India, with all its vastness, richness, cultural vibrancy, geographical varieties, famed democratic living, bears the brunt of evils those have become a part of living here, over the age.

The evils that haunt the country are caste system, racial differences, linguistic divide, corruption, bureaucracy, crime against women, the ever growing rich-poor differences, communal violence, notoriety of terrorism, unhygienic living, child labour, female feticide, unemployment and most importantly people driven to terrorist and anti-national activities due to lack of opportunities.

Amidst all these happening, an average Indian is getting more aware of the ill-effects of these evils, and he actually acknowledges that there is only one solution to all of these. The solution is educating each and every child of the land, and that basic education will ensure at least the coming generations will live in harmony and bring glory to the country.

Education is that basic commodity which is very important order of the day today and is unattainable to many children. In spite of free offer and much effort by the Governments, we have many children who are dragged out of the school. Whenever we see children around the traffic signals in cities begging for money/food or selling ear buds/ balloons, one’s heart boils and tears with the question where the country is heading. The children who are offered jobs at hotels as plate cleaners and in mechanic shops as assistants, etc are fast growing into adolescent with no particular job in hands and are vulnerable to lucrative business of suicide bombings.

Such a danger on our hands, we are dreaming slowly of making India a super power. Is that possible with half of its population not knowing how to read and write? Is the education offered in the Government schools of good quality that helps realize the goal of India rising? Instead of asking just the questions, Dhwani tries to find answers to them as well.

With a dream of seeing educated India, crime free India, literate India, self sustained India, Dhwani, a raising voice, works towards empowering schools to provide quality education, being magnetic to the children as well.

A child getting quality education will be an asset to the nation, and will generate the flame of knowledge to many more. It flows continuous. Dhwani believes in sharing of knowledge, time, energy, effort and material for such divine task.

We invite everyone to take part in the drive and help us help India better.

Schools identified for the purpose:

1. Maruthi Primary School, near Kanakapura Road, Bangalore.
2. Govt. Primary school, Gangapura, near Kolar.

Events to be organised:

1. Distribution of note books, stationery, uniforms
2. Organising awareness camps on hygienic environs
3. Organising free health checkup camps for the children
4. Conducting classes on various chapters, including computer basics, spoken English, crafts, arts etc
5. Conducting seminars, debates, and sports and acknowledging the students of their talents and what they can be to the society
6. Planting saplings around the school premises and educating the children to adopt a close to environment life.

You are free to add and help us implement more points to the events to be conducted.

What you can do to turn the dream into reality:

1. Donate generously to team Dhwani. Visit Dhwani site at http://teamdhwani.blogspot.com/ or drop in a mail to dhwani dot org at gmail dot com for more details.
2. Be a member volunteer of Dhwani and take part in all of the events organised.
3. Be a moral support to the school management by devoting time towards executing the mentioned programmes.

Team Dhwani.

Project III: Maruthi primary school

Members Visited: Phani, Amandeep, Vijay, Gautham, two of my cousins and myself, Swapna, Harsha, Neha and AnupDate: Jan 26, 2008 Time: 10:00 am - 1:30 pm
About the school: School staff had only three people, two teachers and a Manager, Mr. Lakshmikanth. Slum the school runs in has some 700 families, of which only 30% can afford to send their children to schools. So, this school was started right in their middle, some 5 years ago, and it runs basically on the donations from people and is not financially aided by Govt.

Activities:We sang the National Anthem and then Mr. Lakshmikanth took over. He explained how the children would go without schooling if he hadn’t started the school over there, and he also urged the children to utilise what they have got now to come out to be responsible citizen of a stronger country.

He asked some of us to talk, and we did utter something, relavant/irrelavat don’t know. Then he was about to rough the session up, when we requested for an individual intro of the children.
It was nice to see each and every child go up the stage, stand there for a second and tell the crowd about him/her self. We could identify the glow in those faces of white uniform clad children, each a probable leader. (This was intentionally done to ensure that children get a feel of stage, at least at a small level).

Team members engaged children in games, break the pot, frog race, musical chair were some of the games we played with children.
Vijay had brought some choco-gifts to those who won in each race J

It was really a joyful feel to be in a school after all those years of being away from it.
We distributed sweets to the children and then they dispersed. It was 12PM by then.

Last we had a few mins discussion with the school management and bid adieu, contended with how we celebrated the 59th Republic Day of India.

As the next part of a planned activity, Swapna had brought 25 sapplings to be planted. So, we moved to AGS Layout, area where I reside in. We found a good place to plant our sapplings, and managed to plant some 5 of them. Of cource, some of the locals came calling on us, and were happy to know what we were doing. It was a nice experience.

More picutres http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dhwani.team/MAruthiPrimarySchool

Project I: Chaityananda Ashrama

Project II: Gangapura Government Lower Primary School,

Members Visited: Ganesha L D, Srikanth, Gautham N P, Shruthi S Bhat, Madhusudhan SDate: Sep 16, 2007 (Saturday)
Time:10.00 am to 2.30pm
About the school: The school consists of 26 students studying between 1st - 5th Standards. The students interacted with us through their singing, speeches. The students are very brilliant and had secured many prizes in the Taluk Level Event conducted by the govt. schools - LPS(Lower Primary Schools).
Activities: The Head of the School Mr. S. C. Venkatakrishnappa introduced the team Dhwani to the school students and the village members.
* The team had a brief discussion(2 hrs) with the head (Mr. S. C. Venkatakrishnappa ) and the Teacher Mrs. Padma N of the school regarding the students educational status, about their families, their present requirements.
· Each student of the school was given notebooks
· School was gifted with an English-Kannada Dictionary on behalf of the team Dhwani .
· The Team donated cash award and books to the student by name Veda, who is topper in the school and for securing 3 prizes in the event conducted by the LPS as mentioned above.
* The team had a discussion with the heads of the village regarding the contribution the team dhwani can take up to meet the dhwani goals. The village people organised afternoon lunch for the team and greeted us for the visit to the school and the task we have taken to help the needy.
* The Head of the School Mr. S. C. Venkatakrishnappa has given a Vote of Thanks to the team on behalf of the school and the village.
Overall discussions makes us to conclude that: -> The students are in require of moral principles to be taught to build their career with discipline. -> The entire village is in need of cleanliness programmes and the health checkup camps to be conducted.

More Pictures http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dhwani.team/GAngapuraSchool

-shrikanth