“Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart”

I would like to thank Samiksha Foundation for giving me opportunity to fit in someone’s heart. Yes, a worthy weekend spent at an oncology ward with children fighting cancer.  I’m really proud of Samiksha Foundation for their initiative of taking care of the children’s education while they are under treatment.

We with our volunteers have been visiting Samiksha at the oncology ward for the past few months. We spend time in teaching the little brains. They are really wonderful kids. Teaching from A, B, C for a 3 year old child to maths, science etc up to high school children is all a good time for us. The kids are all so active and eager to learn. Few kids are teaching us small tricky puzzles and few are upcoming magicians who are teaching us small magicsJ. We do spend time playing after our serious studies and most of the time we lose and the children win. The kids love and enjoy seeing such elderly people losing to them. Within couple of weeks the children have become our friends. They do recognize us by our names and we do the same. And, in fact some of my little friends there call me on my mobile and ask me when we are going to see them again. They are happy to be with us. The first time I went there and met them I was really upset thinking, life is so very unfair for the kids. But, soon I realized the reason for me being there and told myself we should make those children smile while we are there.

“Are we seriously teaching them?” I do ask this question to myself several times. The only answer I get is yes we do teach them written knowledge, but we learn about hope and how to smile in tough situations. It feels so very nice when a child grabs my hand with love as soon as I get in to the hospital. I’m thankful to theinnocent and unconditional love from the little hearts.

When I don’t see a child with whom I was interacting earlier, I miss them. But, that’s a real fact, Cancer is a difficult disease. Hoping and praying to see each child be cured soon and go back to their regular lives.

I read the lines below somewhere:

Last Saturday we also had a birthday party  for our January born children. Our Magician Satish Kumar continues to enthrall the kids with his magic tricks. Cheers to all of you who volunteer with such passion and dedication. Cheers to all the kids who continue to smile and show us the importance of small things that can bring us such happiness in our lives.

To see a part of it, visit our picasa gallery:  https://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/December5201102

Cheers!

Monday Afternoons: Students from Mallya Aditi International School will continue their educational workshops under the supervision of Ms.Jhanvi Mohan

Tuesdays-  morning regular classes and tutoring at the ward

Tuesdays- afternoons: Music and singing classes by Nalina and others

Thursdays- morning regular classes with tutoring at the ward

Thursdays- afternoons: Storytelling by Ambika and other creative activities. (This week we have a Drawing and Painting competition for our kids on 17th nov. by  a Lioness club of Bangalore)

Saturdays- mornings regular classes with tutoring at the ward

Saturday afternoons- Yoga pranayama and other creative activity at the ward- This week will be Sculpture or Pottery classes by Yash.

We hope you will be part of our mission. Do support us in any way possible.

Cheers!

We organised a birthday party for 8 kids in the oncology ward. Our storytellers Anushri and Ambika started off with a beautiful Japanese Farmer story.The children listened enrapt to the story which had a different setting. They had a lot to imagine. Then they were encouraged to make little japanese hats with paper and straw. A simple thing that made them smile putting it on their bald heads.They wanted us to take fotos of them with these new hats. Then Lioness club of Bangalore West sponsored the event by bringing in some guests and distributed fruits to the children. Mrs. Bhatnagar donated handmade mobile pouches to all the children in the ward. Our special guest was – Member Secretary of a Laughter Club of Bangalore. She presented some interesting insights into laughter and its importance. With her skill and communication abilities she drew the kids out into peals of laughter and taught them some laughter exercises.

At the end of this short program, the volunteers at Samiksha, the guests from the women’s groups and children at the ward were seen smiling ear to ear. We realised the immense possibilities of laughter as an exercise!

We captured some of it on video.To see this and the pictures please go to:

https://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/October292011StorytellingAndLaughter#5669335308163960402

https://picasaweb.google.com/happinessquotient/October292011StorytellingAndLaughter

Cheers to all our October birthday kids!

I have witnessed the impact of the Samiksha Foundation on the lives of children with cancer as well as their families.  On the first day that I arrived, I immediately noticed from what was written on the chalkboard that there is a definite structure to the children’s day.  They begin the day by doing lessons in math, reading, or any other subject with the volunteers present.  After lunch, the children spend their afternoons playing games, drawing, or just talking to us. By the second day, I met Dr. Manjari, who explained the other activities that the children partake in, such as prayers, yoga, and storytelling.  I also met Ambika, the storyteller who has worked with the foundation for the past two years.  Although I don’t understand kannada, the way she narrates her stories to the children is impressive and never left a question in my mind as to what it was about.

On a more personal note, the children that I have met at Kidwai are tremendously sweet, funny, and a pleasure to spend time with.  In the beginning, I was a little worried that they wouldn’t feel comfortable with me, especially because I cannot speak Kannada.  However, by the second day of volunteering, the children eagerly waved and smiled at me and would grab my hand to show me their newest drawing or book that they wanted to read. What’s more, I realized that my rudimentary Kannada became a source of entertainment for the kids, and they were the ones who were teaching me to say things correctly while simultaneously trying to stifle their laughter at my pronunciations.

