Shades of Happiness Charity Cricket Tournament

Dear People,

Greetings from Shades of Happiness.
Shades of happiness trust is a growing organization that basically deals in lending a helping hand wherever possible to the lives of young human beings who have been deprived of not just opportunities but basic needs of life. From education, to skills to just quality time spent - we try to provide with whatever little we have.

Our Vision – “HELP THOSE IN NEED SO THAT NO ONE LIVES IN PAIN, SUFFERING OR NEGLECT BECAUSE OF DISRIMINATION BASED ON CASTE, COLOR, CREED, RACE, RELIGION OR SOCIAL STATUS”

We take care of around 60 children who are the children of beggars, construction workers, guards or people who work near Connaught place. These Children themselves work as rag pickers, beggars and labourers at the tea/food stalls, and few of them go to local schools as well.

Our Aim is to start a centre where we can take care of these children on a more permanent basis and educate them enough to get them enrolled in a proper school where we will take up the responsibility of funding them.

These children are bright, talented and hard working. It’s sad to see that they have no opening to prove themselves and shine as individuals. We need to give these children an opportunity to grow so that they can give back to their country in a more constructive way. With help from our friends and well-wishers, we have got classrooms at St. Columba's School, New Delhi where we do the activities every day.

We are organizing a fundraiser & an awareness programme in form of a Charity Cricket tournament. The proceeds of the event will be used for the growth of the current ongoing projects, which are:

NEEV- the Grooming School where children are taught basic hygiene, academics and given vocational training

GO TO SCHOOL- Through this initiative we envisage sending our children to good schools in the state.

The event will be drawing a lot of Business leads, youth and Institutes. The expected number of participants in the tournament is around 300 people (players), along with this we will be having spectators from a lot of colleges, schools and organizations. The tournament is going to end with a cultural evening on 30th of August and a dinner for all major participating Associations, Organizations and Sponsors of the tournament.

We are publishing a Newsletter which will give the details about Children in Need, Our initiative and our partners. Our distribution reach is 10000 people across schools, colleges, offices, government, media, hangouts, etc. It shall also be used during our activities and events till November ‘09.

The Tournament will be played over the weekends in August, the dates and venue is as follows:
VENUE: St. Columba’s School Ground
1 Ashok Place, New Delhi – 110 001
DATE: 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th & 30th of August 2009.

All of you are most welcome to attend the event. In case you would want to participate/sponsor in the tournament, please feel free to contact us.

Our Contact details are mentioned below for your kind pursual. Please call/email/sms us on the same.

Kanishka Chaudhry - Chief Mentor, Public Relations and Marketing Head +91-9971697760

Office Address : A-48, First Floor, Inderpuri, New Delhi 110012.

email id : shadesofhappiness@gmail.com

Please contact us for our bank account details in case you want to help us in the form of cash/cheque.

Shades Of Happiness Trust

Every city in India has street children. They are visible - Whenever you stop your car at any traffic light in Delhi, little children between the age of 4 and 10 years old, would have approached you to beg for money. At the age when they are supposed to be studying at school and playing games, they live and work in the streets, walk barefoot in the burning sun, facing torture, exploitation and abuse and most of the times turn either drug addicts, beggars or criminals when they grow up. There is no mechanism which permanently keeps them away from harm. Though we have one of the largest networks of schools and anganwadis, i.e., the institutional framework for the protection of child rights is in place, but their services are woeful and dismal to the best. These children are also invisible because many people choose to ignore the physical embodiments of the worst kind of failure in our societies. The problem is not local but global and it is escalating - brought on by poverty, family disintegration, abuse, abandonment, neglect and social unrest. Every aspect of our lives bears evidence to a child’s exploitation, vulnerability and drudgery. Behind our smug well-being is the loss of childhood for many. Street children are vulnerable. Prostitution, trafficking, crime, drugs, gang violence, even police violence - all of these are real risks for many, already reality for others.

