Inspire! - Bunch of youth and a tale of their work towards a noble cause

Story brought you by Srini and Sathya I have two requests for the readers which I would like you to consider are mutually exclusive. 1. What comes to your mind about the characteristic of a 25+ yr old unmarried youngster? Partying hard? leisure life? no responsibilities? Nope....you are just wrong like anyone else. 2. What about Tiruvannamalai? A holy place where one will get peace of mind not just everytime we visit the place but even if we think about the place for a minute. Wel..that is right...but think deep. During my recent visit to Tiruvannamalai on September 27th, 2015, I had the earnest privilege to meet this young guy Neelakandan, who is in his 25+, whose native is Tiruvannamalai itself. He is a graduate from Thiyagaraja college, Chennai. While he was at a crucial juncture to decide his career after education, he had two choices. Fight for a job which would pay modestly in the metro or chase his dream to service people. This guy took a bold decision to move back to Tiruvannamalai and have spent few days learning the dealership business for some of the leading cool drinks products and later running the dealership on his own now. Well, our first respect for him for being bold in deciding what he wants as his career all by himself. Neelakandan once read about a holy soul from chennai who was doing a great social service by collecting unclaimed orphan dead bodies from Govt hospital and did final rights in proper way. Neelakandan was so inspired about this article of noble gesture. He told to himself that he also wanted to do the same after the age of 40 considering the seriousness of this task and to get support from the family. Neelakandan being very spiritual and intimate towards Annamalaiyar does Girivalam almost on daily basis around Tiruvannamalai hills along with his friends. On one fine day, while he was doing Girivalam, he met group of social enthusiasts who were digging a grave and burying a dead body on the burial ground. Curious as he is, he went there and enquired about what is going on there. That is the place where he met Mr. Mohan who was doing the same cremation service which Neelakandan read about from one of the leading Tamil magazine. The fire and desire Neelakandan had to do the same from his age of 40 lighted up once again. He expressed his interest to Mr.Mohan to take active part in this holy service alongside the group for burying the orphaned dead souls in Tiruvannamalai. It seems Mr.Mohan wanted to test him to see if his interest is really genuine and long sustainable or not. He never invited him to join him in the noble caus for next few burial services. But Neelakandan did not leave him. He kept on calling him and expressed his sadness to see why he is not calling him for the service. Satisfied with his will to service, Mr.Mohan invited him and taught him all the formalities involved in collecting the orphan bodies and the procedure to cremate them. It is too sad to hear the reasons on how these orphaned dead bodies ends up in Tiruvannamalai. Most of them, at some point in their life were fed up with the daily repeatable chores of life and came to Tiruvannamalai to surrender at the feet of higher consciousness. Few were not mentally stable and were brought by their family members and left them in Tiruvannamalai without leaving any proof to trace them back to their family. Some of them came all the way from different places and committed suicide in Tiruvannamalai. The reasons are plenty. Neelakandan with utmost discipline learnt all the procedures and formalities and became one of the core member of the group. Mr.Mohan later handed over the complete responsibility of this activity to Neelakandan and moved to do the next big social service of restoring the damaged ancient Hindu temples across Tamilnadu. As of date, this crew have buried over 300+ dead bodies in Tiruvannamalai and counting. I saw some of the pictures of the dead souls which was very gory and fearful. Sometimes the Sadhus and orphans go deep into the forest and die there both of natural and other causes. People will not notice the dead bodies for days together before they are noticed by some passers-by. At that stage, the body will almost be in a completely decomposed state. It would be totally unfair if I leave other kind souls who are also taking part directly or indirectly in this service alongside Neelakandan. Selvam, Ramesh and one more person are professional Parai(drums) artists who will earn around 4000 to 5000 per performance. But they joined hands with Neelakandan to dig holes and assist in burying the orphaned dead bodies with as little money as they can get (around 300 or 400 or even for free). Neelakandan have never informed about his activities to his family fearing they might put a hurdle. To his surprise, his father came to know about his involvement through one of his local friend. He have not neither put any hurdle nor have asked about it to his son. A great salute to his gentle father who silently admire about his son's service mind but have not expressed it openly just like any other father :-) There are few other souls who are supporting Neelakandan financially to handle all burial/cremation expenses. Last but not least, Neelakandan is in love. The lady love was originally not happy about his involvement into these activities. But Neelakandan patiently explained to her the importance of doing what he is doing and now she is also in understanding and extending full support to him these days. Doubtlessly, one needs LOT of courage to do what Neelakandan is doing especially at the age of 25+. A big kudos to the team which is assisting him in all his endeavours. Will wrap up this article with a recap from what Tiruvalluvar has said in Aruludamai Athikaram which would be apt for this instance. Take a moment, think of a way to spread love, however small it is in whatever possible way. Have a great day!!!!!! P.S Note: Video interview with the people are listed below.

