I , a happy teacher at Anjana, like to share my views about ‘WHY ANJANA IS DIFFERENT?’
Most of the schools prevail in a concrete jungle. Even my schooling was done in one of such a ‘jungle’. When I entered here, I was wonder-struck! I couldn’t believe my eyes. A school in the cradle of Mother Nature. Fascinating flora flavored the whole environment. If a person visits a place like this once, he / she would feel rejuvenated at least for a couple of months. And such a place is going to be my workplace! The very thought of it delighted me. This delectation is continuing forever to all the people present here. If I have to express this in a few words, I would just say that ‘Anjana is a paradise on earth!
I do still remember that my schoolmates and I just merely existed as students in our school life. But here, I found that each and every child is living its life as a happy student. The students are not just having the education but experiencing it! For instance, a lesson about germination is not taught using the blackboard and a chalk in the class room but with seeds and soil in the garden. And that is Anjana!
Our school constantly takes efforts in building a healthy society by caring the health of each and every student. Not just mid-day meals are given here but 100% balanced diet has been provided to all the students. Valuable greens are cooked often to compensate for the nutritional needs of the children.
The values of our rich tradition and culture are transitioned to our children through celebration of festivals and events. All children participate actively and by that they understand the core reason as well as value in celebrating the festivals of our soil. We celebrate all festivals in our school. Kids feel happy to do Aarthi to Jesus on Christmas day.
I had just mentioned four reasons as answers to the question, ‘Why Anjana is different?’ but there are plenty of other reasons as well. When other institutions pat their own shoulders and declare their students as ‘Best students’, I would definitely say that our students are ‘Blessed students’!
Namaste, everyone. We would like to share the updates and events in 2021 at AVK school in this newsletter.
THANK YOU:
The biggest lesson learnt in this year is to show gratitude as much as we can to others to make this world better place to live. Covid pandemic has taught us how important it is to cherish the meaning of life. Schools play a vital role in teaching right values like empathy, humility etc., and how to lead a meaningful life in this ever-changing world.
In BRAHMI, we have made a mission for ourselves to work on blending value education with traditional board syllabus for our AVK students. Suggestions and inputs for constructive changes are welcome to make the mission journey more impactful!
Class snap before pandemic hit us!
We tried our best to continue the process of progressing at Anjana in 2021 amidst the pandemic crisis mainly because of the confidence and blessings of noble people like you. We are grateful for having consistent supporters and volunteers who are shaping up the future of next generation rural kids.
SOLAR ENERGY @ ANJANA
APTIV dedicates Solar plant to School
A 15Kva – 10kWp Solar Hybrid Inverter installed by IIEC, providing continuous power supply to all our computers and vital installations including lights was dedicated to our school as part of the CSR initiative by APTIV Technologies, Bangalore. Our hearty thanks to Mr.Shyam and Mrs.Reeshma from APTIV who were the root cause of this initiative. This event was a part of the restricted School Republic Day celebration in Jan 2021.
SCIENTISTS @ ANJANA – Climate Action Lab
CAL session
Salesforce, one of our CSR partner has set up the Climate Action Lab in our school to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ 13th goal (i.e.) Climate Action in early 2021. Our school is one of the four places where such labs have been set up. The other three are in Tokyo (Japan), California (U.S.) and Davos (Switzerland). With able support of Ms. Kiranmayi of Salesforce and Mr. Ch Venkata Naga Sreekanth, consultant faculty , few selected students are involved in this program.
The purpose of this program is to educate the students about climate action issues and also about the wildlife around them. In this course of study, students learnt about latest technologies involved in wild life photography and also about testing pollutions. The team would comeup with a campaign to be given to local representatives to bring about a change and the same would be presented at the World Economic Forum that will be held in Davos.
GENEROUSITY OF LAM RESEARCH
The Corporate Social Responsibility Team at Lam Research India had distributed nutrition kits to improve the immunity of our school children. When the pandemic hit and schools had to close during the lockdown period, these nutrition kits played good support role in maintaining the students’ health and nutrition.
