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November 2009 Bulletin
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First we apologise for the long delay in posting this Apna News bulletin. We hope you enjoy reading these bulletins; please let us know by sending your feedback to admin@apnalaya.org
The last few months have been a difficult time for Apnalaya for a number of reasons, primarily financial uncertainty. We ended the last financial year with a large deficit, and started the new year in April with little prospect of faring any better this year. But I am happy to report that our fortunes seem to be improving as of now.
We received the first donation of the new financial year in April from June Holland, the widow of our founder, Tom Holland – Rs.1,68,820. Since then we have received donations from our few regular donors including Swissair Staff Foundation, WIPO, Kalpataru Trust and Nandini Trust, amounting to nearly Rs.18,00,000. A new 3 year commitment from HSBC UK for sponsorship was received in August. And for the Joy of Giving week organised by GiveIndia at the end of September, Sachin Tendulkar very kindly offered a personal coaching camps for auction on eBay. Two parties tied with a winning bid of Rs.6 lakhs each, so he agreed to spare the time for two camps for the winners. But long term financial vulnerability remains, and the long term sustainability of Apnalaya is an issue which we are seriously addressing this year. |
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With the start of the school year in June, large numbers took part in Education Awareness Week and many more witnessed a rally through the area, where 5,000 pamphlets were distributed in the community. This was followed by an all out effort to ensure school enrolment to the maximum number of children |
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Checking on the status of sponsored children, and selection of new children for sponsorship according the agreed selection criteria started. In addition to the 460 students being sponsored, an additional 61 students are helped through Special sponsorship, which is for children who do not fit into our regular sponsorship criteria. Many are studying in the higher classes or attending Junior College. |
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552 students have enrolled in the Study classes, some of which are held in Municipal schools or in Apnalaya centres, and some for children in Stds.8-12 in privately run High Schools in the area. There are no High Schools run by the Municipality for the 600,000 population living in Shivaji Nagar. |
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No major programmes are held during the monsoon, but the regular activities continued with only occasional disruptions due to flooding this year. However, the conditions in which many of our communities live, exposed to the heat of summer and the onslaught of the rains during the monsoon, with inadequate protection and no infrastructure, spurs us to work harder to help them towards a better future at least for their children when they grow up. |
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Work on the Annual Report continued during this period. The finished report is being uploaded onto the site, and we hope you will read it. Anyone wanting a hard copy can email admin@apnalaya.org, or write to our registered address. |
We would like to make special mention of the sudden and untimely death of Sam Pareth, husband of our Director, Leena Joshi, at the end of June. Sam has been a part of Apnalaya, photographer in residence, and a great support to us all, and had started making a documentary film on our work when he died. The previous evening he had been in a meeting with the concerned staff. For Leena it is a very difficult period of adjustment, and we are all there to support through it. |
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