2011 Mini Sammelan - Jeevan Prabhat Pondicherry

(Report by Joginder Kundra and Dev Mahajan)

Mini Sammelan at Jeevan Prabhat Pondicherry took place on February 12 and 13^th. It was attended by:

Mr. Dev Mahajan

Mrs. Sushma Mahajan

Mr. Joginder Kundra

Mrs. Meera Kundra

Acharya Vachonidhi Arya

Dr. Rathkrishan Varma

Mr. Ranjan Pandey. Mrs. Madhu Pandey & Pondicherry Staff, the children of JPP, special guests and well wishers.

The Sammelan was a great success as it reaffirmed our faith that the future of a society lies in the strength of its children and it is the moral responsibilities of the haves to care fore the youngsters who otherwise would fall through the cracks.  .

The children are doing very well. Children with more than a year at the Jeevan Prabhat are doing exceptionally well in education and extracurricular activities. The new group that joined in 2010 is catching up very fast. It was a very enjoyable experience for us to see how the older experienced children were taking care of the younger one just like a big family.  

The children showed their talent with performances in dance, yoga, Vedic verses, havan and many more activities. Children’s level of confidence and desire to excel gives us the satisfaction that their future is bright and our hard work is paying off. Children with high performance in subjects and class rank were bestowed with certificate of achievements. In one sentence, “They are ahead of their pears and marching ahead”.

As the children go to private school, it was brought to our attention that there are better schools which give better education. The admission to these schools would require admission tests particularly in English in addition to higher tuition (Rupees 600/month) and admission fees. Though we gave our consent that tuition fees should not stand in the way of better education, it needs to be approved jointly by the board members.

All this progress in the upbringing of children was made possible by the hard work and dedication of Mrs. Madhu and Mr. Ranjan Pandey.

The Pondicherry facility got its face lift with new paved driveway, landscaping, sodded lawn with built-in sprinkler system, rain water harvesting, fresh all-weather exterior paint, new doors, screens, etc., etc. This work along with the prior roof repair is expected to make the facility maintenance free. The only unfinished item left is inside paint and some outside paint where the original plaster quality is not up to par. It was decided to evaluate the paint situation again after some time and finish accordingly.

This work was made possible by hard work, expertise and dedication by R Vishvanath, who made numerous trips from Bangalore to Pondicherry to plan and execute the work. Installation of rainwater harvesting is a noble and environment friendly solution to water shortage in the area. Dr. Rathkrishan Varma visited Pondicherry to lead this effort and made many visits from Bangalore to care for Jeevan Prabhat.

The maintenance work, paint in some areas, the paved roadway from the entry gate to building entrance, the beautiful landscaping etc. although cost some $ 40,000 has really enhanced the overall appearance and is well worth the expenditure. Now the access road to our facility for which we have been working so hard is under construction. This was only possible because of persistence visits to govt. officials from Acharya ji, Ranjan Pandey and counseling and help from our great friend Mr. Raghunandan Singh. Hopefully, this road will be named

Jeevan Prabhat Road

.  

The visiting team also visited D.A.V. School in Chennai, and Rajeev Gandhi School in Pondicherry. Rajeev Gandhi School in Pondicherry provides free education and boarding to children from underdeveloped region of the district. We believe this school starts with the children after their primary school education. This school has 500 children with annual budget of Rupee 30 million (~$1300/child). It is funded by the Indian Government. This concept of providing education to youngsters is a noble concept and seems to be working well. Their objectives are very much in line with the objectives and principles of Jeevan Prabhat. It should be noted that when our Jeevan Prabhat children out grow our facility, we could consider sending them to nearby Rajeev Gandhi School.

It was also discussed to increase the number of children at JPP to forty in 2011 school year and to fifty in 2012. Since the number of children is increasing, it would require some additional staff to share the responsibility. The purchase of an additional transport vehicle costing (Rs.8 lakh, $ 20,000) will be essential starting next school year.  It should also be noted that the children are growing to the teenage and would require some dedicated person to educate them, provide guidance and keep an eye at this critical age of growing into adulthood.

One of the main objectives of this Mini Sammelan was to meet all the families who are providing moral and some financial support to Jeevan Prabhat. The team went to the residence of each such family to convey our heartfelt thanks and invite them to the Sammelan. About 5 such individuals or families were honored in addition to  Acharya Vachonidhi Ji, Engineering team from Bangalore lead by Dr. Varma and administrators Madhu & Ranjan Pandey. Cash awards were also provided to the salaried employees.

Great news for Jeevan Prabhat is that Acharya Vachonidhi Arya is retiring from his job and would devote 100% of his effort for the care of Jeevan Prabhat at Gandhidham and Pondicherry along with many other responsibilities that he has assumed. This would streamline the management of JPG and JPP.