SWABHIMAN by SMILE FOUNDATION:
Smile Foundation did various camps and empowerment programs using our Campus targeting needy people in and around AVK school as part of Swabhiman program. A medical camp was organized people in and around our school on 31st July. A training program for empowering women entrepreneurs on 26th July, 12th & 13th August and 13th & 14th September in our campus.
Guidance and Awareness Training Programs on Self Image, Goal Settings and Time Management was attended by AVK students who are beneficiaries of Smile foundation scholarships on 26th August and 17th & 18th September.
TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM:
In collaboration with Philips, a teacher training program was conducted for 10 weeks on Saturdays for improving their communication and interpersonal skills. This program commenced on 17th April and extended up to 19th June,2021.
FLOWERLESS GARDENS @ ANJANA
Schools have become flowerless gardens without the children who are the blood circulation of all the educational institutions for most of days in this year
It is not wrong to say that we have lost one academic year especially for rural institutions like us as we are not highly effective in this pandemic due to constraints like rural connectivity, economy etc though we tried our best within possible limits and options.
Based on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) given by Karnataka State Government’s Education Department, our school was reopened to the students from VI grade to X grade at start the 2021. But due to second wave, when government announced the lockdown again, the children had been retained back at home. We struggled to reach our rural students by using the possible latest technologies amidst many inevitable challenges but with moderate success. We started online classes to our students of all grades from 5th of July . Teaching primary children was much challenging but our teachers tried their best. Finally, we have restarted physical classes voluntarily again from Oct 2021 and following as per state government Education department instructions.
Celebrations in AVK:
Many kind-hearted souls and institutions continues to support our operations which helped us to continue with our journey of learning & celebrations despite many challenges. We tried to capture some of those visits in photos & words here:
SRI VIDYA HOMA: Mrs. Karpagam & team visited our school for performing the homa. Mrs. Karpagam, who is a well-knowledged yoga practitioner and trainer, also conducted a yoga-nitra session for our teachers.
MOUNAACHARANAE: Mr. Hari & family visited our school for having a prayer for the departed soul of Smt. Jayanthi (cine actress), one of our patrons.
75TH INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION: Mrs. Reeshma & family and Mrs. Nitya & family made the simple celebration a bit grand by their presence. The pandemic abolished an awesome celebration of this great day but still our guests visits made it special.
We tried our best to capture most of the happenings in school and as always could not fit in all visits & events in school. Please visit us and help us to shape the future lives.
THANK YOU all again for being with us and appreciate your active & constructive inputs to make our journey more joyful and rewarding for everyone!
Wish you all happy and colorful deepavali 2020 from AVK Team. Thanks to our teacher, Ms. Sukanya, please find the yearly updates from AVK campus and will be posting newsletter on quarterly basis going forward…..
NEWSLETTER OF ANJANA VIDYA KENDRA – November 2020
Namaste, welcome to our latest newsletter! This edition is about sharing news regarding the school and the students in the year 2020 and also about sharing the spirit of giving a holistic education. We value our relationship with you and looking forward to your involvement with us in the years to come to make it as a role-model school for the rural children.
ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-20
In Feb 2020
BOARD EXAMINATION:
Thirty three SSLC students (17 girls & 16 boys) of our school had written the board exam amidst Corona challenge. We achieved 100% results again in the board examination with 8 distinctions. We are determined to continue this achievement in the forthcoming years too.
@ SSLC exam centre
OTHER CLASSES:
School operations were shut-down in mid-march as per instructions from education department. All other classes (1-9) were auto-promoted without any examination this year due to pandemic restrictions.
ACADEMIC YEAR 2020-21
CORONA – The hardest challenge to the world. But we encountered it bravely focusing on TEACHERS’ EMPOWERMENT. Our teachers were back to school in the second half of May, 2020 (by following all the terms and conditions as specified by the government rules) Our teachers were empowered by the latest techniques of teachings. Some of them were as follows:
TUTOR ON ONLINE CLASSES FOR TEACHERS
All the teachers were introduced to the next level of teaching – The Online Classes! Through webinar from EducationKnot, experts tutored our teachers to handle the online classes.
