Find a friend for life

The Fabindia School:

Your support for The Fabindia School directly enables the school to achieve its mission of providing high quality rural education for girls and students who are socially and economically marginalized. There are many ways to support the school including financial donations, volunteering, visiting the school, sharing your expertise and providing material support. 

Gifts in Kind
As resources and conditions vary greatly in Rajasthan compared with other parts of the world, often materials and equipment cannot be used as intended.  In general, we encourage cash donations so that resources can be purchased locally according to existing circumstances.  However, if you have a specific idea or interest in making a gift in kind, we encourage you to contact us.

Please support young people and help them live a bright future.

Reinventing Education

Ask anyone in India who Salman Khan is and actor/superstar would be the answer. Ask the same in America, and while many may not know, those who do will say ‘the man who does the u-tube videos’. Here is a video of the other dashing Salman Khan of Khan Academy fame, giving us a “glimpse of the future of education”. (Thank you TED) 

http://nextfuture.aurosociety.org/reinventing-education

Volunteer Opportunities at Bali, Rajasthan

Starting with 11 students in 1992, today there are nearly 1000 students with 40% female enrollment. Students come from various villages across a 30 kilometer radius and are transported via one of the many school buses. The school maintains a teacher to student ratio of 1:30. The academic year runs from April to March. The school has been affiliated with India’s premier educational board, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), since 1997 and has produced consistently good results at the Class X Board exams every year. It has been allotted as a CBSE board exam centre for the annual board exams where students from schools across the area appear for their exams at The Fabindia School.

In keeping with its holistic approach to education, the school offers extensive extra curricular programs in addition to its comprehensive academic courses.  School activities include a wide range of sports programs including opportunities to participate in regional tournaments, as well as drama, debate, arts and crafts, music, environmental education and community service to provide a well rounded education.  Students also have the unique opportunity to go on educational field trips both within the state and beyond.  For many students these trips are their first time away from home and the exposure to other cities and towns creates lifelong impressions.

While focusing on the local culture, the school also frequently welcomes visitors, trained specialists and volunteers from across India and overseas who contribute towards the campus, teaching and sharing their experiences with the students. This unique cross-cultural exposure creates a well-informed and broad minded student body. As many visitors have remarked, the energetic students show a respect for their culture and traditions but have a clear sense of the world around them.

Since the school first started, every year it has hosted a small group of volunteers, often from another country, to spend anywhere from one month to six months teaching at the school.   While most of the volunteers come as part of an official sponsoring program, such as the Red Cross Nordic United World College program, this is not required.  We encourage you to contact us directly to learn more about volunteer opportunities.

For more visit www.fabindiaschools.org

Good words for The YES Way

I found the whole programme very energetic and knowledgeable. This programme/ workshop has marked some different challenges infront of me.

-Pallavi Bhardwaj

There should be additional workshops, as a continuation to this one. This was very interesting and made me realize what I lack to be a leader (honestly). So that is why I would love  to attend another workshop as a continuation.

-Srivattsan

I really feel good by joining this workshop and I would like to become YES mentor. I am definitely going to convince youth or engaging youth of our school as per their areas of interest.

-Neeru Gupta

A really nice motivational program. The ability to change lies within a person himself.

-Nirvaan Garg

Apart from the activities there should be a interaction about the dreams of his/her ventures and what he/she should pursue in the future. Provide the strategies of what an individual person wants to carry on. Lastly it was a very great & healthy interaction. I really enjoyed and through your inspirational workshop we would increase in life by leaps and bounds.

-Gaurav Singh

This was the first time I did shots (Cadbury)!

-Surya Pahal

I am in class 8 right now and I was not sure before this workshop whether to join IAYP or not but YES has actually convinced me a lot and I would love to prove that “I am a Young Person.” I will surely reach till the best levels I could. Thanks a lot and seriously had FUN.

-Navya Kalra

It was really refreshing and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this. Sandeep Sir & Devyani Ma’am were really good. We laughed, played games, made projects, showed presentations, and ate toffees. This was a really good ecperience.

