EYE CARE

This year, Asha-Kiran launched its Eye Care Program in collaboration with HV Desai Hospital, which will provide its services to our beneficiaries at no cost. The vision screening campaigns, which will lead to specific treatments for every case and need, are being carried out at all of our Projects: Nikam and Khese Schools, the Day Care Centers and Yashodhara.

The screening began in late November and will continue once a week until late December. Approximately 300 children are screened at a time. To date, we have found three cases of severe visual impairment in one school which have already been referred to our partner hospital. The parents of the children expressed their appreciation for the detection of vision handicaps in their children.

We believe it is important for children to have good eyesight for learning, for being self-sufficient and for them to enjoy everyday life.

Through this new initiative, we are covering one more area in the comprehensive care of our beneficiaries.

KHEL - KHEL, A SPORTS MEET

This was the second year that Concern India Foundation organized the Khel Khel Main Athletic Competition for children. The event, which lasted all day, was held on 27 November and it included about 50 NGOs and more than 1,500 children. On this occasion, Asha-Kiran participated with a team of 20 children from its Projects – 8 from Yashodhara and 6 from each of the Day Care Centers. To prepare for the event, all the children rehearsed almost 2 weeks for the parade and anthem of the opening ceremony. The sports section of the competition included a relay race and races of different distances. The games section included not only children but also coordinators and volunteers.

Gold, silver and bronze trophies were awarded to the winners, and all competitors received a participation certificate.

Asha-Kiran’s children won 6 gold, silver and bronze awards and Krishna, a boy from Yashodhara, also won a trophy to the best athlete, since he got three different medals.

At the end of the day, the children were as exhausted as they had previously been eager to participate. They had loads of fun and look forward to participating again next year.

SOLIDARITY CONCERT

Alain Pizazz and Alejandro Urilá, the Kontrarium band, offered a charity concert in Malaga featuring creative music with guest artists Azael Ferrer in the multimedia show, Roberto Herruzo at the crystal goblets, Angel Martin with eastern percussion and flute, Rafael García in charge of the lighting and Jorge Vera in charge of sound.

Primitive tools such as the Australian Digeridoo, the Indian mouth harp, the Archidona zumba, Eastern percussion, in addition to Mongolian chants, the harmonium, the chicotén of Castile, the acoustic guitar... all accompanied by the images show, sounded loud and clear so that Yashodhara children may tune to another reality, that of a childhood in which their rights and needs are respected.

Thank you for offering and sharing your talents.
Photo by Juan Ortiz

POOJA AND KISHOR

We have two new family members, sister and brother.


Pooja and Kishor, 8 and 7 years old, were previously living with their grandmother and their HIV+ mother in a Pune slum. They started attending school this past year, but as it was a long walk away from home and mom could not always bring them or pick them up due to her illness, their attendance was very irregular.

The family finances were not good, either. Grandma is the only source of income because mom cannot work. After interviewing the family, it didn’t take long for us to welcome the children in.

Thankful that son and daughter are looked after, cared for and schooled by Asha-Kiran, mom can now rest and get treatment at the local hospital without worrying about them, and grandma will not have such a heavy burden on her.

This is a new beginning for a pair of siblings who will soon find out that their family is much bigger than just four people.

EYE CARE

This year, Asha-Kiran launched its Eye Care Program in collaboration with HV Desai Hospital, which will provide its services to our beneficiaries at no cost. The vision screening campaigns, which will lead to specific treatments for every case and need, are being carried out at all of our Projects: Nikam and Khese Schools, the Day Care Centers and Yashodhara.

The screening began in late November and will continue once a week until late December. Approximately 300 children are screened at a time. To date, we have found three cases of severe visual impairment in one school which have already been referred to our partner hospital. The parents of the children expressed their appreciation for the detection of vision handicaps in their children.

We believe it is important for children to have good eyesight for learning, for being self-sufficient and for them to enjoy everyday life.

