INDIA YOUTH ACTIVITIES
INDIA YOUTH ACTIVITIES
Annapoorna Programme-Pondicherry
The youth are proud to announce their association with the Government of Pondicherry to serve breakfast to almost 15,000 children across 210 schools in Pondicherry and Karaikal. They had the privilege to meet the dignitaries - Mr. Narayana Swamy, the Honorable Chief Minister of Pondicherry, Mr. Sivakozhundu, the Deputy Speaker of the Pondicherry Assembly, Mr. Kamala Kannan, Education Minister, Pondicherry who played a major role in their initiative.
In the year 2002 under the name of Rajiv Gandhi, Breakfast programme was initiated by then Chief Minister (CM) Rangasamy in Pondicherry. Under this scheme students studying in first standard to eight standard were provided Bread and Milk. Later it was extended to class twelfth as well. After some time, there were issues with Bread getting spoilt hence it was replaced by biscuits and bananas. Later due to financial reasons this scheme was stopped in the year 2012.
In this situation Chief Minister (CM) Narayana Swamy held discussions to revive this programme with help of Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust. Chairman Mr. Sampath and Secretary Anand and others from Annapoorna team participated in this discussion with the Chief Minister (CM) and shared their wish to distribute biscuits for three days in a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) bearing all the expenses incurred.
Under this arrangement 210 schools, 150 schools in Pondicherry and 60 schools in Karaikal, will be benefited. Each child will receive five biscuits in a small pack, while milk will be supplied by the Government of Pondicherry.
The honourable Chief Minister (CM) of Pondicherry, Mr Narayana Swami kicked off the breakfast Seva on October 28, 2017.
Oracle Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Twenty-eight volunteers from Oracle were part of an amazing CSR event in Dodbelle on the October 28, 2017. 104 breakfast Seva kids from the village greeted them with mantras chanting and recitation of Suprabhatham.
The CSR volunteers then took the stage and presented an elaborated session on hygiene awareness to the kids. Following this, hygiene kits were distributed to the kids which included tooth paste, brushes, soap, juice, biscuits.
This was immediately followed by breakfast which consisted of pulav, sasaru bhaji, dosa, paalya, chutney, sweet paisum, and Sai protein milk. Breakfast, which was served to both the children and volunteers, was preceded by all the volunteers planting saplings in and around the village.
After which the volunteers visited the Government school of the village where they divided themselves into four batches. Each batch spent a great amount of time with students in various fun filled and learning events. 100 hygiene kits were then distributed to the students.
Bhongir Annapoorna Programme
Many of the children of the school generally do not have any morning breakfast and come to school with an empty stomach said one of the teachers during the survey done by of the Annapoorna volunteers last week. The team immediately proposed the model of breakfast to the district Collector - Mrs. Anita Ramachandra and Bhongir constituency MLA - Mr. Paila Sekhar Reddy. On the 21 October, 2017 the Annapoorna team proposed a model for initiating breakfast at about 160 rural schools covering four mandals and about 7000 children.
To start with, the team will provide starter breakfast like cookies / biscuits / protein powders and other nutrition supplements. Later on, the trust, with a joint Government collaboration, will work on supplying ingredients for solid breakfast (upma / kichidi / tomato bath / pongal and such).
The kitchens in the same schools will be used, by the cooks, to prepare nutritious breakfast.
From the initial discussion to the actual execution - it took just five days. Once we had the final consent - UNIBIC nutritious cookies were supplied quickly from Bangalore to these rural mandals within two days. Breakfast Seva in Bhongir was officially launched on October 28, 2017 in the immediate presence of MLA, District collector, District Education Oficer and many other government and school officials
What surprised everyone was the pace at which this programme was executed. Here is one more moment of Love in Action. Actions speak more than words and this is a classic example of how, yet again, Swami operates through His instruments.
Post the inaugural launch - the Annapoorna team visited the District Collector of Sangareddy District (Sri Manicka Raj Kannan) and the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly), Sri.Chinta Prabhakar. Similar discussions were held to start Annapoorna Breakfast Program here at this district as well. To start with, the trust proposed providing nutritious supplements like cookies / biscuits protein powder and the like, to about 8,000 children across 160 schools. Very shortly, the launch will be planned after completing the formal discussions.
After that, team also met the Director for School Education Telangana State, Mr. G Kishen, and informed him about Annapoorna Breakfast Seva. The team had a lengthy discussion about preliminary plans to explore the possibility of starting this breakfast programme at many other schools at various other districts of Telangana.
Integrated Rural Development
Annapoorna, in association with Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bangalore, in a first-of-its-kind initiative, kick-started the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in October 2017. This course was launched with 600 students across different streams and will be a part of their third and the fourth semester curricula. Designed with the aim to raise awareness among young Indians about the many challenges in rural India, the IRDP aims to equip the students with the understanding and first-hand experience of the rural life in India. Through interactive sessions with NGOs (non-government organizations) and villagers, the students would be exposed to multiple opportunities to apply their academic knowledge to facilitate rural development and execute targeted initiatives and activities. This initiative will help the students improve their communication skills, help in fostering their leadership and problem solving skills and build their self-confidence.
NCET VISIT TO MUDDENAHALLI
October 28, 2017 was a red-letter day for the third semester students of Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology (NCET) for they were in Muddenahalli for a Satsang with our dearest Swami. Over 500 students were present on that eventful day, and for most of them, this was the first interaction with Swami.
All the students were seated by 10:00 AM and the proceedings began with an address by Dr. A. R. Manjunath who heads of the Institute of Human Excellence in Muddenahalli. He gave a broad introduction about Swami in both the physical and subtle forms. He further went on to give an overview of the various projects that were started and that are currently in the works.
Dr. Manjunath's talk was followed by video presentations titled "The Mystery of Sookshma Sathya Sai", which can be found on YouTube. Another video on the importance of human values in education was played. Soulful Bhajans filled the short interval between Swami's arrival and the video presentation.
As Swami arrived in Hrudaya Mandiram, He was greeted by the Staff and Principal of Nagarjuna College. Swami blessed Sri Gopalkrishna, the principal of Nagarjuna College, with a ring. The students of the centre of Human Excellence chanted Vedic hymns once Swami took His seat.
Girish Suryanarayana gave a presentation on Integrated Rural Development, a course at NCET which aims to expose and educate students regarding the challenges that exist in rural India. There is also a practical element to this course where the students visit villages to figure out methods of alleviating said challenges. Girish is a Research Scientist in an MNC (multinational corporation in Bangalore and was instrumental in setting up this programme.