Thanks for this information, a truly inspiring place.

Parivaar,

Thank you for this enlightening information. May this service of love mulitply.

If we connected all the people and organizations reaching out in service to humankind we would have a ring of light embracing the whole.

That dark voice that lies to us giving the illusion that we are separate and living in fear will be drowned out by...US!

Trish ~~
www.CommunityThreads.net

It's amazing how a small sum of money, $360 can go so far. When western governments and companies consider spending millions on advertising and "product awareness" think how much could be done with the same resources in the East or Africa. We really need to stop wasting the resources of the planet.

Dear Trish,
Thanks for your response we would definitely be interested in joining hands and looking forward to any opportunity of service.

But at Parivaar we don't have any organised volunteer base. Most of the people are individual donors and most of our work is in Kolkatta. But still we always look forward to any help we can provide to any other organisation.

Few months back Sh. Vinayak (founder of Parivaar) did a trip to Jharkhand, India. A detailed report on which can be found on our website www.parivaar.org there he came across an organisation "Ma Sarada Shishu Teertha". please read below for a brief on this organisation and how Parivaar is helping it stabilise.

So definitely look forward to join hands and contribute towards any service we can

Best Wishes
Deepak Ahuja

"Ma Sarada Shishu Teertha"
This Residential institution houses 233 girls (from Santhal tribe) from all over West Bengal mostly in age-group of 6-18.

It was started in 1984 by a monk called Ram Maharaj. He himself is from village area and as such did not have much contacts etc. At the time of taking Sanyasa, he used the paternal inheritances that were in his name (a few Lac of Rs at that time) to buy land and start this Ashrama.

All these years he has collected all the funds mainly from Kolkata. The condition of this institution is not good at all. It may said to be just the anti-thesis of what we have at Parivaar. Ram Maharaj is now past the age of 70 and still has to go to Kolkata for this round of collections twice a week.

We were told about this institution by our guide and close well-wisher Swami Satyabodhananda (Chiranjib Maharaj) of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission in April'07 and our help in supporting and upgrading this institution was sought.

In April'07, when we first went there we were astonished to learn that only Rs 1,200/- ($30) daily was spent for food for about 233 girls. At 8 o'clock in the morning, the inmates were served with a little amount of rice and curry as breakfast and lunch combined, and at 4 pm they were served with rice, little sabji and sometimes daal as tiffin and dinner combined. And nothing after 4 PM. So only two times they are provided with food in 24 hours. The money collection was sufficent only for this. Actually Ram Maharaj should not have admitted more than 100 girls. But he told that these girls were in such a pathetic condition before coming here that their guardians just begged to keep their girls here and somehow he could not refuse. Earlier some more donors (including Government) were there but with time collections waned and the institution came to such a stage. But the fact that the girls live here in this institution under what we felt was extremely tough condition indicates that the conditions in their own homes was even worse than this and which we cannot even imagine.

There is one school up to Class VII where the girls study. The earlier plan was to develop it into a Higher Secondary School but due to paucity of funds this could not be achieved. The total living area is also very small, 3000 sq ft in which all these girls live. In five rooms of 600 sq f these girls are accommodated somehow. No mattresses, no pillows. They lived on chatai spread on floor. Some Residential buildings were started but could never be completed. Only four toilets and two bathrooms were there for such a large no. of inmates.

All in all this institution was in no special as far as its work goes but the only compellingly positive thing about the whole thing was the life of extreme sacrifice and dedication of Ram Maharaj who has borne this burden of at least feeding and giving shelter to such a large no., of girls who were in an even more worse condition otherwise. Ram Maharaj himself has never had even a room for himself and sleeps on the open baramada. Even when being ill he has to do all the work physically himself. The Ashram only has a few villagers as workers and they cannot afford remunerated staff. So most of the work has to be done by Ram Maharaj himself.

Parivaar's involvement since April'07 has been in multifarious ways and is slowly bringing about a lot of change.

1. Financial:

We are regularly arranging on a monthly basis financial support to the tune of Rs 60,000 ($1500)which is used for 2 full meals, 1 breakfast, and 1 evening snacks. Thus, there has been quite an improvement over the earlier scenario. Chiranjib Maharaj has also been mobilising Rs 60,000 to 70,000 per month. Thus about Rs 1.3 Lacs ($3250) are being additionally pooled each month to support this institution since April.

