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Upcoming: Multispeciality Health Camp

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

This Sunday, August 23rd, we will be conducting a health camp in the MGR Nagar slum.  There has been a great demand in the community for health assistance and we are looking forward for a chance to provide it to them.  It will also give us a chance to work with the community more intimately, provide them with professional assistance and learn more about their needs.

We will have doctors from the following fields on Sunday’s camp: General Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Dermatology and Gynecology.  Thanks to all our doctors and postgraduate students for volunteering the little spare time they have for this project – we are indebted to you for your commitment to our cause.

We’re in great need of volunteers to help us out on Sunday’s camp. Please let us know if you can come by calling or messaging us at +91 9789901650 or sending us an email.  It promises to be a fun and exciting way to give back to your community!

The camp will begin at 10AM and go till 1AM. The venue is the same as our previous medical camps, located in the laundry facility on the same street as the MGR Nagar slum.  Please contact us if you need directions.

Go to event on facebook

Posted by The Sangam India Team in medical, updates | 4 Comments »

Updates at Sangam India

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

A few updates to share today about work that has been going on recently:

  • Roofing project: this project has gotten to a start, we are excited to say.  Over the last week, members of Sangam India have been going to the MGR Nagar slum with a team of engineers to plan out a roofing projects. Two visits were made and on the second visit, the engineers began taking measurements that will be needed in order to come up with a plan.  Hopefully we’ll have more info about this in a future post.
  • Educational Programme: The Educational Team came out today with a group of volunteers and spent some time with the children in an Independence Day-themed day mean to inspire civic values and national pride.  More on this in an upcoming post, with pictures as well!
  • Health Camp: The health camp has been scheduled for this upcoming weekend. More information will be made here as it is available.

Posted by The Sangam India Team in education, Healthcare, updates | No Comments »

Updates: Week of June 21st, 2009

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

A couple of updates to share:

  • Skits: Skit translation has officially started. We are working on translating the skits into colloquial Tamil. This immense task is being done by Ms. Krithika Rajaraman of Birmingham, Alabama and assisted by Mr. Ram Ramgopal from Boston Massachusetts.
  • Data Entry: A team of volunteers from the United States helped us immensely by compiling the data from our June 16th visit into an easy to use, digital format. This data will be wonderful for our follow up work with the residents of the Ramavaram community. Thanks to Aparna Bhaskara and her team: Suchitra Pakala, Krishnakanth Chiravuri, Srikanth Chiravuri, Sai Santosh, Kamalesh Donthula and Sujan Pakala for their efforts.
  • Educational Aid: Sangam India members Apoorvaa and Malar are making good headway in providing aid to allow Amudha and Meena to continue their studies. More information on this as it becomes available.
  • Registration Forms: We now have new registration forms, as we start to collect data about our members and the skills they have to offer our team. This is a step we are making towards becoming a non-profit organization. Registration forms will be made available online as well. More about this in a later post.

Posted by sriram in skits, updates | No Comments »

Fire at Ramavaram

Monday, June 15th, 2009

As I posted earlier today, there was a major fire today in the Ramavaram slum, rendering the entire population of Ramavaram homeless.

It has been a difficult day for the residents of Ramavaram and one that might change their lives forever. We began hearing reports early in the morning and Nivedita, one of our Chairpeople, was able to see the damage directly.

The damage that was sustained at Ramavaram was considerable. People believe that the damage was due to an electrical short-circuit that occurred at about 1:30 in the morning. The fire quickly spread, from one thatch house, to the next, demolishing the houses and the possessions of everyone. People were fortunate to escape with their lives. One resident suffered minor burns, and was in the hospital receiving treatment. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

There is simply no way to describe the awe and tragedy that these people suffered with words. The following photographs may do a better job of conveying what exactly happened here:

Its hard to imagine having nothing at all except the clothes on your back, but that was the reality faced by these people today. They had little to begin with, but now they simply have nothing.

