Sharddha Charitable Foundation

Supporting children with Special needs through Society for Education and Action

scfadmin — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 09:47:40 +0000

During the second wave of COVID-19, Vibha extended support to one of its on ground partners in Tamil Nadu (whom it has been supporting since 2005)- SEA (Society forEducation and Action).

When the crisis hit hard, the people with special needs started losing their jobs. Hence, SEA started an initiative to support these people so that they do not go to sleep on empty stomach. SEA reached out to different villages in the Thirukazhukundram Block of Chengalpet District to provide the people with special needs with the basic requirements of their daily life after the advent of the second wave. Vibha funded SEA in their initiative.

“We firstly thank Team-Vibha for their generous support to help the differently-abled persons/ Children and their families” –
Desingu Subramani

SEA staff providing survival kit to a community member

Vibha supported SEA in providing basic survival kits to 488 families of children with special needs in 79 Villages in the Thirukazhukundram Block. The survival kits included dry ration such as rice, dal and other dry groceries.

SEA mainly works towards educating and empowering fisherman community children. In the past, Vibha has provided SEA with financial as well as strategic support so that outreach of SEA is extended to more youths of underrepresented communities of Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu.

More pictures can be viewed by clicking here

On-ground Update from Eklavya

scfadmin — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:39:38 +0000

While India is in the grip of the second wave of COVID-19, there are many families in remote areas of India who are not able to get medical assistance.

The lockdown added more to this problem where even if people want to, they are not able to travel to medical centers and avail medical support. One of our on-ground partners in Madhya Pradesh pitched in to leverage this situation and has been successful in bringing medical assistance to doorsteps for the families who cannot visit doctors during the current health crisis in a couple of districts of Madhya Pradesh. Along with closely working with the local health care system in Shahpur, Butur and Hoshangabad districts of Madhya Pradesh, Eklavya has recently started an online consultancy service for the local community members in remote villages. This facility of online consultation serves as a ray of hope in villages where there is a very little access to health care facilities. Some experienced and expert doctors from the cities give their energy and time for this online consultancy through Zoom Calls. Recently, two gynecologists also joined the panel of doctors for online consultations.

Online consultation with a doctor in Chikhalda village at Shahpur district

This is an outcome of combined efforts of many people to provide support to the community members. While Vibha has been supporting Eklavya to provide medicines to the needy families, a team of technology experts based in Delhi is helping with the technology part of this initiative. More than 100 patients have been treated in the last 8 days.

The Eklavya field staff is working round the clock to spread awareness about this initiative, by talking to patients, taking notes about sickness history, training the village people in using zoom, sharing prescriptions and instructions in Hindi and/or local language and lastly following up with these patients on a regular basis.

After seeing continuous efforts by the Eklavya team to support medical centers in combating the pandemic, the local store owners and officials, including police officers have also started supporting Eklavya. Moved by this health initiative (supported by Vibha), a local medical store owner in Shahpur, has come forward to donate some generic medicines and also to give all other medicines prescribed by Eklavya’s doctors at reduced prices.

The partnership of Vibha and Eklavya is limited to the health crisis response, Vibha partnered with Eklavya in 2016 to support their program in the education sector. As an organization, Eklavya is deeply embedded in concepts, notions, thoughts, and actions, all geared towards a better education for children. Their focus has not been only on academic development but has also emphasized the need for the holistic development of children.

Eklavya volunteers collecting medicines for patients at Shahpur

Converting office into a COVID Center: Swanirvar

scfadmin — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 07:31:28 +0000

After raising awareness about COVID-19 in the different villages of Baduria and Sunderban, Swanirvar has also collaborated with the government to provide support to migrant workers for their COVID tests to ensure proper medical support wherever needed.

After the COVID tests when the number of COVID-19 patients increased, Swanirvar started working towards creating more infrastructure for COVID-19 patients so that the latter get proper medical care on time to fight against this health crisis. Gradually, the patients with mild symptoms started getting severe due to the limited medical access to the local areas. While the capacity of the nearest government hospital was already exhausted as they only had 10 beds, Swanirvar collaborated with the local government bodies to create a COVID center to support the patients with mild symptoms. The Swanirvar campus at Baduria was then soon turned into a 50 bedded COVID center on 24 May 2021. Hence, Swanirvar started a mini-hospital cum safe home in collaboration with N 24 Parganas District Health and Family Welfare Department now. The local Block Development Officers, police officials, health officials, and local MLA inaugurated this COVID center.

