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Bazinga: DU to Give Free Attendance for Social Work

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University of Delhi (DU) released an official notification stating that free attendance would be provided for social work, and  for the promotion of social awareness among students.

After continuous protests by All India Students Activism (AISA), DU has agreed to recognise social work as a parameter for attendance concession. 

On 12th October, the Varsity released a notification on its website, stating that social work has now become applicable for attendance concession, along with sports and various extra curricular activities. This step has been taken to promote social work and humanitarian relief initiatives among the students. 

Earlier, AISA, along with National Service Scheme (NSS), was protesting in North Campus to demand free attendance for social relief activities. The main aim was to bring NSS and social work  at par with the cultural societies that are largely celebrated in the University circuit. Kamalpreet Kaur, President, AISA, told DU Beat, “Students who spend their time working for the society, going on relief trips or workshops often face repercussions when they miss classes. They get punished instead of rewarded.“

The University, in their press release, has regulated that minimum of 50 hours of service per week is required to be eligible for 33 percent attendance concession. NSS representatives and core team will be eligible for 7 percent more than the rest. 

The criterion as extends its benefits to students not affiliated to NGOs, and are working towards betterment of the society apart from NSS. Activities involving education of the underprivileged, awareness about sanitation and hygiene , working against discrimination, social awareness drives, book donations, cleanliness drives and plantation drives have been recognised under this. 

Students who are not part of NSS, but are working with recognised NGOs and companies are also eligible for the attendance. Independent students with valid certificates as per the list released by the university also come under this category. The lack of NSS enrolment has been the major factor for this decision. 

The notification, however, still does not recognise Women Development Cell for free attendance but students with valid certificates can still apply for the confession. 

Yagesh Tyagi, Vice Chancellor of DU, said, “Delhi University is a premier institution of India. We want each and every student to contribute to India’s upliftment. Social work is as important as any course or society.”

He also added that the aim is to integrate social work in mainstream activities of the University. Allegedly, the University will further take steps to integrate social work quota even for admissions.

 

Feature image credits: Gauri Ramachandran for DU Beat

Chhavi Bahmba 

[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

Pros of Volunteering with an NGO While in College

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The social service sector is a fast-growing one, with thousands of new nonprofit organisations coming into existence every year. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) serving various pertinent issues have become a common occurrence, especially in the subcontinent’s bigger cities.

 

Until a couple of years ago, the concept of ‘nonprofits’ was mostly correlated with foreign organisations working in third world countries. Growing awareness and the emergence of big Indian companies paved the way for some of the earliest home-grown nonprofit organisations. Its widespread media coverage and the youth’s growing demand to help their fellow citizens have made nonprofit organisations the most favoured amongst college students. Choosing the right NGO, or in fact, making the decision to work for any NGO at all may seem like a daunting task. To simplify the same, here is a list of pros of working with a nonprofit organisation while in college:

A Novel Experience

Working for any form of nonprofit organisation can be a new, and sometimes intimidating process. If you lack prior experience of working for a non-governmental association, keeping an open mind is important. Depending on the NGO, you may get opportunities to work in remote villages, multinational companies, foreign countries etc. Meeting people from various walks of life as well as working for the welfare of those in need can prove to be a new experience altogether.

A Career-Changing Tenure

Many people find themselves falling in love with the prospect of helping other beings during their tenure with nonprofit organisations. Some may convert this new-found passion for helping others into a career and choose to continue working with these NGOs or get professional degrees, thereby gaining easy access to the world of social service.

A CV Booster

Having a snazzy Curriculum Vitae (CV) in this competitive job market is a must, especially for those looking for employment for the first time. People partake in several summer schools and competitions throughout their school and college lives. However, adding social service or even heading nonprofit organisations that come under the National Service Scheme (NSS) in colleges can add luminosity to your CV. It sets you apart from many, allowing your CV to champion over the others’.

An Edge Over Your Competitors

Modern-day Universities stress a great deal on the requirement of social service hours. They prefer applicants with at least some social service work in their academic career, over those with none. It highlights how socially responsible a student is. Foreign universities may even list social service as a mandatory requirement for entry to various courses.

Delhi has a number of nonprofit organisations on offer for those interested in an enriching experience. The Smile Foundation, Goonj, Teach for India and Circle of Animal Lovers are a few amongst the many organisations that give people of all ages a chance to help make the world a better place.

