deepam quarterly newsletter_q1_2013

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1 | P a g e w w w . d e e p a m . i n

Deepam Quarterly Newsletter

(Jan-Mar13)


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Contents

Quarterly update (Jan-Mar13) ..................................................................................................................... 3

Events ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

Deepam V Annual Day .............................................................................................................................. 4

WM Centers Zoo Visit .............................................................................................................................. 9

Sports Day @ Olcott ................................................................................................................................ 11

New volunteer Induction program ............................................................................................................. 12

Kodambakkam center Inaugurated ............................................................................................................ 13

Featured Volunteer of the Month .............................................................................................................. 14

Outstanding Volunteer of the Year 2012 .................................................................................................... 16

For any queries or clarifications, please reach out [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Quarterly update (Jan-Mar1

3)By JanaviShyam

Welcome 2013Deepam embraced the first quarter of 2013 with typical events and new

initiatives.Deepams 5th

annual day was celebrated with much enthusiasm All the five centers showcased

the best of their talents amidst great fanfare. Deepam thanked Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar who

accommodated us in their school auditorium. Our chief guest, Mr.Sarath Babu, a well known person in

the entrepreneurial circles, gave an inspiring speech to our kids and made us feel proud of our

achievements in the past year.

The quarter also saw our Olcott center holding Deepams first-ever sports day. The event was well

received by our kids and Deepam will expand this to all its centers in the coming year. Deepam t

commends Olcott center head and its volunteers for coming up with this initiative.

WM centers visit to Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur was the other significant event in the last

three months. The visit was inline with Deepams philosophy of exposing our kids to the outer environs

of the city. Kids had complete fun getting to know more about animals and birds that they had seen

earlier only in books and on TV.

Another significant event in the quarter was starting of a new center in Kodambakkam @

Vizuthamangalam Rajeswari Primary School. The center has over 30 kids. An enthusiastic team from IBM

is a key part of our set of volunteers that keep the show going. Prasanna Krishnamoorthy was

nominated to be the center head ably supported by his set of volunteers.

The quarter also witnessed the closing of our Kakkan Colony (KC) center in Besant Nagar. The center was

being run at a community hall and with Deepamsstrategic decision to be present in government schools

necessitated this tough move

The next quarter, usually vacation time for kids, is a quiet one, but for Team Deepam it is filled with

plenty of background work for the new academic year including framing of a common curriculum,

beginning of yet another Center and a slew of interesting events for our kids.


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Events

Deepam V Annual Day

By center heads

VRS

The Deepam Annual Day 2013 was an extremely delightful event, just as it had been during the earlier

years. This year, however, the work load for all of us involved was way less, with Janavi taking care of

most of the arrangements and administrative requirements. That left us with the task of getting our kids

ready for the Annual Day performance.

Its always a dilemma to deal with this sort of a situation because we usually don't prefer spending too

much time with the preparation as most of this cut into our class time. But, at the same time, in order to

put up a good show, quality practice time is a must. Although the initial plan was to get the children tosing a song (Wheels of the bus) and recite a poem on 'Cleanliness and hygiene', we eventually added a

short comedy skit (Celebrity Cricket League) to make our overall performance more entertaining.

We effectively had only 2 weeks to prepare all of it and on the day of performance, to be honest, we

were quite anxious. 'Wheels on the bus' came out quite nicely with the kids singing it a very innocuous

sing-song manner, and the 'Cleanliness' poem was also very well coordinated. The skit though, stole the

show as everyone in the audience thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids acting, mimicking and dancing

like celebrities. The highlight of the day was Thavakumaran playing KK (Deepam's founder) and exposing

his prowess at Hindi.

At the end of the day, the kids had a great time and were extremely exhilarated to receive their medals,

certificates and t-shirts. We are extremely proud of what our kids could accomplish with such little

preparation and kudos to the entire volunteer team at VRS for putting in all the effort to make it

memorable.


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THE CRYING PRINCESS - a drama by WM children.

