FFL Vrindavan is dedicated to the poorest of the poor, educating and guiding them in pursuance of a fulfilling life, enabling them to become exemplary members of society. FFL Vrindavan is also dedicated to protecting and developing Vrindavan’s natural environment.

Our work includes:

• food distribution
• basic medical assistance
• training courses for women
• drilling for drinking water and constructing water tanks
• assistance to the elderly and the disabled
• distribution of clothes
• environmental projects and education
• taking care of cows
• providing primary school education for disadvantaged children.
  

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e-News Archive

June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October-November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008

Three students from Sandipani Muni School (SMS) were selected from Mathura district to participate in an upcoming State Karate competition in Delhi.The students Pushpa and Jitendra of 8^th grade, and Gauri Shanker of 7^th grade have been learning Karate at SMS for 4 years. Their passion to excel and intensive practice under professional coaching of Ghyan Singh have helped them to win the coveted brown belt status. The students and staff were all jubilant as the news was reported in all leading dailies in Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra. The brilliant performance was beyond expectations, as school karate coach Ghyan Singh said: “I am extremely pleased with the performance of our children, and even a little surprised that they did so well at the district level. The children have worked really hard during the past few months to raise their competitiveness.” The competition was held at Sandipani Muni school on 27^th July and six schools participated. Mr Mehtab Alam, a national referee of Karate Do, made the selections. The Mathura champions will move to Delhi next month for the final round. All the best to the children to knock out some more competitors and bring home the champions trophy!

A great boost has been given to our tree planting program by a kind sponsor, Mr P. D. Mishra who, after seeing the FFLV sponsored trees planting on Parikrama Marg, felt inspired to help the effort. He called the number written on the cage protecting one of the trees and, within a few days, we became tree planting partners! Mr Mishra raised funds to plant 9 trees and returned to plant another 9! Some money from a donation given by was also used to plant 6 more trees. So 24 trees were planted this month.

On 31^st July, FFLV's brand new paper recycling plant was inaugurated! A small traditional Indian ceremony was held to mark the occasion. Workers and machines were blessed amidst the fragrance of incense and singing of kirtans. On the first day, paper was produced in several colors, and many dozens of sheets were produced. 7 village women have been employed, as well as one man, who will do some heavy jobs like squeezing the water from the paper. All the women are poor villagers who have been participating in FFLV self-help groups, through which they invest their small savings and take loans. Before the advent of these self-help groups, these women had no bank accounts (and could not open them due to lack of identity documents). So, they had no safe place to save their money and had to borrow money from loan sharks. Through the self-help groups, many women have made investments to increase their income, such as buying cows and buffaloes. Most of them never had any steady job and were living from day to day on farm work and casual labor jobs. Now they are all thrilled to have found a regular job! Besides providing employment to villagers, the recycling plant helps in reducing global warming as it discourages the cutting down of forests for paper production and helps curb the practice of burning solid waste which is still common in India. Everyone was excited to see the first sheets of paper rolling out of the machine. The workers are presently undergoing training course of a fortnight, after which they will be able to produce many different paper products such as photo frames, pencil boxes and binders. These products will utilize the beautifully colored paper that they have already started producing. FFLV is looking for ways to export and sell the products that will be made in our plant, if you have some idea or contact for same, please contact: secretary@fflvrindavan.org

Guru Purnima is a festival celebrated in honor of Veda Vyas, a great sage who lived thousands of years ago. Veda Vyas compiled the four Vedas, wrote the Brahma Sutras and authored the 18 Puranas, including the Mahabarata and Srimad Bhagavatam. On the day of Guru Purnima, tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims come to Vrindavan to meet their Gurus and give some Guru Dakshina, a gift to show the disciple’s appreciation of the guidance given by their chosen Guru. Guru Purnima also represents the time when disciples resume their studies of spiritual subjects with increased dedication, and plays about Lord Krishna learning with the other children at Sandipani Muni Ashram are traditionally held at this time. At FFLV Sandipani Muni School, we did our best to celebrate and show our appreciation for the Gurus of the world by holding the first school concert since the academic year began (July 1^st). The program began with a tribute to Guru and garlanding of several foreign guests who were in town for the festival. Following the opening ceremony was a stage program performed by school students – Indian classical and folk dances, drama, songs and tabla skills. Hundreds of parents, children and locals attended, and, after the performance, all lined up for prasadam and went home happily.