POWER – POINT PRESENTATION
All the teachers were taught to do the power-point presentation. Weekly once, the teachers exhibited their presentations among themselves.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS CLASSES
The primary teachers were trained to teach the method of reading for the primary children using phonemics. This method gave a different dimension of teaching ‘How to read in English?’
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CLASSES
Our School founder, Mr.Channaraju had started this class for all the teachers to improve their English and communication skills. Along with the communication skills, the interpersonal skills were also focused in the class.
WHATSAPP CLASSES
We reached our students, who were left isolated in their homes, by whatsapp classes. These whatsapp classes were found to be very effective for all the students.
ONLINE CLASSES FOR STUDENTS
We had started online classes for the students of 9th and 10th grade. We’re able to reach our students through advanced level of teaching. These online classes proved the beautiful saying- ‘One should never be limited by challenges’.
Online session in Digital classroom by HM
EMPLOYEES’ CHILDREN IN SCHOOL
The staff children were given special coachings by our teachers. Not only in the areas of curricular activities but also in the areas of extra-curricular activities. For instance, songs of various languages were taught to the primary level children. Crafts were taught to these children for their skill development. They are provided with milk in the mornings and lunch.
EVENTS, FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS OF THE YEAR 2020
We continued to celebrate major festivals in school both in pre and during corona period by following social distancing.
DATE
EVENTS , FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS
14TH JAN, 2020
PONGAL FESTIVAL – In our school, we’d celebrated Pongal by preparing the traditional sweet –Pongal and also by performing pooja for cows.
26TH JAN, 2020
REPUBLIC DAY – We’d celebrated the Republic Day in a grand manner. The celebration became vibrant by the presence of Prayas Team and Shri.AjaySreshti & his family.
1ST FEB, 2020
TEACHERS’ RETREAT – Teachers were given a rejuvenating trip to Somnathpur, Thalakad, Gagana chukki and Barachukki waterfalls.
5TH JUN, 2020
WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY – We’d celebrated World Environmental Day by planting saplings. Our old students gifted coconut saplings to the school.
31ST JUL, 2020
VARAMAHALAKSHMI FESTIVAL – We’d celebrated Varamahalakshmi Festival in our school in a simple but traditional way.
11TH AUG, 2020
KRISHNA JANMASHTAMI – We’d celebrated Krishna Janmashtami by doing special pooja for the idol of Lord Krishna.
15TH AUG, 2020
INDEPENDENCE DAY – We’d celebrated the Independence Day in a simple manner. The celebration became fulfilled by the presence of Prayas team and Shri.Shaam & Smt.Grishma.
21ST AUG, 2020
GANESH CHATURTHI – We’d celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi by doing special pooja for the idol of Lord Ganesha.
31ST AUG, 2020
ONAM FESTIVAL – We’d celebrated Onam by designing the pookalam in the traditional method which is followed in Kerala.
5TH SEP, 2020
TEACHER’S DAY – We’d celebrated the Teacher’s Day in a simple manner. Our old students gifted flowering plants to the school and the teachers.
14TH SEP, 2020
DONARS’ VISIT – Shri.Istarth and Shri.Shamanth from Anthill Creations presented 72 boxes of ‘Play in a Box’ – a new dimension to indoor games.
2ND OCT, 2020
GANDHI JAYANTHI – We’d celebrated Gandhi Jayanthi with a lot of reverence to our ‘Father of the Nation’.
15TH OCT, 2020
VISITORS FROM SMILE FOUNDATION – The co-ordinator Ms.Bendita along with Shri.Jitendra came to our school and interacted with our teachers on the ongoing activities of the school.
22ND OCT, 2020
GRATITUDE DAY – Gratitude is the greatest of all the virtues in this world. In our school, we celebrate 22nd of October as Gratitude Day every year for the remembrance of our patron Late Shri.K.T.Narayan’s birthday.
17TH TO 25TH OCT, 2020
NAVARATHRI FESTIVAL – We’d celebrated the Navarathri Festival by arranging ‘golu’ in a traditional method.
1ST NOV, 2020
KANNADA RAJYOTHSAVA – Kannada Rajyothsava was celebrated by hoisting the flag of Karnataka and by singing Naada geethe.
Hope this letter helps you to be aware of happenings in Anjana. Going forward, will share these information on quarterly basis.
