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Aru’s Message

It’s 6 years since we lost you, Aru.  We think of you every moment.  We miss you terribly, but you are with us
… deep in our hearts
… deep in our thoughts
… continuing to guide us
… continuing to inspire us.

Here, we share your message to the world on the brew that is LIFE.

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ADITI Scholarship 2020

The Aditi Scholarship is given to a girl student from an underprivileged background. It is with immense pleasure that we announce this year’s Aditi Scholarship – Ms Bhavani Jesval Of Shishu Mandir School has been chosen as the recipient.
Bhavani has been an active member of the Safety Ambassador program which is conducted by the Foundation in association with schools. Bhavani has been chosen based on her performance in academics and co curricular activities, her behaviour with teachers and peers, and her social contribution.

Sharing a little about Bhavani, her dreams, and experience as a safety ambassador. She writes and I quote,

“I am Bhavani, studying in class 9, at Shishu Mandir Education Centre. My hobbies are reading and pencil sketching and I also enjoy writing stories.  My dream is to become an author. A part of my dream is also to bring about a change in the society which I hope to fulfill by becoming an author because it is my belief that words have an impact and influence people.
Being the young generation, it is in our hands to bring about change and by being a part of Safety Ambassador program (run by The Arundhati Foundation) I am able to make an effort to do so, and be a responsible member of our generation. I now think that accident isn’t just a mistake, it is a result of our irresponsible acts. The Arundhati Foundation believes that every accident is preventable if all of us act responsibly.
All of us have become so engaged in our lives that sometimes for our selfishness knowingly or unknowingly we harm others. We Safety Ambassadors are educated in all kinds of safety, especially road safety.
We have lots of activities and learn in unique ways. There are sessions taken by different people, quizzes, different demos on how to use safety equipments, etc. This is the learning part.
Then we educate other people on safety rules and how following them can bring about a positive change.  We perform street plays and conduct rallies to spread awareness.
I am very happy being a part of this because it gives me an opportunity to serve our society.
If every Indian was educated on road safety and followed the rules, we could save an average of three lives every ten minutes. But, more importantly, we would be saving the source of happiness of three families, and their loved ones.

Another reason which made me happy being a part of this Foundation is the reason why it was started.  The founders, Dr. Shubhangi Ma’am and Sanjay Sir started The Arundhati Foundation in memory of their daughter, ‘Arundhati’. Instead of venting out their frustration on losing their only daughter in road accident, because of someone else’s irresponsibility, they decided to start a foundation where they could educate people on road safety so that other people might be prevented from going through their situation. Their real life incident was an inspiration for me that when things go wrong instead of blaming my fate I should try to change other people’s.

I am proud to be a Safety Ambassador and part of The Arundhati Foundation.”

It’s been great having you as a Safety Ambassador, Bhavani, and we hope you have a fulfilling future and a healthy and happy life ahead.

[ the pic above is from an event in 2019 ]

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Safety Quest Goes Online!

May 31, 2020 : Safety Quest Amidst The Lockdown

A tiny virus entered the human community, traveled countries through its people and turned the world upside down.
The world came to a standstill.

As schools, colleges, factories and offices closed down, we too cancelled all the awareness sessions we were scheduled to hold. Schools and colleges shifted to online classes and we wondered how we could still continue to spread our message of safety. Our knowledge partners, Walnut Knowledge Solutions had already taken a step to adapt to these circumstances and had started conducting online courses for their flagship Qshala program, which also engages families in quiz programs on weekends. And so, we decided to ride on the Qshala platform to conduct a safety-themed quiz, Safety Quest, online. It wasn’t our usual Safety Quest format. But the team from Walnut did a great job in adapting the content and format to this online medium! They also did a great job in researching the recent developments, and adding some interesting new material.

This is a first for us. Thanks to the Internet, we were able to take this message across the globe. The quiz was held on the national and international level this time! The 31st May turned out to be so special for us.

