Centre for Social Action

You really don’t want to miss this!

ISFiT - The International Student Festival in Trondheim, Norway is the world’s largest student festival with a thematic focus. About 450 students from all over the world attend the festival. The themes have changed over the years, but have always been related to social and political topics with international relevance.

World figures often attend ISFiT and past speakers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former Director-General of WHO Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Dr José Ramos-Horta and Professor Wangari Maathai. Using modern technology, both former US president Bill Clinton and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Desmond Tutu have relayed their thoughts about the global significance of ISFiT to plenum ceremonies at the festival.

As students are the future leaders of the world we believe that their voices should be heard and international networks established. Thus the purpose of ISFiT is to be a meeting place for discussion and debate, an arena where ideas are born, friendships are made, and valuable lessons are learned. The festival aims at fostering inspiration and being a starting point for international cooperation amongst students. ISFiT is a non-profit festival.

The ISFiT participants take part in different workshops, which highlight the festival theme in various ways. Several lectures and thematic meetings will be arranged, where well-known international speakers share their views with the participants and others. The ISFiT audience is also welcome to join a vast cultural programme of concerts, art exhibitions and performing arts.

In order to organize ISFiT, more than 350 students in Trondheim work voluntarily, making sure every detail goes as planned. ISFiT has been arranged in Trondheim, Norway every second year since 1990.

The next ISFiT will be arranged from 20 February to 1 March 2009. The main topic this time is peacebuilding.

(Taken from the Isfit website:http://www.isfit.org/article/show/3

For more information check out www.isfit.org

Last Saturday, Centre for Social Action, Christ College, ended its student activities for the semester with the Annual Presentation. Each group of CSA, the MSW dept., the Troop Leader, and the Co-ordinator, made presentations on their achievements during the year 2007-2008. Each presentation provided ideas to expand the activities of CSA next year.

By the annual presentation, officially, all student activities ended for this year. The college closed for study holidays on the same day. Meanwhile, exciting plans are being prepared to accelerate the activities of CSA for the next year. Revamping of camps, meeting with corporates, dealing with new issues and many other ideas are in the cards.

So expecting a very exciting academic year 2008-2009, this is the CSA Publications Team logging off. < click >

Hi all,

We decided to put up an online version of We Care magazine(with a hint from our friends in Norway ). So if you have a pretty fast internet connection, or if you’re dedicated enough to put the download for the night, ladies and gentlemen, behold….

We Care
File size : 12MB
File type: PDF
Software required : Adobe Reader 5.0+
Click here to download

Read and enjoy! And of course pass it on to your friends who might be interested! Also feel free to blog about it!

P.S: CSA Annual Presentation on this Saturday (March 15th) 2PM. Venue still to be decided.  Please join us! (And people from Norway, we’ll try to establish a Skype link )

Hi all,

This is a special hats off from the Publications team to the CSA Best Volunteers award winners for the year 2007-2008. Ladies and gentlemen, please join us, and put your hands together for…

Svati Satish (II JPEng - Activity Centre) and Nivendra Uduman (I PSEng - Activity Centre)

We would also like to recognise the efforts put in by our dear Troop leader, Vandana R. (II JPEng - Publications)

Today (10th March) was the College Day of Christ College. The Best Volunteers and the Troop leader were given awards during the function.

Once again, hats off to these people who help make CSA a special place to work in!

After all the proof readings, discussions, arguments, fun moments, sleepless nights, etc., etc…
We Care is finally here.

So, get hold of any CSA volunteer for your copy or,
if you are on the second floor of the main block, then the CSA office isn’t that far!
Walk in and take a copy for yourself.

 
We would also like to thank everyone (through this post) for their help and support.
All the writers for taking out time and writing down what they strongly felt for.
Ms. Andrea Parry, especially, for all her ideas, views and help.

 

So, as we always believe and say:
Keep writing.
Keep that spark in you!

 
- Publications Team

 

On the day which comes once in four years, the Centre for Social Action Christ College, organised a programme nomenclatured Gracias. It was an arena for the sponsored students from the Rajendranagar to express their thanks to their sponsors. This was the second edition of Gracias, conducted once a year.

On the 29th of February, almost all of the sponsored children of Rajendranagar trooped in to Christ College. These children were beneficiaries of the sponsorship programme of CSA. Various classes in Christ College, as well as outside people, sponsor education, health and clothes for these kids. And now, these kids were putting up a programme to show their gratitude to their sponsors.

All the sponsor classes and individuals were invited to this programme. But we never expected the huge crowd which turned up to watch the event. And as a few kids sang Hum honge kaam ya… (”We shall overcome…”) the rest of the group of 130 walked in a neat line into the auditorium, inviting thunderous applause. Heartened thus, the kids put up a beautiful and wonderful show.

Johny sir, the co-ordinator of CSA, gave a very enlightening speech about CSA, Rajendranagar, the activities of CSA, and difference the activities made to the area. His speech was followed by a photo presentation consisting of pictures of the Rajendranagar slum, taken by Sacharias. This was followed by the programmes by the kids.

 

The programmes included a western song, a hilarious, but informative play on girl child education, a dhandiya dance and a Norwegian classical dance. One of the sponsored kids, Kiran, gave a speech about how the sponsorship affected his life. Nivendra, a CSA volunteer, also gave a speech about his experiences with CSA.

The audience were quite inspired by the show and actively gave feedback in the form of appluase. They joined in the rhythm of clapping during the Norwegian dance, and also encouraged the kids by giving heartening applauses at the end of each programme.