TBW & III-157 joins hands !

Its gives immense pleasure for the TBW team announce that we will be working together with III-157 group.

III-157 is a social cause driven group has been associated with rural projects .

Maximum positive impact can be delivered to the society only when number of groups work united for a social cause dividing work and sharing responsibilities - this belief brought both groups together.

Both groups hope and wish we deliver the best to the society.

Orphange Info - Food Sponsors

Dear Friends,
 
Just a suggestion from my side on the Food Sponsors. I guess it will be good to have a detailed information on the Orphanages that we work with. I have attempted creating the basic template with the minimal details. The objective of this document is to have the information ready with us to share it with the sponsors.
 
My recommendation will be do a round robin method in serving these orphanges so that we can serve multiple instead of one.
 
Veera,
Could you please help in getting the information to have it place?
All others who can help on this is very well welcome.
 
Please share your suggestions too. 

Thanks,
Karthik. 

Donation of 5 Artifical Limbs

We would be donating 5 Artifical limbs in the coming two weeks. Approx it 
will cost us Rs.2000*5 = Rs10,000.

September-Summary of monthly donation

This is the summary of the monthly works 

Home of hope - Donation towards monthly groceries 

Faith -Sponsor for the teacher [ Full support  from this month] 

We are glad to inform you that we would be fully supporting a teacher in
Faith school and increasing the funds for home of hope and we wld be having
additional funds to support Bangalore homes as well . 

September-Donation of Calipers/Artifical limb for 3 mentally challenged children.

"We would be initiating donation calipers/artifical limb for three mentally challenged children . These children use calipers which are old and very heavy available for free in govt hospitals . These kids are from Faith school .When we visited Faith school , we saw the pain kids through carrying these heavy stuff..one can imagine the pain being challenged both mentally and physically ..once we made this observation that they are using the old equipments we suggested this change,school accepted this suggestion....we have made a doctor check and have medical reports for the change.. 

We will sponsor their journey twice and provide food...and hopefully the children feel a relief... 

Funds is from our artifical limb project which is a separate pooling for this particular type of projects."

Finally ,all we did was initiated this effort . Donations came across to help this kids. Mukthi themselves donated these calipers.

Transportation cost of Rs.1600 was donated towards TBW from Dr.Sujatha  srinivasan,Associate professor IITM.

September-Donation towards education for aspiring engineering student

We had donated Rs.5000 towards a aspiring engineering student . Prabhakar , a underpriviledged had scores but  cldnt enrol for engineering , he lives in villivakkam ,chennai . Our friend Balaji initiated this fund raising and has
collected more that 50K for his first engineering year and corresponding years.5K was from general funds,Karthi -1K and Srini -2K was donated towards the students education . Congrats Bala for making a dream come true 

Also this is our second work joining hands with another trust named III-157 lead by Yadhava

July-Donation of a Wheelchair for the small girl who met with accident

Donated wheelchair for a small girl who met with accident .This girl was referred to us by Mukti foundation and a reference letter  letting us know the need for a wheelchair .Wheelchair would cost us Rs.5000 -from the general funds. 

July-Donations towards books and uniforms for 50 underpriviledged children

We have donated Rs 5200 towards books and uniforms for underprivileged children in chennai . our friends Keerthi had donated rs.2000 , Praba Rs.2000 and Mohan Rs 1200 for this cause . July 11 ,the distribution function was held . 

Thanks everyone.

Donation of 6 Artifical Limbs+6 Calipers

May 9 - Donation of 6 artifical Limb and 6 calipers was done . This function was conducted by Snegithan trust .There was also wheelchair donation by rotary club . Guests were our group members , Ecomwel director Mr Narayan and our advocate Mr.challini,his son was present  .Chief guest was Youth leader -Mr.Paramasivan .

