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Yuvsatta
Projects
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Campaign for Peace
–
city Chandigarh
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GREENTIRE – Cycling for Health & Happiness
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TIMEDONATION – For
a disabled-friendly Chandigarh
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ADULT LITERACY
PROGRAMME
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Project heritage TreEs
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KASTURBA GANDHI
KENDRA
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RAKSHAK:
Promoting Health, Hygiene & Education in Slums
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Aasha School–
For education of slum children
Campaign for Peace―city Chandigarh
Srijan Peace Education Centre of
Yuvsatta initiated a ‘Campaign for Peace-city Chandigarh’, in which more than 50
“Peace Clubs’ are formed in major educational institutions of Chandigarh, in
which many Principals and teachers in charge of respective Schools and Colleges
are dedicating their time and resources to the task of making these clubs
vibrant and result oriented. The high point of the Campaign came, on October 2,
2004 & October 2, 2005, birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, when each time more
than 50,000 young and old students and teachers in schools and Colleges of
Chandigarh, took a soulful pledge of dedicating themselves to the cause of peace
and nonviolence.
We’re sure that with the passage
of time with INTEGRATION OF PEACE & NONVIOLENCE in School curricula there can be
a sea-change in:
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Controlling violence in
society, especially in the youngsters.
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Relationship between teacher
and taught will also improve.
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Character of students will be
further strengthened.
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Discipline amongst the
teachers and taught will increase.
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Mad race of materialism and
consumerism can be checked
GREENTIRE -
Cycle for Health & Happiness
 The number of motorized vehicles
in Chandigarh has increased by approx. 42 times from about 12,345 in 1971 to
5,22,435 in 2001 and is now over 6 lacs in 2004, and 200 vehicles are daily
added in this growing list. Resultantly Chandigarh has highest per capita
vehicles in the country. And thus air pollution in Chandigarh is also fast
increasing.
So the alternate is GREEN
VEHICLES i.e. BICYCLES. And there are hundreds of health benefits of cycling
like cycling tones up muscles and enhance stamina, Improves respiratory health,
resultantly cyclists are significantly less likely to have diabetes, heart
attacks and strokes.
The life-blood of a city is its
people. Fine architecture and green spaces count for nothing without people in
the picture, We want Chandigarh to be a ‘Peace-city’ that puts people first and
this is only possible if we make more and more use of Cycles. Moreover,
Chandigarh is the only city in India with Cycle-tracks alongside all major
roads. Cycles can not only promote health and happiness of residents of
Chandigarh but also a new social order, contrary to the present consumerist
trend.
With the aforesaid in view and to
promote the use of Cycles in Chandigarh, Yuvsatta had launched a new initiative
‘GREENTIRE’. The basic aim of Greentire is to motivate ‘More and more people
riding bicycle more often in Chandigarh’. Cycling being a lifelong activity,
it helps to contribute to the economic viability of healthy communities.
TIMEDONATION –
For a disabled-friendly Chandigarh
This involves promotion of
volunteering both for and amongst the persons with disabilities so as to break
age-old barriers and prejudices. The challenge today is to sensitive communities
to the rights and needs of persons with disabilities, as well as to encourage
people with disabilities to face their challenging situation with grit and
courage. A website www.timedonation.info promoting the same is also
launched with the following objectives:
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Up to date information about
local volunteer opportunities
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Putting people in touch with
organizations where they can volunteer like Institute for the Blind, School
for Deaf & Dumb children, Sadhna Society for the Mentally Handicapped, All
India Pingalwara Society, Palsora, Thalassemic Children Welfare Association,
Sahayta Charitable Welfare Society and other such NGO’s working for disables
and special children
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Information and advice to
those who work with volunteers
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Publicity about the values of
volunteering
ADULT
LITERACY PROGRAMME
 In the last 2 years 700 women of a Colony No. 5, a
slum settlement in Chandigarh had benefited from this programme. In this play
way method designed by a German couple Kim & Marga of Creative Learning (P)
Ltd., instead of the Learners having to come to a classroom,
their trained “teachers” go to them, to “teach” 121 i.e. one to one, using a
specially designed Deck of Playing Cards as the primary tool, at a mutually
agreed and fixed time convenient for the Learner.
