What the little angles taught me...

This goes a long way back when I started volunteering for Makkala Jagrithi almost a decade ago... Makkala Jagriti is an NGO that focuses to facilitate (non-formal) education and holistic development of children by augmenting the child’s school education through diverse learning... My interaction with children from slum started here. The children's questions, their interest to learn more, their willingness to share their daily life stories in form of a story made me feel I was with them as a Listener, a mentor, a guide, an Akka and A Volunteer.... I learnt to be a Good Listener... And the journey continued with Makkala Jagriti and many other NGOs working with Children, to name a few, Need Base India, BOSCO Mane, One Billion Literates Foundation (OBLF), Baale Mane, Jeevarathni, Surabhi Foundation, Makkala Mane, Rainbow Home for Girls, Dream A Dream, Life skills training in Harapanahalli, Worth Trust, Ahmadnagar etc etc:) 

How can I forget when we did Book distribution to some 50 NGOs all kids were so happy to have books in hand to write more legibly which they otherwise couldn't due to lack of books... Afsal Khan a kid from Raza Foundtaion instantly said “Wow, yeh copies toh poore saal chal jayengi” :).

There are many stories and many learnings from each of them and each of kid I have interacted with.... The one I can't miss quoting is "A lesson I learnt in a child's Laughter"... I have done some volunteering with Jeevarathni Foundation by taking the little angels for a short picnic, being part of few creative events, annual day etc Learnt to value "the so called taken for granted things in our life" How a kid Sanjay was super happy seeing bread, butter and jam. Sitting on my lap he ate the sandwich and was opening the 2 breads and seeing butter and jam. He was smiling so much as though he found heaven and I surely can't express it in words... Poornima and I just became so emotional... How peacefully a kid slept off as soon as we reached our spot. Chikoo farms:) How they were happy playing games and being part of picnic that was few miles away from their home Jeevarathni:) I for sure learnt to "Value things and people I have in my life" And ya none of the little one cried asking to lift him or her saying leg pain.... They walked more than 2 kms:) 

Rainbow Home for Girls is my latest favourite place where there are 62 little girls and I was their first ever volunteer to visit them in December 2012. I remember all were wondering why I was there to today all girls know A to Z in sign language, know how to work on stage fear and they know what volunteers are after meeting sooo many of Akka and Annas:) ( http://blog.ivolunteer.in/2013/01/02/inspiring-young-minds-of-rainbow-girls-home/ )

While writing all these I visualised the moments with sooooo many little ones:) (http://blog.ivolunteer.in/author/prarthana2013/)

Thank you God for giving me this life full of memories and learnings!

If anyone is willing to support some of above mentioned NGOs pls do not think twice, all are credible NGOs doing excellent work...

A little angel, a war of life and a million lessons!!!

Make A Wish Foundation Of India works towards fulfilling the most cherished wishes of children between 3 to 18 years with various life threatening illnesses like Cancer, HIV/AIDS, Heart Disease, Kidney Failure, Thalassemia Major and so on.

I have been volunteering actively for Make A Wish Foundation Of India, Bangalore for past 7 years. Am proud to be associated with them.  In fact I have been part of few wish collections (most cherished wishes of children suffering from life threatening illness) and many wish fulfilments and have seen little one's death very closely... I have learnt to be emotionally very strong. While writing the learnings from my journey with Make A Wish Foundation, I closed my eyes and there were all those little one’s happy faces, who unfortunately were suffering from life threatening illness... Youngest one I saw closer to death was a 3 year old who hasn't even seen life but was happily playing with toys... Happy that I could add some happiness in these little ones’ lives... Make A Wish is doing excellent work with Children suffering from Life threatening illness.

I learnt Life's biggest lessons and to put forth my learnings in right words I had to take support of google to find few apt lines:

Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets! One day you will wake up and there wont be any more time to do the things you've always wanted to. Do it now! 

We think there is endless time to live but we never know which moment is last. So share, care, love, and celebrate every moment of life. Enjoy the little things in LIFE because one day you will look back, and realise they were the Big Things!

Happy Living:)

Smiles,

Prarthana:)

The Disability That Enabled Me!

Lessons from Organisations working on Disability:

I always thought "You need to be emotionally very strong" while volunteering for Disability Issue... But after volunteering for couple of them like Sambhav Foundation, APD, Enable India, KiliKili, Navachetana School for Mentally challenged, Anga Karunya Kendra Akk, Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Margadarshi, Bubbles Centre for Autism, Mitra Jyothi etc etc working with Mentally and Physically Challenged, I realised that You need not me emotionally strong but you just need to be yourself. As my journey continued with these couple of excellent NGO's as a Volunteer, I learnt not just to be Emotionally Strong but Be Myself, Be Strong, Face Challenges, Accept Challenges and ya I learnt 2 beautiful new languages Basic Uncontracted Braille and Basic Sign Language... Today I can proudly speak to a Hearning Impaired and read a Visual Impaired's notes in Braille, Give them a personalised Braille cards too! Not just all these little lessons, but, today my whatever little experience with these Disability focus NGOs have enabled me to be a Social Entrepreneur... I have today taken a step ahead with my life partner Prateek Kaul and have started GiftAbled Foundation (www.giftabled.com) which has now worked with 1222 beneficiaries in past one year 3 months:) Know about all these NGOs and if you love their work Support them in whatever capacity you can!

Happy Learning:)

Smiles,

Prarthana

Thankful Beyond Words To The Rugged Uniforms

CMCA - Children's Movement For Civic Awareness, seeks to sensitize children and youth to civic & democratic issue thereby improving quality & equality of life.

This is the organisation through which I learnt some additional civic issues including also how to not only respect daily helpers but also Thank them and recognise them... Can never forget tears in eyes of Pourakarmikas (street sweepers and garbage pickers) for having spoken to them, played some fun games with them and recognised them for their good work... She said people hardly say hi to us or smile at us and you gave us break of 20 mins and spoke to us:) Also traffic police who said people always crib about us but never see how we slog sacrificing on our family time most of time.... CMCA Children's Movement for Civic Awareness is doing excellent work in field of Civic issues:) To Support the cause of civic issue Support CMCA :)

Smiles,

Prarthana :)

You cannot add days to their life but you can add life to their days!

Karunashraya, A Cancer Hospice Home: Provide professional free-of-charge palliative care for advanced stage cancer patients at the 50-bed hospice in Bangalore and through home care. A place during all my visits teaches me to be Courageous:) A place that teaches me to fight pain and to smile in pain:) To serve the needy selflessly... To be self motivated and to do more and more for social good:) A place that teaches me that patients their are not abandoned but are there because family members are helpless:(( While I work with terminally ill, it teaches me best lesson of Volunteering "You cannot add days to their life... But you can always add life to their days"... I keep remembering so many patients I met during my volunteering days who were terminally ill and today I have tried my best to add some life to their days. I am proud that I am also running for such great organisation through TCS World 10k Run:) Visit the organisation, spread a word and support their great work:) Recently they have also started Neurological Rehab Centre... To support Pallative Care - Support Karunashraya :)

Whenever you find time atleast take a step, spare few minutes to know the excellent work going around! Get inspired!

Happy Giving, Gifting and Volunteering!

Smiles,

Prarthana