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
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009

Greetings, friends!
We’ve missed you, and I’m sure you’ve missed us too! It’s been over a year since our last newsletter, due to a personnel shortage. We are still short on personnel, so if anyone wants to come join us living in Vrindavan and serving the Brajabasis please let us know. We can’t promise anything, but we’ll do our best to provide you with a good dose of eNews every month. July was a fun, fruitful and busy month for us.
Read on to find out why.

by Khushboo S., FFLV sponsorship team leader
A new school year begins! During the month of July, we survey hundreds of homes on our waiting list, with consists of at least a 1,000 impoverished children waiting for admission to Sandipani Muni School. However, due to financial restrictions we can only take in a very small number of children on our waiting list. This year we were only able to take in about 130 children. We need your help to change the lives of many more children in need and empower them to change the world.

This July, Dr. Ronald Miller and a group of 16 undergraduate researchers from Brigham Young University, Hawaii, came to Vrindavan to do a survey to determine Sandipani Muni School's progress since its inception and in relation to other area schools. The survey, which normally costs between 150,000 and 300,000 USD to fund is graciously being done for free by the BYU team. Dr. Miller said of the project, "Our purpose here is to examine the FFLV school system as well as the other operations, like the clinic, the recycling center, well construction program, etc. to help determine their impact on the community, on the students, on the outcomes in the village… We will be using statistics for measurements of survey results examining the social, personal, psychological, as well as the lifestyle and life-satisfaction changes that come from participating in FFLV’s programs. Lastly, we are looking at what is called a social return on investment, which essentially measures the monetary impact of the donor dollars in the lives of the people in the community.” Five of the researchers came a month in advance to do preliminary work on the survey, while the rest came for one week of intense service. This team is bullet proof. Their enthusiasm and consistency – despite the heat, the rain, the crazy traffic, the road work, the mud, and other things that new visitors to India find daunting – has been inspirational for us all.
A big thank you to the whole BYU team: Dr. Miller, Thomas, Katie, Anant, Tina, Kirti, Ashlin, Micah, Beau, Candace, Coney, Fiona, Izak, Liahnne, Spencer, Koshiela and Yoko. We will miss you all and hope you return to SMS soon.

Poonam, a fourth grader at SMS, fell from the roof of her family's home earlier this summer. Poonam suffered a severe fracture to her leg, and temporary paralysis of the right side of her body. Head injuries left her half-conscious, unable to speak, and largely unresponsive to people around her. Now the blood on her brain is slowly absorbing back into her body, and as that happens she is becoming more present and mentally sound. However, it will leave a scar on the brain, an epileptic focus, as a result of which she must take anti-epileptic medication to prevent seizures. It is unclear whether or not she must continue taking these for the rest of her life. Recently, Poonam had a successful orthopedic operation to correct the severe fracture of her left leg. The surgeon, who donated a bottle of his own blood for Poonam, said, “If we had waited longer we might not have been able to save her leg.” Today, Poonam is recovering in our FFLV medical center. She is fully conscious; smiling, talking, drawing, studying. The feeding tube, which piped liquid food directly to her stomach, is gone and she is eating normally. Her right arm is still paralyzed, but the doctor assures us it is not permanent. Although her right hand will gradually regain more and more dexterity, she is already trying to write with her left hand. She is in great spirits, eager to play and learn. We are grateful to Karishma and Bindiya, our wonderful volunteers from the UK, who have been working with Poonam to help her catch up on her studies. On August 5, 2010, Sushmita Sen and Vivek Oberoi visited Poonam at our Kikinagla Medical Center. They were touched by her story and gave her much-needed affection and encouragement.
Please see FFLV’s medical blog to learn more or contribute to Poonam’s recovery.

By Dianne Amendola, guest teacher (USA)
Each day with the children at SMS brings about more joy than anyone could ever imagine until it is personally experienced. Our recent trip to Radha Kund and Shyam Kund was no exception. Our journey began with a busload of smiling children singing Lord Nrsimha prayer, which is a prayer to keep one safe. This prayer is a common theme among the children, as they are constantly aware that the Lord's mercy is of utmost importance. Along the way, we stopped at Radharani's Palace in Barsana which in itself was an overwhelming experience. Many of the students happily unloaded out of the bus barefoot to make the trek to the top of the hill to enter this unique and special palace. When we arrived at Radha Kund, the bus emptied even more quickly than at the previous location! These children ran toward this sacred and holy Kund to bathe in these spiritual waters, and not just because it was on this sweltering hot day. This journey to Vrindavan, India was my first trip out of the United States and I couldn't have picked a better location. Being a volunteer here at SMS has impacted my life like no other experience... and I'm 46 years young! No matter how many years I have ahead of me, my heart will yearn to come back and I know it will not be satisfied until I actually return to Sandipani Muni School.

Thanks to a grant from the British Council, this summer the principal and two teachers from Sandipani Muni School visited Mitchell High School in Stoke on Trent, UK. The visit was part of the British Council’s Global School Partnerships (GSP) program, and also involved a visit to India by teachers from Mitchell. During their one week visit to the UK, Sandipani Muni School’s principal, Rajendra Singh, and senior teachers Renu Gupta and Sunil Lavaniya were exposed to new methods of teaching, with the view of employing them here at SMS. SMS’s principal, Rajendra Singh, said of the visit, “When we arrived in the UK we were surprised to see everything so clean and systematic. The way traffic was managed was amazing. Mitchell High School had wonderful technological recourses for learning. We are very thankful for the hospitality and cooperation of the staff at Mitchell High School. The children also asked a lot of questions about India, and some of the children wanted to visit our school in Vrindavan. We were impressed by their extracurricular activities. Some of the British children had even learned Bhangra, a kind of dance from the state of Punjab in India. “The teaching style in the UK is quite different from the Indian style of teaching. The children of Mitchell HS are very open and the teaching methods are practical and creative. I hope we can utilize some of the teaching methods that we observed in the UK.”

After teaching for ten years, acting as principal of 3 London schools, writing learning materials for the British government, and ten years of advising, inspecting and training at educational institutions all over the world, Kaushi Silva knows what it takes to make learning happen. For three days in July, Sandipani Muni School had the benefit of her expertise and advisement, all out of the goodness of her heart and totally free of cost to FFLV. Ms. Silva conducted surprise observations of the classrooms, and created a constructive report to help the teachers improve their teaching methods. Her visit culminated in a 1.5 hour teaching workshop. It was a great learning experience for the teachers, as well as the school principals.