For Indian immigrants who came to the US decades ago the most exciting encounter was – with another Indian! Their numbers were small and the circles of caring friends few. Now, as the community has grown, so have the circles. Here we are attempting to put all these countless circles into the clouds.

Now when a new migrant comes, the loneliness will be a thing of the past – for friends, community and cyber circles are just a mouse click away.

We invite you to use this piece of cyber real estate to let newcomers  know about your organization, its benefits and its work.

Email details of your organization to cybercircles@ lassiwithlavina.com

SPOTLIGHT   Sakhi for South Asian Women

At a Sakhi gathering, women share strength and support. Photo -Jacques Cornell

Ragni Kidvai, a Sakhi volunteer, introduces you to this stellar organization which is ceebrated its 20^th anniversary last year.

Both survivors of abuse and people who love them are realizing they do not have to live with abuse.  communities.

Sakhi exists to end violence against women. Sakhi unites survivors, communities, and institutions to eradicate domestic violence and works to create strong and healthy communities. Sakhi uses an integrated approach that combines support and empowerment through service delivery, community engagement, media advocacy, and policy initiatives.

Founded in 1989 by a group of five South Asian women from diverse professional fields such as banking, film, law, and public health, Sakhi, meaning “woman friend,” was created to fill a critical need. In spite of an abundance of religious and cultural centers, professional associations, and ethnic-specific groups within New York’s large South Asian immigrant population, there was no place to address the silenced subject of domestic violence.

Today, Sakhi has grown and expanded its programming and impact far beyond its founding 20 years ago. Rana Quraishi, a board member, observes many of the first survivors were women who needed assistance in obtaining legal documents, such as passports. Rana notes, however, that now Sakhi receives “a whole range of calls. Some of the women who seek our services are what you would call ‘well-to-do,’ and they need Sakhi for confidence, services, or a referral.” Sakhi’s focus on empowerment has truly brought women together from all walks of life, Rana says.

From a helpline (212-868-6741) operating from 10 AM to 6 PM Monday through Friday, individualized crisis response and access to legal, medical, and shelter referrals as well as programming for emotional support and economic self-sufficiency, Sakhi provides survivors with a holistic package.

Reshma Patel remembers joining Sakhi as a volunteer back in 1994 when Sakhi was still relatively new. “I first volunteered for Sakhi by teaching survivors English. We have grown in so many ways since then. Now we not only offer English classes, but computer literacy classes as well,” says Reshma. “Women may come to us because of abuse, but they stay because of all our other services.”

Sakhi also works to reach out to the community at large, creating awareness of domestic violence through a community engagement and media program that includes a newsletter, an interactive website, short films, and a volunteer program. It also participates in forums, marches, panels, and other outreach events as expert presenters on violence against women.

Sakhi also works to create lasting systemic change. Due to the importance of language access for immigrant women and the inadequacy of interpretation services within the courts, Sakhi has worked to ensure adequate language access. Its efforts have even led to a court rule enabling access to an interpreter in civil and criminal cases in NY State.

Due to its multi-dimensional approach, Sakhi has been able to provide many survivors with the resources and ability to support themselves. “It is one thing to get out of an abusive relationship. It is another thing to be able to support yourself and your children afterwards,” says Reshma. Interestingly enough, many survivors go on to become Sakhi volunteers and donors. “It’s amazing how much of an impact Sakhi has made on the lives of so many women” adds Rana.

Sakhi supporters at a parade

For more information go to: www.sakhi.org

Project Chirag is lighting up villages with solar lanterns which are being made by the jobless.

Children’s Hope India 2 Lights Up the Night at The World Bar in NYC

When two continents connect – it means light for a dark village in India.

Children’s Hope India 2  is holding a fundraising summer event called “Light Up The Night” at The World Bar in New York City on July 14, 2011 @ 6pm. All proceeds will go towards lighting up the villages of Dahanu Taluka in the district of Thane in Maharashtra, India. This event will kick off a plan for CH2 to light up villages in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Jammu & Kashmir.

Today approximately 72,000 villages with 400 million Indians are off the grid and do not have access to power. CH2, the young arm of Children’s Hope India, partners with Project Chirag  to provide solar panels and lanterns to harness the sun’s energy and power homes and villages,  one at a time.

Project Chirag began as a student-run organization in Free Enterprise at H.R. College of Commerce & Economics in Mumbai. Since its inception, the Project has purchased solar equipment, trained and hired paraplegic Indians to assemble the parts, and then installed the panels and lanterns in thousands of households across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. In the past year Project Chirag has raised over $250,000 to light up 68 villages impacting 2,100 households across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Project Chirag: Light Up a Home for $ 85

Project Chirag is  a 5 point rural transformation project to tackle rural issues in India, including environment, education, healthcare & sanitation, social upliftment and economic empowerment. Phase 1 of this project is to light up villages with solar lanterns made by mentally and physically challenged and economically backward communities.