We would like to thank all the volunteers, the well wishers and the donors who had given generously of their time and energy towards helping the school to progress even in the challenging period of Covid – 19 – The pandemic. We are looking forward to your involvement and suggestions for improving all the areas which lead to our students’ development.
Happy Deepavali and advance wishes for a bright 2021 ahead!
Salesforce QTC are the usual suspects at our campus and this time we have thrown a new challenge to them, which is to build a hut for nursery plants. This assignment involves both mental and physical work. It requires to tickle the grey cells to come up with optimal dimensions for the hut. Though the location was chosen by the expert committee at the campus, the planning and execution was a combined effort of Salesforce QTC and Anjana.
Stage 1:
Identify the right baboo
Trim the projects
Transport to the location through human chain
Dig pits to drop the cement poles.
Place the supporting poles at appropriate location/distance and
Tie the bamboo to the poles
Prepare the structure.
Salesforce steam had to pause for stage 2 and post lunch they induled in the usual tasks of spending time with the motherless calf and attended to mundane tasks related to cow farm and spending time with the veggies.
No it is not Fake news. Salesforcebelieves in work hard and hāʻawing hard.
hāʻawi: giving in hawaiian language.
Yes Salesforce was hāʻawiing on a bright Tuesday morning at one of their favorite volunteering spot. Mentoring, engaging kids through sports, framing, cryptographyall happening @ one place.
Bitcoin, cryptocurrency etc. are the buzzwords and salesforce gave a glimpse of the same to our students.
Composite move: Salesforce do get their hands dirty in coding, this time they got dirt on their hands with organic farming. Maneuvering manure on a 4-wheel Push-Kart was the highlight. Digging their way through the pile of composite, transporting to the kart though human chain and getting to the the bed for the veggies, all happening in synchronously. Curious, take a look at the pictures.
Sowing time: Getting the farming bed ready for sowing. This Salesforce is doing it for the 3rd time and now they have got the idea on how it works.
Another milestone by Salesforce QTC team and this time on Guru Nanak Jayanti. Last time when they were here it was Diwali with plants and this time Guru Nanak Jayanti with Guru’s and Children. On this auspicious day, Salesforce QTC Volunteering team spend time with 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade kids in giving them “Gyan” on real life experiences and how one has to deal with challenges that are not taught in class room but faced by them in real life.
Engaging with Kids: There is nothing noble than donating time for the education of a child and I am very grateful for Salesforce team engaging kids and giving them a different perspective of real world scenarios.
Learning by doing: The new New science Lab was inaugurated with the support of Global spirit and TCS. On the day of inauguration, Gurus and Children demonstrated one chemical reaction and coule of physics demonstrations.
Organic Farming: After a day long with budding flowers, the children of Anjana, Salesforce QTC team shifted gears to budding seedlings. They wanted to get their hands dirty and they have got what they have asked for. This time they planted cabbage and chilli seedlings/saplings.
Diwali Organic Farming Status: Efforts put in by Salesforce QTC during their last volunteering has started bearing fruits or veggies. Below images show the growth on the organic beds worked upon by the Salesforce QTC team.
Another milestone for Anjana Kendra and Salesforce together and many more to come.
Salesforce QTC India arm celebrated their Diwali ’17 with a blast minus the noise & air pollution. Motivated team of Salesforce QTC engaged themselves by volunteering @ our wonderful place called Anjana Vidya Kendra, which is tucked away from hustle and bustle of the “Namma” Bengaluru. A picture speaks 1000 words, hence, I put down the pen and draw your attention to the pictures below:
Plantation the Organic way: Shovel Earth, lay dry composite, fill Earth again to make a bed (imagine composite is sandwiched between earth) , choose symbiotic veggies and sow the seeds.
Home made Pharma: Treating plants with organic pesticides by spraying organic insect repellent called AA (Agni Astra, its a secret recipe and if you want to know, come join us)
Grass cutting with crass (fodder for cows): Mother cow has been serving us since our childhood and it was a golden opportunity to serve her once. It was not easy to cut simple looking long grass. There is a technique which our expert Mr. Amresh taught the Salesforce team.
