Happy Yoga Day

Our Sparsh children of the new academic year celebrating Yoga Day with full enthusiasm!

Champions of Resilience

VYF stands on a podium of pride today, celebrating the success of our students, Our Champions of Resilience !

Join us in applauding their remarkable achievements, who have excelled in their SSC exams against all odds. VYF has sponsored, mentored, counseled these students so far and will continue helping them shape their future!

These children have overcome challenging environments, including parental neglect, limited resources, and financial hardships.

The results are a testament to the impact of VYF and their grit proving that with determination, the sky is the limit. This is made possible ONLY due to the support of donors and well – wishers!

Let’s all together honour their success and support their journey towards a brighter future.

Achievement of the Month

Finally, the hardships and restless nights of our children have paid off. Our Sandhyalaya and Swatah children have passed their HSC exams with flying colours! May they keep reaching more milestones in the coming days as well! VYF couldn’t be prouder of our first-generation learners!

National Youth Day, 2023

On the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary children watched a presentation on Swami Vivekananda’s life and candles were lit with a prayer to grow in knowledge and light!

Indian Super League- Football league:

Students and volunteers of Sandhyalaya watched the league match between Mumbai city Vs Kerala Blasters at Andheri Sports Complex on 8th January, 2023

Project Srujan:

VYF Participated in an NGO Mela organized by Mithibai College of Arts on 24th & 25th January, 2023.

February 2023

Little lamps project:

Sports day celebration

Sparsh Balwadi project:

March 2023

Holi celebration at Little Lamps:

Holi celebration at Sparsh Balwadi:

April 2023

Sparsh Summer camp:

Summer camp was organized for the children from nearby community.

Little lamps summer camp:

Summer camp was organized for the ex-Little lamps students.

MAY 2023

End of Academic year 2022-23 and Balwadi’s had summer vacation.

Disha Project:

Children from CCH secured 2nd position in inter NGO dance completion where the training was provided by VYF.

June 2023

New academic year 2023-24 begins

On the occasion of international yoga day children performed yoga in the classroom.

Little Lamps:

On the occasion of international yoga day children performed yoga in the classroom.

Project Sparsh & Little Lamps – Balwadis

The new academic year commenced normally this year! With no major covid related restrictions both balwadis resumed physical classes. Project Sparsh started with 50 children from Nehru Nagar Slum area, Vile Parle (West).

Celebrating festivals and important days are part of the curriculum in all projects.
Glimpses of celebrating Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan across projects. Children also celebrated Ganpati festival by visiting various pandals.

Project Srujan gets into action with Diya painting for Durga Puja. VYF put up a stall at Ramakrishna Mission, Khar where hand painted and packed colourful diyas, jute bags were sold out!

Diwali @ VYF

Project Disha is a very challenging project as it involves orphan boys sheltered at Chembur Children’s home. Every year we celebrate Diwali with the boys and it warms our heart to see them have a good time and celebrate the festival.
Diwali was also celebrated across projects i.e. Little Lamps, Sparsh, Sandhyalaya.

Children’s Day @ VYF

Dance Masti’22 & Christmas @ VYF

Christmas at Sandhyalaya

Sparsh

January 2022

The new year started with classes moving online in accordance with the governments rules.

National Youth Day

The online session was conducted with children knowing about Padma Shri Awardee Sindhutai Sakpal, who passed away on 4-01-22. An inspiring story of struggle and grit.

Online classes continued with a focus on SEL of children impacted by prolonged school closure.

February 2022

Finally, classes move online!!!

March 2022

Project Disha

After 2 years finally art based sessions conducted at Chembur Children Home, Mankhurd.

Also Holi colours were distributed at CCH, boys enjoyed playing Holi after two years!

Project Sparsh

Launching Project Sparsh!

Soup Kitchen – Children living along the railway tracks and streets started receiving non-formal education.

During the summer break – a summer camp, recreational club and mentoring sessions are planned.

January 2021

We celebrated our Inspiration Swami Vivekananda’s 158th Birth Anniversary on 12th January, 21.

An interactive program was organized where 4 young achievers shared their journey and how Swami Vivekananda’s teaching is helping them on their way. 45 children attended and the program was supported by volunteers @_unalomeyoga @chinki_112 @vidurdhabaria @vishalgupta6120

Mr. Daanish Panjwani, Founder of @enlightened_hand shared the importance of choice that each one of us has!
Mr. Suyog Gangavane, Founder @greenindiainitiative1 spoke about the work his organization is doing
and which is helping children in villages learn and grow.

Mr. Sachin Shigwan, known as @the.solar.man spoke about how he has faced tremendous difficulties
during his life and how. he is helping children through his work on solar energy.
Ms. Parita Shah of @pehlay_akshar Foundation spoke about discovering oneself and having the courage to follow. one’s dreams.

Thanks to the lovely speakers, it was.an.incredible evening! Sure some are lit in a young mind listening
to real journeys inspired by Swami Vivekananda.

Photos – https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ-bsUmg7hY/

February 2021

With Covid – 19 cases increasing and restrictions imposed by the local bodies, Sandhyalaya had to move online. From February’2021 class was conducted online via Zoom.

April 2021

Everything was digital in April’21 the second wave of Covid 19 had begun and children were tired being at home! Their summer vacation was mostly limited to being inside homes. VYF conducted a summer camp online, here is a glimpse of the camp:

May 2021

A workshop on Goal Setting was organised for Volunteers. The workshop helped young volunteers to adapt to the new environment and setting goals amidst the constantly changing environment. Glimpse of the online workshop.

July 2021

HSC, SSC and school exams were cancelled due to the pandemic. All SSC and HSC students cleared with flying colours.

August 2021

After a year of disruption Little Lamps is now online! Watch the details of the same:

VYF has partnered with Rotaract Club of Bombay Airport, Social Outreach Club of UPG College and other colleges for online events covering art, craft, dance and drama.

