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Saksham-Sevankur Motivation Camp, Akola
21-24 April 2011-04-30

Brief Report
This is a brief report with some photos of Saksham-Sevankur Motivation camp, held at Akola, on 21-24 April 2011. This was the special Sevankur with focus on Differently able youths. This was a very special camp for every participant, resource person & organisers also. Everybody was so moved by the live stories of the differently able Heroes present in the camp as participant.

The camp was organised by the local Akola group of SAKSHAM which is working with visually impaired group since last few years. This group is led by Smt Manjushri Kulkarni, who is a core team member of Sevankur. Many of our Sevankur members are also involved in this activity since last 6 months.

In this 4 days residential camp, there were 32 blind, 5 hearing impaired, 12 physically challenged, 2 mentally challenged & 60 + normal youths & volunteers, from different parts of Maharashtra.

All the arrangements including the finances have been done by the local SAKSHAM group with contributions from many of the individuals of Akola.

There were resource persons who are themselves differently able & still had done something great.

1. Jaysing Chauhan, Nagpur – Physically challenged but a successful industrialist started from 200 Rs. & reached to 5 crore turnover company.
2. Tillu Tiwari, Akola- physically challenged, very good artist, self employed
3. Dinesh Rathi, Akola – lost his sight at the age of 29. But then became a successful businessman fighting all challenges.
4. Sarojtai Tole, Pune – Brail Publisher.
In addition to these external resource persons, this time some of the participants were interviewed, learn about their challenging life journey. These were the most moving sessions of the camp.

1. Kanchanmala Pande (Amravati) who is known as Golden Girl, 20 years old cheerful & energetic girl, secured 50 + gold medals in National/international events in swimming. She had represented India in commonwealth games at Millburn, Australia, then at Malaysia, Germany, Asian games 2010-China, Asian games 2011-Turkey. She had received Eklavya Award, Kridarantna award & many others.

2. Paneri Pasad (Amravati) 17 year girls with cerebral palsy, known as JALAPARI (Angel of Water). She secured 19 gold & 6 other medals in national swimming events till now. Even to stand on her feet or to walk few steps on ground is a great activity for her due to her physical disability. To speak few words is also an exercise for her. But she is having a very positive attitude towards life. She had given SSC exam this year & wants to learn more. She spoke few sentences with the participants, which was a very inspiring moments of the 4 days camp.

3. Saleem, 24 years for Kalyan, Mumbai, blind by birth is struggling without any family support. He had grown up & lived few years of his life on railway platform with all kinds of odds & bitterness, but had been able to keep smiling face always. He learned singing on Flute & now is known for that. He could earn his living with the help of his Flute. Now he had been able to get a life companion also.

4. Chetan Uchitkar (Washim) 6 years boy, blind by birth is nothing less than miracle. He is from a very marginal family background of a small village, without any learning facilities till now. But still he can tell 100 + stories on mike with full confidence. His GK is amazing, He knows all the GHOTALAs (scams) going on, many of the political & other happenings, he is very sharp in maths & can perform sums of two-three digits without pen & paper. He was the youngest resource person of the Sevankur camp.

There were many more stories to speak about.

One of the objectives of this special camp was to create more social support for these differently able youths & also to encourage them. But the level of motivation the normal participants got was tremendous. Instead of giving support to differently able youths, we felt that we need to take their support & inspiration to live with smiling faces in our life.

We have decided to integrate the differently able group in all the Sevankur camps henceforth.
Our immediate next Sevankur camps are proposed on May 27-28-29 at Aurangabad & in June (third or fourth week end) at Jalgaon/Dhule.

There are youth camps organised by different organisations. You may participate at suitable places. Some of them are
1. Sevankur at Aurangabad – 27-29 May
2. Sevankur at Jalgaon/ Dhule – 3 rd or 4 th week end
3. At Amalner, Dist Jalgaon – 26-31 may
4. At kolupur, Melghat, Dist. Amravati – 2-8 June

Now a core team of around 150 youths evolved over the period & facilitates the process all round the year by reaching to more no of new youths, leading the small initiatives at their places, connecting with other networks.