Website development: Talentend QTC team spent good amount of time to bring our school/organization website up-to speed. They ensured to updated the blogs and also revamped the website with latest templates to give our official website a boost. As on going process Salesforce QTC team is going to enhance the website by adding more features. Stay tuned.
Feeding Calf: Salesforce QTC team had heartfelt experience while feeding the motherless calf. I urge all the readers to rethink and go VEGAN to save these motherless calf ending up here, being fed by humans, instead being fed by their mother cow.
Master Chef – Village Guttahalli: Cooked delicious food using organically grown veggies from Brahmi organic farm + lot of salesforce spices brought the best of cooking. At the end it was finger licking cuisines that was served to all.
All-in-all it was soulful & amazing experience where in Salesforce and Brahmi have engaged and learnt each other organizations culture & values. Salesforce QTC team had first hand experience in organic farming that they have learnt various steps involved in organic farming. It also helped them to understand how various species in our environment help to sustain the growth of flora & fauna, local issues related to child educations and how Brahmi is making an impact in many children’s lives.
Simply “Joyful” is how one would describe the months of August and September at Anjana. It is a wonder how children switched from one program to the other and how teachers were able to train them. In addition, each event was special and celebrated in a unique fashion in several locations of the school (playground, Prayer Hall or Amphitheater), some times in more than one place; chants for Varalakshmi Festival, Dances and singing for Krihsna Janmastami, Drills and Skits during Independence Day and making and worshipping Eco frindly idol of Ganesha during Ganesha Chaturthi (August festivals) AND entire campus filled with Pookolams and dances for Onam , sports and fun games for the staff during Teacher’s Day , children presenting Hindi Day, Homa and Chants for the 9 Days of Durga Pooja (all in September). This is not all – Our primary and high school children participated in District level sports meets with two of them finding a place to compete at state level, Primary children coming up with monthly cultural events coinciding with Dussera celebrations and a ToT program for the teachers conducted by Salesforce Team prior to Durgapooja celebrations and visit of Sri. Srinivas Palepu, Yoga Teacher and Parvrajak monk from Sivananda group. Teachers and students tell me I have (unfortunately) missed several interesting talks and weekend personality development programs by Sri. Shiva and Prayas team from Delphi conducted on Saturdays. Too much for a visitor/parent/patron to participate in all these events but for children and staff all these events have helped to showcase their talents and express their joy and hapiness celebrating India’s diversity!
October has kicked in starting with Gandhi & Shastri Jayanthi. Children would get to celebrate Jayanthi’s of Valmiki, Kannada Poets DVG and Karanth and the same time would write their half -yearly exams. As a grand finale to the successful completion of the first half of the academic year, team Anjana would adjourn for a 10-day Mid-term vacation from 12th October. They will arrive on 23rd October to celebrate Gratitude Day to mark the birthday of our patron late Sri. K.T. Narayan (Premanjali Trust). The week will be celebrated as Food-Week with several events and workshops highlighting importance of food and nutrition to children and parents. We look forward to the visits of our food-partners Team Premanjali and Team Manish & Volunteers from Intel and other groups to make these events meaningful.
It may be noted, all these celebrations have taken place amidst regular school days, without majorly disturbing the academic programs. Kudos to the team of teachers headed by young and energetic Sujay and the ever-ready-to-help and ever-smiling kitchen, support team and the team of volunteers. All visitors to the school and parents participating in any of these events have enjoyed our food and hospitality.
Enjoy scrolling down to view some of these events in pictures and videos.
A motivated team of Volunteers from Medtronic IT center engaged our children in several activities on 26th July. It was an exciting time for both students and the volunteers.
Guru Purnima or Vyasa Purnima was celebrated with zeal and traditional fervour on Saturday, 8th June (instead of 9th Sunday). Guided by our music Teacher Anantaraman, Children chanted Adi Shankara’s Gurupaduka Stotram and a chant known as a stress releiver – toTakAShTakam (8 verses in praise of Adi Shankara). Children showcased a skit to highligh gurukul system of education (directed by our Hindi Teacher Amritaraj).
Brahmi Educational & Cultural Trust 