Corporate Social Responsibility activity : Annapurna visit for the library setup, Hadapsar - Pune

Annapurna is a residential school for the destitute children under the age of 15. It is located in the lush green heart of Phurshungi village with little infrastructural facilities.

It takes around 40 minutes to travel by vehicle to get there from Magarpatta City, taking the traffic in consideration.

The school not only teaches around 250  students from class 1 to class 10 but also houses them within the 14 rooms and looks after their needs. The staff compromises of a handful of dedicated faculty and helpers who live in the house to take care of the children.

The main objective of Amdocs is:

It is to provide the kids with the basic amenities and render help in better education of the children via the various voluntary activities.

So as a part of the CSR activity for library setup at the school in alliance with Akshar Bharti - we volunteered to pitch in our time for the noble act.

When we reached at the school, we saw this two storied building, where there were rooms running in parallel to each other. It was heartening to see the school.

It was even nice to know, that they were extending the school to include hall and hostels for boys and girls. What surprised me that the school was also equipped with a computer room, making the kids aware of the technological advancements and keeping them up to date, it is well taken effort. Wow!

By now the kids from various grades, lined up in front of us. Soon after that the volunteers from the school asked us to speak few inspiring words to the kids - it would lead them to study and read books a lot more than they do now.

So a colleague of mine chipped in to speak on our behalf - since he was the one who could speak in Marathi fluently. This helped the advises to be catered to all.

The kids looked highly motivated, it was purely in their eyes - that they were just just hungry for more words from us.

It was quite captivating to hear about the kind of books they wanted to read - voices ranged from "raja maharaja ki kitabein to baba amte to akbar birbal".I was highly intrigued to find their ranging interest.

The expression, the glow on their faces was worth a capture - seeing the books that would be available to them from now on, in their library.

We even received a vote of thanks from one sweet girl. Bliss!

To contribute little more, we were again requested by the teachers and volunteers from school, to recite few stories from the books for the library to the kids.

As soon as we reached their classes, it was totally an old school feeling where all the kids got up to greet us.  :)

"Good morning madame." :)

Well, I don't know if we really made much of a difference in that hour or two that we spent in the school, but we tried out best - with the activities like reading along with them, encouraging them to read, pointing out new words, spelling it out to them , helping them with the correct pronunciation. I hope at least 5% was contributed to their knowledge level, that they at least remember one word out of the 15 that we collectively taught them. :D

There was this burning curiosity in their eyes - more like a strong urge to learn and listen to more. Worth a mention!

Since they were more fluent in Marathi, we had to regularly take some help from their teachers for the translations. Hats off to the energy and dedication of these teachers - their willingness to help us help the kids. :)

We found quite a number of children taking interest in English, trying to grasp the words, their meanings and pronunciation. Their effort on a whole was appreciable. :)

To conclude, it was a joyful activity where at the end of the hour, both us and the kids were a happy bunch. 

Of course, I as an individual will try to indulge more in such CSR activities.

What did I take away from the activity - a sense of satisfaction to be able to help on a very small scale, adding to it my sense of gratitude. In a true way, a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction was achieved after spending time with these kids. 

SO guys, let's all pledge to spend at least spend 2 hours a month for such activities. We never know how many lives we might be touching.

Do good, feel great! :)

Let's all join to contribute towards the society in our own way - with whatever suits us best. :)

Few photos from the activity:

The books provided by Amdocs in alliance with Akshar Bharti

Happy kids with the books

Classroom

Cheers to life!!

~Believe in yourself always!

P.S.All the above photos have been clicked by me.