At present, this COVID center is a child-friendly home, with basic care and protection for the COVID-positive children and juveniles who have lost parents in COVID or their parents are in need of medical care. This center also accommodates patients of Sunderbans and Baduria districts who are either asymptomatic or have a mild infection and need care as well as basic medical support. Swanirvar team is now providing a dedicated oxygen parlor for patients with mild breathing problems due to the COVID.

In this initiative of Swanivar, Vibha is providing non-medical supplies and medical equipment for the COVID center. Swanirvar is Vibha’s one of the on-ground partners of West Bengal who have worked towards strengthening the school ecosystem through teacher training in Baduria.

The Dream Voice -Virtual fundraiser organized by VIBHA

scfadmin — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 07:02:30 +0000

The online singing contest received an overwhelming response and immense love from across the globe. There were close to 300 entries that came in from ten countries making this a truly global contest. The entries were divided into three categories: Little Champs (age 3 to 13 years), Junior Champs (13-20 years), and Super Champs (age 20 and above). There was also an Indian and a Western category. The judges consisted of the extremely talented and accomplished – Rekha Pallath, Sid Philar, Anudeep Dev, Saraswathi Chaitanya and Ram Durvasula.

There was a preliminary and a final round. The contestants who advanced to the final round had a very engaging and informative mentoring session by Sa Re Ga Ma finalist Nihira Joshi Deshpande and composer, vocalist, and educator Rohith Jayaraman.

On Sunday, June the 13th of 2021, was the climax, The Grand Finale of “THE DREAM VOICE”, where the winners were announced. The event had the flavor of a finale in every sense. Dr. Ruchi Iyengar took us on an entertaining journey which was shown LIVE on the Vibha Facebook page. The channel had about 3000 views. Winners were announced in 3 groups – US, India and International for each of the Little champ, Teen champ and Super champ categories and also for the Indian and Western categories. People poured their love and votes for their near and dear ones for the Public Choice awards which was a separate category. There was some mesmerizing, spellbinding phenomenal singing by the contestants, and some heartwarming stories of the difference Vibha is making on the ground. Kartik Raman, Hema Nayak and Bhavya Pandit who are extremely well-known singers entertained during the finale making it a truly memorable event.

An amazing experience

scfadmin — Sat, 29 May 2021 08:12:08 +0000

There was excitement to hand deliver the life saving goods, there was anxiety to ensure things went well.

This photo/video shoot was a memorable one for multiple reasons.

We started our day with everyone arriving at EmberLights warehouse and having breakfast. When NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) realized this was not the routine business of our Vibha volunteer Jeeshant, but being used for CoVid19 relief work, they were very happy. The whole warehouse was filled with Oxygen Concentrators. They opened the 2 different types and understood what each one does.

After loading our vehicles we left for the hospitals. The National Disaster Relief Force team were keen to hand over patients but were very understanding when the doctor advised to not expose patients to outside pathogens.

By 2 pm, we had finished 2 hospitals and only 1 location was pending. Since it was lunch time, we decided to take a break. Due to CoVid19 restrictions, no hotels were open. So we decided to invite the whole team to Keyur Shah’s (one of Vibha’s board. members) house near the last location. We requested a local food vendor to prepare meals, supporting small businesses.

The lunch hour gave such amazing insights into the team. NDRF head, Yadavji confessed that his prejudice about people of Mumbai being self centered seemed incorrect. There are youngsters who really care about giving back to the society, whom he met today.

Our last destination was Shree Manav Seva Sangh. The name tells it all. This 95 year old institution takes care of 130 orphan girls and 75 senior citizens and also provides medical facilities covering 70 specialists to the underprivileged population.

Such was the trustee board that NDRF head Yadavji prayed that such good work never gets blemished and compared it to the Diya that keeps humanity and Indian culture alive amidst the storm of selfishness. His perception of Mumbaikars and NGOs changed.

And my perception of how everyone spoke in the wheel of goodness became more firm. After all, keeping humanity alive needs discipline like NDRF, grassroot organization like Shree Manav Seva Sangh, binding agents like Vibha and backbone support like Vikas Khanna.