Rotaract Club of Narsee Monjee College (RCNM) too is mentoring 5 th -7 th grade children of Sandhyalaya. The class is conducted online.

September 2021

Project Srujan – Diya Painting
After last year’s break Project Srujan started its annual vocational training program of painting diya’s for the festive season. A total of 1700 diyas were soaked, painted, designed and packed by 12 young children and were sold out within 4 days!! Media company Ogilvy bought 1400 diyas and we received a fitting response by an advance order of 2800 diyas for the next year! We are humbled and happy!
All protocols were followed and it was a great feeling to be back in action!

Covid Vaccination Drive

October 2021

Project Disha:
A Diwali lunch was organised for orphan boys of Chembur Children Home, Mankhurd.

This year again celebrations were muted due to restrictions imposed by government.

November 2021

Project Sandhyalaya:
With reduced restrictions and the threat of Covid reducing Sandhyalaya resumed offline classes with lesser students and in two batches. The older children met on Thursday at Jamnabai Narsee School and younger ones played at Pushpa Narsee Park on Saturdays.
All Covid protocols were followed.

Project Little Lamps:

Early childhood education project continues to be conducted online:
e.g. Cold cooking session.

Project Disha:
Text books were distributed for SSC students of Chembur Children Home, Mankhurd.

Project Disha Yuvak:
Orphan youth above 18 years reside in a government run orphanage After Care, Chembur. The premises is not taken care by the authorities and VYF has been working towards rebuilding and making the place a pleasant home for the boys. Last year the drainage system of the hostel was repaired and this year electric connections and new fans were installed.

December 2021

Christmas Celebrations:
Sandhyalaya – Games, fun, cake and snacks marked Christmas celebrations.

Project Disha:

Snack boxes were arranged for orphan boys of Chembur Children’s Home, Mankhurd.

Project Little Lamps:

11 students of Little Lamps received gifts from Santa Claus and snacks were distributed.

SSC & HSC Results – 2020
SSC Results:
It’s an 11/11! Yes, 100% result!
All 11students of VYF have cleared SSC Examination with flying colors!
We are super happy and proud!
Also express our heartfelt gratitude to all well-wishers, supporters, donors, and volunteers!
Thank you! There is a lot yet to be done! To continue your support, please click on Donate button
at the bottom of the page.HSC Results: Two students of VYF cleared HSC – Vinayak – Commerce – 54.92% and Priyadarshini – Arts – 44.15%

Medical Aid to CCH: Children at Chembur Children’s Home, Mankhurd required support for
procuring medicines. The same was arranged thanks to donors and members.

1. Lockdown Learning: Activities were conducted online during the lockdown; sharing a glimpse of the activities: Dance Choreography by volunteers – Ms. Suhani and Ms. Dia.
   
2. Diwali Celebrations: Diwali was celebrated online this year and Kandeel raw material and Rangoli colors were distributed under Project Disha and Project Disha Yuvak.
   
3. Igniting Ideas, RCBA, Working Voice: This year has changed the functioning of numerous organizations. At VYF too we combined energies to increase impact. VYF collaborated: For after school teaching with Igniting Insight (https://ignitinginsight.wixsite.com/ignitinginsight-1 ) For weekly activities with Rotaract Club of Bombay Airport (https://www.rcbombayairport.org/open-school-1 ) For extracurricular activities with Working Voice (https://www.linkedin.com/company/working-voice/ )
4. Christmas & New Year’21: After 9.5 months we meet! We are back, well almost. 60 Sandhyalaya children and a handful of volunteers led by Project Head Nileshwari Didi celebrated the joyous season by a get-together at the park! We began with prayers, then some exercise, played kho-kho, and finally wound up by singing the national anthem. Christmas treat included – Chocolate muffin and healthy sandwiches. ( Made by a student Darshana’s grandfather, who runs a stall at Dadar, Mumbai). It was a wonderful beginning to the day and the festive season! We pray for everyone’s well-being and wish everyone’s life is filled with joy and laughter!Check photos here – https://www.instagram.com/p/CJNoufSgbiL

The lockdown due to pandemic forced all projects to be kept on hold. Throughout the month of April VYF focussed on providing ration relief and from the month of May, 2020 volunteers joined to start teaching through zoom and WhatsApp.
Currently, there are 16 volunteers who are teaching 35 students from Sr. KG – 7th Grades and 14 volunteers teaching 32 students from 8th – 10th Grades.

Since mid-March the entire world has witnessed a dramatic change, India and its financial capital Mumbai too is facing the brunt of coronavirus. With a little less than half of Mumbai’s population living in slums the pandemic has left daily wage earners, blue collar workers with no work, no income and no food on the plate.

VYF’s beneficiary children reside in slums and streets. When the lockdown was announced families were suddenly left with no resources. We began by calling the parents and children and soon realised that families were short of funds and ration. A campaign was created for the same and the first kit of essential food grains and hygiene products was distributed among VYF’s beneficiaries.

As days of lockdown extended we received reports about the difficult situation families were in. With the support of kind donors we reached out to extremely poor families across 11 locations in Mumbai.
Till 12th June, 2020 – 573 families including 2475 people received essential food grains and hygiene kits.

Details of the same can be found in this link – https://fundraisers.giveindia.org/campaigns/the-campaign-is-for-helping-families-in-mumbai-facing-difficulties-due-to-the-extended-lockdown-in-the-city

Check the Annual day of Project Little Lamps! This was the first year that street children performed a folk dance! We had a full house with parents, guardians, members and Trustees attending the amazing show. A glimpse of the show:

January 12, 2020 –National Youth Day, our inspiration Swami Vivekananda’s 158th birth
The anniversary was celebrated cross projects!

February, 9, 2020 – Project Little Lamps – Annual Sports Day.

February, 29, 2020 – Project Little Lamps – Annual Day’20
Stay tuned for the update.

