And the NGO is - Ishaan Foundation

It was a humongous task to identify and finalize the NGO that I would support from the sale of my paintings through the exhibition "Windmills of Hope". 


The idea was to have an NGO that works in the field of education for under-privileged children. Alongside me fire-fighting with preparation for my exhibition I was deliberating on which NGO to support. 


I had this huge support of Chandni Parekh (@Fundacause) for this task. She not only would answer all my annoying queries right from what should we do? to how can we finalize now? but also went through each and every application that we received for this and added her experienced comments to it. Chandni, a huge thanks to you for your support.


There were essential 3 criteria that I used for selecting the NGO

1. The NGO shouldn't be a very big one - Larger organisations get a lot of support from corporates and other businesses, my minuscule contribution would not have made much difference to their existing revenues (although it might have added I am sure).
2. The NGO needs to be working in Children's education - You can read my reasons for this on my previous blog here.
3. The NGO needs to be in or around Malad - I wanted more involvement than just giving money one time. I wanted to be able to visit the place and have a more human involvement. It is not a short term relationship that I am looking at with the NGO. It shall be longer, i want to see what more I could do with the NGO and be involved in a deeper manner.

One NGO that fulfilled all these criteria is ISHAAN HOPE Foundation for Education & Training (Social benefit & non—profit organization). 

A little about their Project that I have decided to support - 

Educational help to Orphanage: I am in touch with Dr Hema Kulkarni of the Ishaan Hope Foundation who is looking after the project, an orphanage situated in Mudh Island which houses about 65 children varying from 3yrs to 17 yrs. This orphanage does not have government aid as it does not have enough space as well as other infrastructure. Last year 11 students were enrolled in a nearby school. From June 2011, 9 more will be enrolled. The annual fees per student is Rs, 7000/-. This does not include uniforms & textbooks. In fact, Mrs. Buthello (who runs this orphanage) wishes to send 10 more children to school. Although they were unable to undertake this responsibility because of lack of funds.

Until now the children were getting education through National Open School system. However there were no regular trained teachers to educate them. Dr Hema Kulkarni visted the orphanage in 2009 and suggested that it was better for these children to go to nearby regular school. This will not only help them get regular education & training, but also have an opportunity to meet & interact with children from society. This suggestion was accepted by the president of the orphanage. In June 2010 they enrolled 9 young students in Sir J. P. School, Malad (West) as the school principal insisted that the children should have proper documentation. Three other older students were enrolled on Holy Mother English School in Malawani as they did not insist on documentation. Annual fees per year per student is Rs. 7000/- (Seven thousand) which includes bus fare, but not uniforms & text books. 

Eight other students were sponsored by donors from the neighborhood, but they backed out after six months & the foundation had to support these eight students as well for last 6 months. The total expenditure last year on this project was 112000/- (One Lakh twelve thousand). From June 2011, the foundation has to support all 20 students & fees expenditure would be Rs. 140,000/- (One Lakh forty thousand). The principals of the schools have accepted our request that we will pay the fees on quarterly basis. There are more students in the orphanage who need to go to school but because of pausity of funds are unable to. 

The foundation also wishes to help them by providing uniforms & text books but have not been able to do so till now. Mrs. Buthello who runs the orphanage has got permission to start pre-primary school. She wishes that the foundation help her establish this project too. 

In addtion to above, Mrs. Buthollo wishes that more than 10 students who have passed 10th std need to undergo vocational training so that they become financially independent & may be able to move out of the orphanage.

I do hope that I am able to pitch in a substantial amount to help this Orphanage.

I also urge my readers to please see if some more funds can be collected for this orphanage. 

My only endeavor is to make a small difference through my exhibition "Windmills of Hope" and give hope to these children by giving them the gift of education.

Invite to my Exhibition

Basic Education for all

New Series by me

I am working on a new series of paintings. I have decided the donate 20% of the proceeds to an NGO of my choice. Currently, I am working on finding a way to make this auction viable online either host it on my website (which can be tedious task for a one time exercise), or make it available on my FB fan page (http://www.facebook.com/srushtimrao) or use a third party auctioning website for this particular exercise. There is so much push and pull to make this possible.

I have always believed in giving back to the society in whatever way I can. I have associated with many NGOs intermittently, if not time, I have contributed money. I have also tried to be a good citizen by adhering to my basic civic duties.

"Basic Education for all" is one of the issues that has been foremost in my mind. Although there are a myriad of issues within the society that can be addressed like atrocities towards women, children and animals etc. I believe that education will help solve a majority of these issues as most of the social issues arise from the lack of education. Literacy being a different expanse altogether. By basic education people are taught many things alongside reading and writing. One is taught self-respect, from that originates respect for others, starting from family and eventually extending to other elements like society, animals, country.

People who are from privileged families take education for granted, including me (at times I feel appalled at people lacking basic civic sense). However, it is a constant battle for the underprivileged to get even basic education. Probably people who have grown up on the streets and are now adults are beyond any scope of persuasion; nonetheless, their children can be educated and can have a hope for a better life. This is the force that drives me to believe in educating children.

Here is my small drop in the large ocean that needs to be created to encompass the huge need of education system and organizations that can support the under-privileged for education. It will not only benefit the needy furthermore benefit every individual and the society as a whole. Lowering crime rate, increasing sanguine individuals. It will eventually impact the country’s many growth hurdles, will help out balance population, and help permeate positivity amongst people.

Amen to the right of Basic Education for everyone!!!