God didn't rest on the 7th day (neither did Baxter)

Kendra and Baxter, two friends of our kids at Karunya Mane, started the project in San Francisco, raising money for a playground for KM. They tapped into their friends and family and their community at StarSeeds Preschool, which Kendra founded (because she loves kids).

Then, they looked around on the Web and found a great playground equipment vendor in Bangalore, and spent a few early mornings and late nights calling from San Francisco to coordinate the order. 

In early August, they flew halfway around the world, first arriving in Bangalore, where they stayed for a few days to check out the playground equipment factory, and then they drove over to Mysore.

On the day deemed "Day 1" by project manager-chief logistics coordinator Baxter, the equipment actually did arrive on schedule (no Indian time allowed at KM! ahem). 

Day 1 - The equipment arrived, and on schedule! That's Baxter in the light blue t-shirt, ordering everyone around to get things done quickly! (of course, he's speaking in English to the Indian workers, so we're not exactly sure what or how much they understood of his directions, but his style was impactful!)

Day 3 - Girls' playground.

The prior weekend, under Kendra's watchful eye, the kids painted the bricks that surround the playgrounds with their names, a very thoughtful idea of Kendra (she must be an educator?!?) to give the kids a sense that they contributed to putting the playground together.

Day 5 - Boys' playground. Getting there...

And finally, on Day 7, laying the grass was completed, the bricks were all in place, and all was completed -- on time, within budget, and with soooooo much excitement!

Day 7 - Boys' playground.

Seriously, doesn't it just look fabulous? I mean, what kid has a playground in his/her own front yard?!!

Day 7 - Girls' playground (and Sumitra hanging her clothes).

We aren't sure how such a wonderful gift came our way. Our kids are very fortunate to have friends like Kendra and Baxter. If you've ever met our kids, then you know that there is something special about them. Maybe it's that they come from such difficult backgrounds and social-economic hardships but continually prove to us that they can thrive and flourish when given the chance -- excelling in school, improving and refining their behavior to the point where, wow, we don't even recognize them sometimes ;-) and just, well, enjoying their childhood years. They attract such fabulous friends from around the world who remember them even after several years -- Kendra first met them several years ago on her trip to Mysore (!) -- these kids are really something else, as are their friends.

Come on over and check out the playgrounds!

Clean those ears!

A couple of weeks ago, the wonderful people from audiologyindia (www.audiologyindia.com) and AIISH (All India Speech and Hearing) came to KM to give all of the kids ear checkups.

Jyothi: Oh my god, THAT was in my ear? 

The ear doctor checking Lalitha's ears.

The checkups included a hearing test, an exam by an ear-nose-throat physician, and a speech test.

Vinuta being check out by the speech therapist

Thanks so much to Jayaprakash at audiologyindia and our dear friend Manjunath for doing such a nice job organizing everything.

The kids' friend Manjunath, who helps them with many health-related arrangements.

KM Boy and Girl of the Month - July 2012

This past month (July), the girls selected Joythi, age 7, in 1st grade, and the boys selected Umesh, age 5, upper kindergarten, as the best kids of the month at KM. They both got a nice prize!

Jyothi and Umesh are both from the street, and lived there from birth to about three years of age.

Now, they are nice and healthy, and well-behaved, at KM:

Updates on the playground project (wow, it's happening!!!)

After a few months of fundraising and planning, the playground project has landed in Mysore! See the following for the updates on our friends Kendra and Baxter from Star Seeds Preschool, who are heading up the effort.

http://sseedsshantiplayground.blogspot.com/

KM Boy and Girl of the Month - June 2012

We recently started a "Best Boy of the Month" and "Best Girl of the Month" incentive at KM. The winners are chosen by their peers, and represent the kids who demonstrated extremely good behavior during that month, including doing their homework, treating others nicely, doing their chores on time, and exhibiting all-around good behavior.

This month (June), the girls selected Thanmaye, age 7, in 1st grade, and the boys selected Sadiq, age 10, 3rd grade. The "best" kids of the month each get a special prize.

