From The President’s Desk

(A monthly newsletter published since April 2012by Dr. Neelima Desai and edited by Kanaka Cadambi on behalf of Navkshitij)

Online sessions for our dear Friends

WE are happy to announce that all the members of Navkshitij family who had contacted COVID 19 have recovered fully. Most of the staff members andFriends are safe at home. At Marunji, now there arefour Friends who have no parents and six staff members to take care of them. Asawali unit is functioning as usual.

For the Friends remaining at Navkshitij, we have routine workshop activity. We are busydispatching workshop products. Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, we are getting online orders. This year, the quality of our workshop products has gone up many notches. Our products include chocolates, candles, ready-to-use rangoli, greeting cards, paper lanterns and diyas, and natural colours (rangoli colour powder).

We conducted daily online sessions for special friends and their parents for a month,between 11 am and 12 noon. It was open to all the organisationsworking in the field of rehabilitation of mentally challenged peoplein Maharashtra. Sundays were holidays. The sessions helped parents and friends to learn new skills and kept theFriendshappy and busy. This was the aim of our online sessions. Special educators from Navkshitij conducted manyof the sessions. We also had a session on Stress Management by our Vice President Dr. C. R. Desai and a session of story reading from one of Sudha Murthy’s books by Manjiri Dhamankar. These were stories from Sudha Murthy’s life. Another story reading session by Manjiri was about her own life experiences.

I conducted a session on Travel: Learning & Fun, recalling my experiences in trekking, cycling, adventure race and travel, and high altitude trekking with special friends. The founder and managing director of Nitor Infotech and Navkshitij Trustee, Mr. C. E. Potnis, conducted a session on Stress: Friend or Enemy. We are glad that we could do this successfully for a month.

We celebrated Dassara with the usual enthusiasm at Marunji and Asawali. Our Friends arekept busy with sports activities. We also celebrated Kojagiri Poornima on October 30.Staff members who are staying at Navkshitij are making workshop products to meet festival orders. We appeal to you, our well-wishers, to buy our workshop products and help our Friends get a good daily routine and to help Navkshitij to reduce the monthly deficit.Take care, Happy Diwali.*

Happier times after Covid struck

AFTER recovering from COVID, our gardener Gajanan Kokate and caregiver Sagar Bodake enthusiastically resumed work at the Marunji campus. They took charge of four special friends who have no parents and are staying at Marunji. Gajanan is dedicatedly working in the garden and Sagar assists him after completing his day’s duty. Under the guidance of Facility Manager Mahendra Suryvanshi, they have developed a kitchen garden and beautified the premises.

Thefour special friends at Navkshitij are assisting the special educators to complete Diwali orders. On Dassara and Kojagiri Poornima, they enjoyed musical chairs and dancing to desibeats. They and our staff were happy because after the COVID disturbance, it was the first time they all gathered together.

Our Friends enjoyed the month-long online sessions. They specially enjoyed the Gappa Break at the end of every session, which was filled with laughter and happiness and made the bonding between the special friends stronger. We realized how much they missed each other. Their innocent interactions were so touching. Diwali is almost here and after that we hope to be one whole family together at Marunji again after Covid separated us.

By Rameshwar Fundipalle General Manager, Operations, Navkshitij

Upcoming Happenings

• November 12 to 16: Diwali celebrations at Asawali
• November 18:Residential Facility at Marunji reopens

Month’s events

• October 25: Dassara celebrations
• October 30: Kojagiri Poornima celebrations

left: Kojagiri celebration at Marunji; Right Online sessionby Mr. C. E. Potnis

Left: Book Reading session by Mrs Manjiri Dhamankar;Right: Story Telling session by Mrs Madhavi Gangapurkar

Navkshitij Now Needs

• SintexTank (1000 Litres) –Approximate cost Rs.6,500
• 2 Garden Swing –Approximate cost Rs. 40,000
• 3 Garden Bench –Approximate cost Rs.24,000
• Diwali Crackers & Sweets –Approximate cost Rs.8000