The annual home visit!

Each year, during the school vacation (April and May), the kids at Karunya Mane go home for two or three days. They like their visits home, where they see friends and family and eat good food cooked by mom. They are also happy to return to Karunya Mane (whew!), and we are always glad to have them back.

This year, the kids were home from April 7-10. During that time, the parents were given the task to take their kids to get their Aadhaar card (new ID card in India), and open bank accounts for them so that they could begin to save money for their kids. Most of the parents did well with their assigned tasks.

Of course, the kids had homework to do when at home, and the parents ensured that they all completed their reading and writing! The kids also wrote a report for us on their home visits. Here are a few excerpts.

• Vinod (6th grade): "On 7/04/13 at 2.00 in the afternoon, my brother took me home. That day night we ate chicken. Later, I brushed my teeth. I woke up in the morning, brushed my teeth and took a bath. We went to the palace and other few temples. On 10/04/13, we came back to the ashram at 2.00 p.m. On 14/04/13, I went to summer camp."

• Swarana (2nd grade): "On Sunday at 3:00 p.m. I went home in an auto. There my brother gave me fruits. I ate fruits. Later, when my father came back from his work, he brought some snacks. We ate it. Later, I had supper at night, took a bath and slept. Morning, I brushed my teeth, took a bath and had meals. Later, I played with my younger brother and had my lunch at 1.00 p.m. Later, I wrote my homework. My father gave me some money and I bought some snacks from a shop and shared it with my brother. My mother prepared vada and meals for supper. I ate it and washed my plates and slept. Next day, my mother was not feeling well. My mother was vomiting. I and my brother went to a shop and bought Vicks for my mother. Later, I took a bath. My father prepared uppittu for us. We ate it. My mother was washing the plates and I went there and helped her. My father was painting our home at night. My younger brother was running around. Me and my elder brother went behind him and brought him back home. Netra and I helped them. In the morning, I took bath and dressed in new clothes. We were preparing for the death anniversary of our grandfather. Me, Lalita and my elder brother went to a shop and bought flowers, fruits, camphor and other things. Later, we kept vada and other foods for grandfather and after that, we had our lunch and came back to the ashram in an auto. Thank you."

Little brother Harish, mom Uma, Vinod, Lalita, Netra, Swarana, dad Raju

• Padmanabha (4th grade, who dod not go home because he just arrived at KM): "I came to Karunya Mane on 22/1/13. I like this place. Here everyone looks after me very well. I have committed two mistakes at school. I promised Banu Aunty that I will never commit such mistakes in the future. We all enjoyed here the day of Holi by applying colors on each other. I like the food serve here. I thank Tracy for sending me to the camp. I like the camp. My uncle was very happy after seeing me. He said to me now you are in good condition. My work here is to arrange the school bags. I will study well and bring good name to this orphanage."

Padmanabha and Uncle Suresh

• Sharath: "When we went to home from Ashram we ate ice cream. Later, we purchased clothes and we tried them out, and then we reached home. After a bath, I changed my dress. Later, I had food and then we went to see KRS. We saw the fountain dance and went boating. We went to a shop and ate watermelon and we purchased fish and went back to home. Later, we had food and slept. In the morning at 6.00 a.m. I woke up and brushed my teeth and took a bath. I had milk and a bun and ate some food. We went to get our Aadhaar cards, we took photos for it and went back to home at 10.00 a.m. At 3.00 p.m. we went to the bank. They asked for our Aadhaar card at the bank and my mother gave it to them. They asked for a photo. We took photos and went home. Mother prepared milk and I drank it and slept for some time. She woke me up. Later, I washed my hands, legs and face and had food. Again, I felt sleepy and slept. At 12:00 a.m. at night they woke me up. I asked “why?”, they said “to cut the cake”. That was my birthday! At night, I gave cake to everyone. After brushing my teeth, taking bath, wearing dress and arranging my clothes in a bag, I came back here on the scooter."

• Pavan (6th grade): "On April 7, at 2.00 p.m., I went to my native place along with my mother. My grandfather and grandmother were waiting for my arrival. That day night, they prepared chicken for me. I brushed my teeth before sleeping after food. On April 8, I woke up in the morning, took a bath, brushed my teeth, said prayer, had food, went to get my Aadhaar card, and went to the temple. On April 9, I went to see my friends. On April 10, I came back to orphanage. On April 14, I am going to the drama camp. I liked the holidays."