The prize distribution for all previous Activity Centre events followed the programmes. And after the entire programme ended, the kids, along with the volunteers headed to the Birds Park to have lunch. The kids hung around for another couple of hours, playing, singing, dancing, and having fun…

As the day ended, every kid had a huge smile on his/her face. Every volunteer was tired, but even they sported cheerful smiles. The programme was organised by the Norwegian exchange students. They did the MCing as well. Kudos to them for a well organised programme, which pulled in a huge audience, and made the children happy!

Malur Project           

Bishop’s
Conference of Italy

* Children’s day
celebrations

- Village wise cultural and sports competitions.

- Panchayat members, parents and school teachers were
invited as guests for the finals of the competition

 

* Self Help groups
for women

- More than 128 income generation programmes like:
livestock, petty shops and food stall, etc. 

- Training in small business activities.

- Banks have come forward to work with these groups. 

- Collaboration with Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) to start
dealership for daily, consumable products. E.g. toothpaste.

 

K. Gollahalli
Project Area
 

* Crèche for children

- attracted more than 25 children, 

- provision of pre-school education, nutrition and health
care.

 

* Self Help Groups

- regularly accessing loans from banks for setting up
various small businesses, 

- initiating discussions to get benefits from local
government,

- have been taken for exposure on new variety of sheep
rearing. 

- Cluster Level Association (CLA) is training SHGs and
building links with banks.

 

Rajendranagar
Slum, Koramangala

 * Child Sponsorship Programme:

- Talents day

- Tests 

- Film Shows (At field & PVR – Tare Zameenpar)

- Personality Development workshops 

- Drawing Competition

- Craft work 

- Regular Classes

- Monthly Parents Meeting - Class wise 

- Counseling assistance

- Distribution of New year gift (T-Shirts)
 

* Self Help Groups 

- Regular Meetings, Savings, Credit Activities

- 100% External loan repayments 

- Payment of Child Sponsorship fees

- Five SHG’s have taken responsibility to conduct school
wise monthly meeting for the parents of sponsored children  
  and fees payments
are made at the meetings.

- Housing loan repayment collection & payment to CSA 

- One new group formation

- HIV – AIDS Awareness rally & programme on 1st of
December 07 at Christ College Auditorium
 

Hoskote – Chetana

 
This year there were appreciable rains resulting in
satisfactory crop yield & created better employment opportunities for the
village poor. The farmers have gained in the crop yields wherever they adopted
appropriate soil & moisture conservation techniques- implemented under CFCD
project.

All the Day care nutrition centres are handed over to the
local community for the self management.

Women’s Meet was organized for showcasing their unity &
preparing the platform for forming the federation.

The women’s federation has been formed & members are
being trained intheir roles & responsibilities.

The activity centres have become a hub for honing their
learning skills & developing their personalities. The child’s &
mother’s health is being treated with utmost care.

There is a noticeable improvement in utilizing the health
facilities implemented by the government agencies.

With a little more support and effective linkages to various
sources including the government, the Committee based organisations will able
to meet all the needs of the community.

 

 

Does the title sound mad?

 Well that might be because we almost are…

 But thats actually good news……..

‘Coz we are working all hands on the We Care magazine.

Which means-

Coming soon. We Care. Do you?

By the determination of our Co-ordinator, Johny sir (and the combined pestering by our Troop Leader Vandana and other senior volunteers) we’ve decided to go on a 3 day camp to Hoskote, a project area of CSA around 60 Km away from Bangalore.
Most of the volunteers will be attending the camp, which is proposed to start on Friday. We’ll be leaving at 4.30PM on Friday (8th of February 200 and coming back by Monday evening.

While there, we’ll have intellectual discussions, study the problems faced by the villagers, have village trips, have fun, and play cricket :D. We’ll also be conducting a talents show for the kids on Sunday.

If you’re interested in joining us, please contact Vandana (vandanakanak AT gmail DOT com) ASAP. (attendance will be given )

For volunteers who’ve already signed up, please remember to bring 2 bedsheets, toiletries, plate, spoon, glass, and a jacket. It is also advisable to take a mosquito coil and to keep valuables to a minimum.

So see you on Friday

The ducks were quacking. The parrots were chirping. The chicken were chickening, uh, crowing. Students were shouting. The sun was shining…. In short, the Birds Park was full of activity, and She had readied herself to welcome into the CSA
family, six new participants from Norway.They had ‘flown south’ to experience India, Christ College, and CSA for three months. A couple of days back, they were joined by their teacher from Sund Folk College, Norway.

“Christ College is so green and beautiful,” they said when they first frolicked through the Christ College paths. And so, in the greenest of all places in the college, we organised a traditional ‘Welcome’. At 4:30, Nora, Steina, Ellamary, Marita, Zacharias, and Jorkam, along with their guru Ingerlisa, were welcomed and ‘officially’ made a part of the CSA family. The volunteers greeted them by bestowing upon their necks, flower garlands, and anointing their foreheads with sandalwood
paste.

They talked about their expectations from this programme, and about how they would like to interact with the volunteers of CSA. This was followed by a nice warm speech by Johny sir, and which was, inevitably, followed by a coffee-snacks-and-discussion session at the Kiosk.

During the course of the evening, they got to know to know many CSA volunteers better, and the volunteers got to know them better; and hopefully, in course of time, there will be no more “them” and “we”, but just “us”. Right now, they’re learning about several NGOs in Bangalore, through CSA. And we’re all very much excited about the camp to Hoskote on Friday(read next post for more info.).

We the publications team would like to extend a whole hearted, arms wide, welcome to our Norwegian friends…

Au revoir for now!