Interestingly the teachers called as Coaches of
Adult literacy programme are School going girl students and drop-outs of class
VIIIth and Xth, they knows the neighbourhood, therefore, can relate to the
Learners with a greater ease. Every Coach teaches 5 adults and presently 20 such
coaches are in the programme.
Even after 58 years of Independence 189 million
females and 106 million males (year 2001) Indians living in rural, suburban,
urban slums are not able to read and write in their own mother tongue. This is a
serious flaw in the foundation of the biggest democracy in the world. The
traditional educationists should ask themselves what might have gone wrong that
despite numerous efforts put into eradication of illiteracy, almost a third of
the population remains at the level of having to render “thumb signatures”?.
The humble efforts of volunteers of YUVSATTA can be
further stregthened with more and more people joining in not to discuss the
problems but to be a part of the solution.
PROJECT
HERITAGE TREES
YUVSATTA initiated a ‘Project
Heritage Trees’ under the patronage of Department of Forests and
Environment, Chandigarh Administration in Peace-city Chandigarh with a mission
to preserve, manage, enhance, and expand a vital collection of trees in the city
with documenting (where ever available) the historic, scientific,
aesthetic, environmental, economic, conservation, and educational value of these
plants as part of larger biodiversity of this region.
The broad objectives of the
Project-Heritage TREES is to;
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Increase public awareness of
trees in general;
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Draw attention to and protect
trees that are unique examples of genus, species or cultivar form, size or
other desirable features;
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Provide publicity for
increased awareness of the purpose and activities of the City; and
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Encourage public
participation in the identification and perpetuation of
heritage trees.
KASTURBA
GANDHI KENDRA
As part of its ongoing Campaign
of promoting Chandigarh as a Peace-city, Yuvsatta have setup a small Centre
christen as ‘KASTURBA GANDHI KENDRA’, for socioeconomic uplift of poor
women of slum areas of Chandigarh. This centre helps poor women to produce
different types of handmade items and assists in their marketing too. The first
item of Kasturba Gandhi Kendra was RAINBOW Greeting Cards, successfully marketed
during new year season. Than during the last Cricket Match between India and
Pakistan when around 4000 people from Pakistan were in Chandigarh, the ladies of
KASTURBA GANDHI KENDRA prepared ‘Special Rainbow Handmade Greeting Cards,
Celebrating the Growing Indo-Pak Friendship & People to People contact. Now,
with the help of few art teachers, who’re voluntarily helping with designs, the
Kasturba Gandhi Kendra is producing handmade Greeting Cards with famous quotes
of Gandhiji.
RAKSHAK –
Promoting Health, Hygiene & Education in Slums
Chandigarh being the capital of two States i.e. Punjab & Haryana is
a rapidly growing urban city, an important place with various kinds of economic
avenues and opportunities. As a result poor workers in search of jobs come from
even distant places like J & K , South India and Nepal, followed by workers from
UP, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, besides poor workers from other parts of the
country too. Now, almost 1/3rd of Chandigarh’s population lives in slums and one
such slum settlement is Colony No. 5. YUVSATTA is running Project RAKSHAK in
Colony No. 5 with the following objectives;
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HIV/AIDS awareness in slum
dwellers
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Education for the
underprivileged
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Promotion of vocational
skills and placements
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Teach and examine their
hygiene habits
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Counsel women to combat
domestic violence.
Aasha School
From last five year, Yuvsatta
from donations from its well wishers, is running multi-discipline schools for
150 slum children’s in Janta Colony, Sector 25 and Colony No. 5, Chandigarh, to
make underprivileged slum children conversant with and literate through learning
of three R’s and practicing healthy life-style. The effort has been christen -
Aasha. In the first phase of plan around 150 students are enrolled in the
School and there are three teachers who teach the students.
Apart from imparting literacy all
round child development is also ensured by way of organizing Sports,
Painting/Theatre workshops and training in Craft works but more volunteers are
needed to strengthen these activities.
These children are showing
remarkable enthusiastic response and the entire concerted efforting appears to
be very much worth its while.
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