While spending time with these children, it is easy to forget that they are suffering from a chronic illness that they must deal with on a daily basis.  I spent one morning teaching the English alphabet to a young boy and his eagerness and determination to correctly learn the alphabet by heart was amazing.  He would write out each letter from ‘A’ all the way to ‘Z’ many times over in order to achieve perfection. There are endless such incidents that I could describe ,because the children have not lost their appetite for learning despite having to take time away from school to undergo chemotherapy.

My time with the Foundation is something that I will remember always because not only are the children inspiring, but the two teachers, Ms. Parvathy and Ms. Vidyavathy, who spend time with the children every single day from morning to afternoon, are so inspiring. Their good-heartedness and constant encouragement to the children is something that is very special to see, and I would like to thank them for allowing me to volunteer alongside them.

I am very impressed by the Samiksha Foundation, and the enthusiasm and graciousness of Manjari Bhatnagar, Meera Srivatsan, and Sandhya Sharad who run the organization and play an active role in making sure that the foundation lives up to its expectations by consistently arranging programs for the children and spending time with them as well.

Sagarika Satyavada

NYU student. Summer Volunteer at Samiksha Foundation. Posted with Sagarika’s permission

I am Aparajita Kayal from Kolkata. I have finished my post graduation in Mass Communication from Jain University. As a part of our course we were guided to do an internship for two months, where I joined “Samiksha Foundation” on 19^th July.

I got to know about this foundation through a friend. It was a totally a new experience for me. I was really nervous because I did’nt know  how to help an NGO. I was assisting two teachers, Parvathi ma’am and Vidyavathi ma’am with subjects like Math’s, English & Drawing for children taking cancer treatment at the hospital.

 Though they are suffering from cancer the children are full of enthusiasm and patience for learning.  I thought that local language would be a problem for me, but as the days passed by, I got friendly with them and I realized that language is not an issue. All you need is a smile on your face and the friendly nature. In the 5years that I lived in Bangalore, I have never learnt Kannada but believe me in these two months, they made me understand it and now at least I can understand what they want from me. Those kids are really wonderful. Many times I saw them crying out loud in pain. Even then they maintained a proper routine to come and sit with the books. The purpose was to make them study because they are missing their schools for treatment.

The foundation organizes birthday celebration for the children every two to three months. It’s very exciting and they enjoy it the most. Story telling sessions are very important for children after study period which refresh their mind and also it brings a sense of morality in them. And also I have noticed how silently they sit and listen to stories.

These two months internship was a very touching experience for me. I wish all of them get well soon. I really want to thank Sandhya ma’am for allowing me to help these children. I had good memories with them and I will miss them. I had good experience in teaching them, making them learn new things. I enjoyed working under Samiksha Foundation and also I am very thankful to Parvathi ma’am and Vidyavathi ma’am.

The volunteers came well in advance to decorate the venue to create a birthday ambience. The event started with an invocation to a higher power. This was followed by a rendition of inspirational songs. The kids, volunteers from Samiksha Foundation and care givers all joined in and created a positive atmosphere. Anil KB, Delivery Manager, addressed the kids and exhorted them to surmount their current challenges and try to succeed in whatever they want to do.  Volunteers organised  fun games which the  kids enjoyed, and went on to showcase their talents like singing, recitation etc. This was followed by a magic show which had the kids watching in rapt attention. A Quiz followed which had the kids exercising their grey cells. Volunteers then celebrated the birthdays of all the July born kids.
The event wrapped up with the team distributing gifts and goodies to all the kids in the various wards.

All the volunteers thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were happy to have shared joyful moments with the kids. Here is what they have to say…
“It was amazing to see that small acts of kindness can go a long way in putting smiles on the faces of little ones.”
“The kids were so excited about the whole event and they were all very enthusiastic to participate in all the events.”
“Kids at hospital were just like any normal children, fighting (literally) to choose the color of the birthday caps and other gifts:).”
“I enjoyed the naughty comments from the kids especially when asked Shivaji what he wants to become – he said Nityananda .”
“I am thankful that we got an opportunity to be part of such an event and it was priceless to see the kids all happy, laughing and smiling:).”

The group signed off the day by presenting a cheque to the Foundation towards professional story telling sessions for 6 months.

==========================================================================

Samiksha Foundation Team expresses its heartfelt Thanks to all those who participated, especially in person to make this event happen. The effort that the Retail Reach Team has put into this is appreciable. The children at Samiksha too offer their wholehearted smiles and gratitude. We hope that we will be able to work together again in the future!

Together we can make a difference!

On this day, a group of volunteers joined us at the ward and lined up as many kids we could find in all the paediatric wards at Kidwai Hospital. Each child was presented with a small ball with their names on it. Manu set up a basketball hoop in the play area and we got the children to shoot a few hoops.  The volunteers – Shobana, Thishya, Thrishna, Sabareesh, Aparajita, Basavadatta, and all of us regulars ended up playing ball with the children outside the ward.

Imagine  a hundred children with one colourful ball each. It was a sight to see the smiling faces and great to hear all the laughter ringing around the ward. Nurses and Social Workers joined us in the play and we all had a great happy morning! On that bright beautiful morning, a lot of dreams were realized.

Thanks to all who made this event so much fun!