The cost to light up one home is $85, and with an $85 donation on Thursday, attendees will be entitled to entry to the event, drink tickets, and raffle numbers. Raffle prizes include tickets to sports, talk shows, and fashion events, as well as dinners and vouchers to many of New York’s top restaurants and lounges. General admission is $35.

Join CH2 in bringing light to the village and income generation to those making the solar lanterns.  A win-win for all!

UPDATE On CH Light Up the Night

Over 200 guests attended and raised $9,000 dollars.  100% of all the proceeds from this event will light up 50 homes and 4 community street lights in Dongaripada – a tribal coastal village in Dahanu Taluka, in the Thane district of Maharashtra, India. Donations will be used to purchase, assemble and install 2 solar panels, 1 lantern and 1 fixed light in each of these homes.  The assembly of this equipment is done by the paraplegic and deaf and mute men and women, so the donation goes a step further in providing the community with income and sustainable work.

Please also join the Childrens Hope India/CH2 Group on Facebook, and Follow us on Twitter

Light Up a Life with your $85 donation to children's Hope India for Project Chirag

About CH2 / Children’s Hope India CH2 is the young generation of Children’s Hope India, working to organize events and raises funds for targeted projects that serve the underprivileged youth in India and around the world. CH2 connects students, young professionals, and all other active, creative youngsters, by hosting social and networking events that promote awareness and opportunities.

Children’s Hope India was started in 1992 by a group of professional women in New York. What started with $1,000 supporting one preschool project for 25 children has grown into over 25 projects reaching out to over 50,000 children. Children’s Hope India has raised millions to support a multitude of projects across several major cities in India providing education, food, shelter, and health services to thousands of children. In New York, Children’s Hope gives out tuition scholarships to several South Asian students from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to assist them in pursuing their academic and career goals through college education.

For more information please visit:

www.childrenshopeindia.org

www.projectchirag.com

Related Articles:

Children’s Hope – Every Child Counts
An Evening in Rajasthan
When Mumbai Came to Manhattan.

Children's Hope Prayas, Delhi - (Photo Lavina Melwani)

Children’s  Hope India – Health, Education and Happiness

Fundraising in New York can have a wonderful ripple effect and translate into health camps, scholarships and education for children in the slums in India. That’s been the happy result of  the efforts of  Children’s Hope India, a non-profit organization started by a group of five women professionals in New York in 1992 with seed money donated by them and with just one project in hand.

Over the years, the supporter and donor base  has  grown, and Children’s Hope India has developed into a viable vehicle for promoting health and education in India. The funds raised have gone to carefully screened projects which the CH board supervises diligently, visiting projects and interacting with the children every year.

Smiling faces at a CH balwadi in Delhi (Photo: Lavina Melwani)

Children’s Hope India Inc is a 100% volunteer organization, with few overhead costs, and all funds raised go directly to the health and education projects. By working in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations, Children’s Hope has successfully funded health clinics, tuberculosis screening and heart surgery for children, established education initiatives and assisted with shelters for street children in major cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Bhuj, Pune, Jabalpur and in many villages in Rajasthan and Tamilnadu.

Children’s Hope Prayas, started in 2004, covers an entire slum – Kathputli colony, on the outskirts of Delhi which has been transformed by CH initiatives such as informal education, nutritious meals, a health clinic, vocational training for the children, adult workshops and self help groups to facilitate micro-credit and income generation for the parents. There’s even a computer lab in the slums where children can start to realize their dreams and achieve their potential.

Children’s Hope also has a group for young professionals called CH2, which has fun fundraising events in New York.

For more information contact info@childrenshopeindia.org

Visit www.childrenshopeindia.org

Related Articles:

An Evening in Rajasthan
When Mumbai Came to Manhattan.

Spread some Cheer raises funds for children with Fragile X Syndrome

Prayatna Helps Kids with Fragile X Syndrome

Want to keep tabs on the New Year and make a difference in the lives of children in need? Buy a calendar for 2011, and help children have a brighter year. Vikram Nandwani of Verry India who earlier sketched caricatures to raise money for the Tiger Fund, is now helping  children with special learning needs,  with ‘Spread Some Cheer’ – a calender for 2011.

The calendars designed by him cost Rs. 200 each (or $10 for those living abroad) and all funds go directly to Prayatna, a small Pune based NGO to help two children with special needs, Seena and Amar Ali.  He says, “’Spread Some Cheer’ is intended to help make the New Year special for these two amazing children suffering from Fragile X Syndrome.”