The Safety Quest received great response in each of our 3 sessions! We had 330 families in Junior, 205 in Sub-Junior and 45 in International round. We had participants from Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Vadodara, Rohtak, Nagpur, Vellore, Cuttack, Navsari, Uttar Kashi, Bhopal, Kolkata, Madurai, Mysore, Pune, Patiala, Tripura, Thane and Mumbai. And international audience from Tokyo, Toronto, Bristol, Copenhagen, Atlanta, Bristol,Dublin, Muscat, Karlsruhe, London, Oslo, California. It was fantastic to see active participation from so many different places. Indeed, it gives us the confidence that we have a mechanism to take Safety Quest to other places very effectively! As per the norms followed for the QShala platform the prizes for the various winners will be shared via Walnut Knowledge Solutions.

What is so exciting is that since this is a family quiz, the parents also joined these sessions and we were able to share safety tips with parents too. There were a few adults, who love quizzes and joined to engage the child in them.

The online platform also gives us an opportunity to seek some feeback on the sentiments of the participants. 92% of the participants said they learnt something out of it! This is very heartening to us.

We received this lovely message from Shalaka Thakur from Mumbai.
“The Arundhati Foundation supported Qshala SafetyQuest today has changed the way my family and I look at safety. Apart from being extremely informative, the way the questions were designed, compel one to think of, not just answers, but the issues underpinning these questions. It made learning about safety fun and engaging. The Arundhati Foundations quiz has really turned around my idea of how Safety Awareness can be spread. Although it was primarily targeted to reach children, I think ( speaking from experience ) that adults would find it equally interesting.”

This is what Bhavani, Class 8 student of Shishu Mandir School, Hellanagar Bangalore had to say. “Having had the opportunity of Qshala workshops last year, I was extremely excited by the thought of joining it. The best thing about this quiz is that we learn without even realising it! The online quiz we attended was very interesting and fun. Safety is a very important topic about which we need to be aware. It was also a good way to spend our lockdown. I would like to thank Shishu Mandir, The Arundhati Foundation and Walnut Knowledge Solutions for this and look forward to attend more of such sessions.”

A few other comments
“Very well researched questions, and fun watching smart kids.” .. Ashok Gapchup
“It was a great program and appreciate the efforts in inculcating safety in children at the right age” .. Ashok R
“The quiz was very very interesting today” .. Akshayalakshmi
“Sorry for the family’s loss, and thanks to them for the wonderful work they are doing” .. Rajiv Ratnam

We, are ever so grateful to Sachin Ravi, Raghav Chakravarty and the entire team of Walnut Knowledge Solutions for the wholehearted support in collaborating with us to help us spread the message of safety.

Attached are screen captures of the various quiz sessions to give you a feel of the audience.

SQ2020_online_subjuniorsSQ2020_online_intlSQ2020_online_juniors

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BioQuest 2020

We were able to conduct BIOQUEST 2020 before the lockdown. This event is held annually in the memory of Mrs. Vijaya S. Prabhu and Dr. Arundhati Tambwekar. This year the event was held on 12th March.

The department of Biochemistry, Goa Medical College, betters itself every year when they conduct this quiz in Biochemistry for the students of 1st MBBS. What I find extremely touching is how year after year, they manage to source lotuses to present to winners to commemorate the emblem of The Arundhati Foundation.

The session was inaugurated by the Dean of Goa Medical College Dr Shivanand Bandekar. Dr Andre Fernandes, Professor and HOD Department of Forensic Medicine was the guest of honour along with Dr Jagadish Cacodkar, Professor and HOD, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.

The first prize was won by Rohan Luis Cabral and Saniya Mahendra Pednekar, the second place winners were Shrushti Prakash Mandrekar and Shubham Mablu Gaonker and the third place was bagged by Amisha Sawant and Siddhant Siddharth Desai.
Congratulations to all the winners.

I was lucky to attend last year, but this year, the corona virus pandemic made us stay put to curtail the spread. Dr Chitra’s team, as usual saw that the event went on very well. This year a group of young singers from 1st MBBS enthusiastically staged a wonderful performance. So heartening to see multi-talented youth.

The Arundhati Foundation thanks Dr Chitra Dhume, Professor and Head Dept Of Biochemistry, Goa Medical College and her entire team of Department Of Biochemistry for this event. It is only because of the support of such dedicated people that The Foundation has been able to do work of importance and quality in our small ways.
Ever grateful to you all.
May each and everyone of you always be blessed.

Here are a few pics from the event.

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