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Yatra Foundation > Archives Melbourne Event - Saturday 13 March
Yatra Foundation held an extremely successful fuindraising event on Saturday 13 March at the Brighton Town Hall in Melbourne. More than 250 guests dressed in their best Bollywood attire, attended and were treated to a night of delicious food, fabulous wines and outstanding entertainment. Many unique silent and live auction items were donated and valuable funds raised which go directly to support the Yatra projects in India. Yatra Foundation would like to thank the generous support of our friends in making the event so successful. Thank you to all the people who supported Yatra Foundation at the Sydney event on Friday 13 November 2009. The event was a great success. More details on the evening will follow soon. If you missed out, it's not too late to donate to Yatra Foundation. Please use our direct bank facility or visit our donation page to make credit card payments through PayPal. If you would like to attend another Yatra event, visit our events page for details on 2010's Melbourne and Adelaide events. Adelaide Fundraiser an 'overwhelming success' On Friday 1 May Yatra Foundation hosted its inaugural Adelaide fundraiser. A huge crowd of more than 200 attended for the sell-out Bollywood gala. The event was an overwhelming success thanks to the fabulous Adelaide guests and all the people who helped to put the event together. Both silent and live auctions attracted some lively bidding with brilliant outcomes. Yatra Foundation would like to thank the generous support and help from all those involved, with special thanks to: The funds raised from the event will go directly to help build and finance a school for up to 300 children living in a remote part of Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. Visit our projects page for more information. If you missed out on attending, it's not too late to donate to this school. If you would like to contribute please visit our donations page. A selection of photos from the event are available on Yatra's photo album. Parents show their support at school meeting In an significant show of support for Yatra's Hanuman Basti School, more than 25 parents attended the school's parent-teacher meeting. Held on a scoarching 38 degree day, the Sunday 6 September meeting also highlighted the potential for higher attendances with many children still not attending any school. Two representives from the basti were elected by the parents to represent the community and also help manage the strategic planning of the project. An additional teacher is also required and Meena will hire after Diwali. (Sponsor a teacher for $200 a month.) Under the guidance of one of the parents, a vegetable and herb garden will also be planted at the school. Awards for cleanliness and attendance were also given to the children. There are about 40 children coming regularly to the school, however with the additional room at the back the school can now handle up to 60 children. Read more about Yatra's Hanuman Basti School. Visit the school page for an update on the Yatra School, Faria. Mandana Computer centre Location: Mandana Village, near Kota, Rajasthan, India The mandana community has historically earnt its income through self-sufficient farms. The village is the birthplace of the father of Sanjay Jain. Sanjay is one of Yatra Foundation's co-founders. As such, the Jain family still has three houses in the area that have slowly deteriorate over time. These houses are now being repaired so that they can be used for community based activities. One such activity is the need for a computer centre, particularly given that computer studies is now part of the government curriculum from Grade 9 onwards. In the mandana area, however, there are only five computers for more than 1000 students. A room in one of the houses in a central part of the village has now been repaired and will house up to six computers. With a teacher already hired, and two computers already donated by the Ranka family, it is expected that when fully operational the training school will provide basic skills education to more than 100 children who would otherwise not have access to any computers and hence possibly fail their exams.
A further discussion with the head representive of the village could lead to the centre being used also by the general farming community for accessing pricing and weather information in addition to sharing new farming methods. At present the priority is to get the centre functioning for the benefit of the children. Medical Camp held in Kota and Hanuman Basti Schools Yatra Foundation held a medical camp in the Sunshine academy school in Kota and the Hanuman Basti School in March 2009. Co-founder, Ravi Savarirayan (a pediatrician, pictured below) was joined by a local pediatrician and a pharmacist as they conducted general medical checks on the students.
Many of the children were found to be iron deficient while others had evidence of significant malnutrition. All the children were given immediate treatment and will have free, ongoing, medical follow up. The children were also supplied with vitamins and health supplements to give them a better chance of concentrating and learning in class. Medical checks were also performed on other children in the Basti, their parents and other relatives where necessary. The medical camp complemented the Dental Camp held by Yatra Foundation in September 2008. Yatra foundation is committed to integrating health care in the education setting and plans to conduct medical and dental clinics in our schools on a regular basis.
As part of a community building exercise, a Dental Camp was run in September 2008, which attracted many of the children and their families. A local Dentist was invited to attend and dental examinations were carried out for each child, and oral hygiene and oral health discussions took place. Each child was given a new toothbrush and toothpaste. It was a lot of fun and engaged the community in a positive way. Yatra's inaugural fundraiser 2008 In April 2008, Yatra Foundation held its inaugural launch/fundraiser event in Parkville, Victoria, Australia. More than 150 people attended and $25,000 was raised thanks to the fantastic support of those who attended and those who donated their time, auction items, and food and wine for the event. The money raised has already made amazing changes to the lives of some of the poorest children in India.
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archived Articles Melbourne Event - Saturday 13 march Success in Sydney - Friday 13 November 2009 Overwhelming Adelaide - Friday 1 May 2009 Visit to India - September 2009 Yatra's inaugural fundraiser - April 2008 archived Photos Yatra Foundation's Adelaide event - 1 May 2009 Yatra Foundation's trip to India - March 2009
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