Children who grow up in poverty are much more vulnerable than others. They are more likely to be in poor health, to underachieve in school (if they get a chance to attend any), to get into trouble with the police, to fail to develop vocational skills and to be unemployed or badly paid. Child poverty is usually connected to poverty among those adults who care for them. It should, however, be understood that poverty has a more profound impact on children. It affects them not only in their immediate present, but also in the long term. Moreover, children themselves can do little to improve their situation. As a consequence, for growing up, they greatly depend on underpoverished elders who themselves have neither the means for raising these kids nor any attachment for them. These elders treat them as commodities, only concerned about the money they can get out of raising these kids. This is sad and unacceptable.

Empathizing with the situation, we formed "Shades of Happiness". It is a Trust which is aimed at improving the lives of these children. We started with a group of 7 members on the 2nd of March 2008, and worked outside the State Emporiums at Connaught Place, New Delhi on the pavements. Here we tended to around 25-50 children who were the children of beggars, construction workers or people who work near the Hanuman Mandir. These Children themselves work as rag pickers, beggars and laborers at the tea/food stalls. From the last five months, we have been extremely lucky to find a benefactor Bro. Lobo of St Columbus School. Brother has provided us a classroom in his school where we carry out our activity every weekday from 10 am to 4 pm and weekends from 2 pm to 5 pm. During the last one year of our existence, we have worked on a range of issues seeking to ensure the provision of basic education (both academic and vocational) to the children belonging to extremely deprived section of the society. There also exists a high demand for education amongst the target group(i.e children and their parents) that sees it as the vehicle for their economic and social empowerment. These children are bright, talented and hard working. It is sad to see that they have no opening to prove themselves and shine as individuals. We need to give these children an opportunity to grow so that they can give back to their country in a more constructive way.
Our Aim is to start a centre where we can take care of these children on a more permanent basis and educate them enough to get them enrolled in a proper school where we will take up the responsibility of funding them. For this purpose we are having two programs running viz Neev – The Grooming School and Go to School model. Neev deals in providing the right foundation of primary education, personal hygiene, grooming and affection to the kids thereby making them ready to get admitted in the best schools of the country. Go to School is a step forward in this regard where we have envisioned sending seven children to school this year.

As Vaclav Havel has rightly said "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." We understand that what we have started is going to be very hard to sustain. But, nevertheless, we have taken the challenge head on and we will definitely make it a reality. Right now we are short of everything, ranging from volunteers, funds to contacts. But we know that we will never fall short of goodwill and the motivation to take it forward. We urge you, no we beseech you to come forward with open hands and open hearts to help the Children of God.We are registered under the Governemnt of India's Trust Act 1882 with the registration number 1911.How can you help us ?

You can help us out by : -

1. Donating old clothes, shoes,etc which our children can wear.
2. Donate stationary, old books (both school and story books).
3. Donate old computers, music systems, etc which would help us to train the kids.
4. Becoming a volunteer in either teaching, administration, fund raising, marketing or Public Relations.
5. Helping us get associated with the CSR department of your company.
6. Reviewing our running programs, viz Neev and Go To School and helping us in your kind capacities.
7. Pledging an amount per month for the year (Rs 500 per child per month) to help us put a child in a good school and take care of her/his academic needs for the year.
8. Donating in Cash or Kind towards our existing programs.
   

Our Contact details are mentioned below for your pursual. Please call/email/sms us on the same for your kind support.

Ashish Samuel - President +91-9899453402
Murphy Raphael John - Vice President and General Secretary +91-9990378677
Amit Tirkey - Treasurar +91-9953994016
Kanishka Chaudhry - Chief Mentor, Public Relations and Marketing Head +91-9971697760
Office Address : A-48, First Floor, Inderpuri, New Delhi 110012.
email id : shadesofhappiness@gmail.com

Please contact us for our bank account details in case you want to help us in the form of cash/cheque.

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