Through this new initiative, we are covering one more area in the comprehensive care of our beneficiaries.

artsolidari

Twenty renowned artists from Girona, Catalonia, donated some of their works of art for an exhibition in support of Yashodhara Shelter Home. We thank Asha-Kiran Volunteers and Fundación Valvi for organizing and launching this event.

The artists and representatives of Fundación Asha-Kiran were present at its inauguration, which took place on November 6th.

One of the rooms of the gallery houses the artists’ works, and the other presents a wide view of India through the photographs of Uttam Módenes.

This activity promotes collaboration among artists, volunteers and the general public with the aim of bridging communication gaps and fostering links that will contribute to the sustainability and development of our Projects with vulnerable children.

Our thanks to the Artists, Organizers and Public for their solidarity.

NEW ART WORKSHOPS IN PUNE

Summer news: the Arts and Crafts Workshops carried out in August in Pune were a complete success!

The idea: to express, to create and to have fun.
The participants: the children from our two Day Care Centers, Yashodhara Home, and the two public schools in Pune – Khese and Nikam – with which Asha-Kiran works in its new ‘Improvement of Primary Education Project’.
The organizers: four artists and a photographer, all Spanish Volunteers.


At the end of July, with great enthusiasm and a lot of material, María Soutullo, María Balibrea, Esther Esquinas and Tess Quintana, left for Pune to begin the workshops that they had so conscientiously prepared. David Gomez Rollán photographically documented the development of the workshops.

Among the activities carried out were the painting of murals and the making of puppets and big-headed beings, various ornaments and figures, origami, collages, toys, board games, carvings and necklaces – all of them from various materials and recycled items.


There were significant differences in the participation of children from Asha-Kiran’s Projects and that of children from the schools – the former plunged into the activities with great ease and joy, while the latter were rather timid at the beginning and had more difficulty learning to handle the different materials. This could be due to the fact that the children from the Day Care Centers and Yashodhara were already familiar with basic techniques such as cutting, pasting, painting and others that require some manual dexterity, while in the public schools of Pune, the students do not often have the opportunity to develop manual skills or participate actively in class.


Gradually, however, the children from Khese and Nikam Schools gained confidence and 'got down to work' while the Volunteers encouraged them, no matter what their final 'creations' looked like. The last day of activities, there was a party at the participating schools with piñatas and great cheer.

At the DCC’s and Yashodhara, in addition to the children's individual handiwork, the walls were covered with colorful paintings for the delight of visitors and the children themselves – undoubtedly a highly rewarding experience for both Volunteers and Beneficiaries.

A NEW MEMBER OF THE YASHODHARA FAMILY

Once we finished moving Yashodhara to Kamshet and our 20 children got accustomed to their new surroundings, the next step was to open the Shelter’s doors to more girls and boys, as our new facilities will be able to house 26 more children. Of all the applications we received, only a few were chosen for closer examination. Among them, Ravi Jadhav’s (now 9 years old) stood out. Both of Ravi’s parents had died in his hometown a few years back, and his maternal aunt had taken him to her humble home in Pune. However, Ravi's tribulations did not end with the death of his parents, for living with her aunt’s sons, around ten years older than him, proved to be a very trying experience.

Due to the continuous beatings from his cousins, Ravi’s aunt reported her own sons to the local police, who shrugged the matter off. Powerless to stop the abuse, and desperate to get his nephew out of this situation, the aunt came to Asha-Kiran hoping to find a way out for Ravi.

In a situation where immediate action was of the essence, Ravi was admitted in the Shelter almost immediately, where the children gave him a warm welcome. Not only did Ravi physically blend into the Home very fast, but emotionally as well. After one month in Yashodhara, he is attending the local school. Besides having joined a home where he is emotionally cuddled by peers and caregivers, the psychologists who work with the children in Yashodhara will also work with Ravi so that he may gradually assimilate new patterns of coexistence. Psychological counseling will also be offered to his family, since aiding to achieve family balance and offering new avenues of communication between children and their guardians or relatives, is an important part of Asha-Kiran’s work, aside from being a significant element in the healthy development of children.