Project Little Lamps goes on an educational trip! Video

December 21st 2019 – Project Disha

Dance competition “ Dance Masti-19 scheduled on 21st December, 2019.

November 7th, 2019 – Project Sandhyalaya

Rotaract Club of Caduceus initiated a health check-up on 07.11.2019 for 84 Sandhyalaya children.

The check-up was followed by a talk on the correct way to washing hands, brushing teeth and maintaining good eating habits. Children also made origami butterflies. The day ended with a healthy snack of Poha and Rotaract Club of the Caduceus distributed — soap, toothpaste, and biscuits.

Project Little Lamps & Soup Kitchen

Children’s Day was celebrated with loads of fun and laughter at Little Lamps & Soup Kitchen.

Project Srujan

It was a complete sell out at the Durga Puja’19 stall at RKM, Khar.

Diwali Celebrations

Project Disha

Project Soup Kitchen & Little Lamps

Project Sandhyalaya – This year Diwali celebrations at Sandhyalaya was celebrated with employees
of IndiGo Airlines (https://www.goindigo.in/csr.html). Children made kandeels with the members
and had a sumptuous treat of noodles, laddoos and chocolate!

Project Srujan

Annual vocational program began mid September where children soaked, painted, designed and packed diyas for Durga Puja Stall at RKM, Khar.

Check behind the scenes of the magnificent creations all done by children.

Collaboration with Rotaract Club of Bombay Airport.

The Open School – 34 children between the age group of 11-13 years of Project Sandhayalaya will be provided computer training, personality development, communication skills by members of Rotaract Club of Bombay Airport. The sessions will be conducted every Sunday for a year at Mukesh Patel School of Technology & Engineering.

Aashayein by Cascade, Jamnabai Narsee School

JNAA conducts an annual inter NGO event – “Aashayein” as part of the school’s annual mega inter school event, “Cascade”. This was the 26th year of the program.
Students of Project Sandhyalaya particpated in all activities of the event. VYF’s team included 31 participants and 10 audience.
Gopika won the award for art; the certificate was awarded by the Chief Guest Sharman Joshi, Actor.

NGO Mela at NMIMS

VYF participated in “NGO Mela” organised by Social Responsibility Forum, NMIMS on 07th August, 2019. The trend started 4 years ago continued with chocolates selling out and students giving an excellent response to hand crafted jewellery.

Independence Day & 32nd Foundation Day of VYF!

15th August – Celebrated across projects and it was also 32nd Foundation Day of VYF! The celebrations had a new flavour added with VYF and The Little League boys participating in “A Team Sports” organised football tournament –“ Independence Cup’19”. VYF boys secured the 3 rd position in the league! Super proud of the boys!

Janmashtmi was celebrated at Project Little Lamps!

New academic year commences! Total beneficiaries – 416.

Continuing the firsts in 2019! First Annual Day of Project Little Lamps was organised on 16th March, 2019.

One of the objectives of VYF is to promote India’s rich art and culture. Keeping the objective in mind “Namamee” a fundraiser concert of Indian dance and music was held on 18th January, 2019 at Nehru Auditorium. An Odissi recital tracing Swami Vivekananda’s “Journeyto Divinity” was performed by Odissi exponent Smt. Shubhada Varadkar which was followed by a soul stirring performance on Sitar and Zitar by renowned musician Niladri Kumar.

The show’s success was reflected by the wonderful response of the audience. The
auditorium was close to full capacity and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Indian dance andmusic performances.

The first Sports Day of project Little Lamps was organised on 25 th January, 2019 at a garden in Andheri (W). Children thoroughly enjoyed running, hopping races, bunny rabbit race and basket-ball.

Holi celebrations across projects – Orphan boys at Chembur Children’s Home could colour and fill their hearts with festive joy! The boys played an organic, natural holi with the colours distributed on behalf of everyone by VYF. Organic colours were also distributed across projects i.e. Sandhyalaya, Soup Kitchen and Little Lamps. Watch the colourful celebration below.

1. First Edition of Awaazein was launched. An elocution competition among children of Project Sandhyalaya. Watch the below video.
   
2. A volunteer workshop on “ Staying Motivated and Team Work” was conducted by Ms. Piya Mukherjee . View the highlights below.
   
3. Sandhyalaya students participated in a cyclothon to show their support towards saving natural resources and conserving the environment! Watch the below video.
   

1. Dance Masti’18 – Annual dance competition held at Chembur Childrens Home, Mankhurd. Watch the below video.
   
2. Celebrating National Youth Day – Swami Vivekananda’s 155 Birth Anniversary. Watch the celebration below.
   

1. VYF Students with The Little League watched a live football match on 10-12-2017 thanks to VYF Trustee Ms. Sharada Harihar. – Watch the below video.
   
2. Christmas celebrations across projects.Watch the below video.
   

1. TLL Tournament on 12th November, 2017 Watch the below video.
   
2. Children’s Day Celebrations – Watch the below video.
   
3. First Live Football Match – 7 students
   

1. Diwali 2017 – check the celebration here.
   
2. Stall at Mumbai Metro Stations, View the video to know more.
   

1. Check the amazing performance of the  Six boys who have been selected for The Little League. Visit their website to know more about the League.
   
2. Durga Puja Stall at RKM, Khar.
   
3. Excursions across all Projects.
   

1. 1. On the joyous occasion of our country’s Independence Day and VYF turning 30, sharing the Spirit of VYF through Sandhyalaya alumnus Mangala. The lessons and songs which inspired her to meet the challenges of life, bringing up her son as a single parent repairing peoples’ shoes – today being the helping hand in her “mohalla” – for young and old alike – all survival skills & human values she credits learning from VYF! Let’s hear from her.
      Her journey epitomes the journey of VYF!”.
      