Earlier, these girls used to have only a single set of clothes and that too in worn and torn condition. In June Parivaar sent its tailor and have got tailored uniform for all 233 girls (tops and skirts). This has been already delivered. 150 set of mattresses (Gaddis), 150 bedsheets, and 240 pillows were also procured as earlier the girls used to sleep on bare floor.

In a fortnight's time (i.e. around Mid-Oct'07) another set of clothes shall be delivered for all 233 inmates. Winter-wear (sweater) and quilts shall also be delivered for all the inmates.

2. Management, Manpower and Systems-Processes Revamp

Parivaar is trying to upgrade all processes of day to Day operations of this institution and trying to align them to the extent possible with the Standard Best Practices followed Parivaar Ashram. For this Parivaar has already deputed some of its highly efficient manpower in field of Girls' caretaking, Education, Nursing, Dining and Kitchen, Accounting, Overall Supervision to MSST. The existing MSST manpower which were largely untrained have been provided training at Parivaar Ashram and helped to orient with new upgraded systems and processes to be followed. Parivaar Ashram's key Seva-vratis make fortnightly visits to MSST to take stock of the developments and monitor the revamping process.

3. Basic Infrastructure set-up

As the exisiting infrastructure at MSST was extremely insufficent, some infrastructure and basic facilities have also been developed.

1. Earlier there were only 3 toilets and 4 bathrooms for 233 girls and 10 resident persons. Since this was highly insufficent 6 toilets and 6 bathrooms have been constructed.

2. In heavy rains in the month of September the earlier shed made of thatch which was used as Kitchen and Dining Hall has collapsed. Earlier also there was no gas connection and cooking was done through firwood in chulhas. Because of heavy rains, situation became so bad that for many days together no food could be cooked and all the inmates thrived on Moori-Cheera (puffed rice). Parivaar sent a team of volunteers to help and put things in order. Gas connections have been procured an an aesbestos Kitchen and Dining Hall have to be constructed. this will be done in the coming few weeks.

Deepak Ahuja,

thank you for writing about this amazing proof that the power of our hearts can accomplish anything! Both Vinayak Lohani with his team and Ram Maharaj are living proof that miracles are possible- because when we are facing such deep suffering, poverty and misery, the return of the memory of abundance, light and joy is indeed a miracle.

I'm happy to say that I don't think your family is unique, this movement is happening all around the world, with different cultural terminology and flavoring, of course. I hope you continue to look around and join hands with all other people involved in the same heart work. The Alliance for a New Humanity for example is a perfect place to find and connect to others.

Much love and blessings to all our children and to all who care about them!

Deepak,

It was heartening to see that you did not mention Vinayak by name in your initial post. Hope organizations and individuals who take on such a spiritual path in their lives have people around them who can shed their ego and do what they believe in.

Any single person seeing the dedication of their "entire lives" to their journey can only see that very short period. Please continue to serve as a beacon of hope to those who seek spirituality.

Manick

Dear Manick,
Sorry for the miss. Although I thought I wrote a brief about Vinayak but while editing and rediting I missed it somehow.

Anyways below are a few words about this great soul.

Thanks for letting me know,
Best Wishes,
Deepak

Vinayak Lohani was born and brought up in Lucknow(Uttar Pradesh,India) since his schooldays we was a high ranker both in studies and sports. He topped High School Board in the whole state of Uttar Pradesh, then joined IIT Kharagpur and did his Engineering. Through campus selection he joined Infosys Bangalore, India (where I happened to meet him) then he joined IIM Kolkatta to pursue his MBA. But after completing his MBA inspired by the high ideals of Swami Vivekananda he gave up everything and started Parivaar with 3 children in a rented accomodation. During early years he used to teach at a coaching centre to support Parivaar but then later when Parivaar grew to more than 15 children and donations started coming, he had to leave teaching and started taking care of Parivaar full time.

Now Parivaar is his home like hundreds of others...

Dear Friends,

Please see below letter from Vinayak about his recent visit to poor villages of West Bengal and situation there. As you will find in his letter that the condition of all these villages is very bad. There is no school no education no opportunities not even farming people are surving on a couple of handful of rice a day. No one has ever passed even High School in those villages. He has also talked about a youth group working in these areas to create awarness and educate children but because of paucity of funds they have not been able to work the way they want to...

So if you can just go through the letter or write to me for more details at deepak.ahu@gmail.com .

As per Vinayak with only a petty some of Rs. 24,000/month (approx $600) youth group can arrange for 24 teachers and educate 600 children.