Sadiq, 4th grade

Thanmaye, 1st grade

Friends from Daisy Troop 2494 in Sparks, Maryland!

A friend of ours who is in charge of her daughter's Daisy troop (youngest level of Girl Scouts) in Sparks, Maryland, had the idea to share India with her girls during the month of February. February is the month that Girl Scouts dedicate to learning about and connecting with people from around the world.

On that day, she had her troop make cards and pictures for our kids. Her girls also enjoyed viewing pictures of our kids at Karunya Mane and learned about their daily routine. 

The girls in Troop 2494 also found India on the globe and couldn’t believe how many people live there. They saw pictures of Mysore and other parts of India, and found the Taj Mahal and the Mysore Palace very beautiful. They also got to eat naan and drank chai tea while doing their crafts and admired some fancy Indian outfits!

They sent their cards and pictures, along with a very generous parcel full of pencils and erasers, to our kids, who then decided to make cards in return. 

Here's a sampling of the cards and pictures shared... what a nice thing for our kids to connect with kids from halfway around the world! Thanks so much to Troop 2494 (and Shena) for sharing.

Ice cream!

In May of each year, the kids at Karunya Mane go home for a two-day visit if they have a home to go to (that we know about). Some of the kids without any parents or family stay at KM during these two days, and naturally they feel a little sad.

This year, we took the kids who stayed at KM to a very nice and yummy ice cream store in Mysore. There were sooooo many flavors, some of them had no idea what to order, so Aunty Anu told them to just try the chocolate (always a winner). Some of the older kids tried the more adventurous flavors, and they all shared their flavors with one another. Yum!

little Jeevan

Nanjunda

Renuka

Kartik, Sharath, small Sreenivas (smiling), Devaraj, Razak

little Venkatesh

June 24 -- LA Rocks Fundraiser!

If you're in the LA area, Garth and friends are hosting another amazing fundraiser to help us build a new home for our kids.

See: http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=hg4c6pcab&oeidk=a07e5vqk07o7a5a64c2

Thanks!

Beautiful 5th Grade Girls

Time sure flies. We're in the middle of our fourth year at Karunya Mane, and the kids are sure growing like weeds! School starts again in just a week so we're scrambling (as usual) to get everything ready -- uniforms, books, shoes, school bags, pencils, notebooks, pens...

The girls who will be in fifth grade this year decided to try on their new uniforms. Since they've now graduated from primary school where they wore the red-and-blue shirts, they now get to wear the blue-and-white uniform.

Don't they look sweet? And for those who knew them "way back when," they've grown, huh?

Shanti, Divya, Vijayalakshmi, Pooja, Prema

Harish and the big boys

Three of our oldest boys, Sreenivas, Harish, and Manikanta, spent the school year at a residential school. They returned to KM in April for a short summer vacation, and during that time volunteered at our neighbors, People for Animals. PFA is a not-for-profit animal shelter that cares for homeless and handicapped animals, and currently houses over 200 dogs, a handful of cats, parrots, four beautiful eagles, a monkey, rabbits, horses and donkeys, and a couple of little piggies.

At PFA, the boys learned how to feed and clean the animals, and also helped the veterinarian with procedures in the operating room. The boys loved their summer internship and everyone at PFA enjoyed their efforts.

Manikanta with a white doggie cooling off on the wet sidewalk. 

Harish and Manikanta just returned to school this week, and Sreenivas will also head back in a month. Here's what Harish wrote about his time at PFA:

Although Harish still has a few English grammar rules to learn (!), we have to remember that he has basically been in school for only four years. He started in 1st grade (at the age of 9), skipped to third grade (at the age of 11), then skipped to fifth grade (at the age of 13), and just finished up 9th grade (age 15), in the Kannada language.

Sreenivas and Harish, getting ready to feed the dogs (rice, egg, milk).

A playground? Cool!

A couple of OS friends in San Francisco have taken up the task of raising funds to buy our kids at Karunya Mane a playground set! How cool would that be???!!!

Please see the following link:  http://www.starseedssf.com/shanti/

Think Jeevan and little Venkatesh would like a playground? Sure!

