09/28/2010 - Fall Update |
Greetings from OPEN and hope you had a wonderful summer. The OPEN effort in India is gaining a lot of steam with the addition of Arvind Balaraman and Karthik Srinivasan to the OPEN core group. With their help, the dance-drama "Maya Ravan" - presented by danseuse/actress Shobana and her group for OPEN in Chennai - was a sellout, and the funds raised are being put to good use. Due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that we had this fundraiser in India earlier this year there will be no OPEN-Rasika concert this year. We plan to have one in the spring of 2011. We will provide more details in our next update. There is also some sad news. Mr.Jaigopal Garodia, whose Saidapet school first started OPEN down the path of supporting poor children, passed away a few months back. The foundation is still in capable hands and we will continue supporting the Jaigopal Garodia schools in his memory. 1. In our previous update, we mentioned an NGO called Siragu. The founders of Siragu, Uma and Muthuram, have selflessly given up their lives and live in a room in a school that they have founded. They have been running from pillar to post to fund their operations and at this point have about 400 children in their school. The children are educated in the ICSE curriculum and are also provided with meals and boarding. Here is a short movie on Siragu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTzQIuXg8xM
We are funding Siragu with $2000 every month for their operations and also with a total of $6000 for school uniforms. The pride of Uma and Muthuram in their children and their ambitions for them are big reasons why Siragu has quickly become a big part of the OPEN budget. 2. We are funding a new organization called Deepam (www.deepam.org.in) - who also organize after-school programs for poor children - with 6 Netbooks for their classes, for a total of $2000. Deepam teaches children computer skills, spoken English, and personality development through arts and music classes. The confidence in 10 year old children who ask an adult what they do for a living, and what they need to do to pursue such a career, is amazing. http://blog.deepam.org.in/2010/09/netbooks-at-deepam-west-mambalam-centre.html 3. We started supporting the Somasundaram Middle School, in Pillayarpatti, with funds for basic infrastructure. This rural school - which was started in 1947 - has been supported by the family of one of our classmates. OPEN is helping this school with renovation of the school lunch kitchen, roofing, plumbing, clearing and laying of a playground, and with conversion of one classroom to a computer room. Sriram visited this school recently and came away with a whole bunch of photos of rural kids at school, which as always inspires us to continue our activities. Kudos to Suresh V. and his family for their nurturing of this school, and we look forward to working with them for years to come. 4. Our partnership with IGNITE continues, and a new batch of Polytechnic and Engineering students just finished counseling. As a reminder, the OPEN community may fund these children through the Educate A Child program. Past graduates of this program are now gainfully employed. http://www.chennaiclips.com/cinema/eventvideos_inner.php?id=186 OPEN is proud to be associated with students like Mohammed Tariq and Vinodhini. Both had over 90% marks in their studies and come from very poor families, have managed to climb out of poverty-stricken family backgrounds through their hard work, and now have jobs with salaries over Rs. 2.75 lakhs per year. 5. Our support of infrastructure at the Jaigopal Garodia schools continues. We will be building toilets at the Girls' schools at Villivakkam and Saidapet, and continue supporting the foundation schools with benches and desks. The total budget for this year is $12,000. 6. Our support for scholarships at the Ganapathy Iyer Girls' School in Gopalapuram continues, with a total of $4000 spent this year. 7. We continue to monitor Pudiyador (www.pudiyador.org), who are focusing their after-school efforts on K-5 class students. In a sad commentary on the obstacles faced by NGOs in India, Pudiyador were forced to close their Adyar center since the local community thought that Pudiyador would squat on their community center permanently. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. We request that (tax-deductible) contributions payable to "OPEN Inc." be sent to Kumar or Ramprasad at: Kumar Thiagarajan Ramprasad Santhanakrishnan25470 Gimbel Drive 810 Graywyck Dr South Riding, VA 20152 Seven Fields, PA 16046
If you would like your contribution to go towards the "Educate a Child" program, please mention it on your check memo section. Tax-deductible contributions may also be made to OPEN in India in favor of "OPEN India Charitable Trust" and sent to: Sriram Sankaran Arvind Balaraman Villa #57, Adarsh Palm Retreat Sri Ramana, Flat 1 Adjacent to Intel Campus New No 21, Nathamuni St Devarabisanahalli, Bellandur T. Nagar Bangalore-560037 Chennai-600017
Contributions may also be made online at: http://www.openindiaorg.in/donate.html (Paypal)
http://www.mydonations.com/openindia
Please consider investing in India's future. To delay may mean to forget. Sincerely, Kumar Thiagarajan Sriram Sankaran Rajesh Ramadoss Ramprasad Santhanakrishnan Arvind Balaraman Karthik Srinivasan
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