Ashray Akruti

I've always wanted to associate with an NGO and do some kinda service. Well, my workplace opened the doors to such an opportunity. Last year, I was a part of a group that arranged a sports day in a school for special children rescued from child labour. This year, it was a different experience.

Ashray Akruti(http://ashrayakruti.org/) is a school for the specially challenged. Here, hearing impaired children are taught by experienced teachers and they get into mainstream after spending a few years in this school.

So, we (about 25 of us volunteers from work) had a day out with these wonderful kids. 80 of them. We took them to the science museum, the planetarium and finally to the botanical garden where we arranged some fun games for them and gave prizes away. Thanks to the weather gods, it rained the day-before and the day-after but not on the D-DAY.Arranging an event of such a magnitude(125 of us in all) was no easy thing. But none of the volunteers sulked and we all pitched in with high enthusiasm.

End of the day - what did we get? - well, the priceless smiles on the children's faces. Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear - I guess we succeeded in that!

Ofcourse, such activities don't stop after a day. Continued association with NGOs would serve the actual cause and really help us transforming ideas into action.