circa 2024
Lofty goals are but distant dreams. A goal in the net, everyday, baby steps giving way to leaps over time...that's the way forward. With every pore soaked in sincerity every waking moment of the day...
- Swati Gautam
Jan 9, 2024 Dum Dum Central Jail, West Bengal
Dum Dum, on the outskirts of present day Calcutta, is inextricably linked to the Mutiny of 1857. Mangal Pandey was hanged in the Dum Dum cantonment. It is this Dum Dum Jail, set up in 1937, that has seen inmates of the stature of both Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Bose.
The Dum Dum Jail also house women inmates.
Women are mothers, and when women inmates come with infants and children, the kids are not classified as inmates. In the absence of such classification, providing for these children becomes a grey area.
Thanks to the humanitarian outlook of the Dum Dum Jail authorities who granted permission to PUKAAR, almost a hundred kids were provided with warm sweaters in the biting cold.
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P.S: Photography is prohibited in jail. That's why this self glorifying picture.
Feb 27,2024 Subhashpally, Henria, Purba Medinipur
"The period following the calling-off of the Non-Cooperation Movement was crucial, as concerted efforts were needed to keep the flame of nationalism burning in the hearts of the people. Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Contai in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, played a crucial role in revitalizing the freedom struggle in the region.
The Swarajist lobby at Contai was active in a highly disciplined manner which attracted the attention of Gandhi himself and on 4th July, 1925 he came to Contai along with Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Mathura Prasad. Gandhi and his associates held a series of mass meetings in the region."
Source: https://amritmahotsav.nic.in/
Mar 6,2024 Kamarpukur, Hooghly
Kamarpukur: The birthplace of
Thakur Ramakrishna.
The camp was to held at Goghat. We were asked if PUKAAR would consent to shifting the outreach programme to Kamarpukur? Yes, we said, yes indeed! And so, under a giant banyan tree, across a primary school building and a little temple sat the students. The temple's natya-manch was where the aid was distributed from. Gentle breeze flowed throughout...as if bringing with it Thakur's blessings...
DEVASTATING FLOODS IN GHATAL & KHANAKUL
It was just before Durga Puja 2024. Incessant rains upstream had caused water to be discharged from Damodar Valley Corporation dams. Naturally so. Except that there wasn't any advance notice. Raging waters inundated scores of villages overnight.
PUKAAR tried to help. Both in Khanakul and Ghatal, through the offices of the District Police and the Ramkrishna Mission. Community Kitchens were organised and food served to the displaced population.
Those marooned in far flung places were sent cooked food.
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As the waters receded and people started going back to their washed away homes, dry ration, clothes and medicines were distributed. Jagat Hitaye ch. May good be to this world!
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This overnight flood relief was made possible only with the help of:
MODERN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
THE HERITAGE SCHOOL
SHRI SHIKSHAYATAN
THE BSS SCHOOL &
INDUS VALLEY WORLD ACADEMY
EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES: Online Foundational English for Rural DEvelopment (OFERD)
Peer teachers of class XI from The BSS School and he Mahadevi Birla World Academy taught spoken English to middle school girls from a rural school in Purba Medinipur: The Thakurnagar Mahila Vidyapeeth. The Course was spread over seventy contact hours,.
Certificates were handed out to both students and their peer teachers!
OFERD offered to the youth at Arambag!
PUKAAR carried the Online Spoken English programme to Arambag, where 18 youngsters were provided seventy contact hours of Spoken English by mature teachers. In pic above, Vighnesh Tekriwal with his group of students!
PUKAAR associates itself with vocational training for girls through Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandir
PUKAAR facilitates the donation of infrastructure at a remedial coaching centre for village children in Purba Medinipur.
A large book shelf was donated by Kutchina Founadation.
Books, charts, games, green boards, chalk, dusters and much more were collected by the tiny tots of the Mahadevi Birla World Academy! Thank you and thank you indeed.
MEDICAL INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE
PUKAAR facilitated the funding of a CIRRUS 500 OCT ZEISS machine for the Ophthalmology Department at Seva Pratisthan Hospital, the largest philanthropic hospital in West Bengal. The funding was generously donated by the Inner Wheel Club of Central Calcutta.
SERVING THE ELDERLY (Purba Medinipur)
The world looks at them as being past their productive years. But would we have been without them?
PUKAAR, with the generous help of The BSS School reached out with clothes, essentials, nutrition and lots of love for the elderly women of many villages in and around Thakurnagar.