Pleased to have Ravi among us, we continue evaluating applications of children who will bring new shades of color to Yashodhara Shelter.

PROJECT NEWS IN SUMMER

Wishing to keep you up to date about what is happening in our Projects in Pune, we bring to you a short summary of our activity in recent months.

The Hadapsar DCC had water blockage problems which were solved by the complete renovation of the Center, now a semi-permanent structure.
Twenty four children from this DCC have enrolled in school, while all of the Koregaon Park Center children go to school. In addition, nine children have enrolled in an ‘English Medium School’, where all classes are in English.
The vaccination program was postponed until August because the Hospital that works with Asha-Kiran was not able to carry it out on the dates scheduled for July. The hospital has agreed to continue immunizing not only children but also women, including breastfeeding mothers.
Four women in the Koregaon Park slum have agreed to undergo sterilization under the Family Planning Program.

We found that two children in Hadapsar and three in Koregaon Park were undernourished. We will plan a diet for them to be followed at the DCC’s and at home. While discussing this issue, we saw the possibility of starting a Teenage Health Group which would include all young people in the communities, who would be responsible for monitoring the health of community residents. More discussions and planning are needed before we can put this idea into practice.

After moving Yashodhara to Kamshet in June, we have been working on the remaining touch-ups that were pending in the Home; to date, only the solar water heating system needs to be installed.

Together with you, we keep on moving forward.

YASHODHARA IN KAMSHET

The move has been made. After two years of getting settled into a new life at the Shelter in Dhanorie, having made friends at school and with grades on the rise, relaxing on the comforting predictability of the day’s schedule and personal interaction patterns well on the way of settling into routines, everything gets turned around and inside out.

Not only is the children’s Kamshet home bigger, and in completely different surroundings, but some of the familiar faces of the old house and all the faces at school are now different. And not everything is running smoothly – there is adapting to do.

With a lifetime of adapting behind their backs, Yashodhara children are quite adept at it. No unnecessary fuss, just the minimum to feel listened to and cared for in the midst of changing circumstances. But here lies the all-important difference: that there is indeed someone there to listen and to care.

Yes, schooling is necessary, and so is getting medicines and a eating healthy and staying clean… but that extra bit – the being cared for and listened to bit – is Yashodhara’s children’s edge. This is what will round off their upbringing by enhancing their chances of being emotionally intelligent in their present and future relationships.

We, founders, volunteers, staff and sponsors, are instrumental in the children’s blossoming, and bear witness to it with great pleasure. We can only work in the hopes that the Yashodhara children’s circle will keep on growing and that more and more flowers will sprout from it.

ASHA-KIRAN TRAVELS TO CEUTA

On the occasion of the commemoration of the over 100 years that the Indian community has existed in Ceuta, Asha-Kiran presented here the social work that it carries out in the city of Pune with vulnerable children.

The celebration spanned three days, July 8, 9 and 10, with Indian cuisine, lectures, discussion forums, a sari fashion show, talks about Hinduism, and Bollywood music and dances.

We thank the Indian community of Ceuta, especially Sony and Prakash, and Coexistence Prize Foundation for their hospitality and generosity.

See you soon.

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOR

OUT

IN

GIRL MOTHERS

Asha-Kiran is participating in the exhibition Andalucía Solidaria at the Teatro Cómico in Córdoba, with the photographic theme taken by Uttam Módenes entitled “GIRL MOTHERS”. The exhibition will last until June 18.

The display consists of 59 photographs submitted to the 1st Andalusian Solidarity Photograph Competition, organized by FAMSI, together with ART/PNUD and the Cooperation Consortium Association.

