Garth and the Fundraisers

Thanks again to Garth Hewitt and his amazing efforts to raise funds for our kids! The June event raised over $9,000 and you can get more information here on the upcoming September event.

Take a look at a few pics from the June event:

Garth and a young supporter

A full crowd...!

Amazing volunteers and helpers

the Eco camp!

This past May, during the school break, we sent four of our oldest kids to an eco camp for four days. They got to meet other kids their age, slept overnight in the camp facilities for four nights, and learned about "going green" habits and practices, cooked their own food, and went on nature walks to see birds and animals and plantlife.

Pooja, Shanti, Vinod, and Sharath said they had a great time and hope to go again next year! Here are a few pictures from their adventure.

Pooja, third from left, cooking dinner

Sharath, on the right (blue shirt), hanging out

Vinod on the right

Sharath

Thank you for the school bags!

The employees at Wurth Elektronik in Mysore have such great timing -- they came to Karunya Mane during the first week of school in June to donate spankin' brand new school bags to our kids! We're so grateful for such a thoughtful and practical gift, as our kids go through their school bags like they were made of paper! They have so many notebooks and textbooks that they have to carry around all day.

Take a look:

Mr. Kemparaj from Wurth Elektronik and our little ones.

Great bag, nice colors, and heavy duty!

Suma, our oldest girl in 8th grade, packing up her new bag.

Matt and Lina's wedding

In May, two good friends of Operation Shanti came to Mysore to be married by Swamiji. The kids were invited to the celebration at the cave temple, and they really enjoyed the festivities and excellent lunch!

Little Nanjunda

A couple of years ago, we wrote about little Nanjunda, who has had a very difficult life even though he's not even ten years old. While on the street with his mom, he was often ignored and physically abused by her, and often didn't get enough to eat. Now, at Karunya Mane, he has had the chance to show us how smart he really is -- and he's pretty smart, getting straight A+s in school this past year.

Nanjunda has always talked about wanting to learn English, so we decided to give him that chance and are enrolling him into the nearby English medium school. So, Nanjunda and five other promising kids living at Karunya Mane will be attending St. Francis CBSE School this year.



Nanjunda is happier and more excited than we've ever seen him. He used to be a sad, unmotivated boy who, even though he excelled in school, he often didn't finish his homework and lost his books and pencils all the time.

During the two-month summer break, Nanjunda is spending his time with his tutor, brushing up on his English, and learning Hindi. He proudly shows us what he is learning every day!

Brush your teeth Canadian style

Earlier this year, our friends Tomasz and Tamara from Canada and their current group of travelers visited the kids at KM. This time, one of the younger women in the group showed the kids how to properly brush their teeth.

The guests first had lunch with our kids...

...then everyone played for a bit outside...

Adarsh and his new friend from Canada

Sreenivas having a chat...

Tamara and Shanti

then everyone went upstairs to learn about brushing teeth...

...and our kids even got new brushes!

Thanks again, Tomasz and Tamara and friends for a really great visit!

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!

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.

Los Angeles Rocks! Operation Shanti

One of our yoga teacher friends based in Los Angeles has organized a series of fundraisers for Operation Shanti, to help us build a new orphanage in Mysore. The first event was held on the Spring Equinox on March 19, and two remaining events will be held on June 18 (Summer Solstice) and September 17 (Fall Equinox).

Please see the following newsletter for more on Garth Hewitt and his generous efforts to help the kids of Mysore.

The Midwives' Visit

In mid-February, the kids at Karunya Mane had visitors from travelers with the John Baines Tour in the UK. The visitors were midwives who practice in the UK and who came to India for a tour. KM was one of their stops.

The kids had a great time with their new friends, and some of the older ones practiced speaking English to the midwives.

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

Doggies and kitties

If you're a pet lover, walking around India and seeing the countless suffering stray dogs and cats can be a bit disconcerting. Many street dogs are put to sleep as a way to try to control the population. Other organizations work to sterilize as many as they can. And seeing these poor little animals walking around in search of food while people beat them or throw stones at them is heart breaking.

At Karunya Mane, we are trying to teach our kids to respect animals, and to treat them well. Vishnu, our most mischievous six-year-old, occasionally pulls a puppy's tail, but the rest of the kids are learning to love their KM pets.  

In our cat/dog house live Martin the friendly white and orange kitty, Georgina (black doggie) and Lisa (black/white doggie) -- they are sisters found in a ditch by one of our boys while walking home from school ("pleeeeease can we keep them? they have no mom!"), Luther the not-very-friendly tabby cat (pictured below), Sweetie the friendly grey kitty, and Bob the smallest kitty (pictured below).