Cost for the donation was Rs.23,000 . Special thanks to our artifical limb donors for their really committed contribution every month and they are Balaji , kavitha,arun ,Bala ,prasanna, Ananth .


 Thank you everyone !

Self Defense Classes

Short Course for Self defense for women was conducted for TCS,Chennai . It was organised by Srini . The study material will be available on request to the individuals.

Donation to built toilet & kitchen for C.S.I andavakkam Primary school

Request Received from school authorities:

"our C.S.I primary school is located in andavakkam village which is approximately a distance of "5" kms from vedanthangal bird sanctuary.. right now in our school "33" children's are studying from class-1 to class-5, at present students dont have basic facilities like toilets & kitchen.. for your better understanding i have given the hurdles which we are facing because of not having these basic infrastructure


Kitchen : At present we are cooking at open ground.. as you aware during this season due to rain & wind cant cook in the open air, so everyday we have to seek help from some one in village to allow their kitchen for cooking to children bcz of this sometimes we not able to provide lunch on time .. in some situations if neighbours gone out then it is very difficult for us to find out the alternatives.., all these childrens are completely depend on mid day meals because they are all from daily wages family..


Toilets : As you aware as per the new norms government aided as well as private schools has to have proper sanitation facilities..other wise their licence may get stopped during the time of renewal ..since our school is C.S.I it comes under government aided.. , apart from gov. norms it is also not advisable for children to go toilets in the open ground which lead them to get various diseases.."


Donation Made :

TBW donated Rs.10,000 for this cause . Keerthi donated Rs.2000 ,Praba Rs.2000 and rest from the common funds.

The total cost of the project was Rs.55,000. There was multiple groups working on this and made it successful. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Oct - April -Suji -Gowtham

Suji and Gowtham consistent contribution

Oct 5, 2008 - V Gowtham Devaki - $20
Nov 16, 2008 - V Gowtham Devaki - $20
Dec 15, 2008 - Sujatha Kasturirangan - $10
Jan 28, 2009 - Sujatha Kasturirangan - $10
Mar 21, 2009 - Sujatha Kasturirangan - $20
Apr 5, 2009 - V Gowtham Devaki - $50

Cheers guys.

DONATION OF FREE ARTIFICAL LIMB

"TOWARDSBETTERWORLD TRUST WILL BE DONATING FREE ARTIFICAL LIMB FOR THE NEEDED INDIVIDUALS . KINDLY CONTACT US IF THERE IS A NEED.

THANKS,
TOWARDSBETTERWORLD TEAM

Bala group donations every month reads

Karthik,

I have transferred $215 to your BOA account.

Monthly Contribution - $135
[Balaji / Kavitha / Senthil ]

Monthly Contribution for Artificial Limb Project - 75
[Arun / Bala / Prasanna / Ananth]


Regards,
Balaji N

Distribution of school uniforms and books for childrens day- donations done on Nov 13 2009

All,

This morning we(Sathya, Veera and I ) were at the M.M.D.A government
Middle school for distributing the uniform and Notebooks for the kids
(around 250 of them) inline with Children's day. It was nice moment we
had with the kids. I went into each classroom and had also seen the IBM
Kidsworld they established in every government school. The room had six
computers and teachers are educated to train the school kids. The
headmaster of the school, Mr. Krishnamoorthy was very glad to meet us
who represented on behalf of Towards better world. Aathavan branch of
Lions club was also present at the venue to distribute the chocolates to
the kids for Children's day. He kept one more request to setup mineral
water plant at the venue. In the first round, Veera, Sathya and I will
gather needed info for this activity and will present in front of each
and everyone of you for further analysis.

I take this opportunity to convey Mr. Krishnamoorthy's thanks and
blessing to our trust people who made another of our remarkable
milestone possible. Following are the activities done today.

Uniforms were distributed for 70 kids (teachers helped identify the 8 or
9 kids from each class who needed help the most) and the cost for the
same came to - Rs.10,175

Long and short size notebooks costed - 2600

Total expenses - Rs.12,775

Money I received from Trust - 12,000

Karthik,

Please add Rs775 under my name and include it in our income and
expenditure sheet.