   2. Social Responsibility Forum of NMIMS has organized an NGO Mela on 2nd August, 2017 at NMIMS Campus, Vile Parle (W) VYF will be participating for the third consecutive year.
   3. VYF students participated in the Solo Dance, Group Dance, Singing and Art Competition at Jamnabai School’s event organised by the school’s Alumni – “JNAA-Cascade – Aashayein” scheduled on 5th August, 2017. Watch the video below
      

1. 1. 1. EDUCATIONAL EXCURSION
         • In January, 15 children of Sandhyalaya project participated in Inter NGO Sports Day conducted by NMIMS College at Rithumbara College. Children participated in most of the sports activity and enjoyed the event.
         • It’s a shocking truth to see how our children are physically weak and their gross and fine motor have not developed to its full potential.
         • On 22nd January, all the children of Sandhyalaya were taken to Juhu beach. There were various activities and races for the children. At the end children were divided into groups and were asked to show their creativity with the sand. Indeed the evening session at the beach was lovely and fulfilled. Children enjoyed a lot.
         • Sandhyalaya were taken to Pushpa Narsee park for cycling on 5th June,2015. Children who had cycles brought their cycles to the park and also shared their cycle with other children. Two volunteers of Sandhyalaya from “Mumbai Cycling enthusiasts” made the evening lively by sharing their cycles with children and being a part of the evening.

    

   1. 1. 28th February 2016:
         Time: 9:00 am to noon
         Rotary Club of Juhu Beach organised a Medical Camp for Sandhyalaya and sponsored students with their parents. 47 children, 14 mothers and 2 fathers were examined. VYF sponsored the medicines too.

    

   1. 1. 23 March 2016:
         A presentation on Holi followed by a Quiz was conducted at RKM, Khar.

    

   1. 19th December 2015:
      Occasion: Christmas Celebration:
      Time: 4:00 pm to 5:00pm
      Activity: Kisme Kitna Dum” at CCH (Chembur Children Home).
      The celebration began with the decoration of the venue like putting of stars, Santa clause posters, stacking bed sheets, blowing balloons and sticking them on the wall.
      Presentation on Christmas to children was shown along with questionnaire. Post presentation mimicry artist Deepak Pande’s present his art for 45 minutes. Children extremely enjoyed the act.
      The main event Kisme Kitna Hai Dum was a super fulfilled event for the children. The participants and the audience both had super fun and lively. It was a huge motivation and encouragement to the raw talent, which the boys have within them. Story of Shri Ramakrishna’s life and his message ‘Sarv Dharm Sama Bhav’ were conveyed to the boys. Story of Birth of Jesus Christ was also narrated to them.

The celebration ended with prize distribution followed by the national anthem and then distribution of ‘chaddar’ (140) followed by sumptuous meal.

• 11th December 2015:
  Time: 2:30 pm to 7:00 pm
  Venue: Rambo Circus, Bandra Reclamation
  No. of. Children: 24 boys and girls
  Volunteer: Tanvi, Suman, Vandana, Suvarna, Purvi, Mohsin, Rajesh Sir.
  Children at soup kitchen were taken to see the circus. This was for the first time they were exposed to something like this show. They were overwhelmed with the entire experience they were provided with lunch and snacks.

• A relief camp was set up near Bandra Terminals station for flood affected people of Kashmir. Nearly 250 families from Baramulla Region of J&K; amongst the most affected have sought refuge in Mumbai.VYF raised funds and provided food grains for their daily requirements. Such as rice, pulses, wheat, sugar, tea and spices etc.

• VYF also supported Aadhar Foundation, Byculla. It is a residential home for orphan boys above 18 yrs. VYF supplied groceries (pulses, Rice, Oil) to the organization.

1. 1. 1. Workshop at David Sassoon Industrial School, Matunga
         This year we had a slide show at David Sassoon, Matunga on 28th April,2014 at 4pm.
         We started with the prayer. This was followed by a slide show on ‘8 Wonders of the world’ and Swami Vivekananda’s life story. Later the boys were also told story of ‘Dog’s curly tail’ and ‘Hookah story’.
         Boys were given snacks. For snacks we had arranged for tea, dhokla and Puran poli.
         The program was ended by singing our National Anthem.

    

   1. 1. Inauguration of Sandhyalaya at Jamnabai School
         Due to various reasons our project “Sandhyalaya” was shifted to Jamnabai Narsee School. The inauguration was on 24th July, 2014. The evening class will now be conducted on every Thursday at the school’s canteen.
         Chief Guest for the inauguration of the project was Ms. Urvashi and Ms. Minal (Trustee of JNS). We started the evening with yoga, after which the chief guest arrived. We started the program with the prayer followed by introduction of the Chief guest and lighting of the lamp by them.
         We had some enlightening speech on inspiring words of Swami Vivekananda, education and highlights of Parliament of religion by members of VYF. Later the Chief guest shared few words with the children.

    

   1. 1. The Rotaract Club at NM College distributed 200kgs of grains (140kgs rice and 60 kgs dal) to 15 families from various projects of VYF on 6th August,2014.

    

   1. 1. DASSEHRA STALL AT RKM, KHAR
         This is a major annual project for our vocational training. During Durga Pooja Festival, VYF puts up a stall at RKM Khar. About 2000 diyas were painted by the children of Sandhyalaya project. Diya painting commenced from 8th September 2014 and within 15 days the painting, designing and packaging were completed. From base painting to intricate designing on diyas were done by these children and it is always a total sell out at the stall.
         At RKM stall products on display included hand painted jute bags (tote bags, sling bags etc.), earrings, bracelets, necklace sets, rangoli, key chains, padukas, giggle berry products ( games and slates). Like previous years the work done by our children were greatly appreciated by all the visitors and everything was total sell out within 3 days. The proceeding of the sale had gone to the children for painting diyas and jewellery designing and making. There were 35 children for diya painting and 6 girls for jewellery designing.