West Mambalam Center had come up with a beautiful concept. Adapted from one of Aid-India's videos,

the drama "The Crying Princess" was well chosen, with ample scope for displaying children's various

skills -- a dance, a song, some good music, creative drawing, acrobatics and a few more.The original story-line had been tweaked to create freedom and space to express the creative thoughts

of WM team of volunteers through their children. Introducing the characters into the scene itself was

done aesthetically, a piece of apt music preceding their entry. The cast consisted of - besides the King,

Queen, Princess and the Minister - a tailor with inch-tape and a newly stitched dress, a candy man who

could give a real candy man a run for his money, a pair of dancers shaking legs to a peppy number in a

story with traditional backdrop, two girls who sang beautifully in step with the background score, artistswho displayed their talent by synchronously drawing, for the Crying Princess, a Smiling Tree, and a

clown who alone was eventually successful in making the Princess laugh, to the spontaneous and

thunderous applause of the hall-full of audience.

An all-English skit, The Crying Princess was enacted impeccably by as many as 13 children from WM

Center and the dialogues were delivered in a clear and crisp manner. The 'producers' decided to extend


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the story to add a scene at the end that saw the King keeping his promise and giving a bag of gold coins

to the Clown who made the Princess laugh, thus giving the story a completeness.

Clearly, co-ordination among volunteers, children's tireless enthusiasm, all-out efforts by the team and

imaginative use of appropriate props have all helped to convert an 'educative' program into an

enjoyable drama.

OLCOTT SCHOOL CENTER

It is not just a preparation we started for the annual day. But a team work (maybe we thought like

preparing the kids for the competition too!!), with packed volunteers of not less than fourteen for the

first day discussion. At last, we decided to leave a message of Importance of English.

Two teams, skit preparation & dance, started exploring their ways. The initiator for the skit, Jagan, one

of the best volunteers among our team, planned for a movie like play of having a dance performance in

the mid of the skit, which we actually never tried before.


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The floor opened just one month in advance for both the teams to prepare and I saw 200% (Statisticians

please excuse!!) of energy from the kids side. It is unbelievable at some occasions that the kids came

forward to have their practice session even on Sundays too.

The concept & the way they prepared the skit was absorbing. Students from Tamil Nadu were going on a

tour to New Delhi. Meanwhile, they need relaxation, so they ask for song, and the songs also start with

Tamil, then English and finally end with Hindi (at the time, the students reach New Delhi). Here, I have to

appreciate Vijay for his idea and his hard work on giving practice to the kids along with Malini, Ajay

&Sathis.

Skit team They also prepared a multi lingual play with Tamil, Hindi & English and made the kids to

speak the same. The appreciation should reach Ranjini, Kamali, Sindhu, Gopal and a new man, Vasu,

very energetic. It doesnt mean only the listed names did well but everyone did something differently for

the kids.

And the day comes on; we performed & packed our beautiful memories.


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KC Center

Unlike the kids from other centers the only common thing among MY kids was the banner they bore,

one that of Deepam KC Centre. Diversified by age, schools, faiths and localities yet united. They proved

their solidarity with the multi faith prayer that kick-started the annual day.

Fear, nervousness, excitement, performance pressure! There were too many things for anyone to

handle on stage. But all that I saw was excitement flowing in the kids. The comedy act put on by them

was scintillating. The hard work and practice bore fruit. It makes a mentor happy to see his pupil bring

out what is taught to them, but it makes one proud when the pupil create something on their own. The

kids made us mentors, not just proud but also ecstatic. The drama was the brain child of the children.

And all the credit goes to them.

Now how lucky are we?? We started the show, and we got to end it too. But this time it was not the

kids. The only volunteer performance was a group dance by the KC centers own Stella Girls". Theperformance was captivating and summed up the entertainment for the day that was par excellent.


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KBM Center, the debutants in Deepam, performed a Villu Paattu and group dance. The kids being new

to Deepam had great fun in performing at our event. The school headmistress was also present @ our

event and appreciated the kids performances.

WM Centers Zoo Visit

By Maduravalli

For almost none of the 15 children who were taken to Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Vandalur was it a

'been there, seen that' experience. The group of 15 boys & girls, 2 volunteers and 2 school teachers

started from WM school at 9 am and came back at 2 pm. Another volunteer joined them just outside thezoo.

Not just in the zoo, but from the time they stepped into the van in the morning till the time they

stepped out of it in the afternoon, the children clearly enjoyed every single moment -- singing, sight-

seeing, giggling, running, swinging, eating, relaxing, fighting.