So please see if you would like to support this effort financially. and If not financially you can support us by keeping us in your prayers.
Thanks
Deepak Ahuja

Following is email from Vinayak to few of us volunteers, which I am forwarding here. There were also some pictures in his email which I can forward you ::

Greetings.

As you know from 25th to 28th of November, I was on a field trip to various tribal areas in districts of Bankura and Purulia in WB. We visited some grassroots intiatives for education in this area which are run by some local people who are educated. These initaives are run by the local people and are trying to bring about progress in education in areas which were totally dark till now.

There was a good group called 'Yugacharya Vivekananda Seva Samiti' (YVSS) run by some local people who are moderately educated but fairly inspired to bring about a change. This Group is providing coaching assitance from Class 1 to Class 10 to 600 tribal students at Amdange cluster of vilalges (about 18 villages in all) in Bankura district. Generally, the coaching takes place in the village primary school classrooms and in the verandas. In the whole area you would be surprised there has not been even a single person to pass High School level till now. YVSS is trying to address this and this year a first batch of a few tribal students are appearing 10th Board exams.

This Group being run totally by local people does not have much external connections and somehow about 30 teachers were teaching these 600 students almost free for the last few years. They had assured the teachers that some honorarium wouold be arranged for them. But in the last 6 months position of this has deteriorated. They were unable to provide honorarium to teachers because there wasn't any money and only 6 teachers could be retained as they ahd funds only to the level of Rs 6000 per month, and through which honorarium of Rs 1000 was given to 6 teachers. They had to close coaching for a number of classes and only 120 students are being coached right now by 6 teachers. To re-start the rest of the coaching 24 other teachers have to be appointed again and Rs 24,000 per month (Rs 1000*24) shall have to be paid. We told them they should try to star the program from December beginning and we shall try to see from where we can raise this balance of Rs 24,000. They assured us that if these honoraria for 24 teachers can be provided then everything else is ready and full-scale activity can be restarted froim December.

Yugacharya Vivekananda Seva Samiti also had a centre in neighbouring Purulia district. They also runs a coaching center for nearly 600 students. There are 26 teachers here. All the teachers are youth from surrounding villages who are modestly educated and can teach the students till Class 8 or so. They all have been rendering their services entirely free out of their own internal motivation. But we think at least Rs 500 per month should be provided to them so that they can be somewhat free of anxieties and pressures in their personal / family life. So for these 26 teachers Rs 500 has to be started and for this Rs 13,000 would be required.


Thus in all there is an urgent need of Rs 37,000 per month to start these coaching centres tocover all 1200 students where YVSS operates. I think that would extremely helpful for this region as YVSS is the only hope in this region to educate children in these areas and slowly start churning out educated persons from these areas. Even if students come to High School level, due to a no. of benefits in Govt sector for Scheduled tribes they would be able to take advantages and shall have more opportunities. Right now the sad thing is that there are not even at the minimum level required to avail of the benfits of reservation.

I also saw the Audit report and Annual Report of YVSS and found all these things in order. They have applied for renewal of their 80(G) status but it has not come in their hand.

Our first target is to arrange for these funds for the 4-month period of December to March (end of the academic session). For the 4 month period Rs 37,000*4 = Rs 148,000 would be required. Interested people can directly issue cheques in favour of 'Yugacharya Vivekananda Seva Samity'. We are trying to expedite 80(G) for them and hope that this shall be done soon.

Yours sincerely,
Vinayak

Hi Deepak,

Are you a member of Parivaar or another Volunteer? My husband and myself have been associated with Parivaar for as long as I can remember. Felt nice to read this post and see that Parivaar is gaining popularity. Thanks for this.

Hi Shruti,

Nice to know that you and your husband has been a well wisher of Parivaar and part of this big family. I am also like you and hundreds of other, a well wisher and volunteer of Parivaar and associated with Vinayak da from a long time. I just came across this esteemed blog and thought of reaching out to people and tell them about Parivaar and great sacrifice and work happening there.

As you must be knowing that Parivaar is now in a position with its well defined processes, inspired work force and dedicated volunteers to do a lot more for the society and Vinayak da is doing anything and everything to reach out to as many ostracized children and give them education and open door of opportunities for them. But for all this we need continues support and encouragement which I am sure Thakur and Swamiji will keep providing us.

Best Regards,
Deepak Ahuja

Hey great Deepak. Shall be dropping in at Parivaar this Christmas. Vinayak's efforts are commendable.