Old People's Home, Fatehpur Beri: Some time ago, Meenakshi and Dipika visited the Old People's Home in Fatehpur Beri to check on the work of bathroom repairs and leakages in the walls being undertaken by Ritinjali, They realized the need for a medical check up of the residents. They organized a heart check up by a team of Escorts doctors at Sadhu Vaswani Hospital while transport and snacks were organized by Raksha Mehta. Ritinjali's group was greeted by Dr. Kitty Law, Administrator, S.V.Hospital, who helped the group cut through the queue and get their check up done. The recommended medicines, which were unavailable at the Hospital, were bought by Ritinjali. The list of residents who were taken for heart check up at Sadhu Vaswani Hospital included:
Mrs. M.A. Paul (75 years);
Mrs. Ita Singh (60 years);
Mrs. Ezikiel (76 years);
Mr. Kohli (82 years, also needs cataract surgery);
Mrs. Sosan Soloman (72 years);
Mr. Gulcharan (92 years);
Mrs. Sheila Massih (does not remember her age).

The Ritinjali volunteers met the Director of S.V. Hospital, Mr. Malwani and told him about the need for a cataract operation of one of the elders. They were told that Dr. Minocha at Moolchand Hospital would do the operation while the cost would be borne by S.V. Hospital. Finally, the cataract surgery for Mr. Kohli was done with success and the necessary follow-ups were also made.

A Report On The Karate & Self Defense Training At Tihar (a report by Vikram Kapoor): The newly inducted staff at the Tihar Jails underwent a month long training in self defense & basic karate with Sensei Vikram Kapoor, Principal, Vicky's School of Oriental Arts & Member, Ritinjali. The training concluded with a demo by the team on 31st May 2003 in front of the DG (P), DIG, Superintendents of all the jails, Tamil Nadu Special Police & participating NGO's.
The demo was very successful with the 97 trainees moving in unison to the shouts of kiai. The high point of the demo was the breaking of the bricks by these new karatekas. The respected DG (P) congratulated the team for its efforts and expressed his hope that they would continue with their efforts and gave away the certificates to the batch. All present were presented with a cap with Vicky's School of Oriental Arts logo.

Ritinjali plans reworking Nathupur Pahari Centre: As the old bamboo & thatch structure has got weakened because of dust storms and due to other processes of weathering, a Tent is being thought over as the best suited replacement.
Over the course of the week, Neera and Ravi went to Azad Market to look for a tent for Nathupur Pahari. They returned having found a 14/14-foot tent for a reasonable sum. Adhiraj went with them on Friday to buy the tent and also bought a waterproof cover for the monsoon. The actual cover area of the tent will be slightly smaller than the existing building, but will accommodate all children comfortably. After buying the tent, Adhiraj and Abhishek made a visit to Nathupur Pahari to set it up. We have started on clearing the ground and making the framework for the tent. All our old material will be collected so that we can re-use it where possible. Sita Ram, a resident at Nathupur Pahari, is a very helpful gentleman, who is coordinating the labour efforts for the re-building. On Tuesday (3rd June) the tent should be up and totally functional. It's a little tough working in the heat, but it is encouraging to see the enthusiasm with which the locals help us out, giving us advice, tea, water and even cold drinks. Some of them have mentioned that they would like to contribute towards the purchase of the tent. We will work out a percentage for the local contribution as well as a method for collection. This will ensure that at least the parents of those who study there take ownership for the tent.

Adhiraj takes stock of accounts and begins work on Tally (Excerpt from a report by Adhiraj):
'On Monday, I went and met Mr. Uma Shankar (finally), at Mr. Alag's office in Defence Colony. I had already tried to set Tally up on my own in the office, but in the process of trying to learn it myself, I had fiddled with some ledgers, and filled in some dummy data. I showed it to Uma Shankar, and he said I was on the right track. Neither of us could figure out how to delete the entries, so we reinstalled Tally again and started from scratch. It took us about ten minutes to set up Ritinjali's profile, after which Uma Shankar went about the tedious task of teaching me accounting basics and how to make the necessary entries. Although I am not an expert on accounts yet, I have figured out enough to handle basic record maintenance like tracking money received and money paid out. Maintaining proper account books is a mammoth of a task, and it is time consuming. I will have to have my entries reviewed from time to time to see if all is well. Uma Shankar has been hounded by me on the phone every day with queries regarding cash withdrawals, daily expenses, incomes and expenditures etc.'