 

Feature Image Credits: Teach For India

Meher Gill
[email protected]

 

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Features

Asmat: Crowd funding for upcoming health camp in Rajasthan village

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Even though, I’m stuck some thousands of miles away pegging away on abstract Economic concepts, writing on Asmat and the village we’ve been working in is somehow easy and the memory is lucid and detailed. That’s not surprising. Working in the village of Soda in Rajasthan is  the most important thing I’ve done, and it motivated my Masters.

 

Lavanya Garg, the co-founder of Asmat, had a model of rural volunteering in her mind after teaching children in Cape Town, South Africa. She wanted to design an organization such that students from all over the country would volunteer as part of an ongoing program and cater to the needs of the village. Essentially, we wanted to design a programme for the development of the village, and as a by-product sensitize urban young Indians about the problems facing rural India. I still remember when she had to call the village leader of Soda, Sarpanch Chavvi Rajawat (yields an interesting google search) in 2013. The nervousness we felt about calling someone who’d done the unthinkable –  quit her well-paying corporate job to devote herself to working in her ancestral village was fairly justifiable.

 

Our journey after that phone call wherein she more than happily agreed to have us volunteer has been fascinating. Each volunteer has their story, possibly each villager has his/her story over the past two and a half years over the course of 6 volunteering programs. Each program had its own story. They do keep coming back at times least expected. The story about how Lavanya had to pretend she was a journalist when a small tussle broke out between villagers. Or how hard it was to not get angry when the boys didn’t understand they had to respect their female classmates and let them answer, but understand and explain calmly. Or just the village’s immense natural beauty – the fields, the reservoir as the sun sets, the chai in the cold winter mornings.

 

But coming back to our work, before I get lost in missing. I mentioned that our aim was to cater to the village’s needs. We started off with wanting to work on education that isn’t covered by school curricula. We’ve encapsulated more notions of non-academic education along the way, expanding the age group we cater to and the concepts we talk about. We’ve brought in sessions on awareness on government schemes, alcohol and tobacco – a rampant issue, health and hygiene. Additionally, something that is really close to our hearts, understanding the taboo that revolves around menstrual hygiene and ensuring that the girls adopt sanitary practices. It has been brilliant to hear of the adoption of sanitary pads by women in subsequent programs. We’ve covered all 10 hamlets of the village; we understand its breadth, the communities’ dreams and aspirations for their children. We also know better than to view it as one homogenous unit.  In one of the many conversations while working, the Sarpanch recognized how we could not do away with even one element of our work. Only the combination of all these, recognizing different needs will lead to holistic change.

 

At this point in Asmat’s career, two and a half years into inception, two and a half years remaining on our (Soviet-like) 5 year plan, it’s a good time to look back and understand what we want to keep going and how. Since hindsight favours you with wisdom, Asmat will be streamlining its activities down to maximize their impact. Now is the time to spread our wings a little wider, go into our projects and particular sessions a bit deeper. In order to attain the depth and maximal impact, we require urgent cash-flow to our organisation. We hope to raise Rupees 80,000. A small sum for many NGOs, a big sum for one village and the possibilities. The next paragraph details the usage, that injection of funds will allow which I hope will make you consider donating.

 

This winter, we’re looking at a two-day health camp, a necessity for many since the nearest hospital is far. The camp will cost 40,000 in order to pay the doctors’ honorarium and their stay in the village, as well as costs of setting up and getting much needed medicines to the village. Why do we think the village needs this? In the second program, we conducted a survey on the effectiveness of public pension schemes in the village. The pensioners struggles were immeasurably hard, and we tried to bring down their stories in  a line in our little survey pads. The lack of a good hospital nearby stood out, since they spent a substantial portion of their pensions just getting to the nearest hospital. Apart from diseases that afflict the elderly, tuberculosis and kwashiorkor are pertinent problems as well that we hope to address.

 

We’re looking at books and videos, teaching materials for the children to sensitize them on issues such as good touch bad touch. It’s hard to get their attention but more importantly hard to find ways of making them understand how they can and should resist issues which they are not used to discussing in rural India. We’re looking to train women on banking and bookkeeping , not just in order to ensure that the women can start their own business but also to be able to save a little more for their girl children. Books, personalised for the village, projectors, stationery and equipment for holding sessions will cost around 10,000 rupees. One of our greatest losses has been the number of volunteers we’ve lost because traveling to Soda turns out more expensive. With Rupees 10,000, we can ensure brilliant  volunteers are subsidised. Some of our work, such as using cotton to make simple biodegradable pads, was thought of by creative volunteers,which we hope to take forward and turn into a bigger thing.