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Some other interesting moments were

En route the kids sang lovely songs as 'Found a Peanut', 'Clap ur hands', 'Incy Wincy Spider' + afew Tamil songs like 'kuyilakka, kuyilakka, paatu paadu..' We muted the vehicle's stereo system.

In the zoo, the kids saw a white giraffe - face turned away from us, body in an inclined position -and were wondering if it was a statue. Suddenly its tail started moving and they realised it was a

real giraffe that had been lazy to move.

They were sad when the bison, giraffe and sea otter did not turn around to see them but werevery happy to see a lion up on its feet right at the moment of their arrival and two bears walk

on their hind legs for some distance.

The kids had brought snacks / biscuits and while in the bus, passed some of them to theirteachers requesting them to share it with us, volunteers. And the teachers lovingly obliged.....

One teacher, two volunteers and nearly 10 kids were visiting the Vandalur zoo for the first time and

naturally their experience was more thrilling than those of the rest.

At the end of the trip, after thanking God in a one-minute-prayer, the children promptly thanked the

volunteers and remembered to thank RR Sir too for having made the arrangements.


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Sports Day @ Olcott

By Sugumaran

Olcott held Deepams first ever sports day in Jan13. The event coincided with India Republic Day

celebrations. 100m dash, 400m sprint and kabaddi were the events planned. The kids (boys & girls) were

segregated into two teams each. We allocated a Coach (Volunteers) for each Team where following

volunteers headed the teams.

The kids, the real Heroes, competed extraordinarily and it was a very tough situation to rank them. In

Kabaddi, girls participated very aggressively and proved that they are a step above than we actually

thought.

As we completed all planned activities and thought of calling it a day, the girls team said no to that and

demanded for one more game: Kho Kho. Yes! We conducted one more sports event apart from the

agenda. I was really amazed about their stamina and their interest towards the sports.

Our Volunteers Gopal, Aktab, Ranjani, Kamali, Narendra, Nikhil, Teacher Fathima gave medals to

winners of running & Kabadi. We got two chief guests Mithun & Sri Devi, new volunteers to Olcott

centre who gave the winning & running trophy to the winners & runners.


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New volunteer Induction programBy Janavi Shyam

The induction program held in our new center @ Kodambakkam was held on Feb 2nd

and was a grand

success. The center has 7 new volunteers with 4 from IBM and 2 from Mahindra

Following the success of the commencement of our new center, regular classes started from Feb

10thitself. Deepam continues to canvas old volunteers to contribute by making their presence at the

center.


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Kodambakkam center InauguratedBy R.Rajagopalan

Vizuthamangalam Rajeswari Primary School, Kodambakkam became Deepams latest center. The

school has classes I to V, with the total student strength numbering 55, 7 kids studying in III, 24 in IV and

10 in V std.

Children are from the 'less privileged' layer of the society, the interest kept alive by the few (3 including

the HM) teachers, the need of the hour being, according to the HM, a good set-up to familiarize children

with English language.

The school has many well-wishers -- individuals and organizations -- who contribute for improvements in

infrastructure as also by way of donations, uniform to children, etc.

The Headmistress showed keen interest and is eager that Deepam starts its activities at their school


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Featured Volunteer of the MonthBy Janavi

Rohit Narasimhan was our first "Featured Volunteer of the Month for the month of Jan'13. Rohit

volunteers for us @ our VRS center.

A short write-up about Rohit from Abhishek Mundra of VRS center is attached below

"We'd like to nominate Rohit Narasimhan as the volunteer of the month from VRS. Rohit has been one

of our most regular volunteers over the last 10 months and has quickly gone on to become a core

member of our planning committee. Rohit handles the Beginners batch along with KP. He has co-

ordinated the Library Program at the centre and has always been enthusiastic about the various

programs and initiatives we've wanted to take up. In addition to all this, Rohit had organized for a

donation of Rs 15000 during the previous academic year, to be disbursed as scholarship to the identifiedkids"

Satish from KC center is our "Featured Volunteer for the month" for Feb '13.

A small write-up about Satish...

