Diya painting session at Anchit's place

Aashayein and Jaagriti volunteers got together on monday (sept 21st) at Anchit's place to paint diyas for the upcoming Diwali stalls in corporates. Check out the pics to get a glimpse of their hard work and creativity.

Most of the volunteers were doing it for the first time in their lives. Their efforts speaks volumes about their indomitable spirit to bring a positive change.

These stalls are a great step towards financial self sustainability of these projects.

Celebrate Diwali with a Difference

It was warm n sunny
It wasn't so pleasant
Yet AIDers were dere
till the moon was crescent

Keep on going guys
Make this Diwali special
Brighten up kids' lives
With your diyas and candles

:))

Himanshu Saxena

Buy Children's Paintings to Support their Education

On the eve of Independence Day, 2009, AID Delhi and AID Gurgaon in association with MyWebEra had organized a painting competition under the name “Udaan”. The competition, in its most healthy form among kids produced some creative and colourful results.

We are glad to share these priceless possessions with you- it is priceless because it is crafted out of the most purest abilities and enthusiasm by our children. 

AID Delhi and AID Gurgaon under its different projects named as Aashayein and Jaagriti in Delhi and Unnati and Disha in Gurgaon are initiatives to provide primary education to the underprivileged children and enhance their living by educating them on right nutrition and through various skill building exercises.

 “Udaan” meaning Flight (of Freedom) symbolizes the spirit of independence in the heart of every child. The ‘Udaan’ purpose was to make sure that the kids paint their imagination and dream.

The entire amount generated through the sale of the paintings will go towards the education and development of these children and to organize such events at a larger scale in future.

On behalf of the children, AID Delhi and AID Gurgaon, I present to you this opportunity to support and recognize the value and the talent of our budding generation and buy their paintings.

Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

For further details, please contact me.

Warm regards

Anchit Goel (anchitgoel@gmail.com)

Founder and Coordinator

Project Jaagriti

Click on the poster to go to the paintings gallery.


Photos of the painting competitions held on 15th August 2009 at our project locations

Support a Cause, Buy Aashayein Diwali products.

Diwali products made by Aashayein

contact : prachiaggarwal85@gmail.com to buy diwali products.

University Awareness Drive at IP college, Delhi University

More pics here
The University Awareness Drive took place in Indraprastha College for Women on 5th of September.
The main aim of this drive was to create awareness about AID and Aashayein alongwith raising funds.
While the movie Poison on the Platter based on Genetically Modified Foods was being screened in the Seminar Room of the college by the Women's Development Centre, the Aashayein stall was put up downstairs. Selva Ganapathy gave a talk on GM foods and its potential threats to us and why it should be avoided. This was followed by the screening of the Aashayein video after which Anandita and Deboshree gave a brief introduction of Aashayein, its present activities and its future aims to all the students present.
As a part of fund raising, T-shirts with the AID logo and the slogan of BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD were sold in various colours (blue,red and white) along with hand made bags. Fortunately, our initiative was met with a lot of enthusiasm by the college students who poured in with names to volunteer.
Volunteers present were- Prachi, Swastik, Aditya, Ritu, Anandita, Nikita, Srishti, Vipra, Mohit, Vaibhav and Deboshree.

Check out our brochure (print, email, stick it on a notice board)

AID Delhi Brochure

Support Aashayein, Buy a T-shirt

Colors : Red, blue, white


Sizes : Medium, Large and XL


Price : Rs. 150


To buy a t-shirt

Contact us at prachiaggarwal85@gmail.com

My journey of Hope, the journey called Aashayein :)

I had been thinking to pen down my experience with AID Aashayein. But there is always too much to write and I don’t want to a miss even a single part of it.

I still remember the day in March when I visited Aashayein for the first time. I was surprised as well as a little shocked. I expected a big classroom, 20-30 kids sitting obediently where I would be required to teach them. What I found was 20-30 kids playing in a MCD Godown. They were all excited to see me, asking my name, a little surprised when I told them I was a doctor but holding my hand throughout that 1 hour.

When I went there next, they all remembered my name and that was touching. And over a period of 1 month, I started looking forward to spending my Sundays with them. And as they say the more we get the more we want.

We thought of getting a classroom for kids. So after much running around we finally got a room in the MCD godown. All the kids were really enthusiastic along with the volunteers. We got fans, light, paint for the room. We had quite an argument over the colour of the paint but we finally decided Green. Why? Because we at Aashayein are “Ecofriendly”.

Studying at weekends can be pretty boring and thus came the idea of starting Dance and Art classes. Everyone was enthralled by the idea and I felt really proud when our kids performed at “Dance Aroma" in front of 700 people. They were as good as any other performers even when they had very little time to rehearse. And how can I miss the Dental Camp, Art Attack and Independence Day celebrations.

Since then we haven’t looked back. Every weekend brings in more joy and fun. There is no "them" now, there is only "us"

Aashayein has given me new friends, hope, aim, sense of achievement. Those kids love me as much as I love them. It makes my day hearing their chitchat, complains, stories and their laugh.

Even we volunteers have become such great friends over the time that we look forward to spending our weekends together and even some of the weekdays. Lunches, meetings at Nirulas, University Drive, silly jokes on which we just can't stop laughing.

But the best part is no matter where life takes me, I will always be a part of AID as its a part of me. Nothing in my life ever gave me so much happiness and satisfaction. When I will be an 80 yrs old "girl" I would still smile and feel the same excitement I feel now when I speak about Aashayein

I guess I can just go and on when it comes to Aashayein so I would like to conclude by quoting some lines from the song Aashayein,

"teri woh raftaar ho
roke se bhi tu na ruke
haasil kar aaisa shikhar
parbat ki bhi nazrein uthe
aashaayen khile dil ki
ummeedein hase dil ki
ab mushkil nahi kuch bhi
nahi kuch bhi".

Volunteer Orientation Meet (1st Sept 2009)

Following the university awareness drive a lot of students contacted us. All of them were curious, wanted to know more about AID and Aashayein. Thus we decided to call upon a meeting to orient new volunteers. Also to make them aware about AID, to acquaint them with ways through which they can volunteer. Also to learn about their expectations and their skills.

Meeting started at 3pm at Arts Faculty. The weather was brilliant thus favouring us for an outdoor meeting.

Meeting was attended by 10 students along with 4 of the existing volunteers of AID Aashayein.

We started with introduction, followed by few words about AID. How AID started, about swades, about its outreach. Mostly they were excited to hear about how big organisation AID is.

Then we talked about Aashayein. About kids, the classes we take, and celebration of various events, picnic etc. About the ways they can volunteer.

It was followed by a lot of questions from the students like what do we teach, whether community supports us, Do we plan to start computer education, and can they teach painting etc.

All of them were quite excited in the end. All wanting to be a part in some way or the other. Someone was interested in teaching, other in fund raising. We were quite surprised to see their enthusiasm and thus we concluded that our awareness drive is finally bearing fruits.