    

   1. DIWALI CELEBRATION
      Mankhurd: 160 children
      Crackers: 180 packets
      Wax diyas: 180 pcs
      Uthni powder: 160 packets
      Rangoli powder: 2 kg for each kutir (10kgs) +7 colours: red, magenta, green (light& dark), lemon-yellow, orange (200gm x7)
      Each kutir was given kite papers, glue, and thread a week prior for making lanterns. Very beautiful lanterns were made by these children.
      Rangoli competition was organized between the 5 kutirs and out came amazing design of rangolis in front of their kutirs. They have so much of talent. One has to see to believe it.
      The prizes offered
      First prize :1 packet of 10 big anars;
      Second prize :1 packet of 6 big anars;
      Third, fourth and fifth prize: 1 packet of 10 small anars
      To celebrate Diwali we had display of fireworks and each child was given a packet of crackers which do not make loud noise and were safe for the children to handle.
      The children danced with lively music along with volunteers. A special dinner was arranged for them which we all had together.

David Sassoon: 180 children
Crackers:180 packets
Food: 7 kg makai chivda and 6 kg chakli
The packets and food were distributed among 180 children at David Sassoon, Matunga.
Soup Kitchen: 30 children
Crackers and diya were distributed among our street children and they had special snacks for the occasion.
Sandhyalaya: 20 children
We celebrated Diwali with our Sandhyalaya children by distributing a packet of crackers to each child.
There were rangoli competition and tasty snacks for them.

• DANCE MASTI AT MANKHURD CHILDREN’S HOME (27th December, 2014)
  It is our annual programme at Mankhurd, where children of five kutirs compete with each other in terms of a lively dance performance.
  Each Kutir had to present 2 performances. One solo performance and one group performance from each kutir. Swamiji’s picture was put up and all the children paid tribute to him by lighting a candle.
  Story of Shri Ramakrishna’s life, and his message ‘Sarv Dharm Sama Bhav’ were conveyed to the boys. Story of Birth of Jesus Christ was also narrated to them.
  Prize Distribution
  • First solo dancer was given a watch
  • Second solo dancer was gifted a bag pack.
  • Group dancers were given t- shirts.
  Mrs. Rekha Patel was the judge for this event of Dance Masti’14.
  The whole program was followed by some sumptuous dinner which was greatly relished by all the children.

1. 1. 1. EVENT AT WILSON COLLEGE “HOPE”
         Students of Wilson College (BMS department) had an annual event for a social cause “The Zombie Walk” which was scheduled on 27th July,2013. Wilson College partnered with VYF for this event. 17 children from VYF along with the volunteers participated in Zombie walk-A march against hunger; wherein the main purpose was to spread awareness and raise funds for underprivileged children.
         On 30th August,2013 VYF was invited for the inauguration of their festival. The head of department of the college felicitated representatives of VYF with a bouquet of flowers and donated the funds raised by them for the social cause.

    

   1. 1. Exhibition at Kalaghoda festival (Concern India Mela)
         After a gap of 3 years VYF got a stall at Concern India NGO mela at Kalaghoda Festival.
         The dates were from 6th to 9th Febraury,2014.
         Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, key chains, Giggle berry games, Swami Vivekananda’s books, earthen pots and diyas, envelopes, tablemats, ceramic photo frames were on display.
         The exhibition was a total sell out. It was amazing to see how Swami Vivekananda’s books attracted people of all ages and from all walks of life. We had to repeatedly keep ordering for more books.
         Overall it was a very good experience. We got a very positive response and the work done by our children were greatly appreciated from one and all.

    

   1. 1. Miracles of Splendor
         Ohana Concept.. A friendly flower group had organized a charity show of confluence of Ikebana and traditional odissi dance in aid of our soup kitchen project.
         They had donated Rs 2,50,000/- towards the same project.

    

   1. 1. A workshop on sex education was conducted by Ketki Sanghvi (FACSE) for girls between 12 – 16 years on 25th August,2013. The agenda of organizing this workshop was to make the girls aware of
         – physical changes within them,
         – sexual abuse
         – menstrual cycle and maintaining hygiene and
         – how to overcome and deal with these problems.
      2. EDUCATIONAL EXCURSION
         • In February, 50 children of Sandhyalaya project were taken for a field trip to Kanheri caves along with volunteers and programme coordinators. A bus was arranged from Aroon travels. It was a great experience for the children to explore those caves. Snacks and lunch were organized by us.
         • On the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Ram Krishna Math had organized a laser documentary on Swamiji presented by Shri Manick Sorcar. Children along with Volunteers of Sandhyalaya were taken to see the show at St Andrews Auditorium.

    

   1. 1. We had to organize dance lessons, twice a month, for them to learn dancing from Victory Arts Foundation run by Shiamak Dawar Group. There was always a great enthusiasm amongst the children to learn dancing and WOW!! what a fantastic dancers all of them were turned out to be!!!

    

   1. 1. Children were taken for fieldtrip in October to Tungareshwar.

    

   1. 1. Relief Work
         Besides these projects, we give financial assistance for medical treatment to all our sponsored children and children under other projects. Also, time-to-time, we offer help to buy groceries and food grains.
         VYF raised funds for the rehabilitation of people affected by floods of Uttarakhand.
         This year we also got our FCRA registration for foreign funds.

    

1. 1. 1. VISITORS OF ROTRACT CLUB OF HONG KONG
         Visitors from Rotract club of Hong Kong went to Chembur Children’s Home. They had come with Rotary club of Andheri West. They showed audio video presentation on Hong Kong and also played different games with the children. They brought along with them biscuits, sweets, chocolates and stationery items to be distributed among the children. The Rotract club of Hong Kong donated a laptop to VYF.