Seena, 14, and Amar, 9, both suffer from FXS or Martin Bell Syndrome, a genetic syndrome which results in characteristic physical and intellectual limitations. Says Nandwani: “It costs 2000 rupees to take care of one child for a month and I hope that we will be able to collect enough to fund special education for these two children for 2011 at Prayatna. We have already collected Rs. 30,000 of the targeted amount.”

More details about the calendars here

A calendar from Verry India raises funds for children with Fragile X Syndrome

ABOUT PRAYATNA (www.prayatnapune.org)

Prayatna is an NGO started in 1997 for mentally challenged people to provide an overall development in physical, personal,emotional and social areas. They take care of around 40 special students and offer multi-faceted education which includes academics, self Help Skills, socio-emotional skills and vocational training.

WHAT IS FRAGILE X SYNDROME?

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), or Martin-Bell syndrome, is a genetic syndrome which results in a spectrum of characteristic physical and intellectual limitations and emotional and behavioral features which range from severe to mild in manifestation. Fragile X is the most common known single gene cause of autism and the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability. Currently, the syndrome can be treated through behavioral therapy, special education, and when necessary, treatment of physical abnormalities.

Children's Hope India presents An Evening in Mumbai with Karan Johar, Mira Nair and Suketu Mehta

Children’s Hope India – ‘An Evening in Mumbai’

This year on 10/10/10 everyone is a Mumbaikar at heart and together we celebrate that great city by the sea which has shown a lot of courage and resilience under attack. Children’s Hope India presents An Evening in Mumbai Gala on Sunday, October 10, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan.

This glamorous gala celebrates the can-do spirit of Mumbai, its beauty and its hold on the world imagination. We pay tribute to its entrepreneurial spirit, its Bollywood industry and its eclectic music, dance, crafts and cuisine – but most of all to the very special people of Mumbai.

Special guests include noted filmmakers Karan Johar and Mira Nair, Dr. Indu Shahani, Sheriff of Mumbai, Suketu Mehta, author of ‘Maximum City – Bombay Lost and Found’, Hollywood screenwriter Tracey Jackson, and designer Rachel Roy.

Ambassador Prabhu Dayal and Mrs. Chandini Dayal are the chief guests. The emcee for the evening is popular television show presenter and model Nina Manuel.

Karan Johar is attending CHI Gala 'Evening in Mumbai

Enjoy a high energy performance by the vibrant Bollywood group Wanted Ashiqz, as well as the cutting-edge fashions the city is known for. Shop for jewels and clothes, and place bids for gorgeous getaways in Chor Bazaar.

Come dressed in your latest, most glamorous togs for a night out in Mumbai and bring your friends and family for this pre-Diwali celebration. All funds raised go toward the health and education of children in India. Donation: Regular $250 pp and Preferred Seating $350 pp Proceeds to benefit Children’s Hope Education & Health Programs

Children’s Hope India is a volunteer organization of Indian women professionals in New York that has been raising funds for children’s health and education since 1992. It supports over 20 projects across several major cities in India reaching out to over 20,000 children per year.

www.childrenshopeindia.org

Children's Hope India Evening in Mumbai Gala

For Indian immigrants who came to the US decades ago the most exciting encounter was – with another Indian! Their numbers were small and the circles of caring friends few. Now, as the community has grown, so have the circles. Here we are attempting to put all these countless circles into the clouds.

Now when a new migrant comes, the loneliness will be a thing of the past – for friends, community and cyber circles are just a mouse click away.

We invite you to use this piece of cyber real estate to let newcomers  know about your organization, its benefits and its work.

Email details of your organization to cybercircles@ lassiwithlavina.com
SPOTLIGHT: CRY AMERICA

Adam MacGregor with child workers who now go to school

By Adam MacGregor

My name is Adam MacGregor, and I am a volunteer and a firsthand witness of the lasting change that CRY America helps to foster among India’s neglected children.

In August, 2008 I visited a project by SPAN, (The Society for People’s Awareness), a CRY America-supported NGO working in the slum district of Kamarhati in West Bengal. I’d never seen slum life before, and was a bit unprepared for what I saw. On the way to the school building that housed SPAN’s office, our jeep passed the town dump, where dozens of people scavenged through immense mounds of dirt and refuse in the humid monsoon-season heat. The scenes of poverty were wrenching – the thought anyone had to spend a childhood under such conditions, even more so.

It was in a nearby part of this slum district in Kamarhati that I met Mohammed Naushad and Mohammed Sharashad – two young boys of school-going age who were working 9-hour days in a tea stall making approx $1 per day to support their family. At my prior job, I was often worn out after the typical 8 hours. I could only imagine what this kind of toil does to a young child.

In an effort to enroll children back into school, keep them there and ensure that they are out of the workforce, SPAN has recruited Education Volunteers from the 11^th and 12^th standards, These volunteers serve as mentors to the Mohammed brothers and other child-workers like them. The aim is to show the children at risk – as well as their parents and employers – that it is within their power to advance themselves.