 

Our fundraising is not just tied to one exact goal. For a meagre sum of Rs. 2500, this winter, we will be able to educate 30 women in Soda about government health schemes that they can avail of, sensitize 10 adolescents about the ill effects of substance abuse and make 20 women financially literate. The value added through this money, which is probably the cost of your next pair of jeans, will be much greater than the sum of its parts, as the positive effects will only multiply.

Kavya Saxena

Co-founder, Asmat

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Features

LECIN celebrates one year of educating underprivileged children

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LECIN ( Let’s  Educate Children In Need ), is an organisation that reaches out to children from the underprivileged sections of society, and provides them with a platform to express their talents in a better manner. Set up in May 2015, the journey began to provide quality education by founder Nupur Bhardwaj from Ramanujan College, later joined by other dedicated students of various DU colleges.

The NGO operates in two slum areas, namely, Indraprastha and Govindpuri. Volunteers and interns visit the slums on weekends to teach and spend time with the kids and understand their growth and improvement. Currently, more than fifty active volunteers are teaching almost fifty students from the age of 4-12 year in both the slum areas.

Other activities undertaken include Kalakriti based on art and craft, Naitikta, relating to moral values and Rubaroo, an interaction activity where children play games and discuss issues concerning them.

IMG-20160602-WA0037

The organisation celebrated their first annual day, Unnati 2016, at the Delhi Public Library, Chandini Chowk. The event saw children performing songs and dancing on Bollywood numbers along with poem recitation. Jazba, the dramatics society of Ramanujan College performed a comedy play themed around childhood followed by an interaction session between the team and the children, where the senior members of the team also shared their personal experiences.

LECIN recently reached the Semi-Finals of the Yuva Chetna Awards as a result of the persistent efforts of the team in educating children.

Funds, absenteeism, and reluctance of parents to send the children remain few of the many hurdles faced by the team, but the positive response from the kids and the bond between the volunteers and kids motivates the NGO to work in the face of challenges.

Read more about LECIN’s work and initiatives on their Facebook page.

Inputs from Gagandeep Singh Vaid

Feature image: Harsh Bhatt

Shefali Bharati

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

UMEED- ‘A Drop of Hope’ that every child deserves

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We can easily agree that childhood is the most beautiful phase in a person’s life. Majority of us have been blessed to live with such comforts and joys that we are  able to recollect our own childhood memories with bitter-sweet nostalgia. For some however, they may only remain bitter. I talk about those whom we come across at least once in our daily lives, selling flowers and toys on the roadside, malnutritioned kids performing acrobatic acts and dangerous stunts in the hope of alms or children roaming helplessly in the streets without shelter, clothes or even a few drops of water to quench their thirst. They eventually either resort to begging or get chained in the dungeons of work where they are repeatedly exploited under grueling conditions.

For Subhrajeet Gautam, a young college student like many of us, this remained a frequent sight. What really made him different though, was that unlike most of us, he did something about it. Driven by an extraordinary dream to see a day where no child would be deprived of basic essentials such as food, clothing, education and medical security, he joined his college social service society to gain substantial knowledge. Through the society he not only visited children in slums and hospitals, but even held regular classes for those living on the streets to gain basic education. On 26th January, 2011 with an amount of just Rs. 1,500 in his pocket, he formed an organization called Umeed- a Drop of Hope, with a small camp of cloth donation as its first campaign towards humanity.

Since its inception, it was Mr. Subhrajeet’s spirited passion and conviction that “all individuals, in their own little ways, possessed the power to become great agents of change” which drove Umeed to make a significant difference in the lives of more than 80, 000 children. Umeed was also honoured as the most active NGO of Delhi and Rajasthan by Smt. Sheila Dikshit and Ashok Gehlot in 2011.

To promote social service and inspire every human soul to understand the true importance of caring for other human beings who are not as gifted or fortunate enough is the main aim of Umeed. Their social activities and community service operations include donations of basic amenities like provision of food, medicines and clothes to the needy, education to the underprivileged children and every possible help to poor families including an enhancement of their living conditions by providing them a healthy, safe and happy environment. By means of Nukkad-Natak- street theatrical performances, awareness campaigns and educational programs, they also work towards the improvement of social welfare and eradication of poverty, illiteracy and other deep-rooted evils of the society.

