Filling the world with hope..!

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”, said Mr Barack Obama. 

Mitisha Dodderi and Prakhar Saxena are two such amazing individuals, who are filling the world with hope in their own way. Both of them are currently in the third year of their engineering and when they are not busy decoding the mysteries of Computer Science, they teach Mathematics to the students of grade 10th at one of our partner schools.

Mitisha, who wants to take up teaching as a profession, writes, "I love helping people and sharing my knowledge; and I often help out my friends or cousins with their curriculum. Since, I had a liking to teaching and was considering teaching as a profession I thought volunteering to teach would be a wonderful start."   

She adds,"My journey with Mantra4Change has been incredible. It has been a delight to teach math to the 10th grade students. Every day that I spend with these amazing students has been imprinted in my mind. The students have been extremely co-operative and welcoming. Although a talkative lot, they are bright and eager to learn. Teaching them is something I to look forward to every single day. This opportunity has made my will stronger to take up teaching as a profession."

Prakhar is a gaming enthusiast and loves to spend his time programming on computers. Sharing his experience of being a teacher to grade 10th students, he smilingly says, "The voyage has been a roller coaster ride for me. Although, I have work experience in the technical field, I was a newbie in the teaching field before I grabbed onto the wonderful opportunity provided by Mantra4Change. Teaching maths to these students has been an adventure, which every person must look forward to and one must experience the joy in sharing knowledge at least once before dying. Bill Nye, an American scientist, aptly quoted, 'Everyone you will ever meet knows something that you don't'. So, not only sharing knowledge, but gaining knowledge from the 10th graders also held much importance while volunteering for such an amazing opportunity. It feels like I am crafting the future of the young India in some sense."

Its said that Volunteers are not paid - not because they are worthless, but because they are priceless. Mitisha and Prakhar are two of such priceless gems of our team at Mantra4Change, who are filling the world around them with hope. We feel so privileged to have them with us. Way to go, guys..!

..when those beautiful smiles appeared all over..!

At MANTRA, we understand that education and health cannot be seen in isolation. Health education is an integral part of education. And hence, we conduct regular awareness sessions for our school children on various preventive healthcare topics, like hygiene, sanitation, how to prevent malaria & dengue etc. This also helps us build great rapport with our students.

After one of such sessions, Shalini, a 12 year old girl from grade 7th at one of our partner Govt schools came to us and hesitantly, asked us some questions around menstruation. She had got her first 'period' a week back and her mind was full of confusing questions. Afraid to ask her mother at home, she had only discussed this with one of her elder cousin sisters, who herself did not have answers to all questions. We knew we had to address this.

So, we contacted Aunna at Pasand. 

They have a well-defined program for students to 'understand puberty and personal hygiene, examine gender norms and to be safe and happy on their journey through adolescence'. She readily agreed to conduct the 3-day workshop for our children at the school. 

Students loved the session. There were so many things they were being told for the first time. They felt relaxed after knowing that menstruation was a normal occurrence for any girl/woman and that they were not facing an unknown. The activities during the workshop was fun-filled. Gradually the girls started finding it less awkward and less uncomfortable to talk openly with the facilitator. Questions started pouring in. 

We repeatedly tell our students it is important to understand what is happening and why is it happening; More importantly, they should call out for help whenever they need it. Ignorance is definitely not bliss under such circumstances. Knowledge gives confidence and confidence is indispensable to one's life. As our girls shed their veils of embarrassment, they became more candid and gradually, the room was filled with those beautiful smiles all over again. 

STEP to a healthier community..!

Meet Dr. Ayush Gowda, Dr. Sindhu and Dr. Vaishnavi- young medical graduates from JSS Medical College, who have come forward to help Mantra team build a healthier community.
We started with interesting, activity-based sessions on personal hygiene for children in our schools. The excitement was palpable. Students just loved the session and pledged to maintain personal hygiene.
From students, the obvious next step was to address the mothers. We invited women from the community to the school auditorium one afternoon. The topic of presentation was nutrition needs during pregnancy. Kudos to the efforts of the trio..! The presentation was well-designed and was kept simple so that women could understand it.

At the end of the session, many women put forward their queries and doubts. It was amazing to see the level of enthusiasm among the women. "I have a child of 2 years of age. But during my pregnancy, I wasn't even aware of what to eat and what not to. Due to constant vomiting tendency, I used to avoid taking food and even the iron tablets.", recollected Mrs. Zeenat Abdullah. About the session, she further told, "Today I understood why it is important to take fruits, milk etc. I know how my unborn baby will suffer if I compromise on my diet." Mrs. Rabiya Sultana, the 62 year old lady, whom the whole community lovingly calls 'Ajji' told us, "This was very good. You must also conduct session on how to take care of nutrition needs of young children." And we promised her, we would.

PreCIOUS (Preventive Care for Inhabitants of Urban Slums) is one of MANTRA's key programs. Over the coming months, we plan to conduct several such sessions for different target audience, including topics related to teenage health, women health, nutrition, ante-natal care, tobacco consumption, communicable diseases etc. These awareness sessions are aimed at encouraging the parents and children to adopt preventive and promotive healthcare practices as part of their lives.
As the saying goes, "Prevention is better than cure." :)

MANTRA Programs - an introduction

MANTRA an an organization is committed to the cause of Education and Healthcare. Aligned with the vision, "To champion the never-ending quest for a better world through our innovative models and projects, making Education and Health the flywheel of development"

MANTRA began its sojourn in the year 2012 with the launch of two Programs:

1. TaRgET (Talent Recognition, Engagement and Training)

Through this, we aim to prepare children for an increasingly competitive world - one that requires our children to have skills over and beyond prescribed.  

TaRget aims at identifying outstanding young talent across socio-economic spectrum through various products and projects and provide them with opportunities in form of mentorship, scholarship and other such vehicle/s so as to ensure that such talent have a successful and impactful careers in the long term.

2. PreCIOUS (Preventive Care for Inhabitants of Urban Slums)

PreCIOUS is MANTRA's attempt to promote the myriad aspects of  Preventive healthcare in day-to-day lives, especially for the economically challenged. 

With rising cost of curative healthcare (treatments), do those residing in slums, under unhygienic and inhuman circumstances, have an alternative than getting into debts? Yes. 

PreCIOUS aims at raising the healthcare related awareness among the mass and at promoting the cost-effective solutions to a healthy & smiling life.