A hearty welcome to all our new donors in Apr to Jun, 2007.

M/s. Balaji, Balaji J, Gajendran, Ganesh, Hari, Karnan, Karthik R, Lakshmi narayanan, Manojkumar, Mohanraj, Natraj, Radhika, Raman, Ramesh M, Santha Devi, Selvaraj, Sultan, Venkatesh, Vijayalakshmi umapathy, Vinayak Venkatasubramanian.

A Big Thanks to all our Donors in Apr to Jun, 2007.

M/s. Aarthi Jaiswal, Aboo bucker, Altaf Sheriff, Amaravelkani V, Anand, Anand V, Andrew, Anilkumar PS, Anshu Premchand, Anuradha Nagarajan, Arjun, Arun R, Baalasubramanian R, Babu, Baladhandhayudham R, Balajee, Balaji, Balaji J, Balaji Jambunathan, Balaji S, Balakrishnan AR, Balamurugan, Banumathi Rasappa, Bharanidharan, Brindha, Chandrasekaran P, Chandu S, Core Mind (Uday Kumar), Debal B, Deepa Chintakindi, DhanyaMilan, Dinesh A, DivyaMohan, Diwakaran D, Gajendran, Ganesh, Ganesh R, Ganesh U, Gayathri deivasigamani, Gayatri devi, Giridharan J, Gopal ER, Guruprasad Anginthaya, Hari, Hariharan M, Harish M, Jagadeesan M, Janakiraman, Janakiraman A, Jayakrishnan, Jayapriya G, Jayashree, Joe Antony, Jyothsana K, Jyotsna Krishnan, Jyotsna Y, Kalyan Kumar S, Kannan J, Kanthi Jaganathan, Karnan, Karthik S, Karthigeyan.S, Karthik R, Karthik V, Karthikeyan B, Karthikeyan M, Karthikeyan Ranganathan, Kishore, Kishore KS, Krishnakumar, Krithiga S, Lakshmi, Lakshmi narashimhan, Lakshmi narayanan, Lakshmi Rajagopal, Lekshmi M, Madhanagopal C, Madhumitha, Mahendran S, Manojkumar, Mary J, Meenakshi Sekharji, Mohanraj, Murali Balasubramanian, Murali Krishna V, Muthukumar, Muthukumar T, Narayanan MK, Natraj, Parvati NV, Pavithra, Perumal SA, Prabhakaran, Prabhu, Pradeep B, Pradeep Kumar S, Pramod Jandial, Prasad BRK, Prasanna V, Praveen Dsouza, Premanand G, Premchand C, Pritibasri S, Priya, Priyanka S, Radhika, Raga Sudha Kavaru, Raja Elangovan, Raja K, Rajalakshmi P, Rajasekar Reddy, Rajasekaran K, Rajesh Khanna, Rajeswari S, Rajkumar, Rajkumar C, Rajmohan, Raman, Ramanathan S, Ramesh, Ramesh M, Ramsundar T, Ranjini, Ranjit, Ravi Suram, Ravi Verma, Ravikanth, Ravin, Ravishankar, Renjit V, Renuga Devi, Rishi R, Robin Xavier, RoshanRam R, Rupa Radhakrishnan, Rvind Kavuru, Saiprabhu R, Sandeep Gargava, Sandhya Tyagi, Sangeetha Madasamy, Santha Devi, Santhosh, Saradha L, Saravanan, Saravanan Sakthivel, Sathya DV, Sathya R, Satish P, Satishkumar A, Satya Narayana Murthy, Selvaraj, Senthil, Senthilkumar M, Sethu Madhavan, Sethuraman, Shabanam Sheriff, Shaindilkumar, Shanmugasundaram K, Shanmugavel Mani S, Sharan, Shreedevi Ramesh, Shyamkishore K, Sivabalan S, Sivakumar Bellan, Sivakumar T, Sivakumar Thulasiram, Sivanandam Balakrishnan, Somasundaram, Soosairaj P, Srinivasaraghavan SD, Sriram M, Sriram SK, Subashree Raghavan, Sudhakar N, Sudhir, Sudhir Pidugu, Sujatha Mahalakshmi, Sujatha Rajasekar Reddy, Sukumar, Sultan, Sumana Sundaresan, Sumitha, Sumithra Robertson, Sundar G, Suparna KS, Surender B, Surendra Babu, Suresh Masa, Thillairajan, Thyagarajan G, Vagish A, Vasanth, Venkat, Venkatesan KS, Venkatesh, Vidya G, Vidya Viswanathan, Vidyasagar VG, Vijay David, Vijay J, Vijay OK, Vijayakumar D, Vijayalakshmi umapathy, Viji Gandhi, Viji Prabhu, Vinaya, Vinayak Venkatasubramanian, Vinodhini R, VishnuDas, WE CARE, Well wishers from Rane Brake linings, Wilson A & Yuvaraj.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to this edition of the newsletter. Many times, opening up any topic related to Bridge is met with indifference - from families, friends, and collegues. Not only are we disheartened by the lack of support, many times, we are left wondering if all our efforts aren't futile. Is the change we wish to see around us a pipedream?

