Our General Secretary and great friend Dr Samir Ghosh started finding sponsors in the UK Mission
A small group of us got together to support him and raise awareness in the UK about the work of RVM, securing sponsorship for distressed children in India and to raise funds for the development of projects pertaining to their objectives including education, water purification, tube-wells and helping leprosy sufferers projects. We formalised our group and registered with the Charity Commission in January 2009 and renamed our organisation as Friends of Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission ( FoRVM ).
In the UK we hold regular meetings of trustees and have an annual Get Together followed by our Annual General Meeting where members and trustees come to share the joy of being associated with the Mission. There are now approximately 86 UK members sponsoring 92 children. Each year we forward to members one school report and also one further report with present photos of the children they have sponsored, also self-made Christmas cards from the children and our newsletter. In the Mission we have provided financial support for the training of a young manager, previously a child of the RVM, to oversee and manage the Mission’s Sensory Impairment Centre in Surayapore, West Bengal. Many sponsored children become established as responsible members off the society including doctors, nurses, engineers etc
We are keen to supply good clean water at all the centres and the immediate communities. So far we have installed three tube wells and 13 water purification units and funded the building of a primary school in Purulia West Bengal.
There is acute water shortage in rocky Purulia District of West Bengal, India, especially in the summer and through our FoRVM one deep tube well for the Leprosy Village was funded by The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem (Lancs) in 2010. This is now installed and operating to the great relief of the villagers especially in summer with over 45 degree C heat. They have also provided further funding for another tube well along with continuing sponsorship funds for ten children.
The monks of the RVM oversee and ensure all funded work via the FoRVM is carried out to high standards, is inscribed with the sponsors name and is well maintained. Our General Secretary and Founder Dr Samir Kumar Ghosh self-funds a trip to India each year to visit all of the RVM sites taking photos and collecting school reports and meeting sponsored children. He also obtains updates on everything we have helped to fund including the schools, medical facilities, water projects etc. Every penny we collect is passed on the RVM. Our trustees and members are dedicated to the cause and apart from Dr Ghosh’s annual visits other self funded visits have been made by our Chairperson Gill Robinson (three times) also member Anne Roberts (twice) and trustee David Green in 2012.
