December 2012 Newsletter

As an organization which began its working amongst the rural population of Kanpur, Shiksha sopan has been sensitive towards the social and cultural growth of the children, making sure they are well knit in the society they grow in while also providing leadership and direction to its growth.

Mediated by Shiksha sopan, IIT Kanpur dramatics society students put up a Nukkad Natak at several places in Barasirohi on superstition.The nukkad-natak was very well received by the rural population.

This month, the executive committee of Sopan met to discuss further systematization of its working. Also Dr V N Kulkarni Merit Scholarship Committee finalized the schedule of 2013 Examination this month.

Please click on the following link to read the full December 2012 newsletter . Feedback and comments would be appreciated.

November 2012 Newsletter

Shiksha Sopan has always been organizing a program on October 2nd. This year for the first time, four major programmes ran parallel on 2nd October and were completed successfully. It shows the commitment and coherence in the motivation and intentions of Sopan volunteers.

The four units namely Sopan ASK (Anupacharik Shikshan Kendra), evening-centers, the committee for Dr. V.N.Kulkarni Merit scholarship and the Higher Education Cell organized the four parallel programmes. Sopan science cell also organized a very nice talk on history of clocks.

Please click on the following link to read the full November 2012 newsletter . Feedback and comments would be appreciated.

October 2012 Newsletter

The month of September registered an increased attendance in all study-centers. The major programmes this month were an environmental quiz “ek Sparsh Prakriti Ka” to complement the event "ek Sparsh Dharti Ka" organized last month.

We had a night sky introduction for the children through mobile planetarium. A health camp with focus on eyes was also organized. Sopan ASK celebrated Teachers’ day. During this event on children were given new school dresses. This month also saw some organizational structuring in order to run our programmes more effectively.

Please click on the following link to read the full October 2012 newsletter . Feedback and comments would be appreciated. 

September 2012 Newsletter

The month of August kept the Shiksha Sopan volunteers and children busy with several events. We organized “Independence Day” function, Health Camp and a competition named "ek Sparsh Darti Ka". 

We selected the second batch children for the 'Dr V N Kulkarni' Merit scholarship this month.

An introduction programme for Shiksha Sopan was held at IIT Kanpur Girls' hostel. All evening centers, GAK(Gahan Adhyayan Kendra), Science Cell, and Anaupacharik Shikshan Kendra were going well.

Please click on the following link to read the full September 2012 newsletter . Feedback and comments would be appreciated. 

What are we doing, why are we doing ! (Contribution receipt of Apr to July 2012)

Attached is the receipt of contribution made from April to July 2012.
This was affected jointly by Dr. Saurabh Dayal, Dr. Nimisha Srivastava and Amrendra Narayan.

I wish to state the logo statement of Shiksha Sopan here for myself. (translation) Instead of blaming darkness, lets together light a lamp.

Its very difficult to get over the sense of lack we are often plagued by. Lets ask ourselves, can we fill our stomach to our satisfaction ? If yes, then our circumstances are getting ready for starting to contribute towards social welfare. Just because I can't eat my favorite ice-cream, or can't watch the movie just released, or can't visit a place I wanted to, we stay convinced that 'I don't have enough'. But shall I be able to eat the ice-cream in front of someone who has not had a single meal since morning ? Shall I be able to watch a movie if I know a single person, who very often, walks back home at the end of work-day in fear of how he will face his children without food today also ?

This is no movie situation. Every 30 minutes, another farmer in India commits suicide. I recall how the wife of a daily-laborer used to tell story to her children that a witch caught their father while he was coming back from work and snatched the food he was bringing for us. The mother believed that the story had the merit that the children while accepting that they won't have enough food tonight still did not lose hope for the next night's meal. And she can repeat the story any number of times for any other evening her husband couldn't earn enough for that day's meal. The mother who was rather young, still older than me at the time of the conversation shared with me how one day her little girl came back later asking Papa to take her with him on work. She said that she would request the witch to not snatch their food because she gets very hungry in the night. The child, unlike others, who gets to know witches and ghosts through stories had the courage to face the witch and the hope to convince that the hunger situation of herself and her siblings would change the heart of the witch to not snatch food from her father anymore. Little did she know, that witches apart, her hunger does not make much difference to fellow humans. The mother' body and expression was still, while she shared all this to me. Probably sharing this story was much less difficult than hearing her daughter talk about trying to convince the witch.

For most of us, people of this kind are mere news and statistics that we read, we continue to stay oblivious, probably feeling a little concerned as we read and then getting busy in fulfilling our preferences.

There are needs and then there are preferences, if we have enough to take care of our preferences, we have enough to contribute a little towards the needs of fellow humans.