-Muskan Periwal

Fair enough I never considered myself to be the right person to make decisions in my life. But after this session I was extremely thrilled and realized it is me who has the right to carry on with my life as I want to. So hats off!! I hope we have such sessions again in near future.

-Radhika Agarwal

The Bird Song

It is a new dawn and we all need to wake up. For many to wake up is yet another challenge of the day. The birds chirp, sing and do all they can to wake you up, but you are waiting for the rude alarm to ring.

Young people today often  use the alarm or are alarmed, I dare say to wake up. This is the hard reality, and believe me once you wake up to the bird song you will see a new world, the window opens and the mind soars. The uplift is really heady, look out and feel the energy of the winged wonders and soar high in the sky.

Raise your aspirations or raise the bar and you will feel the new found energy in yourself. Take a deep breath and your new day will make the new way for you. The lungs filled with fresh air, the ears with the melody of the bird song, see the endless blue sky (if you are fortunate), feel the cool breeze and touch the new dawn. You are sure to feel an extra sensory perception. Youth is about crossing new frontiers and let the sky be the limit, have the free spirit of the birds and sing your hearts best melody today.

Have a great day!

Take the first step

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step." - Martin Luther King Jr.

The first step is all that it takes... the toddler starts to run and then moves to gather momentum. Our young people need only one spark to light the fire within. Adults though hesitant to let go, need to understand that a spark creates phenomenal combustible energy, and to challenge young people is our only step to take the world ahead. If it was not for the initiative, there would be no innovation and invention. Need to show the first step alone and then the young will overcome all the challenges and will make the way for us to follow.

Young people think fresh and have no delusion or any baggage to carry. We must give an opportunity to them to build on their talents, and motivate them to excel. Sports, adventure and skills are fantastic opportunity to enable young people, beyond simple academic excellence. We have to challenge young to perform and than rest will all happen...With opportunity comes solutions, there is need to exploit every opportunity and find solutions to enable the young and push them with baby steps to go all the way...

This if from our Archives. Welcome to delve into our three years and find more interesting bits and pieces!

LRN Making Waves Blog - A Tale of Two Dov(e)s | LRN.com

LRN Making Waves Blog - A Tale of Two Dov(e)s | LRN.com:
“Those who live for their values, with purity of heart, are indeed worth praising! May you enjoy the comforts lifelong and attain Parmatma (Supreme Being)."
It was wonderful and I dare say magical...thanks Shibani for introducing me to the most important element 'How'. Am sure all of us feel young and say 'I Am Young Person' , must read this interesting article and learn what Dov of LRN does. This is really where The YES Way leads you to...follow your heart, lead from the head and walk on your feet. At the risk of being too spiritual and moving too far ahead, simply want to state that it is not what you do but 'how' you do that matters, as this is what leaders do. Read on...
http://www.lrn.com/tale-two-doves

Pressure of Spirit

The mental intelligence and its main power of reason cannot change the principle and persistent character of human life, it can only effect various mechanisations, manipulations, developments and formulations. But neither is mind as a whole, even spiritualised, able to change it; spirituality liberates and illumines the inner being, it helps mind to communicate with what is higher than itself, to escape even from itself… - Sri Aurobindo

I Am Young Person (IAYP)

IAYP, India:
To live as 'IAYP' (I Am Young Person) we will do anything!

Young people are better learners, and all those who keep learning stay young. The spirit of youth predominant in most of us pushes us to higher levels, we want to conquer new frontiers, follow our dreams and this is where we find ourselves. 

The YES Way  is all about living the young person and letting your dreams help you find the leader within. We are always very excited to collaborate, and brew knowledge, as this is the only wealth that grows with sharing. The mission of all of us at YES (Youth Engaging Society)  is to bring on board individuals and stakeholders and work together for youth development. YES is promoted by EBD Educational Pvt Ltd as a programme for youth development.

