha Chennai and had decided to do this event with them

Involve-is a string of feeler activities which is otherwise called as a one-off event. This event strives to attract volunteers in Chennai and to raise the sprit of volunteering among already volunteering individuals.

Involve objective

• Newly enrolled volunteers get to hear, see, do and feel volunteering activities at this event
• A volunteering opportunity open for volunteers who cannot engage themselves in long committed volunteering works
• To create a database of potential volunteers.
• To celebrate the spirit of volunteerism

Involve – 1 (2009)

This is the sixth Involve for the year 2008.The event objective was quiet simple. This was an awareness building session for the volunteers where we had representatives from Janaagraha to give a 2 hour awareness session. Janaagraha is one of the premier social organizations of Bangalore working towards the concept of "participative democracy".

2.0 Invite Sent

http://av.anusha.googlepages.com/involve1-2009

3.0 The event

Most major cities (Chennai included) are experiencing rapid urbanization. The quality of life for citizens across the socio economic spectrum is in decline. Challenges in provisioning water supply, sanitation, public transport, health, education impacts all citizens, particularly those in the economically weaker sections.

Keeping all this is mind, Janaagraha works towards participative democracy where the people can contribute to the betterment of their own lives within their city.

The session started with mutual introductions followed by a  brief note on Janaagraha and its programmes. This was continued with notes on the pilot project - L.B Road project

The conclusive session was the session on Area Sabaa and Arun an active volunteer also briefed on open street mapping and how volunteers could pitch in.

The session was an open ended session encouraging the volunteers to participate in the way the city works.

5.0 Volunteers Speak

“It’s the first time I am participating in such an event. It was inspiring and fun. It was great to see Arun, a young boy achieve so much. It was great meeting everyone and I understood I could actually contribute in some way.”

--

Anuradha

I can only say “my dream come true” when I could be a part of this session.

--

Dhanya

I thought that the event was a good start. I basically like Janaagraha and what they are doing. It felt like at last there was a platform that could help people like me who want to do something to change the city but do not know where and how to start.

I learnt that tiny things done by each individual makes a lot of difference. I felt like there were such simple and interesting things that I could do that if channelized for the right cause would make all the difference. Also that there are experts who are ready to lend a hand if you are really willing to invest time and energy.

--

Savitha Rengabashyam

 

6.0 NGO Speaks

I start with thanks! for organizing this meeting,  which gives me an opportunity to know people with the fire to do something for the betterment of society.From this meeting we were to able get people from IT side to help us in building the technical side stronger, some architects to help us in the structural change, some accounts people who can help us in finance part &documentation. Still we are in search for people to work in the hard core field. So it would be fine if iVolunteer can provide such ones in future, it would be a great help for us and for the society.

Bala.N

Coordinator,Area Sabha

Janaagraha,Chennai

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'YOU' can change your city-Here's how.(INVOLVE)

Have you always wanted to do something for your city? Does it pain to watch the traffic and do nothing? Do you believe you can find solutions to a lot of existing problems? Here is the opportunity of a life time!!

We are back with the first INVOLVE for this new year 2009.Do join us on 31^st January(Saturday) for an awareness session by JANAAGRAHA and Chennai city connect.

Janaagraha is one of the premier social organizations of Bangalore working towards the concept of "participative democracy". Established by Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan in 2001, Janaagraha is working towards encouraging citizen participation to ensure greater accountability and better quality of governance.

Janaagraha was launched in Chennai in September, 2007 and is focusing its efforts on tackling the city's transportation challenges. Janaagraha in Chennai is the knowledge partner for Chennai City Connect (CCC) which is focusing on traffic and transportation for improvements in the city. CCC is a non-profit organization, hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which provides a platform for various stakeholders to engage with the government by providing knowledge and skills necessary to improve urban infrastructure and governance.

The Chennai team has taken up two fast track projects—redesigning of the L.B. Road and piloting New Mobility Hubs around the IT corridor.

Be the change you want to see ---is all about empowering the citizen and heralding the people’s campaign in a professional way. The platform at Janaagraha enables their team to merge their skills and passion for being a part of the catalyst process.

Agenda for the awareness sessions 

1. Introductions

2. About Janaagraha   

3. About CCC (Chennai city connect)   

4. About Area sabha   

5. Session on How can volunteers help us ?

If you want to know more about Janaagraha and CCC Log onto  www.janaagraha.org , www.chennai.cityconnect.in          

Venue : Janaagraha office,

Teynampet
13, Chittaranjan Road,Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600018
Date & time -31^st January, Saturday, 4pm – 6pm

Due to space constraints we would not be able to accommodate more than
20 volunteers so quickly send in your confirmations.

Old and new volunteers are welcome!

Confirm your presence as soon as possible!!

RSVP – Anusha Vivek

Mobile – 98414 87984

Email – anusha@ivolunteer.in

 

iVolunteer and NGO partner 'Janaagraha' in ERGO newspaper

Liffy Thomas works in a newspaper called ERGO, she is an active iVolunteer member too. Ergo is an Indian daily newspaper published on Mondays through Fridays by The Hindu . It is an all-color free sheet distributed to IT professionals and targets the Corporates.She chose to write on our monthly event -INVOLVE in the newspaper,showcasing our NGO partner Janaagraha.

You can find the article here.Thanks for helping us spread the awareness Liffy:).

If you would like to join us at the event on saturday(31st January),kindly email us at chennai@ivolunteer.in

Cheers!

Team iVolunteer