AGM 2012

Only the ladies joined in when invited!

Eastern European dance group Opanka entertained us once again

Secretary to the Mission taken ill

With intense sadness we inform you that Swami Nityananda, General Secretary of R V Mission has developed a serious illness and has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a reputed nursing home in Kolkata  for a heart condition.  We send him our prayers for his improvement and  rapid recovery and we are keeping in touch with the Mission constantly for information updates about his condition.

The following sponsored children have successfully passed their final school examination and will be helped by R V Mission to continue with higher studies.

Sl.	Child’s Name	Sponsor’s Name	Marks obtained	Division
01	Rajkumar Pal	Lynne Jones	510	1st
02	Sakila Murmu	Clair Stebbings	294	3rd
03	Sumati Oraon	Catherine Parry	342	2nd
04	Bappa Mondal	Steven Knowles	521	1st

Alice Cruickshank's Birthday Party

Photos from Alice's Casino themed garden party. You may recognise Ian and of course, there's Georgia, Alice's little sister, now almost 13. 

 The sum of £110 was raised by Alice's friends donating their pocket money to the Mission instead of giving her presents for her 18th birthday.

Johanna's Sponsored run

Johanna Wild has completed her sponsored run in Manchester today, you can now support her on-line by selecting the "How you can help" tab and pressing the "donate" button.  You can indicate that your donation is for Johanna by typing under "special instructions"

Opening Ceremony of Sarada Ma Private ITI

Friends, it is a great pleasure for me to welcome Hon’ble Minister of Technical Education of Training, Government of West Bengal, Sjkt. Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhyay and Sjkt. H.P. De, Director of Industrial Training, West Bengal to this meeting today as they have been pleased to come to our Institution today despite their heavy schedule of activities.
I came to Puri to settle the purchase of a property for the Vivekananda Math with the hope that I would be able to come back in time and join this happy assembly but due to ill health could not attend this very important event. I am very sorry for this. However, through this writing I welcome Sjkt. Chattopadhyay to this Mission today and I express our great satisfaction for his presence at this Mission in this great sun.
The Vivekananda Math & Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission is one of the three Organizations connected with Holy name of Sri Ramakrishna; one is at Belur called Ramakrishna Math & Mission, second is at Dakshineswar called as Sarada Math & Ramakrishna Sarada Mission and third one is Vivekananda Math & Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission at Barrackpore. Sangha does not mean a single Institution but a cluster of Institutions extending its activities in manifold areas.
Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission started its activities with only 20 tribal destitute children in the year 1977 and today it has more than 10 thousand children all over West Bengal. The Mission has been able to develop centers for putting into practice the teachings of Swami Vivekananda at various places of the country. It has 22 centres in West Bengal and 11 centres in the States of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattishgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
This extension of activities was possible because of the unremitted confidence entrusted on us by the Government and the public. While welcoming Sjkt. Chattopadhyay and other distinguished Guests on this formal opening ceremony of Sarada Ma Private Industrial Training Institute I like to mention that this is a part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary Programme. We are also grateful to Education-Aid-India, a UK based charitable organization who has contributed a considerable amount towards the development of Sarada Ma ITI. We send our best wishes to all of them on this memorable day.
On the recommendation of the State Government this Mission has received National Award thrice in the field of Child Welfare in the year 1984, 1992 and 2003 and once the Government of India awarded its Secretary individually in the year 2007. This is a unique recognition from the side of the Government for a particular Institution. I am grateful to them. This year the Mission has got Jindal Prize for Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation amounting Rs. 25 lakhs. I am mentioning this to show that this Organization stands first among social welfare organizations, if we consider it from the stand point of merit. The Mission has been maintaining 1165 orphan boys and girls, destitute and deserted ladies, street children, visual and hearing impaired girls, old age public. We express our deep gratitude to the Government and people for whose support it has been possible.
Our experience from the past shows that Vocational and Technical education is wonderfully useful for the boys and girls particularly for their economic rehabilitation. We are surprised to know that presently Government has launched a scheme named Modular Employable Skill (MES) where the trainees pay their tuition fees during the time of examination but they get the money refunded after successful completion of their training. It is wonderful. We have been running Junior Technical Schools, Vocational Training Centres vis-a-vis general education and it is proved that Vocational/Technical education provide a better and wider scope of appointment for the younger generation and therefore, we should devote ourselves for such type of education for gainful employment of economically backward classes of people.
In Barrackpore we have children under Juvenile Justice Act and we have seen that Vocational training is a very fruitful method for their employment. We like to develop it more and therefore, I have submitted an application to the Government for giving us a dilapidated building within Barrackpore Cantonment which was previously used for the same purposes but now lying vacant. It is adjacent to our Vocational Training Centre at Barrackpore. We hope that Hon’ble Minister will kindly look into our request and help us to fulfil our goal. It may please be noted that we do not want any financial help for this purpose. As a part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary we also like to start new I.T.I. courses on Surveyor and Auto-Mobile at Sarada Ma Pvt. I.T.I. and a new Pvt. I.T.I. at our Purulia branch where we have adequate land and therefore, we shall come with proposal to the State Government very soon.
At the end, on this Bengali New Year day I pray to Holy Feet of Sri Sri Thakur, Sarada Ma and Swamiji to shower their blessings to Hon’ble Minister so that he could continue his work more widely for the benefit of poor people and I also invite him to pay a visit to our Barrackpore Headquarters according to his convenience.

With best wishes and regards,
Swami Nityananda
General Secretary Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission

Happy new year

‘Shubha Nababarsha’  (Happy New Year) to all our Friends at the R V Mission

Gill Robinson, Samir Ghosh, Angela Stevenson, Johanna Wild, Magda Gupta, David Green and all  Members, Supporters,  and Friends.

1 Baisakh 1419

Purulia

Today, Dr Ghosh spoke to the Purulia Mission  and temperature there  has gone over 45 degree C,  the water shortage is acute and widespread,  the tube-wells are blessing from God to the  sufferers, and their appreciation for the donors is endless.

Donation by Order of St Lazarus

At the AGM of the Commandery of John of Gaunt last Friday, a cheque for £1500 was received.  £1200 is for the support of the 10 children, with the remainder being assigned for the provision of more solar lights.

Solar Lights

Please see attached photos of five solar lights distributed to the leprosy sufferers at the New Leprosy Colony in Purulia District of West Bengal, India.  The lights were bought using the balance left after distribution of cakes to  all children  at the R V Mission from donation by Helen Cruickshank (£100.00) , Sharmin Panna (£20.00) and Gill Robinson (£20.00).  The distribution was organised by our Asst Secretary Swami Nityarupananda and In-charge of Purulia branch Tilak Maharaj.

This simple gift will have a very positive effect to their quality of life, we are  also planning to distribute twenty more lights to the leprosy sufferers and possibly more to other poor families to help and promote education of their children.