An exclusive Report
to
Asha for Education
FY April 2011 – March 12
Medical Support & Training n Development
Medical Support
Food as medicine
Food menu being followed at Siragu through which Siragu beneficiaries benefiting with quality food with complete vegan food, organic, natural food.
Special Food
All the special feedings given with the support of feeding program contributions raised, throughout the year special item being provided is FRUITS and more VEGETABLES.
Further, from an organic garden, organic green leaves being bought and provided to children which become frequent process of procurement of green leaves from nearby organic garden.
Agriculture activity provided Organic Rice to Siragu Common Kitchen
Also, during this year, elderly children along with Uma, Muthuram, staff team involved in agriculture activity and planted paddy and the yield was 4 bags of Boiled Rice which was produced with 100% organic manner.
The slurry from the school biogas plant, usage of Amirthakaraisal (a combination of various natural items) being mixed and sprayed on the field, with this natural manure support, paddy grown up well and yield is 4 bags and the area of land used for the same is 36 cents.
Medical Camps
· 18 /6/2011 Dental camp by Ilampirai Trust for 380 students of Siragu
· On 11.01.12 -Dental camp organized by Siragu Montessori School with the help of PEDO PLANET
Dental hospital, Chennai. 16 doctors arranged general screening program for Siragu Home students and students live in Sastrinagar Students (Pavement Dwellers). Children between the age group 3 to 14 benefited through this camp.
· Followed by above eye camp also being conducted for the beneficiaries of Siragu
Children Sickness & How We respond to the situation
- No. of children falling sick being considerably reduced compare to last year.
- We do stock Siddha, Ayurveda and herbal medicines in the school to provide first aid to the children
- On unavoidable circumstances, children referred to Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital situated in Nungambakkam, Chennai. Our home children get free treatment and we need to pay only for the medicines if purchased. We are highly greatful to this hospital all the time.
Medical Support to Community
Elders in the begging community were being well guided and motivated by us. At times of their children falling sick or their family members who fall sick, they come to us for guidance, on many cases we given referral letters to approach Eye Hospital, Private Hospital who give free treatment through Govt. support, private hospital who provide maximum discount possible for the surgeries, etc which helps the community have a greater confidence and take right decisions to safeguard themselves from diseases and various medical issues.
T.B. Camp being conducted during this year and more than 100 elders (men & women) were benefited. These families being examined and provided further treatment and based on the awareness videos shown to them and spoken to them, it helped them to realize the seriousness of so called diseases.
Alternative Medicines & Healing Therapies
We believe in natural medicines, alternative medicines and do have stock of medicines called “Thalisadi Churanam”, “Ashta Churanam”, “Tripala Churanam”, “Nilavembu Powder”, “Samahan”, olden days natural medicinal herbs, materials and which helps all the time to get immediate relief and those diseases not curable, referred to hospital for further treatment.
Pranic Healing therapy helps to heal the affected victims with simple healing techniques and measuring the impact of the same which is highly helpful all the time.
Meditation is one of the other sources to keep our mind and body be fit and also help as learning therapy.
Children do regular meditation on Twin Hearts on a daily basis in the open assembly, regular exercises, Super brain yoga techniques, Karate, Yoga and physical activities during their PET period and Gardening, etc helps all the children in the school in many ways.
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
Programs attended by Mrs.Uma (1)
Mrs.Uma participated in a conference held in Chennai
HELP 2011
Holistic Enhancement
of Learning Potential
9th International Conference
2nd & 3rd December, 2011
Asiana Hotel
1/238, Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR)
Semmencherry, Chennai 600 119
In the conference, Uma participated in below discussions sessions offered by
Dr. Thambirajah
Effect of Developmental Delay on the child and the family
&
Dr. Meir Ben Hur
Concept-rich mathematic instruction
Dr. Kathy Hopkins
Moving beyond Memorization
Dr. Meir Ben Hur
Investigating
the big ideas
of Arithmetic
to know more about the conference, click please visit
http://www.alphatoomega.org/HELP2011_Brochure.pdf
Programs attended by Mrs.Uma (2)
Imparting Integral Education
Workshop for principals, teachers and counselors of schools and colleges
Sunday, September 25th 2011
The aim of this workshop is to transform the class room into a space where the Total Development of the students and the individuation of their inner nature are made possible.
