Wishing you all merry Christmas and a happy new year!
A warm welcome to our end of year newsletter for 2018
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Dear Khushi Friends, a lot has been going on here at Khushi since we last talked. For instance in November our children won exceptional awards in competitions against renowned schools in the area!
The kids may be poor in monetary terms but they are rich in spirit!
We are still moving forward with an ever growing, happy and heathy group of kids towards a better future for all.
As it's winter here and it's getting cold, we have just given warm jackets, woolly hats and shoes to all our kids.
We cannot thank our kind sponsors enough and those who gave donations, without your kind support none of this would be possible.
We also welcomed our founder Madelien Mishra-Broekman and her husband for their annual visit among many other Khushi Friends old and new who gave their time.
Lots of love from everyone here at Khushi.
Let's not forget khushi means happiness (or joy) in Hindi, so here's to another wonderful year and let's hope it's a Khushi new year for one and all!
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Each year Madelien our founder gives her time to visit us here at Khushi and see first hand how we are doing. This year she came with her husband and her three children. Our children are always so pleased to see her!
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Photo of Satyam Yadav in the form of Shiva during his solo dace performance.
Khushi won the prestigious School Champion Trophy and more 8 prizes in the Diwali Ignite Festival. We also won 2 First Prizes in Krishna Janmashtami competition.
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The Ignite Festival Championship was won by our kids. Organized by Omkarananda Institute of Management and Technology (OIMT) it has more than 20 schools competing in it. Prizes were won for:
- First Prize for solo dance, group dance and Rangoli
- Second prize: group dance
- Third prize: Carom, poster making and crafts
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The Krishna Janmashtami competition saw outstanding performances from our kids and are proud to inform you that our children won 2 first prizes in competition against over 60 schools.
Our winners are:
- Satyam Yadav (class 8) first prize in the solo dance category
- Roshan Rajbhar (class 8) first prize in the Krishna Quiz category
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Our first group of beauticians have graduated!
Seven of our girls aged 17 to 20 years old have now completed the first year of their Beautician Course. Organised by Khushi teacher Hema Dabral this certified and comprehensive course provides a bright future of opportunities. The course covers wellbeing techniques, facial, manicure, pedicure, all aspects of hair dressing, head massage and bridal make up.
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Awareness campaign about the dangers of drug abuse
More than 250 children aged 5 to 18 years old joined the awareness campaign. We invited Mr R. K. Saklani inspector of Muni Ki Reti police station to speak to our children about the risks of taking drugs. Mr Saklani’s talk focused on effects of drugs on overall health and the types of temptations that can occur, helping to keep our children safe and well informed.
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New school uniforms 2018-2019
Every new school year our children are provided with new school uniforms and stationary. This year more than 400 children benefitted from our kind sponsors support.
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Medical Cases:
The Months of October and November witnessed a spread in Dengue fever and a flu epidemic here in Rishikesh. Unfortunately Khushi children were not spared and 15 of our kids and their family members were hospitalized: 12 with Dengue fever, 2 with grave ear infections and one with a serious stomach complaint.
In addition to the above, we have three longer term cases:
- Krishna Kumar - 8 years old suffering from calcified lesions in the right parietal lobe.
- Sachin Gupta - 11 years old, diagnosed with Hepatomegaly (enlarged liver) and suffering from severe abdominal pains.
- Seema Gaud, 13 years old suffering from heart problems.
These past months of unprecedented medical expenses took a toll on our finances and this times can stretch our finances to the limits.
We are reaching out to our kind donors with the wish that they might be able to support us with some of these medical expenses. Any donation no matter how small would be a tremendous help to the children and their families.
Krishna & Sachin
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We're so proud of all our students!
Meet Sagar Khanduri:
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Sagar Khanduri is 19 years old and studies at the University of Commerce here in Rishikesh. Having been with us since he was 9, he now works with us as one of our volunteers. Sagar has become an integral part of the day-to-day running of Khushi and teaches yoga here in the mornings too!
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“I was in the 3rdgrade when I joined Khushi. It was here that I learned to read and write.” Sagar said. He has come a long way in a few short years and is enjoying being actively involved in giving back to the organisation that gave him his chance.
Always with a big smile on his face and ready for action, Sagar is now an important part of our Khushi family. He spends his free time helping us at the Skills Development Center teaching yoga and teaching English in our after school classes at the school when required. His self-taught Photoshop skills and his interest in social media are just a few of the additional skills he brings to us.
In a world without Khushi, Sagar would not be attending university and would have probably become a mechanic in his uncle’s work place. Saga said “Between B (birth) and D (death), there is only letter: C. This letter stands for choice. You have to choose your future and that is what Khushi gave me the opportunity to do”
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We want to extend an especially warm and heartfelt thank you to our amazing Khushi Friends:
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Keshava from Brahmavidya in Germany for the donation of 9 months rent expenses and supplying winter clothes for all 450 children.
We gave all the children hats, jackets and shoes in this past week.
It get's very cold here in the winter and there is no heating in the children's homes, so these gifts were most appreciated!
Thank you Keshava!
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Diana Alli D’Souza President of the “Access Empowerment Council” in Toronto Canada - for the kind donation of 400 school bags this year. She has been paying our internet charges at our Skills Centre for 6 years. Her support has been invaluable over many years. Dianna also teaches English classes on her visits and has been coming every year for 6 years!
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Yvonne van der Donck from Netherlands – for organizing the fund collection and donating for stationaries, vocational center material (fabrics, dresses), toothbrushes for children and the school music system. Her payment of medical bills, buying clothing and countless other contributions has helped so many children throughout the years. In fact she has been visiting for over 12 years!
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Raluca Gherghe has been visiting us for 6 years and sponsoring 16 children too! This year she spent an invaluable 6 weeks with us teaching English and helping designing our website and other digital aspects of Khushi.
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Sharon Chua from Malaysia – for her kind support during the Diwali celebration. More than 400 children enjoyed the activities and wonderful food with all expenses covered by Sharron. The kids enjoyed themselves very much!
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Mr Vishnu Katchia for his contribution and donation during his visit with us.
Mr Vishal Patel from the UK for his donation and contribution (dressed as Santa!) during his visit along with Ms Ricki Blakesberg from the USA too. Christmas came early when these guys visited!
Natalie Merringer for the wonderful time she spent with us.
Ruben Karmali for the specialised treatment he gave too.
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A special thank you to our special group of volunteers from all over the world who give their time to help us at #teamkhushi
We are always looking for more support in the form of donations, sponsoring a child and volunteers so please spread the word and keep letting the world know about Khushi!
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In the past year in addition to
Diana Alli D'Souza and Yvonne Van der Donk
we also welcomed:
Gokul Singh Bist, Lecturer at Poornanand Degree College of Information Technology – teaching English for 2 months.
Sabrina from France – teaching English and Computer Skills for 3 months.
Shane Bordoli from the UK - Teaching English and designing digital content for 2 months
Veronica from Italy – training in the store and Khushi promotion materials.
Verena from Argentina – stitching program and school painting
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Feel free to leave a Google review of your time with us too to help spread the word!
Last but not least a big thank you to everyone else that visited, apologies if we missed you out, its been a busy year!
Carry on spreading the Khushi love
Have a great 2018 everyone!
#breakingnews
We are launching a Hospitality and Hotel Management course in the new year and are seeking someone to help us deliver this exciting new project. If you know of anyone, or can help yourself, please contact us!
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