News updates

Asha for Education, US has arranged a donation of 3 laptops for Sandnya. These used laptops were donated by UTI Nagpur branch. These laptops will be used in office and PC will be shifted to our vocational training section for our mentally challenged students. We will try to make our office paperless in due time. At the same time by using PC in Vocational section we can train the eligible students.

Sandnya News: From next academic year Sandnya News will be up graded to 4 pages from currently 2 pages. There would be dedicated columns like, "from parents", from teachers or from trust office etc. We wish to include our well wishers also for expressing their views as well.

Driver: We are in the process of recruiting fourth driver and interviews are under way.

Vacations: Care group and pre- primary students have gone on summer vacations from 15th April. They will come back on 15th June. Remaining students from special schooling will go on vacation from 1st May and shall return to classes from 15th June.

Residential camp: As usual Sandnya is conducting a residential camp for their selected students from 4 th May to 11 th May in Sandnya Srushti campus. The student selection process is underway and the list of selected candidates will be declared soon. This camp is closely supervised by President and Secretary of SSS as they also stay here along with students.

Why we should depend on Government for everything?

In todays news paper there is a news which says that in Anandpur Sahib a Sant Labha Singh Baba has built a bridge costing about Rs. 20 crore with the " Kar seva" from villagers and with out government money. Sant Labh Singh Baba is not the only one to do this. There are lot of people in this country who have been doing lot of work for public good sans government help.

I personally feel why should we look at government or public representatives for every thing? Are they not acting like agents and using only our money? Apart from this, these people executing public work has its own problems like corruption and escalated cost as well and in turn higher taxes.

There are many areas where NGOs can perform far better. From our own experience of  running 'Sandnya' since last 20 years is a ample proof of what I say. We have been operating with out government aid since last 20 years and the only funding source is donations from philanthropic people. We have a monthly expanse of Rs.3.00 lacks plus and there are 45 people employed. It is worth noting that in last 20 years the salary of our staff is not delayed even for one day. I sincerely believe that ours is not a exceptional case. There must be lot of NGOs working for good cause with honesty and sincerity and obviously with out government aid.

In last month only "Sandnya" has purchased third bus for its mentally challenged students which has costed us Rs.15.4 lacks. And the whole amount came through small donations with in a period of 18 months. We do not consider this as a miracle but it is only the result of sincere, honest, and selfless efforts. Sandnya is a Divine Intervention and thus functions smoothly.

Parent Meeting 30th March'13

Last parent meeting of this academic session was held on 30th March'13 at Wadegaonkar Sabhagrah, Blind Relief Society, South Ambazari Road Nagpur at 2:30 pm. There were about 75 parents and the meeting was chaired by Chairman of SSS Dr.RM Uttarwar and Secretary, Navin Deshpande.

Meeting was conducted by Principal, Mr. Alok Dwivedi. He dwelt with the routine agenda which included general instructions like student hygiene, attendance and bus stoppages etc apart from progress report distribution schedule for each class, readmission form submission, summer camp, and summer vacation schedule. He then handed over the mick to Secretary.

Secretary informed the house about the third new bus arrival in Sandnya Srushti and complimented the parents for their initiative and contribution in purchasing this new bus. He told the house that management of SSS appreciates this gesture which indicates that parents have developed the sense of belonging which is most important. He said while the arrival  of new bus is a good news indeed, it also brings few undesirable things along with it. Like, since the existing student load is in excess of permissible limit for the two buses, it must be redistributed in three buses now. That means the running expenses will go up by 1/3 but the number of contributors will remain same. It is thus mandatory to raise this amount to Rs.1200/- pm from Rs.1000/- pm. He further informed that till now teachers using this bus facility without any charge. henceforth they will also be contributing some amount which will be subsidized.

He also conveyed that the wait list has gone up to 59 and we will not be easing this anyway in the coming academic session. He added, we need to have additional class rooms constructed, additional staff recruited and obviously forth bus also if fresh admissions are to be made.. He said every now and than wait listed parents and specially desperate mothers come to his office and requests the out of turn admission for her son/daughter for her being a special case. While negating this request he is at a loss to answer when will this wait list be cleared or how long it will take for her child to get admission, secretary narrated. He told the hose that management is seriously trying to add in to infrastructure for easing this wait list at the earliest but regrated that it can not be done immediately.