Stay tuned for updates...

Dancing!

In January, the kids got invited to participate in a dance competition in the city, against a few other children's home. The event was hosted by the Aashayein Fondation, a nice charity that helps others like us with stuff, and events like this.

Although it was a competition, we sent not our "best" dancers but our kids who needed the chance to perform in public to help bring out their personalities a bit more. Surprisingly, the kids won a prize for their performance and really got the audience excited during their number!

We're sure that they're *cuteness* contributed to them winning a prize!

Ready to go: Prajwal, Razak, Vinuta, Sadiq, Kartik, Shilpa, Kavya

Vinuta, Shilpa, Mamatha, Kavya, Netra, Prajwal, Meharbanu (house mother) Razak, Sadiq, Kartik and Blackie our dog 

Kumar, one of our teachers, stopped in to provide some moral support.

Netra and Razak front and center 

Sadiq and Kavya

Kartik and Mamatha

The UK Bash Raises $$

Many thanks to Matt Ryan and his friends in the UK for raising a nice sum of money for our kids and programs in Mysore!

Two cool dudes -- Matt Ryan, friend of the kids, and Johnny Marr, from the Smiths

Pavan Kumar

Pavan Kumar, one of our older boys, came to Karunya Mane in June 2010. When he arrived, he could not even read or write in Kannada, even though he supposedly just finished up fourth grade.

Pavan has no siblings, and lived with his mom in Mandya, about a two-hour drive from Mysore. Pavan's dad left them years ago and hasn't bothered to return. Pavan is a great kid, respectful, happy, and kind -- he just had no support at home because his mom worked, and he was often left alone.

Pavan started at Deepa School with our other kids in June 2010, and spent the first half of the year in 1st grade, trying to at least get a good foundation in the basics. He was then moved to 4th grade because of his age, and struggled. About midway through this year, now in 5th grade, Pavan finally started to catch up and has been doing quite well for most of the year.

Pavan on parent's visiting day with his grandmother, mom, and little cousin.

Pavan is also a funny kid; he likes to play around and dress up, like below -- he actually went to school dressed up like and elderly village woman! Everyone got a good laugh.

Pavan as old village woman, he's even got the seating posture correct!

Next year, Pavan will be in 6th grade. Let's hope that he'll continue his excellent progress in school. It is nice to watch kids who aren't able to read or write finally begin to improve in school and, most importantly, see their enthusiasm for school grow in the process. All they need is the right support and guidance. Many thanks to Deepa School's patient teachers and Pavan's after-school tutor, Jyothi!

LA Rocks -- again! Garth's Fourth Fundraiser on March 31st.

The fourth LA Rocks! Operation Shanti build-a-new-orphanage fundraiser will be held on March 31, 2012.

For more information, please see:

http://losangelesrocksoperationshanti.wordpress.com/about-the-event/event-poster/

The Numbers

A recent article in a local paper talked about the problems that children in India and other countries face, and the staggering statistics.

Translation:

Increasing Evils towards Children

     In India, thousands (lakhs) of children are deprived of their fundamental rights. Everyday, they are exposed to exploitation, injustice, and evils. Many children are seen in cities working as scrap collectors, beggars, and coolies in hotels and factories, and at bus stands and railway stations.

     Around the world, more than 1 billion (100 crore, 1 crore = 10 million) children work on the streets. Children are used in criminal activities like begging, prostitution, and selling illegal substances, all of which are very harmful to a child’s psyche. Such children have to deal with fear, violence, insomnia, an inferiority complex, and suicidal tendencies.

     Our society is embarrassed because of the poverty-stricken parents who sell their children and because of the teachers who sexually, physically, and verbally abuse students. An alarming percentage of Indian girls below 18 years of age are sexually exploited. Pressure from family members and caregivers forces children to sacrifice their natural instincts and give up their innocent childhood.