On 30^th July, parents were called to the school to attend a parents´ meeting. Some of the issues that were discussed included the need to avoid uncouth behavior in front of children and checking children's books to see if any new work has been done. Parents were also given general information for keeping themselves and their children safe, such as avoiding getting tattoos done in the market and giving prescribed medicines at the right time. The need for regular attendance at school and the expectation that children come to school neat and clean was also discussed. Many parents of SMS children have never been to school, so SMS makes a special effort to help them understand how to facilitate their children's education. We seek to help them avoid harmful practices such as marrying girls off underage and use of home remedies instead of taking children to a qualified doctor. There was a good turnout at the meeting, and parents were served refreshments including cookies made at the FFLV cookies factory.

From 30^th July to 1^st August, a selected group of SMS students was busy demonstrating that they are no less accomplished than the students of the most prestigious schools in the area. Over the three days of the event, the children competed in 4 different categories of performing and fine arts. There were competitions in singing, dancing, drawing competition and even rangoli making (colorful designs made on the ground at festival times). The children performed well in all of the different categories, and won prizes for dancing and singing.Our Odissy dance team won 3^rd prize, and the team was commended for their standard of presentation, costumes and fluidity of movement. All were thrilled and the SMS team proudly lined up to collect their prizes. Several students competed in a drawing competition on a theme of protection of environment. The children got their ideas from environmental atrocities they see around them every day, such as the burning of garbage and pouring of untreated sewage in the sacred river Yamuna as it passes through Vrindavan. In the singing competition, the group sang a traditional folk song called “Areh Man Chal Vrindavan Dham” (My heart leads me to Vrindavan). For this song, the group won a consolation prize. They almost won 3^rd prize but the judges said that there were too many children in the group. All the children were so eager to participate that the teacher did not have the heart to tell them that the group can have a maximum of six children, and by having two more enthusiastic children in the group, the team got disqualified!

Microcredit was started by Professor Yunus from Bangladesh and he won the 2006 Nobel peace prize for this brilliant initiative to help people to lift themselves out of poverty and India has been one of the most successful nations in the world in implementing microcredit programs. Hundreds of thousands of microcredit self help groups have been set up all over India and FFLV is part of a nationwide network of non-government organizations that organizes these groups. After several years of participation in a village micro-credit group, one woman, Vimlesh, bought a machine to produce disposable bowls. The bowls are made of cardboard and a layer of recycled foil. Vimlesh said that she has invested in this business to help her family and give her son a job. She used her savings of Rs 3,000 (US$75) to take a loan of Rs 5,000 (US$125) from the group. This new venture is a family business, but it is run by Vimlesh who managed to collect the necessary funds through her monthly savings and the loan took from her self help group. Entrepreneurs like Vimlesh, who are taking the lead to lift their families out of poverty, are a wonderful example for other village women, who still lag behind in claiming their rights.

In Junai and Devi Atas villages, FFLV has just inaugurated women's education programs. To date, we have implemented women's literacy and numeracy programs in seven villages. Classes are held every day, from 1-3 pm when it is too hot to work in the fields. Each course runs for 10 months and covers literacy, numeracy, health care, hygiene, sanitation and general knowledge. With the opening of these two new adult education programs, FFLV social work team is seeing increasing co-operation from villagers and local authorities. In Junai village, the village Pradhan (mayor) organized the premises for the program and gathered the women for the class. In Devi Atas, villagers have traditionally been weary of social workers, but after seeing the work that FFLV has done in the surrounding villages for the last eight years, women from this village approached FFLV social workers and said that they would also like to form microcredit groups and attend adult education classes in their village. FFLV social workers responded to their request and so far twenty women have joined the class in this village.