Food for Life Vrindavan: Official site

“Biting my nails, when I sat there, waiting for my turn, watching the players from other countries, with posh standards and all facilities, my heart pumped faster.  And then I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and remembered my time at school, with my friends, with my coach…if I can do it there….I can do it anywhere!”

And she did it!.  This is a success story of our girl Sunita, who won a Silver in an international Karate Championship, where five different countries participated.

“If I was not at FFLV, I would have got married by now.” – Sunita

Thank you to you all friends and supporters of FFLV who made this happen for her. Now it is time to give a chance to other girls who will, otherwise, never get a chance to tap their talents. These girls have so much potential!

FFLV is always finding new ways to benefit these girls. Our current plan is the Global Giving Competition that we are participating in. We can win this competition if we have maximum number of donors. We just ask you to donate $10.00 and encourage your friends to do the same. We will be automatic winners if we are in the top 6 organizations. We will get a share in the $80,000, which is the prize money and also a chance to be displayed on the Girl effect website for one complete year!

Donating is very easy. You can pay by paypal, cheque, credit card, or a gift card on the following page : http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/prevent-child-marriage-send-75-girls-to-school-in-india/

If you are a USA citizen you can also donate by sending a simple text from your mobile phone. Simply type GIVE 8803 to 80088 to donate $10 to Prevent Child Marriage, Educate 75 Girls in India. Message and data rates may apply. Only works for US mobile phones.*

*Please visit this link to read all the details: http://www.mgivefoundation.org/terms-of-service.aspx

To keep yourself updated on where we are, please follow this link:

http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/girl-effect-challenge/

On Monday, the 25th of October, our school was treated to the melodious sounds of Blue Indigo, a traveling music group from the island of Hawaii. The concert was a beautiful infusion of east meets west. The band consists of six members, of which Brihan dasi is the lead vocalist and plays the harmonium and harp. The remainder of the group play the bansuri flute, violin, clarinet, tabla, drums and sitar. The mixture of these instruments produced enchanting sounds which had the audience captured in rapt attention. The group began their performance with traditional Indian bhajans, which the children enthusiastically sang and clapped along to. The bhajans were followed by Celtic tunes and the show ended with mesmerizing  western classical music.

The group are on a tour of India until November the 5th. Other places where they will be performing include Rishikesh, Almers officers club, Maduban, Vrinda kunj and Gangi ghat kunj.

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to ask for your help with a great opportunity for our girls!

FFLV has been chosen to compete in Global Giving’s Girl Effect Challenge. Funded by the Nike Foundation and many other large well-known donors, The Girl Effect (www.girleffect.org) has been raising awareness around the world over the past two years about the importance of investing in girl’s education and the potential this has to change the developing world.   It has attracted thousands of followers.

From today until November 15th, FFLV will be appealing to donors, supporters and friends to make a small donation to our project through the Girl Effect Challenge web page on Global Giving.  We will be competing  with 59 other girl-focused projects  (http://www.globalgiving.org/leaderboards/girl-effect-challenge/) to attract the highest number of individual donors to support our project.  The six that have the most donors by November 15 will be featured on the Girl Effect Fund’s Global Giving fundraising page for all of 2012 and will get a grant of about $80,000 from the fund next year.

I know our work is important to you so please help us become one of the winners!  You can do so by going to our project page and making a small donation ($17 minimum) https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/prevent-child-marriage-send-75-girls-to-school-in-india/ and then telling ten of your friends about it and asking them to do the same!

When you donate, you are helping the school in more than one way: Your donation will help us financially and counts as a vote for FFLV in the challenge.  The publicity and funds we’ll receive if we win will enable us  to help even more girls next year (and beyond!).

If you want to follow the competition and track our progress, please join our Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/119706924780942/

We’re excited to be participating in the Challenge. With the help of friends like you, we can win it for our girls in Vrindavan!

Yours faithfully

Rupa Raghunath Das
FFLV International Coordinator
rupa@fflvrindavan.org

Our school held a hugely successful three day-cultural program from the 10th to the 12th of October to mark the Kartik festival. During the function, MLA from Mathura, Pradeep Mathur and chief development officer (CDO), Mathura S Muthu Shalini, inaugurated the event by lighting the traditional lamp. The cultural extravaganza began with kirtan of Radhey Krishna, and students presented the songs ‘Makhan chor Namd Lal…’.

Girls presented Ganesh vandana through the Odissi dance. A dance to appease Goddess Durga was also a part of the event, along with speeches delivered on different topics by the students. The audience was enthralled to see the folk dance of Braj while the nursery kids sang the song ‘Diwana hoon tere Kanha…’. A presentation of martial arts excited the viewers, and they were also treated to the drama ‘Nakh pe dhar liyo giriraj’.

The director of our school, Rupa Raghunath Das, was also present and encouraged the efforts of the students.

 
He said the following about the event: ‘Students of Sandipani Muni School are mostly orphans and under privileged children and through this three-day event, we gave them an opportunity to showcase their creativity and talent.’ Festivals like these are a wonderful platform for the children to express themselves as well as astound and entertain audiences.