Pavan and mom Bagya

• Kartik (4th grade, who did not go home because his father is traveling all the time): "As a counselor Venkatesh Sir comes to our orphanage. Here, Banu Aunty takes care of us. Yoga Aunty cooks food for us. Except Sunday, we have tuition on all the other days of the week. Weekly one day we have singing class. Weekly three days we have karate class. Every Sunday, we have shopping time. Every month on the last Sunday, we get chicken dishes. Every day, I read the Vijaya Karnataka newspaper. Here, my works are washing clothes and cleaning the staircase. I got 2nd place in the sack race. In tuition class, Savitha Miss teaches me nicely. In the future, I will study well. Here, we grandly celebrate the Ganesh festival, Yugadi festival and Christmas. On the day of the Holi festival, we all poured colors and danced here. On Sankrathi feast, we ate sesame and coconut. Every day we used the iPad for half an hour."

Kartik and dad Shivanna

Other kids and their parents:

Vishnu, Shilpa, Jeevan, mom Kamala, baby Aakash

Pallavi, mom Sushila, Vishnu

Mahesh, mom Sushila, Raju

Shanti and mom Puttamma

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!

Thanks from the kids

The kids wanted to say "thanks" to Garth and all of his students and friends for the fabulous fundraiser in Hermosa Beach on April 28th --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwdgqYf8Nl8

Garth Number Five (wow!) - in One Week!

Garth Hewitt and his students and volunteers are back for his fifth yogathon fundraiser to help us build a new home for our kids!

If you are in the Los Angeles area, please participate: Los Angeles Rocks Operation Shanti

Even if you are not in the Los Angeles area, please participate: Los Angeles Rocks Operation Shanti

Enjoy the great asana practice, as well prizes and free gifts from fabulous sponsors!

There are many things to be grateful for, and we are most certainly grateful to Garth and his team's karma yoga efforts! Om nama shivaya.

Umesh!

Little Umesh has been with Operation Shanti since his birth on June 6, 2007. He was always a chubby baby and looks a lot like his father, who is a day laborer at the big vegetable market in the city.

Umesh in June 2008

Dad wasn't very good to his two boys, Darshan and Umesh, and rarely bothered to care for them. He also frequently beat up his wife, Kavita, and she hated that her boys saw this happening to her. Mom took as good care of her boys as she could, and when we opened Karunya Mane, she asked us to take in her boys.

Umesh just finished kindergarten at Deepa School, a nice private school in the area. During his years at Karunya Mane, he has really improved in both behavior and demeanor. He used to be a grumpy little boy and frowned often, and he used to like to hit his friends!

Now, in 2013, Umesh is a very happy little boy who smiles a lot, listens obediently to his house mother, and plays nicely with his friends. He also listens to his teachers in school -- we never get complaints about Umesh -- and shows great interest in schoolwork and writing the ABCs.

Umesh (left) with friends Jeevan (center) and Adarsh (right) in late 2012

Umesh, almost six years old, is growing up really nicely, has so far maintained his baby fat (!), and likes to live at Karunya Mane with his brother Darshan. Mom visits them once a month and she always brings them a nice lunch and snacks.

We'd love to get Umesh a sponsor! If you are interested in sponsoring Umesh for a year, please see our website at Sponsor an Operation Shanti Kid! on how to go about doing this. Sponsorship is $400 a year, or $33 per month for 12 months.

Thanks so much!

Boys karate test!

After the girls had their karate test, the boys had their belt exam with their teacher, Sensei Johnson.

front row: Sreenivasa, Sharath, and Manikanta

day 2 test

day 1 test

The kids have been taking karate lessons for just about five years, since May 2008. Here's a fun video from an impromptu 2010 karate practice session at Karunya Mane.

2010

iPads? iPads!

Several generous friends donated two iPads to Karunya Mane -- one for the boys and one for the girls. The kids just love their iPads!

Surya with Mohan (left) and Darshan (right)

Even our house mothers are addicted... they've discovered the Internet and are able to help the older kids with homework projects by looking up information using Google.

In general, the girls like to browse and learn about different places and Indian holidays. The boys are obsessed with picture of tigers, snakes, and creepy crawly creatures.

During the summer holiday (April and May), the kids are enjoying daily time on the iPads, which have opened up a whole world to them -- safely, of course, through a child-safe browser!

If you have recommendations for great educational apps that we could download, let us know!

Sisters and brothers at Karunya Mane

We're well into the final exam period for the kids -- school is out at the end of March -- so they aren't doing a whole lot except studying. Night and day. The exams are going well so far, no major hiccups and they return from school each day and say, "oh that test was easy!" We'll see how their report cards turn out --  more on that on April 10!