    

   1. 1. DIYA PAINTING; DASSEHRA STALL AT RKM, KHAR
         Diya painting commenced from 30th September 2012 and within 15 days painting, designing and packaging was completed. There were few children for diya painting but the children managed to paint, design and pack 1700 diyas.
         At RKM, things on display included hand painted jute bags, earrings, bracelets, necklace sets, rangoli, key chains, padukas, giggle berry products ( storybooks, slates, pencil stands, shoe bags), envelopes and diyas. This time the sale was very good. All the goods were sold within 2days. We had to order for more jewellery and envelopes for sale on the last day. We had a great response and the mela was a success.

    

   1. DIWALI CELEBRATION
      Mankhurd: 200 children
      Crackers: 200 packets
      Wax diyas: 200 pcs
      Uthni powder: 200 packets
      Rangoli powder: 1 kg for each kutir (5kgs) + 6 colours: red, magenta, green (light& dark), lemon-yellow, orange (200gm x6)

Few days before the Diwali celebration each kutir was given kite papers, glue, and thread for preparing kandil. Each kutir had made beautiful kandil. From Sandhyalaya, five children were taken along as volunteers. The place at CCH was cleaned as Nileshwari and Tanvi along with Sandhyalaya children had reached earlier. Each head boy of a kutir was given rangoli powder and were asked to start the competition. The programme started with a prayer and thereafter the children were divided into 15 groups with 6-7 children in each group along with one volunteer for each group. Kite paper and glue was given to each group and they were asked to make rings out of the same. Later on this was used to decorate entire quadrangle. Purnima di showed slide show of Swami Vivekananda to the children.

Thereafter the prizes were distributed. The first prize was 1 packet of 10 big anars; second prize was 1 packet of 6 big anars; third, fourth and fifth prize was 1 packet of 10 small anars each. After prize distribution children were given crackers. Dinner was provided by VYF. For dinner dahi raita, puri, chana, papad, pulav and gulab jamun was prepared by Vrinda caterers.

David Sassoon: 180 children
Crackers: 180 packets
Diyas: 180 pieces
Uthni powder: 180 packets
Food: 7 kg sev and 5 kg boondi

Soup Kitchen: 25 children
Crackers + diya
Sandhyalaya: 25 children
Crackers+ diya
Crackers consisted of 2 small boxes of roll caps, three chakris, two anars, one rope, 2 pcs of assorted cartoon crackers and one box of fuljhadi.

• DANCE MASTI AT MANKHURD CHILDREN’S HOME
  It is our annual programme at Mankhurd, where children of five kutirs compete with each other in terms of a lively dance performance.
  Nileshwari, accompanied by some children and volunteers from Sandhyalaya, reached the venue at 3.30 pm. The programme started at 5.00 pm with a prayer. Purnima di narrated the story of Jesus Christ and thereafter children were asked to blow the balloons and decorate the quadrangle with the same. One packet of Hippo, one frooti and one mawa cake was distributed among them. The program lasted for three hours. To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, VYF decided to provide one towel to each child. The towels were sponsored by Rehana Deshpande, kedar deshpande, shailesh deshpande and camela Rupani. Alpa Desai arranged for the same from Dadar. Aroon Travels arranged for the bus. We ordered 230 tetrapacks of Frooti and 250 packets of hippo wafers from Jeel Stores in Juhu and 230 pieces of mawa cake.
  Mr Jai Kumar, Contestant of Dance India Dance was the judge for Dance Masti’12.

Prize Distribution
• Small group from Dhruv Kutir won the first prize.
• Bigger group from Shivaji Kutir won the prize.

• MISB BOCCONI,POWAI (Management College)
  An exhibition was put up at MISB BOCCONI College of management. Students had taken jewellery and giggle berry products from VYF on consignment basis. They sold almost all the products. Entire proceeds were donated to VYF.

• Makar Sankranti at Mankhurd
  Nileshwari, Suman and Vandana celebrated Makar Sankranti with the Mankhurd children. They distributed til laddoos and kites among the children.

• HOLI CELEBRATION AT MANKHURD AND DAVID SASOON
  For holi, 200 packets of colours (100 gm gulal +50 gm x 3 colors) were distributed at Makhurd, while 180 packets of colours (100 gm gulal +50 gm x 3 colors) were distributed at David Sasoon. 35 packets of colors (100 gm gulal +50 gm x 3 colors) were distributed at Soup Kitchen. A total of 415 packets of colours and 108 pichkaris were distributed. Children were also given lunch. For lunch thepla and shrikhand was provided.

• CELEBRATION OF 150TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF SWAMI VIVEVAKANANDA “Journey To Divinity”, 15th December, 2012
  On the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda VYF in collaboration with Ramakrishna Mission had organised a classical dance recital based on the message and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda. The program started at 7:30pm as the guest arrived. The chief guest for the function was Swami Suviranandaji from Ramakrishna Mission ,Belur Math. The program was hosted by Vidyasagar. The dance recital was performed by Shubdha and her troupe. The program was a great success and was liked by the audiences who were the part of the program.

• National Youth Day, 12th January,2013
  On account of National youth day and Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary RKM had organised a program and VYF was a part of it. The program was divided into two sessions. Prestigious speakers from different fields were invited to address the youth on this auspicious day.

In the month of February a program was organised for children of Mankhurd. The programme started with prayer. The children were shown slide show on our country India after which there was a question answer round. The children were also shown slide show on Swami Vivekananda’s life history. Aloka di narrated a story to the children. Dinner was arranged for children. They were given pulao, chana, mixed vegetable, puri, papad, gulab jamun and raita. The dinner as sponsored by Kailash Pujari (One of our Sponsorer).

To commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s Birth Anniversary on 12th January, All India Radio had invited Purnima Contractor, Preeti Verma and Vidyasagar Ayyappan to share the inspiration they got from Swamiji’s message and how Swamiji’s message is still relevant today in our lives. Swamiji’s message has inspired the above to start the organisation which has brought about qualitative and quantitative change in society.