Dr. Uttarwar, opened the topic of "future of our special children"  and any ideas and he put forward his views as a parent. Not many parents could add to this. The meeting was called off after the tea.

section of the parents present

Principal, Mr.Alok Dwivedi conducting the proceedings

Navin Deshpande, Secretary addressing the gathering

Chairman, Dr.RM Uttarwar expressing his views

Approach which is different

Few of our mentally challenged students are of profoundly or severely retarded category. And obviously you find very slow or in some cases near to zero improvement. I say near to zero because I feel there can not be a zero improvement. Because if we are giving input then there ought to be some positive result. For a simple reason and for the eternal principal of cause and effect. I firmly believe that  every action will produce a effect however small or minimum it could be. Yes some results or effects could be tangible and some could not be. If we normal humans can not notice a resultant effect it does not mean it is not there. It only means I or we can not sense it.

Why I am discussing this? Few days back we had a  AGB meeting of Sandnya and point of wait list was being discussed. Few members said, if there is no progress in a particular student how long we continue to keep him? Few members felt in such cases, parents treat Sandnya as a baby seating arrangement rather than a professional institute.

My personal contention is that it is not important what parents think. For me it is more important what we think about this fact. And in this context, I feel there can be no case with zero improvement, it is our short coming that we can not notice effect of our input. I do understand the concern of trustee members regarding demotivation of our staff in such cases. But it is the moral responsibility of the management to see that staff understands the spiritual philosophy behind this approach. It is our  moral responsibility that we do not think about the result, while planning the input let us consider the current status of the student.

For a spiritual thought, thinking about results is as good as expecting some thing from your deeds. And that is not correct. One must continue to do his duty honestly and sincerely  and the result be left to the " All Mighty". In my personal view Sandnya is not a charitable project or venture but it is a spiritually guided "Divine" work. And there for we at Sandnya can not afford to think the way this materialistic world think.

Most of the people around us do not understand the all round success of Sandnya. Most of the people including our close ones think that it is us who is behind the story of Sandnya since last 20 years. But it is not true, though it looks apparently that way. I am fully aware that why Sandnya is what it is? why it is? how it runs the way it runs! And why it stands all alone so mightily? I have not a slightest doubt that unless it is a "DIVINE" work it can not work the way it is going on. And that is why I am not worried about its future also. Who am I to worry? Am I a "DOER" ? Not at all!  "HE" is the one who does everything we are only the means to deliver his wish. That is all in it.

Awareness Meeting

On 6th March'13, Wednesday secretary of Sandnya, Navin Deshpande addressed 70 MBA students of Datta Meghe Institute of Management Studies, Atre Nagar, Nagpur. He was called for the guest lecture and the topic was mental disability and its management. Dr. Sujit Metre has joined as a  Director of this Institute since last four months. Dr.Metre is associated with Sandnya since last seven years as then the Director of Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Management Studies. This orientation lecture went for about one hour and fifteen minutes. Dr. Metre promised that his students will also support this noble cause in all possible ways including promoting sales of goods produced in our rehab units. This Institute has already started purchasing bouquets made in our rehab unit.

Thus a new educational institute is attached to Sandnya, a good beginning of the new year.

As said in earlier blog that we have received the third bus for commuting our mentally challenged students. We have got the third bus is a good news but the problem we are facing is for parking space for our buses. Currently the two existing buses are being parked in Narendra Nagar with the compound wall of our chairman's house. Since traffic in this area is not that heavy we do not face much problem. We realize that this is not the proper arrangement. In fact we have given a undertaking to the RTO authorities that our vehicles will not be parked on any road. While registering these buses the parking space shown is in Sandnya Srushti campus, Butibori. But the pick up points are obviously in Nagpur city. So we have no option but to park buses in Nagpur only. We are intently looking for a vacant plot in west part of Nagpur and preferably on Wardha road. The main limitation is we can not purchase a plot for the exorbitant property rates in Nagpur. We are looking for some philanthropic sole to help us out by donating a plot/house in Nagpur where we can have our buses parked and our city office as well.

While discussing this matter with one of our well wishers, he said in to days materialistic world who will donate such a valuable asset?