     India has more than four million (40 lakhs) child prostitutes. UNICEF reports state that 147.5 million (14.75 crores) children in India are homeless and stay in temples and public spaces. Thirty-three million (3.3 crores) children in India have never seen a school and 50,000 to 60,000 children are infected with HIV. According to the 2001 Karnataka census, the state has more than 350,000 (3.5 lakhs) child workers. The international publication Lancet stated that, in the past 20 years, one million (10 lakhs) female children have been killed because of female infanticide.

     Child marriages, child abuse, injustice, child labor, prostitution, criminal activities, and female infanticide have affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in India. We say that we have no actionable laws in place to solve children’s problems. However, child offenders must be tracked down and caught, and measures must be taken to prevent children from being involved in criminal activities. Programs must be put in place that constantly remind us of the problems that these children face, and we must help solve these problems. Governmental and non-governmental organizational involvement and cooperation is essential.

Original article:

Rachamma

We met Rachamma on the street in 2005, where she lived for many years with her kids and grandkids -- Venkatesh, Prema, Sumitra, Mohan, Latha, Jyothi, and Nanjunda.

Nanjunda enjoying lunch from his grannie Rachamma

 Today, most of her grandkids live at Karunya Mane. Nanjunda attends St. Francis School, and is doing very well in the English curriculum. He also stays in the school dormitory with the sisters who take care good of him. 

Rachamma
She's had a hard life but has always taken good care of her grandchildren

Rachamma visited Nanjunda at the dorm today and brought him a nice meal of rice and chicken curry, which he ate happily. Nanjunda's mother is very unreliable and unstable, and Rachamma and his Aunty Kumari have been the consistent support in his life. He gets temperamental and moody at times, not surprising given the torture he went through while living on the street with his mom, but otherwise he is doing well today and is much happier.

Kumari's dilemma and your assistance

Kumari sells flowers near Bombay

Tiffany’s in the city during the

season (May to October); offseason

gets difficult, as she has to

sell vegetables on the street, which

is not as good a business.

We're doing an emergency fundraising drive for one of our long-time street moms, Kumari. Kumari has chronic lung damage (fibrosis) from past bouts of tuberculosis. Because of her lung damage, even at her young age of 33, she does not have adequate oxygen intake (blood oxygen level of around 90 when sitting, even lower when walking). Her pulmonologist highly recommended that we get her an oxygen concentrator machine for her house, so that she can use it as frequently as possible, giving her increased oxygen and basically enabling her to live longer.

Without the machine, she has only a handful of years remaining. With daily supplemental oxygen, because Kumari is otherwise healthy, she could live to see her youngest kid, Mohan (age 6 and who lives with us at our children's home), grow into a handsome young man. 

Kumari is a single mother whom we’ve known since 2005, when we met her on the street, where she lived with her kids. Her oldest daughter Prema (13), youngest daughter Sumitra (11), and youngest son Mohan (6) live with us at our children’s home and attend good schools. Her oldest son Venkatesh (15), lives with Kumari and helps her with household chores.

If you would like to make a donation to help defray the costs of the oxygen concentrator for Kumari, we'd really appreciate it! The machine costs Rs.45,000 (discounted price from Mysore Medical Systems), is an American-made model, and is quite reliable. It would be the first such machine installed in Kyathmanahalli (a slum area in Mysore) where Kumari now rents a house.

If you are an Indian taxpayer in India, you can contact Tracy at 99451-00945 / info@operationshanti.org for more information or to make a donation. We’ll provide you with a receipt for your donation that you can use for tax purposes (80G deduction).

(photo courtesy Janea Wiedmann)

When first diagnosed with her lung

condition, Kumari needed oxygen daily for

about one month. She recovered and was

fine for about a year, but now needs oxygen

again.

We just started soliciting donations today, and so far, Mr. Madhusudan Pattanaik, a friend of our kids who has helped us over the past two years, has managed to secure for us over 15% of the funds we need, in just two hours! Thank you, Mr. Pattanaik.

Cheques/DDs should be written to: Akhanda Seva for International Shanti

For NEFT transfer, use the following:

Name: Akhanda Seva for International Shanti

Bank: Canara Bank, NRI Branch, Nazarbad, Mysore

Account Number: 230910-100-1439

IFSC: CNRB0002309