The education phase of a student is an important formative period where all their inner faculties and potentials can be developed. The focus today is often on the gathering and assimilation of information, success in exams and the entry into a lucrative placement, post education. What is often ignored is the full rounded development of the student – of his/her mind, life force, body and inner self.
The educational period is also the time when the individual identity of the student can form and come to the forefront. This is the possibility for the student to discover his/her true inner nature and life purpose. The purpose of this workshop is to experientially explore the process of creating a learning environment that can foster the unique flowering of each student.
The ancient Gurukul system had the capacity of transmitting knowledge and wisdom from the teacher to the student in a holistic way. In today’s modern context of education can this method of transference of wisdom and the full rounded development of the student be made possible? A lot depends on what we as teachers can hold within us, which in turn influences the students in their own development. It is not only the information that we teach that forms the psyche and personality of the students; it is who we are within ourselves which primarily influences the development of their potentials, character and attitude.
Explorative Flow of the workshop:
· Understanding the framework of Integral Education – the complete development of the mind, life force, body and the inner self of the student. A partial development of the students leaves them unprepared to bring forth their own unique contribution into the world. The framework draws guidance from the Telos model. The Telos model is based on the vision and work of Sri Aurobindo and describes the different developmental states of a human being. (for details visit http://telos.org.in/telosmodel.html)
· Exploring the process of perfecting all the developmental states of the teacher - It is only through the holistic development of the teacher that the teacher can facilitate similar development in the student.
· Learning the process of building a collective Integral Education culture - where all the inner faculties and potentials of the students (mind, life force, body and inner self) can be nourished.
· Connecting to the inner spark within each of us - Each teacher is unique and there is often an inner spark that propels each one to be in the field of teaching. Learning to connect more with one’s own spark brings forth each one’s true inner nature and full potential in the field of education.
· Facilitating the unique flowering of each student - Nurturing a space where each student gets an opportunity to realise his/her own unique inner nature. Encouraging students, through the pursuit of the curriculum and its projects, to dwell on their life purpose – the unique mission they are here to fulfill.
· Tapping into Intuitive Knowing - Enabling a learning environment where one masters the knowledge that is currently available and then steps beyond to tap into the domain of intuitive knowing.
Workshop facilitator:
Arul Dev has trained and consulted people in the area of individual and collective transformation, since 1994. An engineer from BITS Pilani, he is the Director of People First Consultants (www.peoplefirst.co.in ), a human resources consultancy, committed to develop the deeper aspirations of people. He is the co-founder of Telos, which focuses on the evolution of consciousness of individuals, leaders and the collective group they represent. For additional details see: http://www.peoplefirst.co.in/founder.html
Jeevan Vidya Sammelan
Held between 11th to 13th November 2011
@ Indore, Madhya Pradesh
Manav Chetana Vikas Kendra, Indore organized JV Rashtriya Sammelan at Village Pivday, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
The sammelan was a very good opportunity and we got an overview of the activities and efforts all over the country and met the people involved in the same.
Attendees from Suyam
Uma & Muthuram
Suyam incorporated JV concepts in daily curriculum of Siragu school and also in all the projects and many of the Siragu staff are already attended JV shivir at Kanpur, Hyderabad and others parts of India since year 2006 begin with the team lead by Uma.
Also, Uma involved in translation of one JV book into Tamil and we shared our experience in doing the same.
It was a greater opportunity for us to interact with various eminent personalities who all attended JV and implementing JV concepts in various schools in various districts and IIT Kanpur, IIIT Hyderabad made it as a part of their education curriculum.