On the face of the matter what he said is right. But then the correct answer would " if this work is Divine, than "HE" will have to arrange for a so called Philanthropic sole through him it will be done. The whole "Sandnya" is being run by the All Mighty since last 20 years. Every moment he is guiding us in this regard also "HE" will find the way out, I am certain.

Third school bus coming .......

Sandnya is in need of third 40 seat bus for their mentally challenged students. The cost of the new bus is now Rs.16.00 lacks. We have been trying to raise the fund for this bus since last one and half years. Few of our student's parents took lot of interest in fund raising. They not only contributed themselves but approached their friends and acquaintances as well. Thus they helped partially to raise the amount. This is for the first time in 20 years history of Sandnya that parents helped in raising funds.

 We never asked parents for this. We at Sandnya have full realization about parents condition and thus have always avoided putting any additional burden on them. But this time few parents voluntarily came forward and offered to help raise funds. We are not only happy but thank them profusely for this voluntary gesture. This shows the sense of belonging and we certainly appreciate this.

We have now booked the 40 seat bus with the advance payment of Rs.5.00 lacks. Bus is likely to be delivered in two weeks time.

Parent Support Initiatives

Having a mentally challenged child in the family is obviously a additional responsibility and a challenge itself. When we say additional, that means there is already existing responsibility to be taken care of. When we say family, it has intra family factors which involve family members, then inter family factors and obviously we have social inter action as well. So having a mentally challenged child attracts additional interactive problems. In almost all events parents are involved. Mother bares maximum family burden. So at Sandnya we observed that many times for parents it becomes very difficult to manage this stress. There could be many ways to reduce or minimize this stress.

Rev. Swami Pitambaranand addressing parents

Parents of our students

We organized a spiritual discourse of Rev. Swami Pitambaranand of Ramkrishna Kuti, Rishikesh.

One such meeting was organized on 9th March'13 at Wadegaonkar Hall, Blind Relief Society, South Ambazari Road, Nagpur. This discourse was for one hour and Swamiji tried to explain to parents how they can change the approach in encountering a difficult situation. He stressed that, it is our mental perspective that matters in challenging or critical situations. He emphasized that for GOD every one is same. There is no factor of partiality. Similarly, since this special child has come to you, it means that GOD feels that you are competent to take care of this special child. So on account of this special child let us not get frustrated. Let us learn to remain calm as much as possible and almost for all the time. Accepting all situations as they come and that too calmly is really means we believe in GOD in true sense.

Swamiji tried to tell them that they should not feel discriminated, every human has some or the other problems. And it is our capacity to face such critical situations which determines our faith in the Almighty.

This initiative is all about helping parents to coup up with this typical situation of having a mentally challenged child.

Towards the end of year 2012-13

Years come years go! Sandnya is completing 20 years in the service of mentally challenged. If we look from one angle 20 years is not a big period for an organizations life span. But look from the perspective that Sandnya does not take government aid right from its inception and the only funding source is philanthropy. This philanthropic support becomes more appreciable when we note that more than 80% supporters are small amount donors. Consider more than 400+ people donating different small amounts with remarkable consistency for since last 20 years. Another aspect of people's support is, only 42% comes through monthly donation and the rest of the amount comes as adhoc donations from general people not known to us. In the year ending 31st March'13 we are spending close to Rs.60 lacks. What makes people support us in such a big way with exceptional consistency? Why should people have faith in us? And let us understand one more thing, in most of the instances we do not ask for donations. In majority of cases it is a voluntary contribution. There are good number of people around us who do not yet believe that an organization can sustain for such a long period of 20 years without government aid and with such a excellent infrastructure and exceptionally remarkable quality of service.

One of the important philosophies in which we at Sandnya believe is " there are more number of good people in this world than otherwise'. This is one major reason for us getting such good support consistently. Another reason why people continue to have faith in us is the undaunted integrity of Sandnya management in its conduct. It is the absolute transparency on the part of Sandnya management which motivates people to support us through out this 20 year period.

We at Sandnya firmly believe that "Sandnya" is a DIVINE intervention and we are only the means to serve. We do not claim any credit, because we very well know that "HE" does every thing and we are supposed to follow "HIS" guidelines.