CHILDREN

  Ladies circle A fun filled day for about 50 children at Kidwai Cancer hospital was organised on 4 November, by Ladies Circle India Area 6 Chapter. Deepa and Arvind Aathreya, of "School of Success" fame, Chennai conducted an interactive & creative session for the children. There was also a puppet show in which the kids participated eagerly. Ladies Circle Area 6 donated fruits and hospital fees for children below poverty line. Ladies Circle India (LC India) is a non political and non sectarian organisation of young women, usually the wives of members of Round Table, aged between 18-40. It…

Sharmila,16, and her five younger sisters were brought to Child Fund Association (CFA), an orphanage home in Puttenahalli, after their mother passed away. Their father, visually challenged, could not take care of them. Sharmila, who is from Kollegal, has been living there for 6 years. "I am lucky to have found a place like this to live," she says. Children playing at the centre. Pic: Yogaraj Mudalgi. Eighty-five children, mostly girls, have found a home in CFA and since its beginning in 1982, close to 750 children have grown up in the home. Most children in the orphanage have a…

Very urgent, just 20 hours to go.... Amit Gupta, an Indian entrepreneur in Newyork, a friend and a kind soul needs a bone marrow match for a Peripheral Blood Stem cells donation and you can help.If you live in Bangalore India, chances are you can help not only Amit, but the many, many other people around the world. South Asians have a dramatically lower chance of finding a match in the worldwide bone marrow registries than other populations. While this is a big and often tragic problem, it's one that can be fixed!So what can you do? Get to the nearest…

 It was a great way to celebrate Children's Day.... When Usha Rajagopalan asked me to take several people around the 1km perimeter of Puttenahalli Lake, I was very happy indeed to conduct the nature trail.We all assembled there at 6am:The sun also decided to come up and join us: There were about 50 people altogether, including old friends like Shashi and Shalini.Obviously, I wasn't able to take too many photographs, but with Poornima and Srini along, we sighted quite a few interesting things, such as thisSPOTTED OWLETon top of a dead palm trunk:and thisPURPLE HERONwhich seems to be a regular resident:It was…

The bright yellow walls of the building, a bountiful vegetable garden and smiling girls bring cheer to your heart as soon as you step into the '' Baale Mane'' premises. A home among the lush green ragi fields, eucalyptus groves and farm lands serve as the ideal retreat for the girls to grow in a nurturing environment. Baale Mane at Gopalapura. Pic: Suja Sukumaran. 'Baale Mane' meaning 'Girl's Home' is situated in the sylvan surroundings of Gopalapura, near Nelamangala, off Tumkur Road. It was founded in 2001 by Paraspara Trust, an NGO providing shelter and a home for girl children.…

Do you know how much of the pollution in the world is caused by cars? Some studies put that at 40%. As a result, some across the globe have chosen to observe 22nd September as World Car Free Day. ESAF, a Bangalore based not-for-profit organization that is campaigning to make the city a child friendly one, decided to do its bit to create awareness on the advantage of not using cars. On the 21st, the NGO has planned to distribute handbills along with 2 English and 1 Kannada newspapers to persuade car users to consider taking public transport. "Some friends…

Stonehill International School in Jalahobli, Bangalore North, has been ranked the best international school in Bangalore with a score of 4.30 out of 5, in a survey conducted by ThinkVidya.com, an online community of parents, students and schools. The International School Bangalore (4.09), Sarjapur Road was ranked second, Trio World School (4.07), Sahakarnagar and Jain International Residential School, off Kanakapura Road, were jointly ranked third. Twenty-six International schools were shortlisted for ‘International Schools in Bangalore’, the first time such an independent survey was being conducted in the city. Nearly 200 individuals filed responses to the survey.  The report noted that…

Making Human Rights a Household Concept is its mission. Standing by victims of discrimination, repression and violence is the very raison d'etre of the South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) headquartered in Lingarajapuram in Bangalore. Envisioning a fearless society which uniformly respects the rights of everyone and particularly the marginalized, some concerned citizens started SICHREM in 1995. The NGO has been responding to the growing insensitivity to the law by the state and others through direct intervention, helpline, campaigns and tracking and reporting on unacceptable actions such as torture of prisoners, ill treatment of kids in…

Among the many times that I wonder about how the extremely marginalized cope with an empty stomach is when I hear the words "Mummy, I am hungry" on television. It is the ad jingle for a snack popular with children and youth since it entered India over twenty five years back. And it reminds me of the umpteen choices of 'fast' foods (usually unhealthy), available in urban areas. But, unlike the mum in the commercial, mothers of many children in this unenviable position cannot conjure up anything filling or tasty in two minutes! Take the case of Vimala and her…

R Ashok, Transport and Home Minister, and minister-in-charge of Bangalore, recently announced that BBMP would try to create new playgrounds. While this is a welcome statement, it is unfortunate that BBMP is threatening to take away a portion of a century-old playground. Protests at Malleswaram grounds. Pic: Vani Murthy BBMP's ill-advised Road-Widening plan will not only impact trees, homes and pedestrians but the century old Malleswaram 18th cross playground as well. Around 7 m – 12 m of the ground and the trees on one side of the ground will need to be given up if the road is widened.…