An exclusive Outstation trip to Hyderabad
Jeevan Vidhya Shivir
Shivir held between 23rd December to 30th December’11
Attendees
From Management
Uma
Muthuram
From Teacher Co-ordinators & Teachers
Binish – School Incharge, Siragu
Kuppabai – KG Co-ordinator, Siragu
Raja – Standard Class Co-ordinator, Siragu
Pauline - Teacher
Shanthi - Teacher
Karthikeyan – Teacher – Bharathamatha School
About Shivir
Jeevan Vidya Shivir (an educational workshop), held from 24th to 31st December 2011 (both days inclusive) at IIIT Hyderabad. The shivir is a platform for discussing a wide range of issues like Education, Reality, Happiness, Success, Aspirations and gaining an understanding on Our Nature, Relationships, Environment, Social Issues, and Self-Confidence. Do they sound relevant to you? In the shivir we will have a detailed and lengthy discussion on these, and in the process try to find a holistic and sustainable solution in the light of Jeevan Vidya.
A note about what a philosophy must include and how we can evaluate a philosophy. This note will help in getting an idea of the Jeevan Vidya philosophy, and will also throw light on the kind of workshop one may expect. Please do spend time in reading the note.
Evaluating a Philosophy
There are many philosophies and systems of living that are available to us. How do we evaluate these systems and determine which can guide us best in living our life? This note seeks to provide some benchmarks for evaluating a philosophy.
1. Fundamentals: A good philosophy addresses issues at the most fundamental levels of existence. It motivates us to ask the most basic questions about ourselves. Who are we? What is the purpose of life? How can we fulfill this purpose? A complete philosophy would be one that provides satisfactory and acceptable answers to questions like these.
The idea behind this is that if the fundamental issues are sorted out, dealing with the grosser particularities of life is rendered easy. On the other hand, if the fundamentals remain nebulous then we are forced to deal uncomprehendingly with the grosser, more conspicuously manifest problems of life that confront us everyday.
2. Understanding versus Faith/Belief: A philosophy based on understanding is more likely to be acceptable than one based merely on faith/belief. Indeed, we take recourse to faith/belief only when we do not understand something, or when we believe something to be somehow beyond our conventional ways of understanding. A good philosophy would be one that makes no demand upon our faith/belief and is based on explanations that we can understand.
3. Communicability: The best philosophy in the world is likely to be of little use if it is not easily communicable to people. If accessing the philosophy requires difficult regimes of discipline or acrobatic feats of the body or mind, then the utility of the philosophy gets reduced. An ideal philosophy would be easily communicable to any ordinary person without requiring any special abilities.
4. Universality: The more culture-specific a philosophy is, the less likely it is to appeal to a wider cross-section of people. Thus a good philosophy would be one which would be universal in appeal and applicability, across cultures and civilizations.
5. Comprehensiveness/Holism: The more comprehensive a philosophy is, the more acceptable it is likely to be. A good philosophy would be able to generate guiding principles for all spheres of life, especially contemporary life.
6. Solutions versus Relief: An ideal philosophy must lead to a programme of solutions rather than a programme of relief or respite.
7. Empowerment: A good philosophy must be empowering. It should be able to infuse hope and confidence in people and prevent them from lapsing into misanthropy or worse.
8. Realisability (Existential): A good philosophy must be realizable in the individual. That is, the possibility of the philosophy being manifest in the lives of each and every individual must appear clear and evident.
9. Feasibility (Social): A good philosophy must be socially and logistically feasible; and it must be demonstrably so, without any repressive or coercive methods being used.
10. Open Source: Like good software, a good philosophy must be open source, so that once the fundamentals are understood, anyone can participate in the process of developing, creating documentation for, and applying that philosophy.
About the prabodhak:-
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Professor Ganesh Bagaria from HBTI Kanpur, will conduct the shivir. He, besides being an activist from his student days in IIT-Kanpur is a pioneer in combining our tradition and values with education.
He teaches electronics and communication at Harcourt Butler.s Technical Institute, Kanpur. He has a deep understanding of Western as well as Indian Philosophy. His research interests apart from theory of electronic communication are (1) understanding of Human being, Human conduct and Human civilization, and (2) commitment to work for its realisation.
He is an admired teacher and has an ardent student following, relating to all aspects of life. His extreme simplicity and remarkable insight makes him a suitable person for conducting the workshop.