Dear friends,
Continuing from last week regarding our attitude.
Lesson 1: My attitude reveals the real me
Lesson 2: My attitude determines the success and failure of every relationship in my life
Our attitude affects every relationship in our life. Imagine what a difference your attitude makes! Sometimes relationships will never get started in the first place - because many times our attitude has built up walls... making it difficult for people to be around us.
Bad attitudes affect our marriage relationships/our relationships with our children/at work/friends. The thing that makes a bad attitude so destructive is that like the glass of water, a bad attitude is eventually going to spill out into some negative actions - destructive words and deeds.
The story is said of two brothers and a sister. One brother, Moses, had a good attitude. It is said that "Moses was a humble man, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.." In other words, Moses was teachable and cooperative. He treated people as he wanted to be treated and he lived a life that was properly lined up with his father’s teaching. But Moses’ brother Aaron and His sister Miriam on the other hand, chose a bad attitude - and they eventually spilt out. Miriam seems to have had the worst attitude and she infected her brother, Aaron.
Try and get the picture - here they are, family members whom Moses thought he could count on and trust, going behind his back, criticizing him, stirring up trouble among their people against their leader, their brother Moses.
You see, most people who stir up trouble do so not out of the right reasons but out of bad attitudes. This was just a symptom, an excuse. The real problem was that Miriam had a longstanding bad attitude. This bad attitude stemmed from her jealousy of her brother’s position and leadership. And out of her poor self-esteem, she allowed herself to become critical and choose to cause trouble. Oftentimes the things that we criticize and get all stirred up about are not the problem at all. The problem is our own sour, sick, bad attitude.
Let's keep a good attitude this week and let us be a blessing to others. (...to be contd.)
Yours sincerely for a traffic-free world,
aaboo :-)
WOMEN'S Day Celebration, Mumbai
8th March being the Holi celebration in India, we celebrated Women's Day on the 10th. The Corporator for Bhandup West & Advocate S. Badugu were present for the event. They challenged more than 55 women about women's rights and the importance of women being given opportunities. Two teens, Vivek and Priya gave a heart-warming speech for the women's day program, about women and the important role they play in society. Purnata’s staff did a short skit about the bondages various institutions in society place women in and how the Constitution gives women equal rights.
The highlight of the event was an exhibition where we had food stalls, a beauty parlour stall and a jewellery-making stall. Women from the area made various items and sold them - like Nepali bread, lemon rice, chicken curry and two different types of sweets. The food got sold out within 15-20 mins making some women regret they didn't put up a stall and those who had for not making more quantity.
A good amount of jewellery made by women at the training centre got sold. Our male staff gave away roses to all the women. It was indeed a nice gesture where all their lives they have had men take advantage of them and cheat them, here were men who gave them and treated them with respect. Our intern, with the help of staff, made butterflies using chart papers, each butterfly having a name of all the brave hearts who had been through our care and now living independent lives. It was a beautiful sight to see butterflies all over. Almost all our Mumbai staff were present along with a few beneficiaries.
We ended with some fun games at our centre and everybody loved it. It was so nice to see the laughter, joy and satisfaction on the faces of the women, making us feel we achieved what we set out to do.
WOMEN'S Day Celebration, WB
On 10th March, our staff at WB celebrated International Women's Day at our Day Care Centre after the children had their classes. 25 women from the community came and had a meaningful discussion about women's rights and safety. This was followed by a poster-making competition writing "Break the chains" in Bengali. Then the women played some games and ended with much-needed laughter and
breaking the silence.
Some Snippets…
Babita brought her brother's daughter into this trade who is just 10 years old, so our staff encouraged her to leave the area and told her that if you leave the area Purnata will give training and take care of her daughter also.
At Aashrey 5 ladies are coming for tailoring classes, one for parlour class too, 2 ladies came for the Literacy class.
For over 2 weeks Vivek, Sahil and Armaan were sick, so came from the hostel to their mothers in the area. They were supposed to go back on 11th March, but Sahil was injured while playing and got six stitches in his leg. He will go in next week on 20th March. We had a word with Dayanand staff and gave them this information.
Our brave heart preparing to join the police force couldn't clear her practical exams (ground exam) which means she will not be able to give her theory exam. She will continue her training and write the exam next time.
On 11th March, Thursday, 11 teens from our two RLA centres practised in this at the Decathlon, Kurla. We are preparing children for a tournament on 18th March before which we hope to buy them good shoes.
Sony Thomas, our prevention and rescue manager got a call about a missing case from 5 months back. The wife had left the village for work and never returned, we are following up with the family.
One of the students who used to come to our child centre suddenly stopped coming to the centre. Our staff have been following up with the family, encouraging them, and analysing the problems of such dropouts in the community.
Legal Training:
Our partner agency, Global Fund for Children, has facilitated legal training for the cohort that has been part of their partnership between April to June 2023. It is optional but we have identified nine of our staff to participate and benefit.
We have launched an online crowdfunding campaign on Ketto to gather 20 lakhs to cover a shortfall in our resources here in Purnata. We now have 88 individual donors and 26 fundraisers and have raised ₹7,08,483. We want to exceed our goal by adding more fundraisers in the following weeks. To learn more click here.
Thank you for your continued support. Together, we can make a difference. I hope you’ll take the time to look at our website at www.purnata.org and the regular updates we put on social media via our handle @Purnataorg. As always, feedback is welcome and encouraged.