Newsletter

Newsletter October 2006

Schools & Children

Current: Number of Ekal Schools: 18,225 Number of Children: 546,750

Annual General Meeting 2006 of EVF USA

Annual General Meeting 2006 will be held on Friday, October 6, 2006. It will start at 8.00 am and will be finished at 11.30 am Sunday October, 8, 2006.

Article about Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation in Dr. Naresh Kumar Gupta

Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation is completely dependent upon donations from individuals, and has a novel approach to providing elementary education to the most deprived section of the society. The foundation runs one teacher schools in the most backward and remotely located villages at an amazingly low cost of one U.S, $ (less than 50 Indian rupees) per day, per school. These schools are funded through diligently collected individual sponsorships. It costs only one dollar per day to an individual to sponsor an Ekal Vidyalaya run school, which is less than the cost of a hamburger at a fast food joint in USA. These single teacher schools function under the shade of village trees or in thatched huts. Ekal schools impart basic knowledge of three r’s to the young children who would have otherwise been completely deprived of any education. The Foundation has already established presence in more than 18,000 villages and this number is rapidly expanding. Should not the government take inspiration from Ekal Vidyalaya and direct its efforts to first providing basic education to the poor and backward sections of the society before even thinking of high end education? 

Above article is available on the URL: http://nareshg.sulekha.com

First Prize won by Ekal Movement

Ekal Movement has won the First Prize in a Case study competition organized by Amity Business School ,Noida. The competition was participated by 37 organization from India,Bangla Desh and Pakistan. The prize is consist of One Certificate, Trophy and Rs.15000.

The case was jointly presented by Shri V.K. Jaitly and IIT Graduate retired from Indian Navy as Commander now working in multinational CISCO and Mr.Ajay Singh CEO ,PJ Softwares Limited.

Amity Management has also invited to give detailed presentation to their student and staff separately in coming months so that the concept is well understood and people may associate themselves with the movement after presentation.

Further details of the event shall be made available in the next issue of the Ekal News.

Arogya Yojna (Health Awareness Plan)

The following content- First hand experience of Arogya and Ekal Vidyalaya Working in Ooty, is sent by Dr. C. Sateesh Kumar:

Vanakkam Dr.Satish-ji & Hema-ji,

We would like to thank you both for arranging a visit to the villages falling under Arogya Foundation's Ooty chapter. I'm also marking a cc to Ekal Canada President Shri.Ravi Verma, Ekal USA senior member Shri.Ramesh Shah and our Calgary Chapter members. 

Dr.Satish we are impressed by the work done by Ooty chapter inspite of the difficulties faced like explaining the local people. We were lucky to have opportunity to watch the monthly meeting of the Kallar Area Arogya Sevika's in the presence of Ooty Chapter's Overall Arogya Sevika along with Hema-ji. 

The children who are going to Govt. school could not even write their names before we entered this area and it's really a big leap in seeing their growth and the nationalistic songs which they sang. One major thing is the Vilakku (Lamp) Puja by the women of the village monthly once and the efforts to maintain the village clean by having two separate types of garbage. The temple area which was totally in bad shape is well maintained and even the place for the kids to study and the area in front of the temple is being used by kids as a small play area. The temple is being maintained now cleanly and after seeing this local people have started coming in and lighting lamps daily. The medicines which we have in the village in arogya Sevika's home is really helping a lot for the villagers and this is for sure a major attraction for the whole village and a main point which they started coming closer to us when we cured their normal ailments like Fever, Head ache, Cough etc.,. 

Having seen all this and the wonderful work done Dr.Satish & Hema-ji's team I would like to mention the amount which we are dedicating for the Village Rs.5000 per year is not sufficient and also the honorarium for the Sevikas is really less ( I believe Rs.150 per month). The amount needs to be more and also we have to look out for more sponsors for the medicines for the villages as I believe these are not covered under the annual cost.

We'll also be attending the Oct.15th meeting at ooty where in All India In-charge Ganesh-ji as well as Dr.Subrahmanyam ( whom Calgary Folks saw in DVD presentation). We'll again update after the meeting. 

For Canada and USA Friends:

Kallaar Village falls under Odanthurai Panchayat ( Under the Foothills of Ooty widely known as Blue Mountains ( Nilagiri in Local Language)

Kallar means Stone River in Tamil and mostly we can see IRULA Tribals. Coimbatore City is known in Tamil as KOVAI. This Kovai name is being derived from the IRULA TRIBAL King KOVAN. 

Dr.Satish ( exactly my age 37 plus ) and his wife Mrs.Hema are based in Ooty town. Dr.Satish is having his own Ayurveda Clinic in Ooty and Mrs.Hema Satish has dedicated almost the entire time to Ekal and Arogya Concept. Hema-ji is the in charge for TamilNadu and Kerala states. She travels extensively all over India and luckily she was here in Ooty when we were planning a trip to the adopted villages. I'm happy to meet them in person. We ( Kavitha and myself) will be again visiting Ooty for the Oct-15th meeting where main Leaders of our movement are participating. Mettupalayam my home town is exactly under the foothills of Ooty Hills. Ooty is approx. 90 Kms. from Coimbatore city and Mettupalayam is in between Ooty and Coimbatore. From my hometown Ooty is 54 Kms. but a crow flying distance of approx. 2 Kms I believe. 

Regards,
Kavitha & Saravana Moorthy
Cell # 91- 98422 80857

Some Photographs taken during the visit:

Ekal Global Learning (EGL)

Itinerary of Ekal Global Learning (EGL) for Ranchi (Jharkhand) is given below. If you are interested to join on any date please write us at info@ekalvidya.org.
Period: January 1 to January 9, 2007
01.01.07Reach Kolkata by 6 PM & Train for Ranchi at 9 PM
02.01.07VANYATRA - Jharkhand
03.01.07VANYATRA - Jharkhand
03.01.07Orientation - Bishanpur - School Working
05.01.07Orientation - Bishanpur - Sanch Working
06.01.07Orientation - Ranchi - Anchal Working
07.01.07Orientation - Chakradharpur - Swavalamban Working
08.01.07Orientation - Chakradharpur - Arogya & Gram Vikas
08.01.07Departure for Kolkata at 8 PM
09.01.07Orientation - Kolkata - Chapter Working
09.01.07Departure in the Evening from Kolkata
  
Itinerary Cost: (Approximate)
Full Package IRs 11,000 - Kolkata to Kolkata (Jan 1-9)
Full Package IIRs 10,000 - Ranchi to Kolkata (Jan 2-9)
Vanyatra Package IIIRs 4,000 - Kolkata to Ranchi (Jan 1- 4)
Vanyatra Package IVRs 3,000 - Ranchi to Ranchi (Jan 2- 4)