The State Government quickly went into action to provide each house with each of the following, per househould: a veshti, a sari, Rs 2000 in cash, 5 kilograms of rice, and a coupon for some kerosene. They also have promised to give food to the residents for three days, including today. They gave a temporary shelter for the residents to stay in, but most of the residents are opting instead to sleep where there houses used to be, or along the sides of the road. The government has promised to permanently relocate the people of Ramavaram after a few days.

After getting to know of the situation, we tried to get in gear immediately to help these people. We asked them and they said the things they needed immediately were sheets to sleep on, clothes, food, plates and other silverware to eat with, and vessels for carrying water. Today we bought 110 bedsheets and packets of Marie Gold biscuits. We also have arranged to get people vessels to carry water in. We are going again to Ramavaram tomorrow to deliver these items as well as some other amenities such as soap

We had a meeting today at 7, after most of us were back, to discuss what happened and to develop a plan of action for the future. More details about this meeting will be coming up in a later post.

Thanks for everyone’s support and aid in this matter. It has been a trying day for the people at Ramavaram and the next few days will be difficult as well. We stand together in solidarity with our friends and we are going to do what we can to help them in this immense time of need. We will be needing assistance with funds and volunteering and we hope people will be able to help. Please contact us if you are interested.

Click here to see the rest of the photos from the fire damage.

Posted by sriram in updates, visits | 2 Comments »

Fire at Ramavaram, Emergency Meeting Scheduled

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Earlier today we have recieved several reports about a fire in our Ramavaram slum. Several of our members have seen the damage firsthand and they report that all of the houses have been destroyed and that the people have lost all of their belongings. No reports of any casualties or injuries as of yet. According to reports, there was an electrical fire in the area at about 2AM this morning.

Details will be forthcoming as we find out more.

A group is going at 4PM today to investigate the damage. An emergency meeting has also been scheduled at 7PM tonight to develop a Plan of Action. We’ll update this blog when we have more information and in ways that people can help.

Posted by sriram in updates | No Comments »

Update at Sangam India

Monday, May 11th, 2009

These are a few of the things that have been going on over the last week:

  • Exciting new plans for a website are in the works. The website will be designed by Tina Ye and the content will be written by our board members as well as by several guests who’ve generously contributed their time and expertise. We’re all looking forward to this site and we’d love your input on what you think should be included in it.
  • We are working hard to achieving Non-Profit Organization (NPO) status in the United States. We have written our mission statement, as you can see in a previous post.
  • We are continuing planning of our Educational Programme and Vasundhra is doing research on Vocational training programmes that we can implement when we get started again in June.

Posted by sriram in updates | No Comments »

Facebook Message and Call for Help

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

This message was sent to all of our facebook members today:

Hello Sangam India Members!

I hope this message finds you well. Thank you so much for joining our group and extending your support for our mission.
Sangam India is undergoing a lot of exciting changes this month.

1. We are developing a new, updated website with exciting features and brand new content. For this, we need people who have creative ideas, writing ability, or experience with other non-profit organizations.

2. We are also working on getting non-profit status, registering in the United States. For this, we need people who have some knowledge of legal procedures, experience with other non-profits, or is ready to learn something new!

3. We have recently started a new Educational Programme focusing on positive thinking and values-based education, and we are working on curriculum and material development. For this, we need people who are creative, like games, and may have experience working with children, especially underprivileged children – in any country.

We would like everyone to get involved with these activities, since it is a chance for everyone who is not in Chennai to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty!

If you are interested in helping us with any of these activities, please contact us on Facebook, or you can email me at nivedita.gunturi@sangamindia.org, or Sriram Ramgopal at sriram.ramgopal@sangamindia.org. We look forward to hearing from you, and we’d love all the help we can get!

As always, we encourage you to join the mailing list for our monthly newsletter at http://list.sangamindia.org, and keep an eye on the blog at http://blog.sangamindia.org, since it is frequently updated and you can stay tuned to everything that is happening!

Thanks!