Pictures taken at the venue will follow this e-mail shortly from Veera
and me.

Regards,

Srinivasan Palanisamy

Distribution of books-August 17 2009

Book distribution for underprivileged children was done on August 17 2009 at
Kil'pauk cooperation school ,chennai . Our friend Kumaresh and I
represented our TBW . Director of German Leprosy and TB relief assoication
and Director of Ecomwel[Community welfare fund ] were also present.

Innovative idea to generate funds-Martial art classes

Core idea was given by sathya for he saw a need to teach martials arts for the women who return alone in the cabs.

Its a very fruitful as it generated Rs.4000 with which we brought a wheelchair.


Mail written to group to gather ideas
Hi all,

We are glad to inform that our group will be starting basic self defense
class in HCL .

Its very sad to hear few deaths caused to women travelling alone in the late
night cabs , we thought we cld help them in some way . Sathya came up with
this idea and responsible for making this happen .Thirupu[lead] and myself
would be training them .[It wld be generic as well in lot of angles]

We are framing the contents of the course . It would be great if you guys
cld give us suggestions, possible problems you have experienced ,possible
solutions so that we will be effective.

Please do share your suggestions.

Thanks,
Veerabahu

Wheelchair donation and Diabetic camp-Big event :)

Wheelchair :*

Wheelchair donation was done for 5 people . 3 Wheelchair was funded by
Lakshmi ,special thanks to her. For 1 funds generated through our martial
art program and another one was done by HCL group.[Sathya donating in the
pic] . Each wheelchair cost Rs.4900

*Diabetic Camp :*

Aarthi had sponosored for this camp,special thanks to her . We could help
30-50 differently enabled and underpriviledged.Diabetic test were taken and
reports were given to individuals. Cost - Rs.5000

*Event Details :
*For the event , Sathya,Veera,Karthick were present for this program along
with HCL employees.Photos - Group pics,With our TBW banner,karthick giving
educational funds.

*Abt Marital Art program :*

Our "Self defence program for Women" in HCL was successful ,it generated
Rs.5000 . Tulsi plant selling idea -thanks to Prasanna ..was a novel idea
that inspired this program.Basic idea to generate funds through serving
people.Special thanks to sathya and thirupathy for making this happen.

Creation of database-List of ppl who need artifical limb,wheelchair and educational support

As written to the group

Hi All,

One of the major work we planned for the year is to create a database for
whom artifical limb,wheelchair and educational support can be donated.[we
dont need to depend on any other organisation for this]

We thought that publishing ad or article in tamil and english
newspaper..will have a reach..thats our suggestion..does anybody have ideas
on this?..

Veerabahu

Donations towards Sathya shanthi seva for construction-18-6-2009

Donated Rs.8500 towards sathya shanthi seva for their construction . Kavitha had donated rs.6000 and rest was from the general funds.

Wheelchair donation -Sep 7 2008-As written by sathya

Dear Friends,

Last week i went for donating wheel chair, It was very good feeling, by seeing the photos you will come to know.

our team should feel proud...

the place where i went is village, she cannot walk by using her legs(in the
sense she lost all her strength), to take from one location to another
location three members are required, 10 years before she was good due to
some reasons she was handicapped

the greatest thing i traveled 40km, the person who drive the auto is
physically challenged.

Prasanna they were so thankful for the contribution, the person who is
standing with them is not me it is you...each and every member in the family
are very thankful...
--
Regards
Sathya

Wheelchair donation -Dec 27 2008

Health improvement -Letter of thanks from faith to TBW

Team efforts has really paid off...kids health is improving..led by sathya..

Faith school donations

Sathya takes care of the complete transfers and communication with the faith school in thiruninravur,chennai.

we are sponsoring for partime teacher's salary every month .That in turn has a very good impact on the kids.

Monthly donation received through bala

Bala has taken responsibility to unify the funds he receive and transfer to accounts...details are

Monthly Contribution
$160 - (Balaji / Senthil / Kavitha / Badri)

Monthly Contribution for Artificial Limb Project
$75 - (Arun / Bala /Prasanna / Prasanna's Brother)

Sathya's proposal on sapling planting

Sathya says:

"Saplings:

1.Near to my village there is a land with home, They are ready to take
care if we give the saplings with tree gaurd and maximum we can keep
10 saplings. "

We are looking at this..a economial way to do tree guard since it costs us nearly rs.800 ...we are looking at a better way so we can serve better..