What started as a campaign with only one hundred volunteers in 2011, today comprises of more than 30, 000 volunteers in over seven states of the country, transforming it into a National-level NGO.
In Delhi, the team of Umeed has been working on three projects. They are:-

KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL (KFA): To encourage students with ample knowledge to invest a few hours of their days in teaching underprivileged children. This project runs in three slum areas namely Kirti Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Indraprastha.

PARIDHAN: A cloth drive in which volunteers are required to collect unusable clothes, books, toys, stationary, etc from residential areas or colleges, and after getting them recycled, are made to distribute among the poorest families and children of the societies who need them the most. It urged to spread the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Realize” mentality among everyone in the society.

GO GREEN 16: An initiative to save the environment by promoting afforestation all over the country and making our planet earth greener and more beautiful through means of tree plantation, tree adoption, drip irrigation etc.

Sonal Garg, an active volunteer of the mission KFA at Laxmi Nagar believes that, “Every child is an extremely passionate and curious learner. Every now and then, I am surprised to come across children who are so ingenuously dedicated towards their studies that when it’s time for them to leave, they become sad and beg us to stay for as much time as possible, and teach them something new. Their little enthusiasm-filled eyes speak of how much strength and wisdom they possess even in the worst conditions of life. You even form a special bond with them which compels you to come back again and again.”

Thus, every person with a simple desire to serve the society wholeheartedly can be a part of the Umeed family. They offer virtual as well as summer internships. To apply, log on to www.umeedngo.org and fill in the form requested.
For more information, visit:-
Facebook page – www.facebook.com/umeedthehope

Image Credits: www.umeedngo.org

Shagun Marwah

[email protected]

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DUB Speak

NGO Asmat opens application for Summer Internship 2016

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Come summer and Asmat NGO will be heading back to Soda village in Rajasthan for conducting a comprehensive program on a host of socio-civic issues. Currently, they are inviting applications for their Summer Internship Program 2016. A batch of interns will be selected to plan their program in March-April, and head down to Soda in June for ten days to implement the same. If you’ve always felt strongly about development and the debates surrounding it, now is your time to contribute, and play an active role. Now is the time to switch from empty talk to focused action.

To apply, head to: www.asmatindia.org/work-with-us

Last date to apply: 21st February, 2016

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Asmat is an NGO founded and run by students of Delhi University. It aims to bring about a concrete change at the grassroots level via youth mobilisation. We have adopted a village in rural Rajasthan – Soda, where we have been working on issues of education, governance and sensitisation since October 2013 under the guidance of its Sarpanch, Ms. Chhavi Rajawat who is the first woman Sarpanch in India with an MBA.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The group of interns will be involved in the planning stage of the program in March and April through regular meetings with the Asmat team. For twenty days in the summer (tentatively end May-June), two batches of interns will be living and working in the village over the course of ten days each, and implementing their program.

Tentative Dates: End May – June, 2016 (for both programs; exact dates subject to change post consultation with the interns and Asmat team members)

  • Accommodation and food shall be provided at the Sarpanch’s residence at nominal costs.
  • We shall provide food but interns to carry their own bedding and any medication that they might need.

IMG-20160207-WA0006

TAKE AWAYS

Intangible

Being a part of the program will:

  • Lead to a first hand understanding of issues at the grassroots level.
  • Help redefine reality of village life, highlight the problems faced and solution possible, specifically solutions that students can be a part of.
  • Give the students an opportunity to dwell upon the field of development and have questions answered by an eminent personality working in the field.
  • Being part of a network of like minded youth and a budding youth organisation.

Tangible

  • Certificate of volunteering given by an NGO registered under the societies registration Act, 1860 and Letter of Recommendation if exemplary work during the program.
  • Working towards the development of a village under the guidance of first woman Sarpanch in India with an MBA – great addition to your resume.

COST

  •  Train Tickets (to Jaipur)
  •  Cost of bus from Jaipur to Soda
  •  Living cost and cost for food which will be at very nominal rates.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

To apply, you need to be 16 years or older. We require parental approval from those below 18. We are open to interns from any stream or course. Please note that you will be required to research intensively and plan creatively for the various areas you will work on in the village.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply, please fill the form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qEzhNXUDE3dbpSLrvNAkHN77uEXTRuy7ddSiABQXkSg/viewform?c=0&w=1

Please note that APPLICATIONS CLOSE AT 11.59 PM, 21st February, 2016.  If shortlisted, group discussion and personal/Skype interview rounds will follow.

