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Puraskara 2006 – A Report
Puraskara, ILP’s annual event recognizing the
accomplishments of students rescued from child labor, was held at Mythic
Society in Bangalore City on Oct 28th 2006. The guests
arrived & were seated on the dais. They were Mr. Sampatoor Vishwanath,
who writes for Children,Mr Umashanker Periodi, Project Lead- Learning
Gaurantee Program, Azim Premji Foundation and Mr. Babu of HP ISO, Mr. Ravi
mani represented ILP . Shambulinga , Purushottam, Netravathi & Nusrat
Banu were the children’s representatives.
After the invocation & welcome speeches, Victor Tauro, ILP
India Coordinator, gave an introduction to ILP. He focused on the
importance of education in India & how ILP is working towards
that. This was followed by a talk by Ravi Mani, ILP India Chairman of
the Board, on the origins of Puraskara. Ravi talked about the
objectives of this event & how it attracted volunteers especially.
Then it was the turn of the children to speak about themselves
& what they wanted to be. Shambulinga talked about becoming an IAS
officer,. Purushottam talked about how happy he was to get the support of
ILP which is seeing him through studies in spite of his poor economic
conditions. Netravathi talked about her ambition of becoming a teacher
& Nusrat Banu about becoming a lawyer.
Mr. Vasudev Sharma of CACL gave an impressive presentation on
the status of literacy in Karnataka, This was straight from government
records & showed how the drop out levels at different levels defeated
all positive figures & percentages presented about Literacy
Mr. Sampatoor Vishwanath talked about joys of childhood, his
own ambitions of being a teacher & his pride in that profession. He was
happy to see his many students including Mr.Vasudev sharma doing well in
life & contributing to society. He commended ILP on giving a gift to
children which could never be taken away and ask the children to make best
use of the facilities. He also proposed that like Master
Kishan’s documentary “Footpath”, ILP can also make a
documentary on the children & their success stories. He commended the
corporates & NGOs like ILP who are giving back to society , like the
kannada saying “Kereya neeranu kerege chelli”. (Pour the water
of the lake, back to the lake)
Mr. Periodi, the chief guest, spoke next and congratulated the
children for their achievements, He also commended the volunteers for their
desire to give back to society. According to him, hoarding is against the
law of future & it applies to all aspects of life. He urged the
children to dream and always look at the big picture. He gave an example of
a person seeing just the rock he was chiseling and the other of seeing the
palace that was being built from that rock.
All the children were given certificates and goodie bags
followed by vote of thanks, national anthem & a sumptuous lunch
ILP-DC Chapter – 2006
Music event update
 The 3rd annual
Bollywood music event was held at the Ernst Cultural Center in Annandale, VA on a mild Fall evening in September. The performance featured the
“Bollygeet Bandits” an accomplished local band [who have also
been long-time supporters of ILP] playing old & new Bollywood songs as
well as some Punjabi folk music. The event featured a first-time
collaboration between the ILP-DC chapter and volunteers from Utsav, a
not-for-profit cultural organization of people of Indian origin living in
the Northern Virginia area.
The band performed for more than
2 years aptly juggling foot tapping numbers to match the mood of the
audience. An introduction to ILP and its mission was given to the public
during intermission followed by a feature presentation of the 15th
year anniversary Video. We hope to see this year’s enthusiastic
participants return in 2007 bringing many more new attendees with them
Start of a Movement
A volunteer’s
impression of the benefit dinner hosted by ILP-CA on 4th Nov
2006
by Abhishek Singhal
Vision of a social change is a
powerful stimulant. The strong passion it evokes helps drive a non-profit
organization. With a goal as grand as changing the face of a whole nation,
ILP has certainly thrived on this energy. However, it takes a movement to
change a nation and the march towards such a goal can be a long, arduous
and sometimes even debilitating journey. In the grind of planning for the
next milestone, the vision and how to attain it can sometimes get
obfuscated. The organization has to rejuvenate itself and re-map the road
ahead. ILPs annual benefit dinner this year marked an event in its history
which saw the emergence of ILP with renewed enthusiasm to transform the
nation.
The organization used the
benefit dinner to outline its future strategy with donors and volunteers.
Venki Venkatesh, one of the founders of ILP, sketched the
organization’s plans to grow beyond supporting projects in individual
villages, to extending its model to districts and even state levels. ILP
plans to achieve its goals by sharing its experience with organizations
with similar goals and advocating better policy and greater resource
allocation from the Government.
This year’s event, for
the first time, provided a chance to all three of pillars of the
organization – volunteers, donors and the ones who convert organization’s
vision into reality, staff in India, to share and debate their outlook.
Through an interactive session with its staff-members in India, the event provided a unique glimpse into ground realities in implementing projects. An
enacted account of a project (based on 3 actual ILP projects) and an
interactive session that followed brought forth ILP’s philosophies
and the challenges volunteers face in bringing change to a region.
Many of us have recognized the
need for Government action to realize our dream of a 100% literate India. Almost all have expressed apprehension about the realism of the dream, given the
apathy in the administrative framework in the Government. The chief guest
of the evening, Ms. Inderjit Khurana allayed some of these concerns.
Ms. Khurana, the Guest of Honor for the evening’s proceedings
recounted how her modest school that started on a railway platform has
grown into a movement. Her candid breach of law in using Government
property was not-only overlooked but also later supported by the
responsible authorities. At every step of the way, she found the strength
of vision to overcome the challenges. Her success gives us conviction in
our ambitions.
The evening wasn’t
without color. Jaini, an accomplished singer and two-time semi-finalist in
Sa-Re-Ga-Ma graced the event with beautiful renditions of Jagjit Singh
ghazals.
ILP patrons and supporters
pledged over $84000 during the course of the evening to help further the
cause of literacy. Funds, however, are only a part of the success. The
event showcased ILP’s continued evolution in leading a movement of
people towards a 100% literate India.
CA Chapter volunteer team
at the Benefit Dinner
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