In taking part in the Landmark Education Self-Expression and Leadership Programme, PP Singh decided to make an organisation to make real difference with issues bedeviling Faridabad. This article from the Delhi Times tells the tale.

They Love Their City. Do You?

Sanjay Chaturvedi

Recent Initiatives of an NGO in Faridabad has focused on how people can participate in campaigns towards keeping their city clean and derive satisfaction out of it by fulfilling their civic responsibilities in the best possible manner

“The city has given me so much, I want to do whatever I can for the city,” says PP Singh, founder of the NGO ‘I Love my city’. The organisation has participated in various campaigns towards sensitising people and making them aware of their civic duties.

Singh (48) who was born in Myanmar and shifted to Faridabad in 1994 had mooted the idea with 15 of his colleagues and friends last November. “The membership which has now risen to 45 is offered for lifetime for Rs100 and is far less important than people’s willingness to do something for their city’s welfare,” says Singh. He said, “The feeling of satisfaction and realising my worth for the society keeps me on my toes.”

The organisation has undertaken several tasks which, for others, is ‘demeaning’. As their maiden initiative, they repaired the road connecting the industrial belt to the residential areas in Sector-23. They themselves mixed the mortar and cement for the purpose and barricaded the area marked for repair. This fetched them the attention of public as many people came forward and decided to join the movement.

Gradually, more and more people jumped onto the bandwagon of this movement as the NGO organised an awareness drive about the traffic rules. Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shashank Anand, himself participated in the programme and which bears a robust testimony to the enthusiasm shown by the local police in this public campaign. Further, as more and more people started joining the movement, they decide to work as professional massions and repaired the potholes in the road in Sector-28 as their next venture. The activity was followed by a presentation of their cause before Fardidabad Industries Association which motivated all its executive committee members to take a pledge for the cause.

The latest feather the organisation has added to its cap came last Sunday when the members educated the vendors in Sector-15 market regarding how to maintain cleanliness and a healthy atmosphere around their establishments.

Shouting slogans like mera market kaisa ho, mere ghar ke jaisa ho, kooda ki jagah kahan par ho, Koodedaan mein and Swachchha rah, Swastha raho, they disseminated their message amongst the local people. These activities had the salutary effect of shopkeepers running to clean their areas before the group arrived to campaign. The group also distributed pamphlets to shopkeepers as well as the shoppers.  Besides, a few dustbins and brooms were also distributed to the vendors for a proper upkeep of the place.

The group has members cutting across age-groups and other segments and has members including Sajan Kumar Jain, president, FIA, Sunil Gulati, ex-president FIA, Sanjay Gulati, TD Jatwani, president, Residents Welfare Association.

The recent project created by S. Mandi in the Landmark Education self-expression and leadership programme involves training the blind and visually impaired in fine arts and painting.

The person who is in charge of actually implementing the project is Ms. Gubbi R. Muktha, who runs the Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind. The Trust provides job training, food, shelter and other services for the blind. The consultant/expert with the artistic expertise is K. Venkatesh, who is both an artist and an executive at HAL, the company where Mandi works.

Venkatesh has pioneered research for the blind, which has led to the creation of greeting cards made by the visually impaired, and is the author of Art Beyond Vision, a resource manual for teachers and students in special schools interested in this new skill.

Venkatesh is working with Muktha to develop the syllabus and curriculum for this new course programme to be implemented at these special schools. To find out more contact S. Mandi – 9902108901; eMail: mandisoumya@yahoo.co.in

The Landmark education  SELP programme project of Pooja Bhanushali was recently written about in the Andhra Mirror. She is creating an India-wide forum to discuss the situation of handloom weavers, whose numbers have declined drastically in recent years due to fewer opportunities and middlemen taking more of the profits.

The forum seeks to put loom weavers and distributors in dialogue to create more profitable alliances, putting them in communication via a website, handloomexchange.com.

She added that various forms of weaving were on the decline in India and that she was committed to reviving sales and interest in this work of great cultural and artistic worth.

A recent project created in Landmark Education’s self-expression and leadership programme, created by Mahesh H.C., allows special needs children such as deaf children to explore the world of photography, both fulfilling their artistic expression and possibly raising funds for other special needs children. The Bangalore-based project was titled Drushya-Kaavya, which means Visual Poem. A story appeared about Drushya-Kaavya in the Hindu on January 30, which is shown below.

Photography promoted as a medium of expression for children with special needs

Photography is the best medium of expression, especially for children with special needs. With a little push these children can do wonders. Drushya-Kaavya (visual poem), a project to reach out to the children with disabilities through the medium of photography, is doing all that it can to give them an opportunity to express themselves.

A joint initiative by Abhivyakthi and Bangalore Photography Club, Drushya-Kaavya joined hands with 28 children with hearing disability from R.V. Integrated School and conducted a photography workshop recently. According to a press release from the organizers, during the workshop, the children learnt the basics of photography through theory and practical lessons and later on were sent out to take pictures of life and world surrounding them.

Drushya-Kaavya is now holding an exhibition of the photographs taken by these children at R.V. Integrated School, in front of Lalbagh West Gate in the city on January 30 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., the release said.

Abhivyakthi and Bangalore Photography Club have come together with the objective of creating photography as a medium of expression for children with disabilities. The project is dedicated to undertake photography workshops for the joy and happiness of children and to encourage photography as a possible career option, the release said.

The project aims at promoting the work of these children through exhibitions, calendars, greeting cards and coffee table books and so on and share all the proceeds generated with NGOs working for children with disabilities, the release added.

Call 99801-42367 or 98801513.

Starting in 2010, Arunaraje Patil has been announced by Landmark Education to be the newest Landmark Forum Leader. Her background with Landmark Education is a self expression and leadership programme leader and leader of the Introduction Leaders Program. She completed the Landmark Forum in 1997.

Arunaraje is also a mother and an acclaimed film producer who has made more than 25 documentary films and 9 feature films. She has also been an advocate for underprivileged women.