Nivedita Gunturi

Join our Facebook Group

Posted by nivedita in aid, facebook, updates | 2 Comments »

Updates: April 14th, 2009

Monday, April 13th, 2009

  1. Today’s board meeting has been postponed to tomorrow at 12PM, due to the holiday today. There we will discuss this Saturday’s educational programme. We invite everyone to come if they have any ideas to share. Please let us know if you plan on coming.
  2. We need help with the following. If you are interested, please let us know:
    • Data entry: we are working on compiling our data that we collected from our surveys so that we can enter it into statistical software and then analyze it. We need volunteers to help tabulate the data collected into excel.
    • Our legal team is working on getting NGO status. If you can help them in this regard, it would be highly appreciated.
    • If you can help us research about local vocational training programmes, it can help us get this part of our project moving forward.

Thanks a lot to everyone for their help!

Posted by sriram in updates | No Comments »

Recent Developments

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

We’ve been at work at a couple of things over the last few days:

  1. The educational programme that was kicked off yesterday was a big success. We see a lot of potential for it going forwards. We need help to run the sessions and to plan the sessions. If you are interested in doing either, please let us know. If you can volunteer for one weekend a month, that would really go a long way to making this programme a success and a positive force in these children’s lives. If you have any ideas on activities we could do, please let us know as well – we’d be grateful for your help.
  2. Medical care: this has been another ongoing issue this week. A few months ago, Nagajyothi, a resident of the community, came to our attention for having a dangerous form of a middle ear infection. She required surgery, but due to the ensuing monsoon season, this never happened. We finally are making progress towards getting her that surgery; hopefully in the next two to three weeks. In addition, we are now trying to assist another young lady with post-pregnancy complications. As Nivedita pointed out, there seems to be an epidemic of conjunctivitis in the community and we are going to try and get some doctors out this week to help them.
  3. The board meeting: is scheduled for this Tuesday at 4:15. All are invited as usual.

Posted by sriram in updates | No Comments »

New Plans for the Monsoon

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

The North East monsoon is coming through Chennai, bringing heavy rains to the city. This has an adverse effect on underprivileged populations such as the one in Ramavaram. Because Ramavaram is situated on the river-bed of the (normally trickling) Adyar river, it is more susceptible than other areas to the effects of flooding. The water leads to flooding and spoilage of improperly stored food. In addition, it also has indirect effects with equally profound implications. The working force in the slum depends on the day’s income to feed their families. When the rains come, it becomes impossible for them to find work, as many of them find work outdoors, or on the streets. This leads to the disastrous effects of malnutrition for entire communities.

Following today’s visit (more on this later) we have decided on taking a step to prevent the food shortages in Ramavaram. We held a small meeting today to consider the present needs of the residents and how to best help them. We determined that the best way to help would be to give out food to each family in the slum. This would go a help to mitigate the acute effects of the rains by giving them some food security. Pamela and Vasundhra have taken on the responsibility for this immense task. Currently we are planning to give 2 kilograms of uncooked rice, as well as half a kilogram of toor dhal (pigeon peas) to each household. This would provide some much needed calories and protein to the families. As we go to each house, we will also seek out any cases of diarrhea and fever. Diarrhea can be treated with oral rehydration solution. Cases of fever, which may be due to malaria, need to be immediately referred to a hospital. The incidences of acute diarrhea and malaria both increase sharply during the rainy seasons.

In addition, we have taken another decision to serve cooked curd rice to the families during the Diwali holidays. This will provide us with another chance to provide the residence with a nutritious meal. As stated previously, we are going to be giving clothes away to the residents as well. This will also help some of the acute problems they are facing.

Though food relief may not be considered as a sustainable solution to the problems we see at Ramavaram, its critical that we help our friends in this time of need! We plan to purchase the supplies tomorrow and deliver it Tuesday, as fast as we possibly can. Please contact us if you would able to volunteer or sponsor these projects. We’ll be needing a lot of help!

Photo Credit: The Hindu

Posted by sriram in administrative, meetings, updates | No Comments »

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