In case of any queries, please do not hesitate to contact:

Tushar: +91 9873388796

Raghuvendra: +91 9818173795 

Mail queries can be sent to [email protected].

 

www.asmatindia.org | fb.com/asmat.india | Twitter: @asmatindia | Instagram: Asmatngo

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Action for Animal Welfare: An NGO by students of LSR

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Action for Animal Welfare (AAW) is an apolitical, non-profit organization co-founded by Shreya Gandhi and Saachi Bhatia, students of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

AAW was set up with the objective of generating awareness about the legal rights of abandoned as well as domesticated animals. It aids various animal welfare organisations and small shelter homes to raise funds and works as a space for young policy makers, environmentalists and enthusiastic animal lovers to share their views on animal protection and suggest fruitful policy changes.

Very recently the NGO organised a cultural event called ‘Potpourri’ at Bandstand, Hauz Khas, to raise funds for animal welfare organisation. It had multifarious activities like slam poetry, interaction with spirited novelists and music performances to keep the crowd engaged. It was their first large scale event which helped them raise approximately 20,000 for a good cause.

Action for Animal Welfare's event, Potpourri.
A performer at Action for Animal Welfare’s cultural event, Potpourri.

 

In the past they have conducted two collection drives – at Sri Venkateswara College and Lady Shri Ram College for Women to help stop the shut down of Friendicoes, a Delhi-based animal welfare NGO. A total of 120 articles in the form of blankets, old collars, rice, milk, biscuits, antiseptic liquids etc. were collected and successfully donated.

They had also conducted a protest march in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) on International Justice Day to demand legal rights for animals and a street play was organised at Panchsheel Colony to spread awareness about the harmful effects of crackers on animals during Diwali.

They are working harder every day to help animals out of the sheer love they have for them.

“We had begun our initiative around March 2015, post our exams. We have seen our organisation grow from just the two of us to over ten volunteers that work with us today. Right now, we are focused on expanding our organisation by aiming to provide ground force to more NGOs. We also want to help the smaller shelter homes which may be run by individuals just out of pure compassion for animals by providing them with volunteers, financial aid or any sort of help they require” said the co0founders Saachi Bhatia and Shreya Gandhi.

You can check out their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ActionforAnimalWelfare/

Image Credits: Action for Animal Welfare

Nishita Agarwal

[email protected]

 

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Child Rights and You with DU Beat

Celebrating the Joy of Volunteering with CRY

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“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”- Barack Obama

There is a huge range of NGOs working towards different causes including welfare of children; empowerment of women; elimination of poverty, among others. These NGOs aid in promoting the ‘joy of volunteering’, and one such NGO that has provided ample opportunities to the youth to volunteer is CRY, Child Rights and You!

Today, we witness volunteers, especially the youth; pushing their limits and stepping out of their comfort zone to create awareness, raising funds and even encouraging others to do the same. They not only take up ground work enthusiastically, but also deliver their best in other fields of work as well. While colleges give the students an opportunity to learn about various aspects of life; their association with different NGOs these days, also help these students impart their knowledge to others.
Kaashvi Sehgal, a student of Indian origin from Jakarta, interned with Child Rights and You (CRY) this summer. She shares her experience saying, “Not only had these kids adapted to what I was teaching them so fast, but they also had the same burning desire to learn something new every single day. As a teacher, there was nothing better than to see my students grow.” Sehgal, who is just 14 years old, started her own Spanish classes at CRY’s Dakshinpuri center.

The act of volunteering not only enhances the quality of the life of the people in need, but also changes the course of life of the volunteers and pushes them towards a brighter side. It reveals a newer and better aspect of life to them. Divyanshu, a volunteer with CRY for over four years says, “I feel people like me only run the whole world, so if I won’t venture into new directions, those directions will remain unexplored by humankind, so I thought let’s just do it.” Divyanshu after quitting his corporate job at Flipkart, has created an online platform which offers volunteers the opportunity to pick customized social projects as per their interests and talents. The product is called “Live for Lives” and will be released in the coming months.

Divyanshu Pic

Mohit Hattar is another volunteer who joined the organization when he was still in college. He revived the Public Action Group in Dwarka after months of advocacy and awareness raising work with community members in Dwarka. He also took Remedial Classes for the children and undertook enrollment of the children in schools. For his work as a volunteer, he was commended as one of the best volunteers at CRY. After working very closely with the children for more than 2 years, he has now embarked on a professional career but believes volunteering will remain an important part of his life.