I recall a conversation with a friend of mine, who is working in the Financial Initiative- one of the branches of the UN Environmental Programme. Recently, while I was arguing for the lack of any visible progress by the UN, and UN affiliated agencies, she just said "Have patience, just because its slow, doesnt mean its not happening." It took her more than 7 months to convince a bank to sign up for environmental statements, and she is working with 4-5 other Indian banks without a response. She recalls after her first nine months of her joining the UN, she was on the verge of a mental breakdown, largely because of the torpid pace of acitivity and her emotional attachment to her cause. Now, experienced, more wiser, she understands the need for patience, and a somewhat attached but detached engagement with her cause.

Effecting change is not easy. Patience, along with fortitude are important ingredients that we need to internalize, in our moral, personal, and ethical fibre. An act of charity is not dissimilar to planting a sapling, the shade of the tomorrow's tree might not be in our destiny. Our lifetimes might be too short a time to witness the results of our efforts to effect change. Please write back with ideas to make this newsletter more valuable to you.

Until next month,

Au Revoir,

The Suthradhaar
sutradhaar@bridgenetwork.org

Trustees Meetings of Apr/May/Jun

The key highlights are as follows :

• Sagayam Review : Sagayam is now registered as a separate trust. Earlier it was under SWCCS. Inmates strength is 13 with 8 additions and 10 rehabs since last review of jan07. They also house 3 to 4 floating inmates during weekends under helpline scheme. Staff strength is 2 cook, 2 caretakers, 2 psychologists. Current expenditure is 35k to 40k per month. Banyan providing 5k per month which is spent towards the helpline project. Our existing donation will continue. The building purchase project is slowly progressing due to delay in mobilising funds. This remains their primary focus for coming quarter.

  NGO Updates : Land has been donated by govt at Mogappair to Nethrodaya (approx 8 grounds). A building planned and corpus fund will be utilised for same. “MY TVS – All car service” have asked us for reference to donate to an NGO under a special scheme. Nethrodaya is recommended for the scheme. At Shree’s office there will be the annual fete to sponsor identified NGOs. It was decided to recommend Child for this year from our side. There was a talk show of Good Life Centre(GLC) in SS music channel on June 2nd. There was an article about Sri Arunodhayam in The Hindu. Vasantham have called up regarding stoppage of donation to them. We explained the reason for same. Following changes done for NGO coordinators. GLC will be coordinated by Priya. ARUWE will be coordinated by Vishnu. Udhavum ullangal and Gnanadeepam will be reviewed by Vasanth. Review calender for next cycle of trustees fixed.

  Donation : Due to input crunch, all coreteam members are requested to regularly donate.

  Receipts : Number of receipt incharges reduced to 4 for better administration.

  Team Rankings for 2006 : 1) OC, 2) Bangalore & Navigators, 4) IC, 5) Task force. As Task force came last for 2 consective years it was closed and members transferred to IC & Navigators.

  Individual ranking : Currently we have team ranking system. It was decided to extend it with a ranking system of individual coreteam members to increase focus on performance in Bridge. The benchmark for same was finalised.

• Activity Budget : Budget for 2007 was fixed as 3000 hrs from the coreteam. It primarily consists of 250 hrs towards NGO reviews & visits, 70 hrs towards input coordination, 250 hrs towards accounts, 1500 hrs towards attending meetings & mail related. This works out to roughly 100 hrs per head for the year.

Implementation committee(IC) Meet:

Implementation committee meetings of Apr/May/Jun.

The salient points of the meetings were :

• ARUWE : Review completed along with visit (Refer visit report below). It was recommended to increase donation by Rs. 1500. Aruwe did the Summer camp for Xansa adopted schools Padma Adarsh, Mambakam School & Solinganallur Panchyat School. SS Music telecasted in May, the association of Aruwe and Xansa. Vishnu of Bridge introduced Aruwe to Xansa.

  Little Hearts : Review completed along with visit in June (Refer visit report below).

  New team : Team members for proposed new team identified. Inaguration planned on 1st Jul.

• Shiksha : Team requests status from Navigators.

Navigators Meet:

Navigators Meetings of Apr/May/Jun.

The salient points of the meetings were :

• NGO Updates : Review calender for next cycle of reviews by team fixed. Centre for Change is conducting a summer camp for children in the surrounding area in May.

  Visits : Central visit planning is replaced with team based planning.

  Roles : Muthu will be visit coordinator for team and Venki will be meeting coordinator. Food sponsorship will be coordinated by Priya for Chennai. Mohan is dropped from Navigators team. Ramanan joins team.

