Urmila Home Managers

SAATH’s home managers programme; Urmila, on 18^TH May felicitated their women work force with a kit which would help them in their future endeavours comprising of all the essentials.

Urmila, started in 2004, trains women who are unemployed and belong to the weaker section of the society, the well-being to be maintained in the house and then places them accordingly after thorough On-the-Job training. Such a set up guarantees their share of earning and social comfort. Hence granting them financial independence as well as restoring dignity in their lives.

The felicitation program started at around 11:00 in the morning where first the women were tested upon their skills that they were trained in such as ironing the clothes, bed arranging etc. Once tested, the Essential’s Kit was distributed among the women which consisted of water bottle, Lunch Box, grooming kit, Telephone Diary and a handy pen. The women were also equipped with Aprons and gloves to maintain hygiene while working and a watch was given to each member to keep a track of time and help them reach on-time to their specified houses. Along with all these necessities they were also given a utility bag which would come in handy daily to them.

A health check for these ladies set in collaboration with Civil Hospital next week where necessary tests like Blood test and cardio check has been duly arranged.

To see the pictures of the ceremony you can visit our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/saathahmedabad.

GANDHI FELLOWS’ VISIT

With a motive of ‘freedom from a conditioned existence’ known as Kaivalya in Indian spiritual thought, arrived 8 highly motivated their young leaders of the Gandhi fellowship programme in SAATH to understand our core value system and operational well being on field. A three day’s visit to our programme centres as well as an interactive session with our project co-ordinators and the group members was organised duly.

On the first day, after a brief orientation on our organisation and the programmes they had the chance to interact with our Executive Director, Keren Nazareth who then unfolded the story behind Saath and how we have evolved as an organisation. The underlining fact which was the highlight of the interactive session was why there is an immediate need to cater to the needs of the ‘urban’ poor and underprivileged. With the interactive session coming to a conclusion we then lead the group to the URC i.e. Urban Resource Centre at Vasna for a field interface. Here they had the opportunity to meet and know the stories of the women involved with Saath and how URC as an aid has helped them empower their social as well economic well being. Later in the evening we headed to the URC centre at Juhapura, where they had a lively and healthy communication with Zuber Bhai, our programme co-ordinator who narrated stories on how he got involved with Saath and motivated his community to think rationally and talk and discuss about progress and women development in particular.

Day Two was one of the most interesting field visits. The whole day was scheduled to be spent at the UMEED centre at Behrampura where young talented youth who due to social and economic constraints were not able to pursue their education ahead and are not eligible for employment, are trained in Computers, Elementary English and are given professional training in various courses. The youth leaders from Gandhi fellowship shared their experience of motivation and inspiration with the students of the Umeed programme and in response; the students too shared their life stories and cleared their doubts regarding finding inner inspiration and motivation. An interactive session was then set up with the faculty and management at the centre and questions regarding the functions, operations and discrepancies faces were all well answered. In the evening then a vigorous session took place where the Youth Force a newly introduced programme posed their queries against the Gandhi fellows regarding group formation, involvement and structure was all discussed in great detail with rising levels of zeal and drive.

The last day was a day dedicated to introspection and feedback. A meeting again with the executive director was arranged where in healthy feedbacks were exchanged and our guests shared their experiences with Saath.

To see the pictures of this journey you can visit our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/saathahmedabad

Give for Youth

Over the past 24 years Saath has been working with youth from vulnerable and poor slum households through different programs through sports, employability, and livelihoods. In order to help youth grow and achieve what they aspire towards, to help understand their dreams better, we are beginning a process of setting up youth groups in slum communities across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Through the Give India Challenge we are hoping to raise a part of the funds that will help initiate this life changing process for hopefully thousands of youth from at least 3 States in India and then scale up across the country. To build a youth movement that will help young people from vulnerable, oppressed, economically weaker communities achieve their dreams.

If you want to support this movement, visit http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-youthgroup

It gives us immense pleasure to share that Saath is participating in Give India’s “India Giving Challenge 2012″ which is an online fundraising event. We would like to take this opportunity to request you all to support our cause by donating to our cause.

The minimum donation is Rs.100. Please visit our IGive page for more information. The event is open till 18th Oct. If you would like to make a donation via Cheque, please make it out to Saath Charitable Trust.

All donations made by Indian citizens are eligible for 50% (80G) and 100% (35AC) tax exemption.

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year to all our supporters! A lot is happening at Saath and we are eager to share this with you through our newsletter.

You can find our newsletter by clicking here: Newsletter December 2011.

Wishing you all the best for the year 2012,

The Saath Family

Origami@Saath

When we visited India our friend asked us if we wanted to visit Saath. We already heard about the good work and projects of Saath so off course we wanted to visit the office.

First we went to a school (non-formal education) in a slum area in Vasna. This school is a place where child-labourers get a chance to get prepared for regular education. Our friend, who’s a researcher at Saath’s RDC, had the idea to make origami flowers….an Indian Lotus and a Dutch Tulip flower! After some practice we were ready to learn the kids how to make it! When we arrived all the kids sat nicely together listening to what the teacher was telling. When we showed them the origami paper everybody got excited. Demian turned out to be the best Tulip origami person. All the boys gathered around him. All the girls went to Simea and Jennecke to make lotusflowers. All the kids did a great job, some already knew how to fold flowers! The boys knew how to make airplanes…so many airplanes flew through the classroom

It was great fun, and we laughed a lot! At the end everybody received a nice sticker. We left some more so when somebody has a good result he or she receives a sticker! Saath really created the opportunity for these kids to go to school and it was fantastic to be a little part of that!

We continued our journey to the URC office of Saath in Vasna where we met the coordinator and three field-officers.They explained us about the projects and showed us drawings of a new project for affordable housing.

It was a great experience an we truly believe that Saath really makes a difference for a lot of people!

Thanks a lot for your hospitality!

Warm regards,

Demian and Jennecke