Ritinjali hosts Lokshala Meeting at its Office: Ritinjali hosted the Lokshala meeting on 24th May from 1630 to2000 hrs. Ritinjali has been associated with the Lokshala programme since 1987 for the rejuvenation of the government school system.
Mr. Sadgopal initiated the meeting by informing the audience that Lokshala is 'about how to transform the state school system. Its three pillars being quality, access and awareness'. 'This is done by social and community interventions by teachers, NGOs, intellectuals, academia, etc and by sensitizing the Governments. He informed that the recent 93rd Constitutional Amendment Act (i.e. focusing on the early childhood care up to 6 years) has done more harm than good as the earlier provision under Article 45 talked about universal education for 6-14 years.
He asked the audience to have a look at two articles in Economic and Political Weekly, which deal with a fragmented approach on education by Governments. He continued his address by saying that the 'women and marginalized have been found to be the most interested in improving the school system' and that 'no child ever drops out, he/she is invariably pushed out'.
Mr. Kapur suggested taking note of the various contentions over 'Local History, with its indigenous knowledge' and work on finding a more appropriate language.
Dr. Baker was of the view that as far as the identification of 'local' history is concerned, we should move 'from proximal to distant, from Eklavya to Arjun and Ashok'. He also stressed that each school 'needs a local teacher, local environment and should not be centrally planned'.
Mr. Kapur was of the view that the 'school system is layered and at the bottom of whose lay the correspondence school system'.
Sanjeev chipped in his crucial views by adding, 'we should not forget that the present system represents class character and any change in that would not be supported by the state, which is bourgeois in character. Mrs. Loomba also agreed to this and said, ' we need to be sensitive to class divisions'.
Mr. Nautiyal contended over many of the views that were being taken for unanimously. He said, 'I disagree with the idea of using mother tongue as the medium for instruction during the primary education of a child as everyone's mother tongues vary considerably within the same locality'. 'In fact we need people's tongue. Ha viewed that the focus should essentially be on the school education rather than directly taking on the entire state structure and that there is a need to sensitize private schools about their social responsibilities.
The Meeting was attended by Mr. Anil Sadgopal, Dr. Abu Baker, Mrs. B. Loomba, Mr. Kailash Chandra Nautiyal and Sanjeev (from Lokshala); Mr. Ahmad Khan, Ms. Swati and Ms. Sneha (from the Ark Foundation); Mr. Arun Kapur, Adhiraj, Abhishek, Neera, Manju, Mrs. Pushpa K. Ramaiah and Anup (from Ritinjali).

Life Skills Programme enters Pilot Test Phase:
A presentation was made to 3 different groups of students over three days. The reception to the programme was warm and enthusiastic. The children also contributed to re-devising the presentation methodology, which included removing some slides, doing away with the script and adopting a tandem strategy for presentation, where two people would conduct the intervention.

Rangpuri Pahari Library:
Ritinjali has begun imparting educational assistance at the Rangpuri Pahari Centre from 4 pm to 6:30 pm. The teacher there spends time with the children and adults, assisting them with their homework, literacy, maths, and English. It is felt that we need to involve the community in this project so that it serves their needs rather than forcing them into using something that does not entirely suit their purpose. What we intend to do for now is monitor the library for another two months, ensure that it remains open, and keep talking to the people during our weekly visits. After two months, we could review the situation and take an appropriate decision as to how we can intensify the programme to suit the needs of the locality we are serving.

Kusumpur Pahari:
The Kusumpur Pahari Centre is now ready for undertaking community work. Our programmes would cater essentially to non-formal education, health & hygiene and might also include development of entrepreneurial skills. We intend to develop a detailed action plan for running of the various programmes. Ritinjali and the members of the community from within the Kusumpur Pahari would jointly work out these programmes. Ritinjali would sincerely like to thank Mr. Gurpreet Singh and Mr. Gurmeet Singh (Bachchu) for the construction of the building at Kusumpur Pahari.

Second Chance School:
Ritinjali bid an emotional farewell to the second batch of its Second Chance School children on the 15th of May.
The boys had picked up skills and necessary knowledge over the last six months, actively participated in a lot of extra curricular activities, had traveled to remote villages of Kumaon as part of their educational tour, had undertaken their matriculation examination from the National Institute of Open Schooling and learnt several other essential things e.g. cooking, first aid, hygiene, (as part of their six month residential programme). Like little children, they sobbed and were extremely morose over the idea of leaving. But then they had to go ahead as the objectives of the programme had been fulfilled. They had been here with a purpose and it was time to translate those skills into earning of their daily bread and butter.
As part of their Farewell, Ritinjali took them out on shopping to Sarojini Nagar Market. They bought several items of daily use-bags, clothes, shoes, jeans… Later, they were served pastries, snacks, chocolates etc. Ritinjali wishes them luck and great career in the days to come.

A Request to Ritinjali Members and well-wishers: Ritinjali has been working for the past eight years in several fields with the support of its esteemed Members and well-wishers.