Our social media platform is now interconnected:
The YES Way
www.inyouth.org
Twitter handle @brewknowledge
Youtube channel www.youtube.com/brewknowledge

The English Book Depot (EBD)
www.facebook.com/Theenglishbookdepot
www.bookspro.com

We support
The Gold Award Holders Society (GAHS)
www.facebook.com/gahsindia
www.gahsindia.com
Twitter handle @iayp
Youtube channel www.youtube.com/iaypindia

Leadership begins by leading oneself

Dov Seidman's book How
...says it all. Read more in The Hindustan Times today.

http://www.howistheanswer.com/
Book Review

The Creative Infinity Renaissance

My hope is to spend my life  in the  creative infinity mind using deep meditation that gives entry to the world of the hissing ocean. Here I will escape from the verbal mind and become one of San ai’s Sea Folk. Words are dead languages, to be vivified only by creative infinity mind; the same method applies to the whole of life, utterly transforming it so we become ‘real’ poets, our lives repeatedly beautified by creative rapture. The beautiful minds is the beautiful life: the wonder mind is the wonder life.

The  Year 2012 held the Olympic games and Paralympics in London. The Paralympics were mind changing in that eight out of ten witnesses of the games surveyed had undergone a change in their brains in that the horrific injuries and the amazing triumphs over them had inspired spectators whose loud cheering astonished the athletes and those who watched them. From their habitual life in the artificial world of prosaic words, they had gained a glimpse of the real world  of creative infinity mind, full of emotions and wonder. Only when we are lost for words do we start to see the infinite reality.

Tahasa Falconar
www.creativeinfinitymind.com
'via Blog this'

Join YES Group on Facebook

Welcome to join the Facebook Group for YES
We share our events here, and would like to invite you to...
1. Connect
2. Communicate
3. Collaborate
4. Create

YES Workshop @ Hopetown

The YES Way in action at the Hopetown Girls' School, Dehradun
9th day  of September 2012.



Group of 30 young people participated to dream and build.
Connect, communicate, collaborate and on to create.
The YES Workshop was great fun for all of us!

Tagore International School

www.tagoreint.com

Established in 1972 by Dr. Mrs. H. Sen, TIS aims at creating an environment where children develop their personality and pursue self learning. The School's philosophy is well illustrated in Rabindranath Tagore's words "I was brought up in an atmosphere of aspiration, aspiration for the expansion of the human spirit. We in our home sought freedom of power in our language, freedom of imagination in our literature, freedom of soul in our religious creeds, and that of mind in our social environment. Such an opportunity has given me confidence in the power of education which is one with life and only which can give us real freedom, the highest that is claimed for man, his freedom of moral communion in the human world".

Tagore International Schools have been imparting quality education in their two branches at East of Kailash and Vasant Vihar. The Schools believe in steady and continuous progress, with never-ending modernization and increased facilities and infrastructure. Great emphasis is laid on cultural exposure, which is encompassed by regular performances by renowned artists from the various corners of the world and the community works  to enhance the creativity and skills of the children.

The Schools have been in the forefront for international Teacher and Student Exchange Programmes with France, China, Australia , Japan ,New Zealand,Indonesia and Singapore. We are one of the first to have our own website, since 1998. Special sports programmes such as Taekwondo ,Yoga and Aerobics enable the students to participate in international events.

Social responsibility has always occupied a top spot, with children from orphanages, NGOs, and the visually impaired, getting free mainstream education. Reasonable fee structure over the years has ensured a wide spread social representation in the parental clientele.

Hopetown Girls' School

www.hopetown.in

Hopetown aims to develop young minds that enjoy the challenges of inquiry, knowledge and experimentation. Seeks to enable all children to explore their multifaceted talents and facilitate opportunities for celebration of these talents. 

A fully residential school for girls and believes in sound Indian value systems, works to bringing up children in a happy, positive and nurturing atmosphere. The school professes secularism and encourages respect of all religions, beliefs, customs and opinions. The school’s curriculum and ethos provides opportunities for students to develop into compassionate, caring human beings who will contribute positively to the world they live in.  

Hopetown Girls’ School is affiliated to the ICSE Board and offers the ICSE and ISC curriculum to its Board students. The number of subjects on offer is varied and caters to the interests of girls looking for careers in modern India. These range from the traditional Humanities, Sciences and Commerce to the Arts and PE. The curriculum ensures that students are engaged in experiential learning, which is learning for life. Students receive formal education in Drama, Music, Art & Craft, Life Skills, Languages, IT, General Knowledge and Physical Education. These additional subjects develop students in areas of personality, ethics and citizenship. The school provides sports, skills and service opportunity to all the students and helps them to nurture their interests.

