Newsletter March 2008

Ekal Parivar Samanvay Varg 2008

Instead of a National Samanvay Varg, which was the practice till last year, this year it was decided to have 5 regional Samanvay Vargs. The dates for these were finalized as follows:
West Zone at Bhopal	-	February 16-18
North Zone at Varanasi	-	Feb 23-25
East Zone at Jamshedpur	-	March 1-3
South Zone at Kanyakumari	-	March 21-23
North East Zone at Guwahati	-	April 5-7 .

 

First Samanvay Varg at Bhopal (M.P.)

 The first Samanvay Varg of the year 2008 comprising 5 states of Western Zone of India was held in the campus of LNCT college in Bhopal, MP from 16th to 18th February 2008.

The highlight of the Samanvay Varg

• Samanvay (Coordination) among chapters (SPOs), State Voluntary organizations Anchal Samities, Sankul Samities and the full timers of the field. The session was marked with free and open interactions during group discussions.
• The emphasis was on QUALITY, QUALITY and QUALITY
• Revised System Policy (RSP) of Ekal.
• Swavlamban precedes Swabhiman’ was the focus and the key has to be Swavlamban collection by the Samanvay Samities.
• Resource mobilization and financial management at SVOs and Anchals.
• Activate Anchal and Sankul Samanvay Samities to ensure Swavlamban Collection and monitoring of quality aspect.

Nearly 300 participants from Madhya Bharat, Mahakaushal, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujrat took active part in all the proceedings with enthusiasm. The strong presence from Anchal and Sankul Samanvay Samiti was remarkable.

Ma. Shyamji Gupta has concluded his Sankul Pravas on 14th February 2008. He had started his Sankul Pravas on 13th March 2007.

On account of his grass-root level experience at Sankul level and one to one interaction with grass root workers, Ma. Shyamji has proposed revised version of the Ekal Systems. He presented the Revised System Policy (RSP) of Ekal in detail explaining all the pros and cons of the changes. Later all the participants had open discussion on future action plan.

 

Ekal Global Learning in the land of sunrise

 Ekal Global Learning (EGL) is an annual programme specially designed for NRI volunteers of Ekal Movement to help them to personally experience ground realities of Ekal work on the field. It is meticulously planned for them to get compact and ‘on the spot’ learning of Ekal Systems.

 The participants of EGL

• Sri Ravi Verma, President of EVF Canada and his wife, Smt. Sheela Verma
• Smt Preeti Sharma, Treasurer EVF Canada
• Sri Ram Nehra and Smt Nishi Nehra, Sr Trustee EVF Board, USA
• Dr. Sudhir Prabhu, National VP of EVF USA
• Sri Shyam Mehra and G.S. Choudhury from Ekal Sansthan, delhi
• Sri Harsh Modi, founder member, Youth For Seva, from Kolkata
• Sr Arun Bajaj, National Organising Secretary, FTS, from Guwahati
• Smt Manjushree, National Organising Secretary, Ekal Sansthan, Delhi, gave assistance and guidance to the EGL team throughout.
• Sri Sanjeev Chhetri, the North-East zonal in-charge and his team of full-time volunteers accompanied to see through all the arrangements.

The journey starts

The group of eleven learners ventured out to visit Assam (Northeast regions) where Ekal was started in 1998. The journey began on 5th Jan 2008 from Guwahati and ended on 9th Jan 2008 in Dibrugarh. The EGL team was taken to see most of the fundamental activities of Ekal such as Ekal Vidyalayas, Teachers’ and Arogya Sevikas’ training workshops, training programme of full time volunteers, regional database workshop at Guwahati office, Anchal and Sankal level monthly meetings (Vyavastha Varg) at Golaghat and Jorhat, Gram Samiti Sabha and Ekal Vidyalaya at Balupara Gaon, Gram Vikas projects like vermi-compost in Tinsukia. They also got a taste of local culture and festivities with events like the very special local cultural dance-drama by villagers in Dikom Tea Estate. Sri Subhash Agarwal, President and Sri Lakhan Gupta, secretary, FTS Guwahati accompanied the distinguished guests of EGL up to Kaziranga National Park, the tourist attraction famous for Rhinos. Everybody enjoyed the early morning elephant ride in the jungles of Kaziranga.

The visitors’ team was given a warm welcome by the villagers with full traditional fervor everywhere. ‘Atithi-Pujan’ with welcome songs, music and dance, sprinkling of holy water with flowers, putting vermillion tilak on their forehead, all the aroma and panorama was so enthralling and heart touching that it reminded them of their rich ancestral heritage, which they had left behind for so many years.

The dedication of the local full-time Karyakartas, who organized all the events and looked after all the arrangements silently but intently, touched everybody’s hearts. Raviji, Nehraji and Dr. Prabhu asked plenty of questions and enquired minute details like keen students, and took important notes to help them furnish details to their Ekal associates in USA and Canada. Sri Harsh Modi, the youngest learner, recently back from the USA, keenly observed the tremendous growth Ekal had made since the 1990s when he had visited Jharkhand and Orissa tribal belt with the Youth For Seva group, and earlier with his parents, Ashok and Alka Modi, who are founder members of FTS Kolkata.

Sri G.S. Choudhury found EGL an amazing and eye-opening experience of his life. He joined the Ekal movement immediately. Sri Arun Bajaj, a dynamic functionary, and fluent in Hindi, Marwari and Assamese, took the lead in explaining all the intricacies of the Ekal system to the NRI learners and helped them to interact with grassroot workers directly. Everybody felt free to talk to whomever they pleased.

The Ekal Vidyalaya Ex-Students’ Meet

The ex-students meet was organized at Tinsukia Training Centre. When 140 ex-students of Ekal Vidyalaya studying in government schools in different classes ranging from class IV to class X sitting neatly in class-wise rows introduced themselves smartly to the EGL team, all of them were thrilled. They asked them several questions to which the students answered aptly. The warm interaction between students and the team was inspiring and it also cleared all doubts in their minds.

The EGL team has been equally inspiring to the prominent citizens and members of FTS chapters at Guwahati, Naogaon, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, who welcomed them by organizing special dinner meet and public meetings in their honour. The entire trip was organized well enough that there were minimal difficulties and obstacles.

The EGL was given first page coverage in a leading daily newspaper of Guwahati. All along the trip, a team of photographers organized by Sri Arun Bajaj accompanied the party to capture the entire trip on video and pictures and to later convert it into a film in documentary format.

 

Smt Saroj Gupta heart spoke on the eve of Varanasi Samanvay Varg

These are the few lines composed by Smt Saroj Gupta wife of Shri Subhash Gupta (President EVF USA) ,at the Varanasi Samanvay varg which was held from 23-25th February 2008.She recited at the closing ceremony of the varg. This was the first hand experience for the couple to meet our full time karyakartas who are the backbone of our ekal system.

 

Vanyatra Report of Kanker Anchal of Chhattigarh Kshetra

Vanyatra Report of  Kanker Anchal on dt. 17/02/08 in Vishrampuri Sanch in the following Village


1. Pitisphal
2. Hatma of Chhattisgarh Kshetra

 

Ekal updates - Ekal Vidyalaya

Current: Number of Ekal Schools:  24,006 Number of Children: 720,182

 

Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad’s new chapter to be inaugurated in Ludhiana

Opening of the LUDHIANA chapter of Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad has been fixed for the 2nd of March, 2008.
Please make it convenient to grace this occasion.

 

Ekal updates - Arogya

Current: Number of Arogya Sevikas and Centres:  11,324