Below, Lalitha and Adarsh say hi to Sweetie and Lisa.

Here are Luther and Bob.

More art from Singapore

Our friends from Singapore visited the kids again recently, and just in time to put some of their creative talents to use in painting our "cat/kid" room.

On Sundays, the kids helped paint some of the sea creatures and animals that were sketched onto the walls.



And here's the final product...

Thanks again to Jo-anne, Shirly, and Adeline!

High school friends in the UK

Thanks to Bronte and friends at Stamford High School in Stamford in the UK, who have been raising funds for our kids. We recently received a note from them, as well as a photo of the teens who are fundraising for us:

When I came out in summer to visit you with my mum and brother I really felt like making a difference back home after having such a lovely time with all the kids that are staying with you. I told my class about what I'd been up to, and they were all really up for making a difference too. So my form and I by organising a cake sale raised the money to buy 27 boxes of vitamins for the orphanage, some of which we've already sent you. We're all very keen to help Operation Shanti, and as we have a charity money making machine on our hands (our school likes buying cake!!), we wanted to know if there was anything other than vitamin tablets that we can buy using the funds or you can buy that we can start to raise some money for.

I've attached a picture of most of us - the piece of paper I'm holding reads "Stamford High School loves Operation Shanti", unfortunately it didn't come out very well!

Best wishes,

Bronte Philips and 11CW

Thanks so much to Bronte and everyone at Stamford High School for your continuing support!

A day at Wurth Elektronik in Mysore

For Children's Day this past year, on November 14, the kids were invited to spend a day at Wurth Elektronik's Mysore campus. The kids had a great time, got to play some outdoor and indoor games, were fed cookies and ice cream, and a very nice lunch made at the company's dining room.

When the arrived, the kids contributed to the company garden and planted a few plants.

Next, they sang and danced ...

 ...had some lunch ...

...and goofed around!

The kids also brought back a few useful gifts, like notebooks and pencils and art supplies. Thanks so much to the Wurth employees who were so welcoming to our kids!

Bye Anusha...

Anusha, one of our cute little five-year-old girls, has been with us at Karunya Mane for just about two years. She's a sweet little girl who is unafraid of expressing her love and affection for others. However, she suffers from an attention deficit disorder, which has worsened during the time we've known her. She cannot focus on a simple task for even a minute, and she's always moving around and is distracted by whatever catches her eye.

Our concern was that Anusha wouldn't learn anything in a regular school (with 45+ students per teacher), and would fall far behind in her education and learning. She needed more one-on-one attention but no such special schools exist in our area. After some searching, we found another NGO in Kollegal (about an hour from Mysore) that cares for kids with special needs -- kids just like Anusha -- and they agreed to take her in.

As Anusha was leaving, some of the other girls felt very sad that she was going away. Even though Anusha often got into their things just like that pesky little sister always does, and often took their pencils, textbooks, and schoolbags as play toys, everyone really loved her like a little sister. It's been just a day, and even though we know she's in good hands, we sure do miss Anusha!

Please check back here from time to time; we'll continue to post updates on how Anusha is doing.

A reunion

After staying at Karunya Mane for a year and having been in our Street People Program for several years, she transferred to a residential school in Bannur to continue her studies. Recently, Asha returned to our area during a school break and spent some time with her friends, a few of our girls at KM -- Pooja, Shanthi, and Prema.

They met up at Priya's house. Priya was Asha's tuition teacher at KM, and is now teaching Prema, Pooja, and Shanthi. So they all know each other well and had a nice time hanging out and catching up.

Priya, shown here, continued to counsel the girls and impart good advice to them.

Photos courtesy Janea Wiedmann.

Blue belts

After 2 1/2 years, most of our older kids who have been taking karate lessons during this time have now earned their blue belts. A couple have their green belts, and two little ones (Surya and Sadif) just earned their yellow belts.

Before their blue belt test, the older kids practiced a bit and we were quite impressed with the progress they've made.

Sweaters from Bangalore

We want to thank Saraswati, Anu, and Manjula for knitting 25+ really warm and wooly sweaters for our kids! For those of you who knit, sweater knitting takes time... and our kids appreciate the time they spend knitting sweaters for our kids.

Here are a few of our girls (Divya, Netra, and Suma) modeling the sweaters!

Prayer time

Every morning at 7:00 a.m. and evening at 7:00 p.m., before breakfast and dinner, the kids sit together for prayer time. One of the older kids leads the rest of them in the prayer.

Little Darshan enjoys praying, and he has memorized most of the seven-minute long prayer that the kids recite each day!