"Satish has been volunteering for almost a year now. He is very regular, always smiling and the kids take

to him like anything. He works through friday nights to come to the classes on saturdays. Despite having

visited radio stations three times earlier, he enthusiastically took part in KC centre's outing to the FM

radio station for the sake of kids. He has also brought in a wealth of material in english that can be
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effectively used in all centres. He has also got e-copies of the Amar Chitra Katha tales. We have this

habit of kids introducing existing volunteers to the new ones. Whenever this happens, kids vie with each

other to introduce Satish, making famous among them"

Praveen Kumar from WM center has been awarded our "Featured Volunteer of the Month" for Mar'13

A short write-up about Praveen...

"K Praveen has been with us for more than a year. His attendance has been very regular and

participation as enthusiastic as the children. He has always been ready to carry out whatever out-of-the-

way requests we make of him (his help in Library books data entry is one such), after sleepless nights

(due to his office shift hours) he is among the first to arrive on Saturdays (and among the last to leave),

has been diligently taking care of the video session week after week, has been showing tremendous

amount of responsibility"
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e06jH0_gXuE/UV0JBy_aEdI/AAAAAAAAB2E/Q17rfUYlTVE/s1600/KPraveen.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pGT3BfBxI_U/UV0K9AkVljI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/zjNEOaL2Vhg/s1600/Satish.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e06jH0_gXuE/UV0JBy_aEdI/AAAAAAAAB2E/Q17rfUYlTVE/s1600/KPraveen.jpghttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pGT3BfBxI_U/UV0K9AkVljI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/zjNEOaL2Vhg/s1600/Satish.jpg


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Outstanding Volunteer of the Year 2012By R.Rajagopalan

At Deepam, all volunteers have been doing and continue to do what they like doing, what comes to

them naturally, and they are doing it exceedingly well. They get really rewarded every time they are

with children, every time they see a smiling face of a child.

Deepams Outstanding Volunteer Award is given to volunteers whose performance in the year has made

a difference, made people take notice and follow their examples.

Deepam takes immense pleasure and enormous pride in acknowledging and sharing with everyone such

splendid performance by such volunteers by honoring them with this Award. In the past 4 years, as

many as 13 volunteers have received this prestigious Award..

A few words about the Recipients of Deepams Outstanding Volunteer Award for year 2012

1. M Sugumaran of Olcott Center - He has infused fresh blood, fresh thoughts and fresh mindset

among his team. His mails exude enthusiasm in its every sentence. Dynamic and self-confident, he sets

for himself seemingly unrealistic targets and surprises everyone by achieving them! He organized the

first-ever Sports event at Olcott Centre. His ever-cheerful manner and how-can-I-help attitude are

contagious and these have helped him in increasing regular volunteer strength at Olcott Centre to more

than 10.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4kKhX9OjbUk/UV0Ge4cmVdI/AAAAAAAAB14/8-SDojH-H84/s1600/sugumaran.jpg


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2. Vedavalli of KC Center She is a regular volunteer at Deepam for over 3 years now andlikes to keep

a low profile. She has been an embodiment of patience and perseverance. To reach her Centre, run at a

community hall in Kakkan Colony, she has to overcome many obstacles, some of them she has to

literally side-step. Undeterred by these and other impediments, she persisted and has successfully keptthe classes going regularly. She has now built a team of over 10 regular volunteers at the Centre. Last

year, she initiated scholarship program for the children. Her interest in the children does not stop with

teaching them computers or language her concern for them extends to uplifting their conduct,

attitude and behavior.

3. Maduravalli of West Mambalam CenterA volunteer who has been associated with Deepam and its

activities for well over 4 years, she is passionate in whatever she does and assertive without sounding

superior. She can get things done without being demanding, is strict with children and yet their

favourite, competent of handling complex problems and always open to others views. She is ready and

willing to take on any assignment, however challenging, if only it will eventually benefit the children.

Right now, with support from other volunteers, she is spearheading the project of making a perpetual

Curriculum for all Deepam Centres.

Those who are interested in Deepam with respect to volunteering/ Donations/ Events for kids/ other

information, please reach out [email protected]

For more information, checkwww.deepam.inor visit us atwww.facebook.com/deepam.chennai
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.deepam.in/http://www.deepam.in/http://www.deepam.in/http://www.facebook.com/deepam.chennaihttp://www.facebook.com/deepam.chennaihttp://www.facebook.com/deepam.chennaihttp://www.facebook.com/deepam.chennaihttp://www.deepam.in/mailto:[email protected]

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