Where these brothers once worked at the tea stall uninterrupted, they now attend a bridge school for a few hours per day that will enable them to advance to government schools. SPAN, the Education Volunteers, and their teacher look to the day when the brothers will be able to withdraw from the labor force totally and concentrate entirely on school.

The visit to Kamarhati was the best of surprises: where I expected despair, I instead found hope, pride, enthusiasm and an unshakable and truly humbling confidence – as in the case of the children’s group Ek-Saath (All Together).

Among other community awareness-raising activities, this 25 member-strong collective of children publishes its own magazine with the help of SPAN.  They create their own artwork and write their own articles – in both Urdu and English.  The writings stress the importance of enrolling in and finishing school, offer unflinching condemnations of child labor, and highlight the kinds of changes they’d like to see in their own community.

In the words of Zeba Yasmin, class 8: “Education is a light that shows us the path…If we are educated, we get honor in the society.”

Let’s help – All Together – to shed that light on India’s marginalized children.

Support CRY America and its vision of building a ‘just’ world for all children. And I have seen the change that has been enabled. Let us do what’s right so that all marginalized children will see a better today and tomorrow.

CRY – Child Rights and You America Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization driven by its vision of a just world in which every child has an equal opportunity to develop to his or her full potential. Since inception, in 6 years, CRY America, along with its 10,000 donors, 500 volunteers and 41 supported projects has irreversibly transformed the lives of over 245,580 children living across 1,376 villages and slums in India and the U.S.

For more information, visit www.america.cry.org

]]> http://www.lassiwithlavina.com/cybercirclesforyou/cry-america-from-chaiwalla-to-student/html/feed 0 http://www.lassiwithlavina.com/cybercirclesforyou/netip/html http://www.lassiwithlavina.com/cybercirclesforyou/netip/html#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:34:17 +0000 Lavina Melwani http://www.lassiwithlavina.com/?p=482 CYBER-CIRCLES

For Indian immigrants who came to the US decades ago the most exciting encounter was – with another Indian! Their numbers were small and the circles of caring friends few. Now, as the community has grown, so have the circles. Here we are attempting to put all these countless circles into the clouds.

Now when a new migrant comes, the loneliness will be a thing of the past – for friends, community and cyber circles are just a mouse click away.

We invite you to use this piece of cyber real estate to let newcomers  know about your organization, its benefits and its work.

Email details of your organization to cybercircles@ lassiwithlavina.com

SPOTLIGHT

THE NETWORK OF INDIAN PROFESSIONALS

NETIP members enjoy a cruise

“The biggest benefit has been meeting other South Asian professionals from all across the country via our various conferences and events. I honestly feel I could go to any city today and know a handful of people, thanks to my involvement with NetIP. To have that kind of network is invaluable in my opinion!” says Aruna Paramasivam, a management consultant in Philadelphia about her involvement with the Network of Indian Professionals, known as NetIP.

The organization has 22 chapters across the US and Canada and, according to its spokesperson, a target reach of 35,000 South Asian professionals. The median age of NetIP members is 27-28 years old, and according to a recent survey done by the group, 50 percent of the members have a graduate or professional degree and 35 percent work for Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 employers. All the members seem to have an interest in leadership development, networking and entrepreneurial workshops.

Sundip Arora, a sales engineer in Boston, is the current vice president of NetIP. “It teaches you about entrepreneurship – through the management of large teams, defining comprehensive strategies, managing large budgets, making one accountable and last but not the least, developing a healthy respect for one another,” he says.

For those on the fast track, there are lectures, seminars and workshops with experts as well as social events for chilling out and making friends. Pooja Dhawan, who is a wholesaler of young contemporary women’s wear in New Jersey, says: “Interacting with South Asians from so many cities, back grounds, and so many diverse professional fields just serves to enhance my network and knowledge.”

Interestingly almost 50 percent of the members of NetIP were born in North America and another 25 percent, though born in India, grew up in the US. There are common experiences and common goals which seem to forge a community of friends. As Sriram Narasimhan, an account manager with GE in Phoenix, AZ, points out, “The biggest benefit has been a sense of belonging and identity within the South Asian/Indian community, both in Phoenix and nationally.”

As Arora points out, “ NetIP has given me a platform to network with probably the brightest and most dedicated young South Asian Professionals in the country who share passion for leadership and the betterment of the South Asian Diaspora in our adopted country.

For more information: www.netip.org

NetIP North America has a new blog:  www.netip.org/blog

Contact: info@netip.org

For marketing or public relations: anita@netip.org

Pooja Dhawan – Public Relations Chair

• Email: pooja@netip.org