In the meantime, we thought we'd share with you the brother and sister combinations at Karunya Mane. We have a few siblings, making for a nice family environment.

Arabia, Sadiq, Razak. Dad Rafiq suffers from health issues. Mom Azeez passed away a few years ago. 

Not related but just like siblings! From top clockwise: Shanti, Mamatha, Venkatesh, Thanmaye, Divya. 

Latha and Jyothi. Mom Lakshmi and Dad Lakshman lived on the streets for many years. The girls have never lived in a house. Mom and Dad now rent a small house. 

Devaraj and Harish. Mom Padma passed away in 2009. Dad Dorai Raj passed away many years ago, which put the kids and mom on the streets. 

Prema, Sumitra, and Mohan. Dad Gangadhara passed away a few years ago. Mom Kumari and the kids lived on the streets for many years. Mom now rents a small house. They are Latha's and Jyothi's cousins.

Not related but like brothers. From top: Raju, Adarsh, Venkatesh (again 'cuz he's so cute). 

Sharath, Pooja, Shwetha. Mom Manjula and Dad Raju, both from a slum, are separated. 

Shilpa, small Vishnu, Jeevan. Dad Mani passed away in December 2012. Mom Kamala continues to live in a gudisalu (sweeper's slum) in Mysore. 

Suma, Manjula, Renuka, Manu. Mom Shanti passed away a couple of years ago. They lived on the streets after dad abandoned them.

From top: Surya, Sowmya, Darshan. Mom Girija took good care of the kids even when they had no house. Dad Jayaram sometimes disappeared for months on end.  

Vinod, Netra, Swarana, Lalitha. Mom Uma and Dad Raju live in a slum and could barely feed their kids. 

Vijayalakshmi and Vinuta. Single mom Lakshmi lost her husband Satyanarana a few years ago and had difficulty raising her two very smart girls. 

Darshan and Umesh. Mom Kavita and Dad Rudra are separated, and used to live on the streets. The boys have never lived in a house. Mom now rents a house in a nearby village and works for us.

Pallavi and Vishnu. They lived with Mom Sushila and Dad Gururaj on the streets since birth. They are cousins of Darshan and Umesh and have never lived in a house. Mom and Dad now rent a small house.

Girls and karate

The girls had a karate test on the 24th of February, and did just great! Check out the photos from the event --

Manjula getting her orange belt; she started karate lessons at KM in 2010.

The girls (Arabia, Netra, Mamatha, Shweta, and Renuka) who got yellow belts. 

The KM girl's gang!

Pooja, promoted to a maroon belt.

Break time: Shwetha, Vijayalakshmi, Suma, Divya. 

Prema (front), the most advanced with a brown belt.

Shwetha, Renuka, and Vijayalakshmi going from white to yellow belts.

We are very proud that the girls enjoy their twice-weekly karate lessons and are learning the value of self-defense, particularly in India where violence against females is a major issue faced by women of all socio-economic classes.

Go girls!

If you're interested in supporting our girls with karate lessons, their lessons cost approximately Rs.800 or US$16 per week. Thank you!

...seen on a billboard (an education-oriented billboard!)

Outside its school property, St. Francis School installed a billboard featuring their top students---including our own Surya!

go Surya!

Puppies!

On Republic Day (January 26), the kids were invited to our next-door neighbors, the animal shelter People for Animals, for a flag raising ceremony.

While there, our two youngest boys found the litter of cute puppies.

Jeevan and the puppies 

Venkatesh and the puppies

We're not sure who's cuter, the boys or the adorable puppies!

Keith Maillard (1959-2013), proponent of our youth

It is with a heavy heart that Operation Shanti announces the passing of our Chairman and Head of Fundraising, Keith Maillard. Keith passed away suddenly at his home in Vermont on Saturday, February 2, 2013. A strong proponent for youth as keepers of the future, Keith was involved as an active volunteer with numerous not-for-profit organizations over the past 30 years, aiding countless at-risk and homeless youth. For Operation Shanti, Keith was more than willing and eager to provide his years of experience and knowledge to our grassroots efforts. Having been involved with Operation Shanti since the beginning, Keith was an integral part of the roots of Operation Shanti and played a key role in expanding our vision into what it is today. He will be deeply missed by the Operation Shanti family, who came to know Keith as just a really great guy and a good and sincere friend, and by all of those whose lives he touched.