Happy Belated Krishna Janmashtami !

Krishna Janmashtami is the annual commemoration of of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, which fell on August 28 this year.

Darsha, Yashavanth, Manu, Mohan, Darshan, Jeevan, Umesh, Venky, Adarsh, Vishnu, Vishnu, Raju!

There were celebrations throughout the country, including at Karunya Mane! On Wednesday morning before school, our little boys got dressed up as Krishna and had a good time playing their "flutes"!

Umesh! 

Little Venkatesh!

School grades!

The kids at Karunya Mane just got their final grades for the school year (2012-2013, which ended in March). Here are a few highlights.

Adarsh, who had to repeat lower kindergarten, received all As and A+s this year and he'll be going to upper kindergarten this coming year (June 2013 to March 2014). Yay!

Surya did very well again in his elite English-based school, St. Francis. He ended up in 4th place in his 3rd grade class!

Surya (left) with his little brother Darshan

Shilpa, our girl who came to Karunya Mane at age six with no schooling, got an A+ average for the second year in a row!

Shilpa

Latha continues to struggle in school. She was allowed to pass 4th grade even though her scores did not merit the promotion because Indian law forbids schools from failing children, regardless of how badly they perform in school. We are currently searching for a teacher who can homeschool Latha for this coming school year. If you know an interested teacher candidate, please let us know.

Latha and her little sister Jyothi

Divya and Vijayalakshmi did very well this year, their first year in English medium (5th grade), with overall average grades of A. We thought they did well considering going from a Kannada-based curriculum to an English-based curriculum is like going from a French- to an English-based curriculum.

 

Divya and Vijayalakshmi

Next year, Pooja and Prema will skip a grade and go from 5th to 7th grade because they are older than their peers in class (they missed several years of school when they lived on the street and in the slum). They both did well in 5th grade, averaging A grades, and understand they have to work extra hard next year.

Arabia did very well in 4th grade, scoring A+s and As throughout the year, and will be going to 6th grade this coming year. Go Arabia!

Our oldest girl, Asha, passed 12th grade and will be starting her bachelor's degree this June. She's in the process of applying to colleges in Mysore -- stay tuned for more!

Asha

Harish, our 10th grader, also passed the nationwide 10th grade exam, and will start PUC 1 (11th grade) in late May. Harish, who lived on the streets before coming to Karunya Mane, went from 1st grade to 10th grade in five years. He started his education far behind his age and has worked hard during the past six years to graduate 10th grade this year.

Harish (left) with Manikanta, who passed 9th grade, and Sreenivasa, who passed 11th grade.

Our kids averaged an A grade, and they are all continuing their studies over the summer vacation with daily two-hour tutoring at Karunya Mane. The kids work hard at their schoolwork and really want an education. Let's wish all of our kids another excellent school year!

If you'd like to make a donation to help us cover our kids' school expenses, please do so at Donate Now! Expenses for one year of schooling are approximately US$92. Thanks for your continued support!

(cute) Brats? Meditating?

Nine boys at KM are from ages 4 to 7 and, yes, they are sometimes more than a handful.

Other times, they are calm and serene, and enjoy a moment of quiet meditation ... and yawning.

Our GiveIndia Listing for Indian Donors (updated)

Just as a reminder, if you reside in India and would like to make a safe and secure online donation to our organization, please see the following link:

http://www.giveindia.org/m-969-akhanda-seva-for-international-shanti-operation-shanti.aspx

GiveIndia is an NGO in India that helps other NGOs raise funds for the poorest of the poor in India by helping its users donate money to trustworthy charities. Charities undergo a rigorous due diligence process before being listed on the GiveIndia site.

Umesh, Adarsh, and little Mohan hanging out.

The littlest ones, growing up nicely

Our littlest ones, ages three and four, are growing up quite nicely. They are happy and smiling most of the time, and they love to eat!

Here they are just hanging out one afternoon with Aunty (our cook), giggling and engaging in a bit of mischief! Next year they start lower kindergarten.

Umesh, Adarsh, little Mohan, Aunty, little Darshan, Madappa

Hanging out with growing kids

As all kids do, ours are growing up quite nicely. Here are pictures of a few of them taken recently, while we were all hanging out one afternoon at Karunya Mane.

Harish

Mohan, Prema, and Darshan

Shanti, Prema, Asha, Shwetha, and Sumitra

Venkatesh and Mohan (Darshan and Adarsh in the background)

Little Adarsh

Little Adarsh, who came to us last year, continues to win everyone's hearts. He's growing up quite nicely, eats well, plays hard, and wins everyone over with his cute smile and impeccable behavior.

Abandoned

A field social worker found a little girl at the bus station a couple of weeks ago and brought her to us. She's almost four years old, and was a little shy for her first two hours at Karunya Mane, then she opened right up!

Tunmai enjoying her milk at KM

Tunmai loves to talk with the other kids, and she shared with them that she used to play at the bus station while her mom drank and slept there. The social worker and her organization placed mom in a rehab facility, where she'll stay for a few weeks. Nobody knows where dad might be, although the little girl talks about him leaving their house and going to work.

The other newcomer to Karunya Mane is little Adarsh. He was abandoned by his mom, and a social worker brought him to us. Nobody knew his name, so our kids named him "Adarsh," which means "perfection." He seems to be about two years old, and is still adjusting to Karunya Mane. His hair is a little thin, he has a big belly (usually a sign of malnutrition), and a runny nose but should be fine in a few days, as he's got lots of love around him, with all of our kids watching over him.

little Adarsh after a week at KM