• Disha
  During October we started with the dance classes for the boys. The classes are conducted by VYF members Ekta Prithyani and Hemant Kumar.
  In the month of January Louise (one of our sponsor from International Bunkering) visited CCH and spent quality time with these children. She interacted with them, read stories for the smaller children and played volley ball with the older boys.

1. 1. Celebrating the completion of Vivekananda Youth Forum’s 25th year!
      A programme was put up by the children on the occasion of completion of 25 years of VYF. The Chief Guest was President, RKM, Khar. He lit the lamp accompanied by Jyotishman Dasgupta and Poornima. Before each programme, Swamiji’s quotation was read out. Vidyasagar was the compere for the evening and he enthralled the audience with his fluid words. He was helped by Vishesh Mahadik who narrated the speech in Hindi. The entire auditorium was decorated with posters of VYF’s projects. The stage was decorated with marigold and green leaves. The banners were designed by Idea Spice.
      Refreshments were undertaken by Sodexho through Sunil Nayak.

We decided on the following course of programme.
Sandhyalaya: Children sang two songs: 1) Tu zinda hai tu Zindagi; and 2) It’s a small world after all. With continuous practise, the children picked up the songs. Alokadi taught them the songs and Barua sir played the keyboard. Each child was given a VYF T-shirt, which they wore during the performance. Props, such as the world, a smiling face, tearful face, forests, sun, moon, flowers and butterflies, were made for the second song. About 40 children participated.
Soup Kitchen: They are the floating children. Most of the time they disappear, so we could not have anything complex. We thought of having a reality show, as how the street children came to Soup Kitchen, how difficult the task was, and how slowly they started learning something at our centre.
Suvarna gave a small commentary about the children’s background, how slowly she could convince the children to come to the centre, leaving their familiar environment. The main resistance came from their parents which she had to overcome. Suman, Sunita and Vandana also acted along with the children. The children were too wild to perform on stage so they acted as children only. After their little skit, all of them stood in a semicircle and sang “Hum honge kamyab”. Suvarna was superb.
Chembur Children’s Home: Enacted the three stages of Swami Vivekananda
1) His experiment with hukkas; in his father’s house where there were 3 separate hukkas for Hindus, Muslims and Christians, when he wanted to find the difference and was surprised to find all were the same. Noopur wrote the script in Hindi and the boys did a fabulous job.
2) This phase was when Swami Vivekananda was roaming around the country as a wandering monk. His encounter with the monkeys at Benaras Ghat, how he was frightened and how he overcame his fear.
3) The third phase was Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the Parliament of Religion. The speech was in Hindi and was enacted by Rakesh, who resides in CCH and is studying in the 6 th Std. His performance was much appreciated by all. There were 12 children participating from CCH. We had a dress rehearsal on 20th August. We hired a bus to bring them and drop them back. Each of the children was given a VYF T-shirt. Nileshwari, Suman and Vandana went to CCH every Sunday morning to practise.
The final show was by Sakwar boys. Self-defence class is conducted by Kishore Gavli at Sakwar, which RKM has adopted. We hired a bus and brought about 40 boys from the village. Sakwar is 70 km from Mumbai. The boys came dressed in their Karate dress and performed all the self-defence techniques very well. Sibashish also gave a commentary and interacted with the audience. He also invited a few people to take part in the exercise of realising the power within. The last function was felicitation of our sponsors, donors, and all the members. Each sponsors, donors were given a papaya sapling wrapped in jute bag with a ribbon tied around it, with a chit explaining how it should be planted along with a book by Swami Vivekananda and a key chain made by the girls in our vocational training programme. Nandita wrapped each of the papaya saplings. Members were given a book “Powers of the Mind” and a key chain.

• GAP
  Government of India is celebrating 150 th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and has donated some amount to the RKM headquarters at Belurmath. Belurmath has given the money to several branches to take up welfare work in the fields of children, women and youth.
  RKM, Mumbai, has given the grant of INR4,26,000 to VYF under the Gadadhar Abhyndaya Prakalpa (GAP) for 2011–12 for the welfare of 100 children aged below 12 years.
  Categories mentioned are nutrition, books and study material, health and hygiene and establishment cost etc. VYF purchased a computer, projector with a screen, school bags, umbrellas, toiletries and educational study materials as well as decided to give some nutritious snacks.
  The aim of this project is to bring a qualitative change in the health and cognitive development of children. For nutritional food, VYF is sponsoring 23 children under GAP. An amount of INR550 per month has been earmarked for each child. Teachers have to purchase 250 ml of milk per day, eggs thrice a week, green leafy vegetables thrice a week and nachani satva thrice a week. A child’s height and weight needs to be checked every two months.
  Under the GAP initiative, VYF offers toiletries to the children from Soup Kitchen and Little Lamps every three months. Soup Kitchen children were given one umbrella and one toothpaste tube, toothbrush and one bottle of oil. The gifts were distributed by Swami Sarvolokanandaji during Christmas.
  Little Lamps children were given one school bag and one umbrella. Children were given samosa and jalebis. Swami Gaurikantha Ananda from RKM headquarters, Belur, came for an inspection of the GAP project on 6 th February 2011.
  Under this project, 100 boys and girls under the age of 11 are educated and their health and nutrition is taken care of. He was satisfied with the progress and wished VYF all the very best.

• DIYA PAINTING; DASSEHRA STALL AT RKM, KHAR
  Diya painting commenced from 12/th September 2011 and within 15 days painting, designing and packaging was completed. This time there were few children for diya painting, but Sandhyalaya children managed to paint, design and pack 1000 diyas. At RKM, things on display included hand painted jute bags, earrings, bracelets, necklace sets, Giggleberry products and diyas. This time the sale was very good. All the goods were sold within 4 days. We had to order for more jute bags and the diyas that were kept for the mission were also taken for sale. We had a great response and the mela was a success.

