Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label charity. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Free Plastic Surgery

I got a forward from one of my friends about a free plastic surgery camp, at Pasam Hospital, Kodaikanal from March 23 to April 4, when internationally acclaimed surgeons from Germany will perform surgeries in the hospital to needy patients – apparently could be anyone ranging from a fire accident victim to someone affected with congential deformities (like cleft lip).

As with any forward, I first googled it to make sure it was legitimate and sure enough, I came across the same article in the Hindu. So pass this information on to others for you never know who may benefit from it.

Note: The forward seems to refer to a camp in 2009. Thanks to SK for pointing it out (...slap on forehead...). Google shows details of the camps having taken place every year since 2005. Please call 04542 240778 and 240668 (for those outside India, you have to dial 0091 before dialing the number) to learn the exact dates of the camp this year. If I get any more info, I will include it here.

Stay healthy, people !

A note for those who can afford the surgery but still want to act smart: Don't be cheap, cheap and cheap; allow the less privileged to make use of it.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Facebook Users - Help !

I got an email request from Indiblogger to help GiveIndia, win a competition on Facebook for a US $1 million grant. The winner will be the NGO that gets the highest number of votes from Facebook users.

Since the prize of $1 million will help put or keep 40,000 children across India in school for one year, as a Facebook user you can vote for it and help it win ! Given the population of India and the number of Indians on Facebook (although a fair share has been taken by Orkut), this should not be a difficult task.

So, take some time to look at the NGO's website, if you want to and vote for it - after all, educating children and helping them make their lives better is more important than just feeding them for a day or two, right ?

Remember, Voting in the competition is for one week only, from January 15 – January 22, 2010. I am already 2 days late (rolling eyes....), but let us look at the positive side that we have 5 more days.

If you are also interested in helping out in other ways, check this out.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Lend a hand, would you ?

I recently got a request from SK, a fellow blogger who is trying to collect information about all the charity and good will organisations working in Tamilnadu and/or India. His aim, as I understand, is to have all the information in one place and make it easier for people to lend a hand as volunteers or publicise these organisations or ask for help or point it to people who need help.

He has listed me as one of the bloggers who could contribute to this cause. Thanks, SK and good luck to your endeavour.


Aadhaar is a non-profitable socio-charitable Association for the Development of Health and Academic Awareness in Rural India, started by Indians studying/working in the University of Twente (UT), Netherlands. It was started in 1998 and now has 125 active members, most of them UTers or ex-UTers. The association is registered at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and has even managed to attract a few non-Indian members. It receives donations from many UT faculties and institutes and has used them for many projects, some of which are given below
  • Building of classrooms for the Parijat Academy, a school for tribal children in northeast India - Before this, the students were protected from nature's forces by bamboo walls and tin roofs.
  • A self-sustainable knowledge centre (the third of its kind) was inaugurated in western India with the goal of providing library and computer facilities to underprivileged children. It is located inside the premises of a school, whose teachers and senior students operate the centre on a voluntarily basis, and services are also open to the general public. There is a photocopy machine, that can be used to generate revenue and gradually make the centre self-sustaining. Here is some additional info, for the sake of credibility, My husband, Ashok, is an active member and when we got married, we requested people NOT to bring presents but contribute to Aadhar and the money went towards building this knowledge centre
  • Medical facilities: 1000 euro went towards financing surgical procedures for 12 children who suffered from various disorders like facial cleft, and another 500 euro towards providing furniture and mattresses for the residents of a home for the mentally challenged
  • Finanical support to Eklavya Archery Academy (It is a well-known fact that India does not produce enough quality sportspersons commensurate with its massive population and attributed to its lack of proper infrastructures)
Are you interested in signing up as an active member? Are you interested in making your organization a contributor ? Write an email to Pramod.

Contact Details:

Pramod Agrawal
Bruggenmorsweg 113,
7521 ZT, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Phone: +31-649311325
Fax : +31-534893849
Email: pramod1902@yahoo.com


It is a registered charitable trust in Bangalore for the welfare of young underprivileged girls founded by Mr.Venkatraman Iyer in 2000. It receives regular financial support from Aadhar.
It mainly caters to the needs of deserted
woman and their children.

The children are provided with a good education, a good and happy environment to live in and are even given classes in music and art. Swabhimaan today takes care of fifteen such girls.

The next time you see a small abandoned girl on the road, even if there isn't anything you can do about it, atleast make a call to Swabhimaan and tell them about it.

Contact Details:

Mr. Venkatraman Iyer
The managing trustee
Mobile: +91-9945436757
Email: venkat_1958@hotmail.com
http://www.swabhimaan.org/

Mailing Address:
Swabhimaan
B 405 Raheja Residency, 3rd Block
Koramangala, Bangalore, India


Although this is not an Indian organization, the work it does involves children in India too. It is active in rural villages and urban slums in and around Kolkata.

Children International has been around since 1936, and now assists over 300,000 children in 11 countries. They connect very poor children to caring sponsors. The sponsored child receives free health care and medicine when he/she gets sick, has access to a dentist and receives benefits like the clothing, shoes and supplies necessary to go to school. Because of sponsorship, children have a place to turn to and real hope for the future.

I personally know a lot of people involved in this program and so can confidently say that the money is indeed put to good use. My cousin, who is also sponsoring a child, says "I am proud to be a sponsor myself and I’m asking you to learn more about sponsorship and hopefully become a sponsor to a child in need. When I told a friend of mine about my experience, she asked me the details and I thought why not create this page and share it with all my friends!"...so you can find more details at here.

All you need is 2 mins to fill in the application form and $22 per month to change the life of a child! Would you be willing to sponsor a child ? Think about it.

Since SK has suggested this should be a chain, I am requesting 2 other bloggers to do the same. I will update details here when I receive their acceptance.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I am helping a poor girl study, can you too ?

Any kind of philanthropic work (its not much) I get to do always takes the form of helping someone study because I strongly believe in the Chinese proverb that goes something like ''teach him to fish and he will never be hungry instead of giving him a fish''.

My cousin recently referred me to a tamil blog http://balaji_ammu.blogspot.com/2009/07/544.html with such a request for help. I have sent it to some friends and we are all going to contribute what we can. But I realised that with the blog being in tamil, the number of viewers are really restricted (it is a sad fact that even many tamilians cannot read tamil). So here is an English synopsis to get the word around to bring in some more contributors.

The girl, Bhanupriya, has finished school and has scored well to pursue Engineering but her father's financial limitations does not allow her to do so and she is looking for a few helping hands. In the blog, you can find her marksheets, proof of income and the point of contact to offer your help. Please leave me a comment with your email id, in case you have questions.
Hit Counter
Website Hit Counter I had decided to have a counter only after I hit a 1000 views and since it happened last week (as on 14 Dec 2009), now is the time to see some stats :)