“Hearing children call me “Mohit Sir” or “Mohit Bhaiya” is a bliss. Every place that I have worked in, those faces, those names and those voices just got stuck in my mind every time and that continuous attachment has kept me going all this time. Along with that is the environment you keep on working in and a sudden change in that certainly affects your work. Children at different localities behave differently and hence I had to become flexible in the way I operate”, says Mohit. 

Mohit Hattar

Thus, we see how volunteering can be delightful, helpful and enlightening at the same time. In a world, where incidents like the infamous Paris Attacks dilute our faith in humanity; we hope to see young and enthusiastic volunteers extending their helping hands to uplift the ones in need.

To volunteer and get involved with CRY, contact them on :

Tel: 011-29533451/52/53

Email: [email protected]

Image credits: Child Rights and You Database 

Shaurya Sahai
[email protected]

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Top Picks

The #1 post exams to-do list

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post exams

What now, once the ordeal is over? Nothing planned? Well take some hints from us, and live a little after the torture of a month.

1. Work/Internship

While mostly applications have to be submitted well-in-advance, you may still be able to find work or pursue an internship after your exams. It is a great opportunity to learn something and add it to your CV, and even a better way to make contacts in the industry.

2. Join a course

There are enough online/offline courses in the market. Go and learn something that helps you in future or maybe just boosts your interest. It does not have to be academic only.

3. Go on a trip

While road trips are the quickest and easiest, even visiting your extended family is not a bad option. A trip or maybe just a change of atmosphere will refresh you, and even give you a new zeal for the term ahead.

4. Binge on TV/Movies/Books

It is the right time to visit or re-visit those characters and their journeys that you patiently waited for all this time. Start reading a new series, after having devoted time to your course for six months. Relax and have the time of your life.

5. Social Service

It is harmless to utilize your time by teaching or volunteering for an NGO. It may just give a purpose to your life. Or just go to an orphanage or old-age home, and spend some quality time with people you don’t know. It will not only make you feel better, but will bring a smile to somebody else’s face.

6. Research

No matter what year you are in, it is never too late or too early to look up the internet. Even if you are sure, what you want to do in life and what your career will be, search options and maybe probable routes to achieve your dreams. Gain some knowledge and be surprised, if not confused!

Finally, sleep. You deserve it.

 

Ayesha Sareen

[email protected]

Image credits: http://24.media.tumblr.com/

 

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Sounds of Silence: NGO for Deaf Students

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Sounds of Silence (SOS), is a non-governmental organization (NGO), registered in 2013, working for the betterment of the hearing impaired children by providing them with a platform to interact with the outer world. SOS wants to make a difference in the lives of these special kids by providing them with mobile phones so that they can text one another.

SOS Project focuses on both interaction and enabling children with hearing disability. The basic aim being: to place the children in the same footing as children from regular homes with regards to experiences and interaction in various walks of life. Their mission is to achieve equal access for deaf people in every area of their lives. They are dedicated towards working for the development of the deaf community, enhancing their quality of life, empowering them with the power of expression, promoting social and cultural awareness while working towards independent and barrier free communication for the Deaf. They believe in the motto of, ‘deafness with dignity and equality’ and a society where deaf people have equal opportunities to participate in all walks of life. They envision the future where deafness is no more a ‘disability’ and a world where they are on the same footing as the regular children. They are currently established in New Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and even Pakistan.

SOS 2
Special kids are provided mobile phones so that they can text one another to communicate easily.

They’ve recently come up with a cause called the ‘BitGiving’ where you can donate your cell-phones and money which will further help in the education of deaf students.

SOS has received various accolades for its noble cause like; special Felicitation by the President of India for non-profit Excellence and Social Impact, World Education Summit Award for Innovation in Hearing Impaired Education, South Asia: Vodafone Mbillionth Award for Digital Empowerment, received recognition from Harvard Business School in “The 20 Years of Impact”, Social Entrepreneur Award 2015, 5th India Digital Awards for social and economic development using mobiles,  TEDx speaker @IIM Calcutta inspiring young minds with innovative ideas.

SOS also has volunteer and internship programmes which involve teaching and engaging with the students or sub-set of students with the instructional hours.

For more details, please visit: http://soundsofsilence.in/index.html

 

Ishita Sharma

[email protected]

Image Credits: http://soundsofsilence.in/gallery.html

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