• DIWALI CELEBRATION
  Mankhurd: 200 children
  Crackers: 200 packets
  Wax diyas: 200 pcs
  Uthni powder: 200 packets
  Rangoli powder: 1 kg for each kutir (5kgs) + 6 colours: red, magenta, green (light& dark), lemon-yellow, orange (200gm x6)
  Few days before the Diwali celebration each kutir was given kite papers, glue, and thread for preparing kandil. Each kutir had made beautiful kandil.
  From Sandhyalaya, five children were taken along as volunteers. The place at CCH was cleaned as Nileshwari and Tanvi along with Sandhyalaya children had reached earlier. Each head boy of a kutir was given rangoli powder and were asked to start the competition. The programme started with a prayer and thereafter the children were divided into 15 groups with 6-7 children in each group along with one volunteer for each group. Kite paper and glue was given to each group and they were asked to make rings out of the same. Later on this was used to decorate entire quadrangle. Purnima di showed slide show of Swami Vivekananda to the children.
  Thereafter the prizes were distributed. The first prize was 1 packet of 10 big anars; second prize was 1 packet of 6 big anars; third, fourth and fifth prize was 1 packet of 10 small anars each. After prize distribution children were given crackers. Dinner was provided by VYF. For dinner dahi raita, puri, chana, papad, pulav and gulab jamun was prepared by Vrinda caterers.

David Sassoon: 180 children
Crackers:180 packets
Diyas: 180 pieces
Uthni powder: 180 packets
Food: 7 kg sev and 5 kg boondi
Soup Kitchen: 25 children
Crackers + diya
Sandhyalaya: 25 children
Crackers+ diya
Crackers consisted of 2 small boxes of roll caps, three chakris, two anars, one rope, 2 pcs of assorted cartoon crackers and one box of fuljhadi.

• DANCE MASTI AT MANKHURD CHILDREN’S HOME
  It is our annual programme at Mankhurd, where children of five kutirs compete with each other in terms of a lively dance performance.
  Nileshwari, accompanied by some children and volunteers from Sandhyalaya, reached the venue at 3.30 pm. The programme started at 5.00 pm with a prayer. Purnima di narrated the story of Jesus Christ and thereafter children were asked to blow the balloons and decorate the quadrangle with the same. One packet of Hippo, one frooti and one mawa cake was distributed among them. The program lasted for three hours. To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, VYF decided to provide one towel to each child. The towels were sponsored by Rehana Deshpande, kedar deshpande, shailesh deshpande and camela Rupani. Alpa Desai arranged for the same from Dadar. Aroon Travels arranged for the bus. We ordered 230 tetrapacks of Frooti and 250 packets of hippo wafers from Jeel Stores in Juhu and 230 pieces of mawa cake.
  Ms. Shweta from Lintus Group agreed to be a judge for Dance Masti’11.
  Prize Distribution
   Small group from Bajrang Kutir won the first prize
   Bigger group: The song “ Jeena yahan, marna yaha, iske siwa jaana kahan” won the prize.

• CHRISTMAS FEST AT TURF CLUB, MAHALAXMI
  An exhibition was put up at Mahalaxmi for Christmas on 3rd and 4th December 2011. Suvarna and Binita opened the stall at 11.00 am. Shweta and Ananya volunteered in the afternoon from 1 pm to 5 pm. The next day Suman, Vandana, Nileshwari and Suresh were the volunteers.
  This is the first time VYF has been invited to participate in the Christmas Fest at Turf Club. The arrangement was very good. Two tables and two chairs were provided for each stall. We showcased jewellery, Swamiji’s literature, slates, education games from Giggleberry and jute bags. It was a new experience, everything, especially food, was very expensive.
  JAMNALAL BAJAJ INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, MARINE LINES
  An exhibition was put up at JBIMS. Students had taken jewellery and giggleberry products from VYF on consignment basis. They sold almost all the products at double the selling price. Entire proceeds were donated to VYF.

• HOLI CELEBRATION AT MANKHURD AND DAVID SASOON
  For holi, 200 packets of colours and 100 gm gulal were distributed at Makhurd, while 180 packets of colours and 100 gm gulal were distributed at David Sasoon. A total of 415 packets of colours and 120 pichkaris were distributed.

• GOVERNMENT LAW COLLEGE
  An exhibition was put up by the Government Law College at their college campus from 27th February to 1st March 2011. They had taken jewellery and books from VYF on consignment basis. However, the sale was quite low.

• ROTRACT CLUB
  Rotract Club of Andheri organised dualathon, where the competition was held for 5.5 kms running and cycling 11 kms. This initiative was to support the cause of lowering carbon emissions for a greener world and educating the underprivileged.
  The proceeds of the marathon were donated to VYF. Sunil Nayak, VYF’s Trustee, accepted the amount and spoke about our organisation. Pankaj Chaudhari accompanied the bigger boys and girls from Sandhyalaya. VYF’s participants were Priyanka, Gazala, Takmina, Rohan, Rizwan and Santosh.
  Shubhada has compiled a dance drama (Odissi) based on Swamiji’s saying which was given to Swami Sarvalokanandaji for approval.

• SAKWAR
  Programme Coordinator: Kishore Gavli
  This program provides martial arts training in Karate & self-defence to the tribal boys and girls from the villages of Sakwar & Embur, on the outskirts of Mumbai. Martial arts training give the children a sense of self-confidence, self-esteem and most of all trains them in self-defence. It is also a creative outlet and a source of self-improvement. Also, it instils in them the initiative and confidence to go out into the competitive world and make a living for themselves and their family, and to achieve excellence in their chosen profession. Nilesh Ghatal is doing an electronic course. He is a black belt holder in Karate. Once a week he conducts training for children in Sakwar. He takes part in Karate competitions and stood second in a Karate competition at Kataj. Amar is doing a motor mechanic course. He is a black belt in Karate and takes classes at Virar.