  Web site : User interface and design inputs will be done by Muthu.

• Projects : Shiksha & Blood donation database will be updated soon.

Bridge Bangalore Meet:

Bangalore Meetings for Apr/May/Jun.

The salient points of the meetings were :

• Roles : Parthiban dropped from team.

• Dwarakamayee : NGO reviewed. Team is close to recommending support to this NGO.

Anbu Karangal, Chennai - Orphanage for children and senior citizens - 8th April 2007. As compiled by Mr. Joshua, visit coordinator."Visits to Anbu Karangal(AK) has always been one of my favourites not because it is near my house but because of the energy levels of this NGO's inmates. Right from 3 year old to 70 year old, the inmates always welcome us with a pleasant smile.

When we entered AK all the inmates were busy watching a movie. We didn't want to disturb them, so we silently sat behind but slowly one by one they started to gather around us...The feeling when the kids hold our hands, wrap their hands around our legs, peep into our mobile phones, lean against our chairs.... well... it is an experience that can't be explained in words but can only be felt...

For that moment Vishnu, Venkatesh & Sadiq were the heroes for the kids.. Though Divya doesn't know tamil, she was able to understand them to an extent. The kids were so surprised to know that her name was Divya.... immediately they went searching for the Divya in AK to show her to us..:)

So far was the talking and laughing part, then the kids wanted to play... Vishnu, Venkatesh & Sadiq tried their level best to match the energy of the kids... I'm sure Divya would've had leg pain the next day...the kids..took turns climbing over her toes and asking her to lift them...

We left with a satisfaction of having brought smiles in the faces of the unfortunate few. The kind of satisfaction you don't recieve drinking coffee at cafe coffee day or eating at marry brown..:-) As a Bridger, I'm proud that I'm able to provide the personal touch in addition to the monetary touch !!! R U ?"

Check out what Divya has to say about the visit..
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"The visit was really a very nice experience. Spending time with the kids was really great. Though I wish I could speak Tamil and interact more... And thanks for briefing me about Bridge and how it works. I would like to join and contribute more as my job permits."

Members who visited are: M/s. Divya, Joshua, Sadiq, Venkatesh & Vishnu. ARUWE, Chennai - Day care centre for senoir citizens - 29th April 2007. As compiled by Mr. Vishnu, visit coordinator. "Reached ARUWE at 15 hrs & inmates were relaxing their afternoon. Initial response from inmates was quite poor towards us. Then we took initiative to break the ice, we introduced ourselves to all inmates and asked them to introduce themselves with their name and their place of origin. Everybody responded well and some people were shy in speaking, still they continued.

We asked them to sing few songs. Initially there was only few participation, we made a point that we will appreciate each one who sings a song and in next 45 mins, there was a tremendous change, we can able to see 99 % participation.

Now the turn has come to us, all of them were asking us to sing... it was quite surprising and joyful to us. We started singing songs individually & together, they applauded us. Sreevalsan with his song made everybody happy. There was a continuous celebration & happiness moments. Meanwhile Sangeeta & Sindhu joined us; all paatis were now asking them to sing. They also participated in a well manner, made their and our memories a memorable one.

Yes, we thought it could be around 4.30pm. No, it was around 6, clock runs fast when we are enjoying & celebrating. Yes, Time & tide waits for none… its time to say bye to them, everybody waved their hands and asked us when we will come back again to see them.

We came back with the satisfaction of bringing joy & celebration in wrinkled faces. Yes, happiness & joy doubles when you share with others."

Members who visited are: M/s. Joshua, Sadiq, Sangeetha, Sindhu, Sreevalsan & Vishnu. Little Hearts - Orphanage for Children - 17th Jun 2007. As compiled by Mr. Joshua, visit participant."The founder, Mr.Aiyappan welcomed us and gave us a brief update on the happenings of the NGO. He shared information on the income & expenditure of the NGO and the shortfalls they face.

Aiyappan informed us that the kids are going to the beachhhhhh.... wow... we also decided to join them and spend some time with the kids. It was like a mini picnic..!!!! At the beach, the kids were very silent. Then Saravanan came up with a icebreaker.....he offered chocolates to whoever comes up with a dance or song.....there you go we didn't know how to stop now :-)

Divya & Venkatesen distributed biscuits to the kids. We made a kid whose birthday happened to be on the day to distribute the chocolates!!! Well now having had the biscuits & chocolates the kids attention turned to the Beach...they wanted to take bath...now we didn't want to hold them...as usual we left with bye akka!..... bye anna!.... Come again!.... We asked ourselves...when will the next visit be.....????"

Members who visited are: M/s. Divya, Joshua, Saravanan, Venkatesan.

We leave you with these nuggets from the previous quarter with the promise of being back. Do send us your feedback on the issues raised here. Also send in your suggestions to contact@bridgenetwork.org on how the Bridge can function more effectively.

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