1. The contribution for participating in Sevankur camp which was Rs. 50 in first camp, is gradually increased to Rs. 100, 150, 200 & then to 300 for the students & 500 for others. We also see that, no one should miss the opportunity only because he can’t contribute. We offer complete or partial discount to nearly 20 % participants, who really can’t afford the travel cost plus the contribution. Gradually we are moving towards the self sustained system for the logistic expenses of the camp, so that we should be able to continue it without any external support.
2. Now the no. of senior non student youths is also increased to nearly 15-20 %. Many of them are engaged in some or the other kind of social activities. They also act as the mentors for the youngsters. So overall the maturity level of Sevankur is increased a lot.
3. We started with participants from 7-8 districts of Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Now the participants of Feb 2011 Sevankur were from 32 districts of Maharashtra. (So have reached to almost entire state) We began with mainly medicine, engineering students, but now they are from all kinds of academic background.
4. “Sevankur” evolved as a brand over the period at the state level. There is wide spread mouth to mouth publicity amongst the youths, various youth networks, NGOs, etc. We are known for commitment, down to earth approach, strong voluntarism & internal bonding, working very informally & with minimum external financial inputs.
5. Sevankur members get priority at many places due to their strengths. 5-6 Sevankur members have been selected for each of the three batches (out of total of 70 selected participants from Maharashtra State) of “NIRMAN’ course, run by famous social activist Dr. Abhay Bang. NIRMAN is graded exposure & training & fellowship program for youth volunteers, for social action. We encouraged Sevankur members to participate in NIRMAN. We are also having a very close association with the participants of the NIRMAN.
6. Eight Sevankur members (out of total of 400 selected participants from all India) have been selected for Tata Jagriti Rail Yatra this year. This is also another youth forum promoting social enterpruneership by way of exposure through all India train journey.
7. Few Sevankur members started opting for career in social sector, out of the exposure & the motivation they received. Krishna has joined the “GOONJ”, Mukesh joined the “Vidnyan Ashram”. In coming days more Sevankur members will come forward for this. In fact many NGOs started looking towards Sevankur, as the storehouse of committed youths. So hence forth the Sevankur members will have more job opportunities in social sector & NGOs will get quality human resource.
8. Networking of various youth activities & organizations taken place by the initiative of Sevankur. NIRMAN, TJY, SHIVAM, Snehalaya, Anandwan, GOONJ, Netaji Competitive exam academy Sangli, Matrubhumi Foundation, Buldana, Rashtra Seva Dal are some of the youth networks working for youths. Now we have been able to connect all these informally. Some of them have adopted few Sevankur concepts in their youth activities.SHIVAM is one of such big network in South-western Maharashtra. They used to organize youth camps at many places with huge no. of participants. Their annual camp used to be in Satara district in Jan. which is three days residential camp, with no. of participants around 4000-5000. Now we get associated with them since last three years. Many of the Sevankur approaches have been welcomed & get incorporated in their camps.
9. We have evolved a one day non-residential module of Sevankur & tried it at three different places this year with success. It is low input screening activity, which we are planning to expand extensively.
10. We have developed a database of about 2000 youth & senior friend with their contact details, area of interests/expertise etc. We are in regular touch with them by using different communication channels like sms & email, social networking sites, phone calls & actual face to face interaction.
11. Sevankur is now emerging as the supporting platform for new upcoming social initiatives. Two classical examples are a) Santosh Garaje, 26 years, from Gevrai of Beed district of Maharashtra, is running hostel for orphan & destitute children, since last seven years. He is from a migrant labor family. His sister died 7 years ago, when he was 19 years old. She had a small kid of 1 year age. The agony of the kid who lost his mother, touched his heart & he get moved & decided to dedicate his life for such children. He was not having any social background, nor any knowledge of running NGO. But sheer out of that incidence his empathy converted in action & he started looking for such destitute children. He started with six children 7 years ago & now he is the guardian of such 35 children. He lives with them for 24*365 days, taking care of all their development needs of education, food, lodging with full of love & affection. Though he had registered an NGO for this, he was struggling hard for getting support. Many times he used to get fade up with his limited resources. He participated in Sevankur camps last year & the scene has changed totally. Now Sevankur members came forward & had taken responsibility of giving all kind of support in terms of time, skills, finance etc. Some of them go to his place & help him in accounting, documentation & other things. Some started contributing & collecting donations for him. Now there is a tremendous boost in the morale of Santosh & he started planning of scaling of his activity. B) Another example of Smt Manjushri Kulkarni of Akola, who started “day care center” for the blind children, with some of her friends. This year Sevankur members had joined in her venture & now it is expanding in many directions.
12. Because of the exposure to various role models & the nurturing atmosphere in Sevankur, the motivation level of Sevankur members is increased. Many of them developed a penetrating vision of looking for needy individuals/organizations, around them. They also started giving helping hand & offering every possible support in terms of time, skills, finances. It helped in relieving sufferings of many of such individuals like the blind, or physically challenged, senior citizen, poor children etc.
13. We have prepared a calendar of the youth camps organized by various NGOs, organizations at different places & started widely publisizing it.

15. Scrap Bank : Now this became a regular activity at many places. The used but usable things which are otherwise waste at homes, are to be converted into the useful things to the needy one. The scrap bank evolved as a system of collecting, sorting, if required repairing, packing, storing on one side & dispatching & distributing to the needy one on other side. Amravati, Wardha, Washim, Akola, Nagpur, Satara, Sangali are some of the districts where it had started. We got bicycles, sewing machine, beds, furniture etc. apart from the clothes this year. Now we stared helping to new social initiatives by providing these resources in kind.

16. Yavatmal group helped in the “Helping Farmers project”. Our area is suffering from an agrarian crisis & many farmers are committing suicides during last 3-4 years. Many organisations are working towards this problem. Sevankur members have participated in some of the awareness campaigns held for farmers. During summer vacations training camps were held in many villages in watershed management, organic composting etc. Sevankur members took active part in these summer camps. They got the rural exposure & have an opportunity to study the problems of the farmers.

17. We have been invited as resource for NSS camps by many colleges at different places.

18. We have organized Rural Sevankur at GSMT Jalka, DILASA Ghatanji, Wadgaon in Yavatmal district, Kinwat in Nanded district.

19. We also started the Junior Sevankur wing for younger children. We organized Residential/ Non residential camps at Amravati & other few places.

20.One inspiring example of Sevankur volunteering is of Shri. Dhavale from Amravati. He is youth of just 72 years age & associated with Sevankur since Oct. 2009. He is a retired office superintendent from Govt. department. He was so excited about Sevankur, in the first meeting only, that he offered to give a monthly donation of Rs. 1000 for Prayas-Sevankur. He is continuing it since last 18 months. Another amazing offer he kept, that he will be devoting three hours daily for Prayas-Sevankur. Since then he is working on that line & became a self designated PRO of Sevankur, propagating the activities by going house to house. He participated in all the Sevankur camps with full enthusiasm with the youths. He became the loving grand-father & the Idol for all the Sevankur members.