Sponsoring

If you are a sponsor of one of our kids at our children's home, or you are considering being a sponsor, communicating with your child can be a lot of fun and satisfying.

A couple of years ago, a group from Canada on tour of south India came to visit our kids. When they returned to Canada, several of them got together to sponsor five of our kids -- Harish, Prema, Sowmya, Surya, and Shwetha. Harish's sponsors correspond with him a couple of times a year, and such a connection with a sponsor makes a big difference in Harish's life, whose parents both passed away.

The Canadians' visit

Sowmya, Surya, Shwetha, Prema, and Harish

A couple of months ago, Padmanabha's sponsor came to Mysore to practice yoga. While in Mysore, he met Padmanabha. It was a fun day for all of the boys -- not just Padmanabha -- as they got to show off their karate and yoga skills to the sponsor, and all had a great time. 

 
For our kids to know that people are out there helping them out of the goodness of their hearts is a huge thing for them! We thank all of our sponsors who are supporting our 44 kids at Karunya Mane!

Right now, all of our kids are sponsors -- as some of the sponsorships come to an end and are not renewed, we'll let you know!

Best boy/best girl catch-up

Recent months' "Best Boys" and "Best Girls" (a prize given out each month to the kid who displayed the best behavior for that month) at Karunya Mane were:

March - Prajwal / Shwetha
April - Sreenivasa / Sowmya
May - Surya / Mamatha

Prajwal started 7th grade this year, in English medium. Always polite, neat, well-behaved, and disciplined, he's an outstanding kid who has the potential to great things in this world.

Prajwal

Shwetha started 5th grade this year. She gets very good grades in school and her behavior has improved tremendously -- the temper tantrums that she once displayed have disappeared and she's improved in all areas of behavior.

Shwetha

Sreenivasa, who attends boarding school and is now in 11th grade, returns to Karunya Mane on the holidays. When he's back, he provides great relief to our boys' house mother by helping her out with the little boys. Sreenivasa has grown into a responsible, mature young man and we're quite pleased to see that he seems to have outgrown his "street boy" behavior.

Sreenivasa (right) with Shashidhar Sir (one of our teachers) during the Holi madness fun!

The May best kids were repeat "bests" -- Mamatha and Surya -- who are consistently high performers in all areas -- school performance, behavior, chores, overall demeanor -- and as their prize, they got to go shopping with us at Easy Day for the sports equipment that we donated to the kids' school!

Surya doing his homework during tuition time. 

Mamatha

Surya!

One year ago, we talked about three of our children at Karunya Mane who were to attend an English medium school in the area. It was sort of an experiment, since we weren't sure what to expect when enrolling former street/slum children in a middle- and upper-class school like this. The curriculum is more rigorous and the fees are relatively high.

http://operationshanti.blogspot.com/2010/04/three-little-ones-to-cbse-school.html

Unfortunately, two of our three children struggled a bit this past year at St. Francis. Lalitha and Shwetha weren't able to show enough improvement in their performance throughout the year to merit continuing at St. Francis -- they tried their best but sometimes it's just not meant to be -- and they will attend Deepa Primary School next year with the rest of our kids.

Little Surya, on the other hand, was ranked #1 in his first grade class at St. Francis for the entire school year. He now speaks almost fluent English and earned *SO* many extracurricular awards during the school day ceremony! We are very proud of him, not just for the excellent grades but also for his outstanding behavior.

Surya in his school uniform

Thanks so much to Surya's sponsor for helping to pay for his educational expenses for the coming year.

Next year, we'll enroll two more of our top performing kindergarteners at St. Francis. These two girls, Sowmya and Vinuta, did very well in kindergarten this past year and their teachers say that they are very bright and demonstrate an interest in learning. Coincidentally, Sowmya is Surya's little sister. 

Vinuta, Surya, and Sowmya at KM

Let's wish all of our kids an excellent 2011-2012 school year!

Awards at school

This year, a few of our big kids and little kids won awards at school -- in categories like attendance, good behavior, cleanliness, sports performance, and citizenship...

Anand, Nanjunda, Vishnu, Pallavi, Sowmya, Tunmaya

After a full summer (April, May) of playing and some tutoring, the kids are all starting school again at the end of May.  

little Sowmya at Karunya Mane

Little Sowmya, who hangs out on the street while her mom Girija begs, just came to Karunya Mane. Sowmya's older brother Surya is also at KM, and she wanted to join him before school started next year.

Sowmya!

It took her a couple of weeks to get adjusted to being at KM, and hangs close to brother Surya, but she's now integrating well and playing with the other kids her age. She'll start school next June, along with the other kids.

Dasara

In India, the Dasara festival is as big as Christmas in the West. Dasara, offically a 10-day holiday, is celebrated on the occasion of Navaratri, a holy day that commemorates the triumph of good over evil. It is also when kids get a three-week vacation from school.

The last day of all the celebrations is called Vijaya Dashami. On this day in Mysore, a huge and very grand procession goes through the streets of the city, with an idol of the goddess Chamundeshwari riding in a golden seat atop an elephant.


Here is little Sowmya during our morning program, watching the elephants practice procession walk up and down Sayyaji Rao street.

At Karunya Mane during the vacation, the kids will watch the procession on TV. Also scheduled for them are trips to the zoo, GRS Fantasy Park, and the Infosys campus.

Spotlight on a volunteer

Three years ago, Matt from Manchester came to Mysore to practice yoga, and to volunteer with Operation Shanti and our Street People Program. Matt was an immediate hit with our boys as, in his late 30's at the time, he still possessed those kid-like qualities that children so easily relate to.

Matt with the boys three years ago on the street

This year, the same boys that Matt hung out with three years ago, plus a few new ones, are now at Karunya Mane. One of Matt's duties as volunteer this year was to play soccer and cricket with the kids on Sundays.


Matt also got to know the other kids at KM, teaching Divya and Shanti how to tie their shoe laces on Independence Day, and helping the three newest kids -- Vinod, Netra, and Swarana -- during their move-in at KM.

Matt also spent time on the street in the mornings, and the little ones sure did enjoy him.

Matt and Saumya

The younger kids didn't really remember Matt from 2005, as they were all of one year old then, but the older boys remembered him immediately -- especially Venkatesh, with whom Matt developed a strong connection. Matt's support for Operation Shanti doesn't stop with just spending time with the kids -- he created the site Shanti Shirts, a fundraising vehicle, and sponsors Venkatesh through our sponsor program.