Current Projects :
- Panchayat in Tamil Nadu :
Visited the panchayat working at
Kutumbakkam near Chennai with the help of Elango Rangaswami. He is president of
this village panchayat. He wanted to start a Panchayat Academy to teach,
self-sufficiency and self-reliance to revive the village economy, to the fellow
Pachayat leaders in the State of Tamil Nadu at Kutambakkam. He needed help in
raising the money to buy land from a bank that owns the land. We successfully
appealed to raise necessary money in USA and donated initial capital our selves
within a month.
- Flood
Relief in Orissa with help of “HOPE”
A request for urgent requirement
of money to help the victims of flood 2003 came from Hope. We responded by
sending some money through the generosity of our dear mother Smt. Kailash
Rohatgi.
- Sharing
Knowledge through our Hindi, English articles.
Time to time we have been
documenting our life experiences of travel to some 320 villages in 18 states of
India in articles which have amounted to 34 in Hindi and about 69 in English.
They consist of problems prevailing in the country, society and administrative
system. We share with our fellow countrymen the unique solutions that came to
our mind and hope to hear from them any thing they can come up with in terms of
ideas, contact, enterprise etc.
This is a village we adopted in
2001 to support for a period of five years to make
them self sufficient and self-reliant. Also up to date in using the
solar energy and wind energy. It consists of 114 homes, which are already
constructed. A community hall, which can be used as shelter in case of another
earthquake by whole village, is near completion now. See our detailed
report included in our articles.
- Helped
Libraries in Hapur, Jamnagar, Sursardham, Mumbai
We felt that libraries are going
to play a very important part in development process of rural India. Hence
opening or advancing of libraries should be encouraged where youth and aspirants
of all ages can tap in for knowledge and information. We saw some good results
of these libraries in the villages supported by Deendayal Research Institute as
well, so we gave donation of good books to a Jamnagar Pranami school, a school
in Mumbai area where our Sister-in law is Principal and gave donation for
library at Hapur girls senior school and decided to built a Library at
Sursardham.
- MKT / Seva Bharati /
IDRF USA
India Development and Relief Fund asked us to
visit (IDRF) supported projects in Gujarat during our recent trip to India in
2003. We saw as many as 16 such projects including schools, hostel, hospitals,
orphanage for the benefit of earthquake affected people in Kutch Gujarat.
While at MKT’s Lakadia center
for Sursardham project with Lallu Bhai, we saw lot of their work in other area
as well, like water retaining structure, self help groups children’s camp,
health awareness programfor young women, cottage and small village industry
for income generation and other housing projects, . We were very much
impressed with the dedication of Seva Bharati workers and quality of their
work in the price much below existing market price. The main thing we
discovered that IDRF/MKT/ Seva Bharati serve people from all walks of life and
religion, irrespective of their political affiliation.
- Deendayal
Reasearch Institute Chitrakoot (DRI) UP & MP
During our last trip to India in 2003 we had good
fortune of meeting and spending four very productive and informative days with
Nanaji Deshmukh at Chitrakoot and visited different progects of research
instute. It is located at the border of MP/UP hence DRI rightly serves both
states. There we not only met lot of high Government officials at the
conference but also came to know about Government’s grand design for future
of Ayurveda in India. We came to know about Samaj Shilpi Dampatti (Social
Sculptor couple) a new concept in village development, which is explained in
our articles. These graduate couples live in a village as villagers do for at
least 5 years on a very meager stipend per month. They play the role of a
mentor, motivate and guide them also come up with the solutions to the
villagers’ problems working with them. It is amazing what difference a well
meaning educated person can make in these villages.
- Jamnagar
–Medical Center for Z. Rangoonwala Service Trust
We visited the Rangoonwala Trust Medical center
and were impressed with their dedication for general population.
Who so ever needs it’s services gets it for a fraction of the price
for medical services available elsewhere. They also provide them Government
entitlement they qualify for without any service charge and act as
facilitator.
We recommended this organization for more fund
from IDRF for their future new expended medical facility. Here in Jamnagar we
found lot of Hindu and Muslim interaction on a positive note, which is not
nobility but a norm, unfortunately not for our print Media in Gujarat as they
don’t pay any attention to the positive things any way.
- Narain
Sarover – A swami in action, making a difference in Gujarat
We know swami Narain Giri ji since
he visited USA many years ago. He is Mahant of Shri Koteshwar temple in Kutch
Gujarat. He is not only running a day school for Sanskrit students at his
ashram, very near to Pakistan border but also improving the lives of thousands
of people in surrounding area by his unique approach to solving their problems.
We try to meet him whenever we go to Gujarat and offer help whatever little we
can for his armada of 2000 cows. This area is starved for usable water but with
his unique approach and hard work Swami ji manage to produce enough fodder for
his cows in 100+ acre donated land.
AFOTH - We formed an organization Active Friends
of The Homeless with the help of other like-minded people in Detroit Metro
area, 15 years ago to provide help to the homeless people. So far we have been
able to stop more than 8oo people from becoming homeless. We raise funds for
this by doing Garage sale in summer, selling donated used books at town fair,
participating as volunteers in department stores’ charity day sale programs
and of course by private and corporate donations.
We also visited a prisoner as
volunteers for prison out reach program through Vaishnava Center for
Enlightenment. We realize there is a need for less fortunate in our community
who get on wrong side of the law and are repenting and tormenting their soul in
prison. We need to give them spiritual strength and religious support at this
crucial time in their life.
It is an organization Headed by Magsesse award
winner Rajendra singh ji of Tarun Bharat Sangh, Alwar, Rajasthan. It’s
purpose is to teach proper use of water in villages of India and
also create awareness about their rights and responsibilities towards
this very important natural resource. We attended their meetings in New Delhi
2001 and Juna Koba 2002 in Gujarat. Umesh is chosen as their technical
resource person.
- Helping
student in hostel from other states, in Hapur, UP, India.
We visited Brhmadevi Sarasvati
School in Hapur and were delighted to see the all-round best quality of
education young girls are getting in least amount of money.
It is run mostly on donation and no seeker of knowledge is turned away
for inability to pay the fees. With
the help of our son Gaurav and his wife Tara we are sponsoring two girls from
Mizoram with their hostel expense.
- Janmadhyam
in New Delhi – Helping physically challenged women.
We visited Janmadhyam and saw the
hard work of It’s wonderful workers in villages near Delhi.
They go to the villages to find mentally and physically challenged female
children, convince and help their parents to treat them with dignity. They train
these kids some money generating simple craft like paper bags, earthen lamps
etc. and after selling these items the money is given back to them thus helping
them become productive member of their family as well as society. We dispersed
first proceed from the trust set up in memory of our beloved father Ram Babooji
who passed away in 2001 in India. Jan Madhyam is in need of a van to transport
children to and from home and we are trying to raise funds for the same.
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