This exhibition offers the chance to see the not-for-profit works in a setting that allows the public to value their quality, the sensitivity of its characters, and the energy with which people communicate their desire for a promising, encouraging and more just collective reality.

Its objectives are the following:

• Disseminate pictures that portray the living circumstances of northern and southern countries while respecting the principles set forth in the ethics code of aid-to-development NGO’s.
• Raise public awareness by showing pictures that show the efforts made towards human development and the betterment of the life conditions of disfavored populations.
• Give visibility to the creative work of photographers, volunteers and associations involved in development and/or aid-to-development work through initiatives that promote sustainable local human development.
• Generate an awareness of collective participation in the pursuit of the Millennium Development Objectives, in any spaces and geographical locations where the pictures are displayed.

BOLLYMADRID 2010

For the third consecutive year, we were part of the Bollymadrid Indian culture festival with an information stand and the A-K store. The setting was the Lavapiés borough, and the festival went on for three intense days. There was a great flow of visitors, except at the hottest times of day.

Many volunteers, who made this gathering possible with their vitality and with the wide array of activities they carried out for both children and adults, came to our yearly meeting from different spots of Spain.

Children, our driving force, had fun at the face-painting, story-telling and dance workshops.

The adults we wish to reach and to whom we would like to convey our excitement with our new Projects, participated in a TRUE-FALSE informative game, were informed of all that has been going on at Asha-Kiran lately, and came close to Indian culture through all the handicrafts at the A-K store and the Bollywood dances performed on our behalf by Chand Taari Group.

We had a new campaign this year with the motto: "IT’S A LIE – streets are not the best learning ground".

We seek sponsors; people like you, who are willing to back our Projects and the children in Pune who long for a worthy life, a better life.

We gave something valuable of ourselves this weekend – our time, our vitality, our hope.

We give our thanks to each one of you from the heart.

YASHODHARA HOME: A NEW STAGE

Since March of 2008, Asha-Kiran has been implementing the Yashodhara Shelter Home Project with dedication, love and commitment. In the last two years, we have taken in 21 children (13 girls and 8 boys) whom we see "bloom" every day as young people with rights and dignity, and who are part of our aspiration as a driving force.

Each of them has a personal story laden with intensity and hard times, but their life at Yashodhara is acting as a balm for them, and their future is filling up with opportunities and dreams thanks to the people who trust our work and support us.
A new stage in the development of Home will begin on June 15th.

Asha-Kiran has rented a new building located in a natural setting, with capacity for 45 children. For us at Asha-Kiran, it is a source of immense satisfaction to feel that our daily efforts bear fruit in the children that they target, and we GROW WITH THEM through our devoted work and dedication.

The new building is part of the NGO Sevadham Campus Trust, where other NGOs with varied social projects also carry out their work. Thus, we will be part of a family of NGOs, each working in different realms.

This location is in the municipality of Kamshet, between Pune and Mumbai, and will allow the children of the Home to have large areas for play and recreation among trees, in safe surroundings. The campus also has its own hospital, and is within walking distance of the village where the children will attend school.

In the last few weeks, the building has been refurbished, and we are carefully screening new applications of children in need of foster care. We have set ourselves the goal of admitting 10 new children this year. These new admissions will constitute renewed impulse for the work of Asha-Kiran.

Thank you for supporting this dream come true.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION

"Cultivating the future"

At Asha-Kiran, we believe that education is paramount in the task of preventing or reducing social exclusion. At the same time, the field of education is one of the basic social spaces that better connects people, families and communities.

June is a month of new steps for A-K. We are launching a new Project that will unfold in several stages and which aims to improve the quality of primary education of two schools in the city of Pune (Maharashtra), through our interaction with children, teachers and parents, working jointly to foster their participation in the primary education process, and supporting a positive atmosphere that is conducive to learning.

To this end, Asha-Kiran is starting a series of initiatives to provide the resources that the 800 students who attend these two schools need to have quality education, and that the latter always guarantees gender equality.