On 9th Sept 2012, the school will be the venue for the YES Workshop, a group of 30 young people will set out on a journey of finding yourself!

Skills for livelihood

www.nsdcindia.org

The National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) is a one of its kind, Public Private Partnership in India. It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. It provides funding to build scalable, for-profit vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support systems such as quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships.

NSDC is a first-of-its-kind Public Private Partnership (PPP) in India set up to facilitate the development and upgrading of the skills of the growing Indian workforce through skill training programs. A large part of the organisation’s efforts are directed at the private sector and towards developing the skills in the unorganised sector in India. NSDC supports skill development efforts, especially in the unorganised sector in India by funding skill training and development programmes. It also engages in advocacy and training programmes, in-depth research to discover skill gaps in the Indian workforce, and developing accreditation norms. To know more, click here.

The Fabindia Schools

The Fabindia School is a co-ed private school for pre-school through Class XI, located in Bali, Rajasthan. Starting with 11 students in 1992, today there are nearly 1000 students with 40% female enrollment. The school emphasizes a holistic approach to education, offering extensive extra curricular programs along with comprehensive academic courses. While focusing on the local culture, the school frequently welcomes visitors, trained specialists and volunteers from across India and overseas.[read more]

  

The school's mission is to provide access to high quality, affordable education at the rural level using English as the medium of instruction. The school views education as a major stepping stone towards social mobility, equality and employment opportunities. Our vision is to create a model school for empowering rural youth from diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds to shape their own lives and transform their communities. [read more]

* Volunteer: Learn about the various volunteer programs affiliated with the school.

* Visit: Planning a trip to Rajasthan? The school welcomes visitors who share our interests in rural educational opportunities.
* Make a Donation: Contribute to the Girls Scholarships program through our fundraising partner, The John Bissell Scholars Fund.

Indian Plumbing Skills Councils

Certified course for plumbers

A new course tries to meet the need for trained plumbers on the field

The construction industry is in top gear now with several infrastructure, residential and institutional projects but it is also a fact that there is a huge need for a pool of technically-skilled people to design, implement and monitor the plumbing aspects of these projects.

However, nearly 85 per cent of the plumbers in the country are not technically trained, says S.P. Sree Kumar, director general of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), India, speaking to The Hindu Property Plus.

IAPMO has tie-ups with 22 education institutions in the country and offers a plumbing training programme. “There is a need to improve awareness, especially among budding engineers and architects, on the importance of plumbing. We get reports of building collapses and accidents. One of the causes for these can be wrong plumbing. We need to create a strategy to create awareness in the market.” he says.

IAPMO and the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) have teamed up to offer four programmes at two levels. Two of the programmes target field-level plumbers, many of whom have picked up their skills while on the job or from their fathers. The course for both apprentice plumbers and trained master plumbers is of 240 hours duration.

IAPMO is looking for partners who will adopt different models such as earn-and-learn to train field-level plumbers. For diploma holders and graduates, who are in supervisory, system engineering and design roles, IAPMO has a 120-hour training programme. The course and standards incorporate the latest technologies and practices. The association is also interacting with the state and central governments.

In India, as of now, there is no mandatory regulation to adhere to a given set of codes, standards, and technology in plumbing.

Unless this is in place and plumbers are technically trained, it will be difficult to meet the increasing demands that come with designing sophisticated building projects.

A group of IPA members have formed the Indian Plumbing Skill Council to train candidates through the National Skill Development programme. IPA and IAPMO will be their knowledge partners

Inputs from M. Soundariya Preetha for The Hindu

Forthcoming YES workshop 9th Sept 2012

On the 9th of September 2012 there will be a YES Workshop for a group of 30 at the Hopetown School near Dehradun. This one day event on Sunday will enable us to connect with 30 people who are eager to find themselves, see within and look out for what lies ahead. Thank you to the Hopetown management and the great teachers for this wonderful opportunity. We look forward to collaborating with the group and am sure there will be lots to share, more so the day will be great fun for all of us!