Everything you missed from January and February.
Dear all,
We are one year into the global pandemic that usurped our day-to-day lives, and I think it is worthwhile to reflect on what we have been through. While the last year has been marked by social, financial, health and community challenges that most of us never expected we’d face, it’s also been a year of great learning and change. I’ve been inspired by the resilience of daily wage earners and many marginalized who lost so much, by the creativity and resiliency of people all over the world, bouncing back to the new normal.
At the heart of Purnata, we're about playing a part in restoring broken lives to wholeness and bringing an end to Human Trafficking. We have never taken our mission more seriously than in this past year. In fact — from our remote workspaces — to serving people in our communities selflessly, Purnata has been at the forefront of it all, often paying a price.
This year has been a year of new partnerships and pushing forward to accomplish our mission. Here you will find plenty of things that are going on in Purnata. We have not been perfect. But we are evolving all the time to become better. We would love to hear from you if you think we can do anything better.
As we move beyond this one-year milestone, I hope that we can embrace real change and build on what we’ve experienced and learned in the last year, to move forward together.
Yours for a traffic-free world
aaboo :-)
Republic Day Celebration
On Republic Day, over 300 men, women and children came for a special program, with different fun activities, organised in one of the red-light areas. The program began with a few words of encouragement by the local Corporator, Shri. Suresh Koparkar and urged them to approach him if they had any civic needs that needed to be addressed.
We had a power-packed entertainment program in store. The program began with a magician who dazzled the woman and children with tricks and his funny dance moves. A group of musicians and a Bollywood singer, Shreya was singing a variety of popular songs to the crowd with her melodious voice, which was followed by a short dance skit by a few of our staff members about saving the girl child. Our beneficiary, Neelu, shared about her life and encouraged the women. Then, four children from our center gave speeches about what Republic day means.
Later on, Amin, the founder of the Restaurant in Marol, "Bombay to Barcelona" shared about his life, his struggles, and how he was able to inspire those around him. In the end, our founder, Aaboo Varghese, gave the vote of thanks and shared the burden and vision of Purnata in our hearts.
Annual Staff Planning Meeting
From the 1st-7th of February, all of our staff from Mumbai and West Bengal met for the Annual Staff Planning Meeting. Apart from reflecting on what we do and why we do what we do, we also did team exercises to review our work last year. Looking forward to the strategic plan for the next three years with a focus on 2021-22.
Souvik is married!
Souvik Sarkar, Sr. Manager Programs, Kolkata, got married on the 13th of February! We are proud to share in his joy as he begins this new journey in his life.
Valentines Day celebration
On the 12th of February, Friday, we celebrated Valentine's day with our beneficiaries at Aashray center with about 45 women attending. The centre was adorned with red and white balloons and the staff dressed up in Red sarees.
We set up a selfie frame for our beneficiaries to click pictures, with the theme, "love yourself."
The program began with a video and description of what true love is by Anagha Khadangle, where she shared from her own life, motivating the women to understand what true love means. We also had a guest, Mr. Avinash, who shared from his experience about true love, followed by games and dance, and snacks were distributed in the end. All in all, the woman thoroughly enjoyed the program and learned about what love means
We have a girls softball team!
We recently have been able to start a girl's softball team. There are about 11 girls from and outside the area who are coming every day.
It was a real challenge to bring the girls together for this and to convince their families. But after beginning, it has been a fun and enthralling experience for them. The ground is just 10 mins away from the centre, but the girls were not allowed to go there by their parents earlier, so they enjoyed themselves a lot while playing.
The girls are progressing well as they play and learn as a team. We will have a great softball team with these young girls very soon!
We're moving!
At the beginning of March, we shifted our Mumbai office to a corporate office building which looks more professional than the previous office. We will complete moving everything by the end of March. Our Training Centre will be moving to the same building too.