..initial estimate would be 10 banyan sapling to be planted...

Sathya's proposal against slaughter of cows

Donation of cows:

sathya says "now a days in all parts of the world cow slaughters are killing the
cows especially in india slowly it has been increased.."

his plans are to increase the population of the cows like,

1.Giving the cow to the poor family in the village , he will be
protecting the cow at the same time he will benifited by selling the
milk.

2.There are some group near to my village who will take care of the
cows until it dies the intention is to protect the cows they think cow
as holy they feel that cows should be protected. I inquired the group
who is taking care of cows they are in need of feed.

That was wonderful of you sathya!!!..cheers to you..

Sathya visit to bangalore- related feeback

1,Thomson school

Now they are in very critical position, the support from others has
been reduced, we need our support for them delibrately.he said that i
will send the mail to you personally about the problems facing in the
school.He was mentioning Veera have given great support when he is in
banglore, now very few person are comming forward to help them.Daily
morning for the blind school -milk has been stopped, the person he
arranged for sponsor has stopped giving the morning milk.

PS: What is our plan for giving the support to them, please give your
sugestions

2.Sathya Santhi Seva.

They shown the workdone , givien sintex water tank, 5000 rs for child
and clearing Drainage water, they were so happy about work done by
veer, Premature child situation was bad. Now they need in support
Paying current bill and Telephone bills that is what they needed at
present.

3.Om Ashram

Old age people love is touching, I got the oppurtumity to see the 99
years old grand ma and i got the blessings from her, I spoke with
madam Geetha she was nice to speak- as we planned we accepted to
provide the medicines, I dont know what is our budget we need to
finalize get the medicine before 27th-october for this jhelum will be
the right person to give the medicine monthly

Donation towards Sathya shanthi seva

Donation of Rs.5000 to sathya shanthi seva was done through Jhelum,bangalore. Initially raised to help them for the drainage system , since it was delayed funds was used for sowmiya initial medical tests.

Details will follow on sowmiya test and our possible work towards that.

Donation received for two wheelchairs-(*To be completed this month)

For the month of september, we have received donations to purchase wheelchairs towards snegithan.

Donors :

1]Prasanna-With her tulsi project - One wheelchair
2]Gowtham --
3]Suji |-> One wheelchair
4]Don Lingle --

*Approx cost of one wheelchair =Rs.4000.

Prematured baby donation -ON HOLD

As you guys know,lil prematured baby in the balagurukulam home needed a operation for her deformed lip. When we started ,operation was decided to be held within six months.So we went on with the donation collection.

But unfortunately ,the kid's weight was not upto the mark and needs two more years to ensure a healthy recovery.

ON HOLD:

We have been holding this Rs 60,000 for more than a year in our accounts. But now, we have decided to give back the respective donation to the donors and ask them to transfer again when it is required, if they wish to .I would really thank the donors for their efforts and the trust for so long .

RECHANNELLING OF THE FUNDS:

Part of the donation will be divided into six and each part will go to buy medicines for Omashrama ,home for elders-bangalore. Rest of the donation will be held back.

Sponsoring Hearing Aid - Snegithan

Sathya and karthick hand over the donation of hearing aid for a student-Snegithan.

This was possible due to the donation made by

1]Bala-$100
2]Aarthi-$100

The total cost of hearing aid was Rs.13,500.

We received advise from supriya(Bangalore) and family on the purchase.Thanks to them.

Prasanna Innovative idea !-Yields a wheelchair

Prasanna had come up with a innovative idea to generate funds. She sold Tulsi plants which has generated 100$ . This was done in september month .

This would be used to buy a wheelchair . Proper vendor will be found and wheelchair will be donated to snegithan. This will be finished in couple of weeks from now..we apologize for the delay.

Bala- Helps three causes

Bala contributes to three causes :

Blue blood: 1 Yr Kids Education - Rs. 2000
Snegithan: Hearing aid - Rs.4000
Home of Hope: Provisions - Rs. 2000