Vidyadaan Sahayyak Mandal,Thane – celebrated its 6th Anniversary on 15th August 2014.

Starting with 8 students in 2008 , now it is all set to help 140 students. In addition to Thane,Shahapur and surrounding villages it has now spread its wings to Pune, Ratnagiri , Chandrapur and many such places . In addition to giving financial help to the needy and deserving students , it also conducts various workshops and training programs for them. Each student is allotted one mentor- ‘Palak Karyakarta’ , who keeps in constant contact with the student , and helps and guides him.

Today there was an art corner at the venue depicting various art forms , paintings, craft all made by students of VSM. The program started at 3.45 in the afternoon. One of the students Kanchan Patole did excellent compering of the program.

1. Six girls of VSM Sang Welcome song – ‘Swagatam ,Suswagatam’ under the guidance of Jyoti Deshkar and Viraj Chikhale.

2. Bhau Nanivadekar the founder member of Vidyadaan read the 6th Annual report. He mentioned following salient points. 

• He said we think of VSM as family and not as an organization.
• Today we have nearly 140 students and 95 volunteers.
• We have with us one blind girl ‘Menaka Sonawane’ and one girl ‘Diksha Dinde‘ who is physically disabled , they are inspiration to other students due to their determination and hard work.
• Now all our palak karyakartas submit reports and progress of their wards online.
• This year there was a special workshop by Dr. Shubha Thatte for our volunteers.
• We had talent display program of our students at Shahapur on 25th December.
• There students also displayed various art and craft products , drawings etc and revealed their artistic side .

3. Parag Rede talked about what is the viewpoint of volunteers working for VSM. He said ‘Volunteers do all the jobs , there are no paid workers for any job .Our volunteers are very young , as young as 20 to 80 years! We have a structure but no hierarchy. We treat fund raising as ‘Fun raising’.We believe in helping children to get education which will lead to employment. Volunteers select students who are needy and deserving , work as mentor to them , conduct various workshops for them , do fund raising and accounts maintenance. We believe that ‘Vidyadaan’ i.e. giving education to a student helps in the upliftment of the students as well as development of the donor. Finally we have faith that these students will come back to us as volunteers.’

4. Swati Agte explained the role of ‘Palak Karyakarta’. She called this social parenting. She said ‘ Palak Karyakarta is student’s friend,philosopher and guide. He thinks about difficulties faced by the student, he praises him , supports him , reprimands him if required. Instills financial discipline in him. What the student gets is –someone who is there to share feelings ,to tell what is right and wrong, what are his strengths,weeknesses, opportunities and threats, someone to help him in solving his problems. Volunteer gets immense pleasure in helping the student in every way and that is the only reward he gets.

5. Ranjana Kulkarni told about Gajanan Teli who works as a farm help and Babu Bhokare who is a small farmer . These parents were felicitated for helping and supporting their children against all odds.

6. Late Meenatai Patankar puraskar were awarded to :

Sewavrati – Diksha Dinde.( Does a lot vounteer work inspite of herself being physically handicapped) Sewadharmi – Nalini Baswant (Teaching Maths, English for 8th to 10th std students free of charge .) Sewadharmi – Chetana Late ( Conducted compettions for village children) Sewabhawi – Prakash Gaikwad ( Teaches village children during holidays)

Sewabhawi – Vaibhav Sonone.( Teaches for 4th and 7th std Scholarship students free of charge)

7. Kalpana Gore thanked everyone for their respective contribution . Mr Nandkar who had come all the way from Pune specially for the program was also thanked.

8. Kanchan Patole recited a touching poem ‘ Maye g maye , nako todu mazi shala.’ Then some of the students expressed their feelings about VSM.

·         

      Rahul Bhalke    - He lost his parents at young age and was aimless for a year or so. But now he has completed Civil engineering at Chandrapur with the help of VSM. He has attended Somnath, Hemalkasa, Dapoli workshops .He is very greatful to Athawale Sir and Mr. and Mrs. Ingole for freeing him from a violent teacher (who was beating him without any reason). Geeta Shah helped him to control his wandering mind and get 82% in B.E. With the help from VSM he guided his brother(who was lagging behind in studies) to become electrician and earn his own bread. Now both the brothers have good jobs. And for all this he thanks VSM . And plans to do something for VSM.

·        Supriya Wable  - She wanted to be an engineer in IT . But as her father’s company was closed she could not afford it and did B.Sc. in IT (75%) . She said that she wants to do something for the family , not her limited family but extended family of VSM. With the help of her palak karyakarta she prepared a lot for interview and has recently acquired a job at L&T Infotech.

·        Ravi Deshmukh - Completed B.M.S. (76%) and has secured a job at ICICI prudential life insurance. He has an ambition to do MBA. At the job interview at ICICI he was rejected for nonfluency in English speaking but he convinced the manager that it is more important to communicate in hindi/ marathi and put his point across. There he also mentioned the help he received from the NGO i.e. VSM.

9.      ‘Be Frank’ is Karan Pardeshi’s initiative for students to come together and talk freely about various topics in English. Which has proved very helpful in making them bold and improving their language skills.Demostration of the same was made by 8 students lead by ‘Kavita Bidwe’.

10. This year some 30 students have passed out from VSM . Senior student Prakash Gaikwad spoke on their behalf. He passed M.Sc. Organic chemistry this year and is now working as reasearch assistant in industry.When his father passed away he had to work in canteen where he was spotted by Mr. Subhash Harad and reffered to VSM for financial help.

Prakash Gaikwad said that he and his fellow students felt very much indebted to VSM. And they will surely help others just like VSM helped them. They handed over some amount as ‘Krutadnyata Nidhi’ to Bhau Naniwadekar.

11.    Documentary made by Anand Sapate who is also a past student of VSM was shown. It covered all the important events during the year.

12.    Nimishbhai from ‘Caring friends’ spoke a few words to praise volunteers of VSM. He said ‘when we see others wasting time in chitchating and TV viewing , here we have very dedicated people who spend their spare time for these students.We feel that we are not giving donation but doing investment in children . In boxing who is the loser ? The one who falls and never gets up again. So even if you fall , do not hesitate to get up again.’

13. Arun Shah Managing trusty of VSM also praised palak karyakartas, saying that they have already nurtured their own kids and now they are nurturing other kids.

14. During the break snacks and tea was distributed. Slide show of photos and achievements of students was shown during this time. This was prepared by a student Rishi Shrotriya under Ranjana Kulkarni’s guidance.

15. After the break Rajita Sawant interviewed Bhagyashree Gandhi. Inspite of being blind she studied in normal school (Brahman Vidyalaya,Vartak nagar ,Thane).She enthusiastically participated in various competitions, exams . In 9th std a teacher from NAB started teaching her braile. She scored 85% in 10th std. After that she completed a certificate course in physiotherapy in Mumbai and a diploma course at Ahemadabad. She stood first in that with 84% marks. She has also completed BA as external student so that she will be able to do postgraduate diploma in rehabilitation. She is now working at chunabhatti as a physiotherapist. She also works as guest lecturer at NAB 3 times a week. She says in achieving this, many people have helped her including her parents, teachers, writers , friends and even many strangers. When one looks at her smiling pleasant face no one can guess about her misfortune.

She has rightly said ‘ Drushti peksha drushtikone mahtwacha’– ‘Viewpoint is more important than vision.’

16. Last event of the evening was again a song by VSM girls ‘ Balsagar Bharat Howo’.

Report by:

Dhanashree Ketkar.