Asha-Kiran complements this educational Project with health programs that include dental health and vision care (preventive and curative), and the promotion of sports activities. These initiatives also intend to raise students’ and parents’ awareness of the importance of ongoing school attendance.

The Project implies the following:

• Fostering the interest and participation of teachers and parents in educational processes
• Improving teaching
• Providing educational tools and material
• Improving school facilities
• Improving the students’ health
• Carrying out creative and arts workshops

ARTS EDUCATION: A HIDDEN TREASURE

In order to highlight the important role of arts education within and outside schools, leading experts from around the world are exchanging (25 to 28 May) their views on the subject of arts and education, thus promoting the importance of arts education in the international community. This is the second global meeting after the one held in 2006 in Lisbon.

The aim is to establish a field of common understanding on the important role that arts education plays within the international community, and facilitate the exchange of ideas, knowledge and good practices.

Much remains to be done in the field of art education at all levels, whether it be raising awareness about its introduction and implementation in various educational and social contexts, or linking up different actors and communities in order to lay the foundations for international cooperation.

The Education: a hidden treasure report places emphasis on the urgent need to reform and strengthen school systems in developing countries, especially primary education, and stresses the importance of education through art and creativity.

It cannot be denied that education is the instrument that best opens the doors to development. However, considering the global challenges we face and the diversity of opinions, cultures and situations that we must accept in contemporary society, the effectiveness of an education rooted in traditional objectives, such as the mere transmission knowledge, is questionable. From this perspective, UNESCO acknowledges the importance of creativity and the arts, and learning from them, as crucial elements for the coming together and the ongoing development of societies and individuals.

To anticipate changing needs, giving a special place to the teaching of artistic values and subjects in order to foster and encourage creativity, which is a distinctive attribute of the human species – therein lies our hope.

Photographs: Creative Workshops at the Day Care Centers, Pune.
Fundación Asha-Kiran

ASHA-KIRAN in BOLLYMADRID 2010

The third Bollywood and Indian culture festival will take place in Madrid on June 4th, 5th and 6th.

Organizer: Madrid Central District City Hall and Lavapiés Neighbors Association

• Multidisciplinary and integration Indian culture week in the Lavapiés borough.

• It will take place throughout Lavapiés, with a wide array of cultural and visual features.

• The cultural agenda will be distributed in themes among the following town squares:

- Food at Lavapiés Square
- Bollywood films at Agustín Lara Square
- Handicrafts and design at Corrala Square

At Corrala Square there will also be separate spaces for several NGOs that work in India and wish to make their work known to the public, enlist new sponsors or simply carry out activities in relation to the themes in question.

Just as last year, FUNDACIÓN ASHA-KIRAN will have a mini-office and a handicrafts stand at Corrala Square, and will also organize various activities and children’s workshops.

COME SEE US AND FIND OUT ABOUT OUR SOCIAL ENDEAVORS

Place: Corrala Square, Lavapiés Borough (Madrid). Metro Lavapiés.
Schedule: from 10 am to 8 pm

For further information, please contact us at:
(+34) 913 920 688 (+34) 913 920 688

fundacion@asha-kiran.org.es

http://www.bollymadrid.com/

DISCOVER A NEW WAY TO SPEND YOUR TIME

The Seventh Week for Participation and Volunteering has unfolded under this theme, on May 21, 22 and 23 in Málaga.
This activity was organized by the City Hall through the Citizen Participation, Immigration and Aid-to-development Department. Over 100 organizations, including Asha-Kiran, had the chance to show the visitors our work and offer them several activities, children’s workshops and shows, like the Bollywood Dance performance given by the Chand Taari Group on behalf of Asha-Kiran.

The mayor of Málaga greets all the participants on inauguration day.

Bollywood dances - Naadeva

Bollywood dances - Auxi Durán

Bollywood dances - Chand Taari Group