Since 2005, YMAD and its participants have visited multiple shelters and orphanages in the state of and it has had a profound influence on these American students .  

Also, here is a story from the Salt Lake City Tribune

Highland students going to India on aid project
By Rachel Atkinson
Special to The Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Every Saturday morning, when many teenagers are just beginning to think about getting
out of bed, a group of Highland High students are doing something out of the ordinary -
learning to play cricket.
This month they will make a special humanitarian-based trip to India, where they also
will play a cricket match. The group will go to the district of Chamba. Residents there
challenged the 21 students, and as many as 50,000 people could attend.
“We are going to get beat pretty bad,” said James Baird, a 17-year-old student who is
going on the trip. “These kids in India have been playing their whole lives but we are just
trying to learn the game. I’m having a good time playing but it’s pretty tough.”
Learning to play cricket is just part of the story.
The students are the members of Youth Making a Difference (YMAD), an organization
formed last year when Baird came home from school and told his parents he wanted to do
a humanitarian aid trip. Robert and JoDee Baird decided they would try to help those in
India because Robert made work-related trips there.
By working with a friend who is from India, they discovered four orphanages and a
women’s shelter in Chamba, a small district in the Himalayas. At each orphanage, which
shelters 25 to 50 children ages 3 to 13, each child has only a cot and a small tin box for
his or her personal belongings.
James passed out fliers at school to find those who were interested in participating.
Twenty students showed up at the first meeting and it is that same group of students who
have worked to collect the needed money and donations, and who now practice cricket
each Saturday for the upcoming match.
“The kids have been extraordinary,” said JoDee Baird. “They have all been working on
gathering donations of books, toys, clothing, medical supplies and blankets. We have an
art bag with shoulder straps for each child down there, which for kids who don’t even
have a pen or pencil is going to be really great.”
Baird said they have collected both a quilt and a blanket for every person in each
orphanage and at the shelter, and they have received many donations for each of the four
orphanages.
Linley Bowen, a senior at Highland, talked to her neighbors and family members to
collect donations. She also went to hotels to obtain hygiene supplies.
“We’ve collected pretty much everything you can possibly imagine,” Bowen said. “At
first I didn’t think I’d be able to raise all the money needed, but people have been so
willing to donate. They have gone out of their way to help and I look forward to seeing
the smiles on the kids’ faces, knowing I did something that was able to help them.”
In September, YMAD shipped nearly 10 tons of the supplies and donations they have
already collected to India. When they are there, from Nov. 18 to Dec. 4, seven of the
students will paint murals on the walls of each orphanage. They designed the murals in
their art class. Several others are in a dance company and have choreographed a dance
they will perform while in India.

YMAD is still looking to collect donations that can be used to purchase needed
antibiotics and medications for the children in the orphanages. Those interested in
donating can visit www.ymad.org.

 Deccan Herald 

As part of the Landmark Education’s Self Expression and Leadership Programme, B Ramakrishnan has taken up a community project of imparting training in defensive driving for professional drivers, especially companies that hire drivers for their employees. Call centers and software companies are among the target group as ‘they form a significant part of the vehicular movement on the road’, says Ramakrishnan.

As part of the initiative, the first session was conducted for drivers hired by GE India Technology Center (JFWTC) where around 76 drivers from SRS Travels and Ambassador Travels underwent the four-hour programme.

The training covered the basics of defensive driving — the need, impact on community, awareness of safety on the road and responsibility of road users.  They also covered some of the recent developments or steps taken by the Bangalore Traffic Police in improving driving conditions on road.

The programme, conducted by Geetha, Inspector (Traffic), Traffic Training Institute, Bangalore Police and her colleagues, included presentations, videos as well as discussions on accidents in the country along with footage that included interviews of family members of victims. The feedback, according to Ramakrishnan, was quite positive and people seemed to realise the impact negligent driving can cause on people as well as how important it is to adhere to rules.

Similar workshops will be conducted for other organisations in the near future. For further information contact Ramakrishnan at: ramakrishnan.b@ge.com