Dear Friends,

Best wishes for a prosperous, healthy and self-expressed year ahead!

I am writing to you to raise money for the non-profit i started in 1999 (but formally registered in 2004) called Srijan Foundation Trust.

We’ve been running several projects since our inception and raising money largely from the software company i run, and some friends and family members donate occasionally along the way. Our focus in the past has been on running some non-formal schools in Odisha and in New Delhi. While the Odisha schools were shut down after 5 years of a pretty successful run, the one school in Delhi has continued ever since, and our boys and girls from very low income backgrounds who joined us as early as Class II, are now employed as teachers, as computer operators and in retail stores; some are even running their small scale businesses. The leader and anchor of our schools initiative — and guru and mentor to all the kids — is Col. Ramakrishna (Retd).

In 2014-2015 we started expanding our impact ambitions, as more funds and volunteer hands were made available by my software firm. Here are some projects we’re running currently alongwith the funds we have committed to these projects.

Committed Projects

School of Happiness

About: This is the school we run in Kishan Garh village, near Vasant Kunj. We have a small rented space, which acts as a school as well as a community center for our current and past (alumni) kids.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQSxs4lwhBA&list=PLD1nfo-60R_KdGRfB5THLuVOZOY4BHIeB&index=1

Funds committed: Rs. 1,50,000 per year

India Civilization Talks

About: “Is there an Indian way of thinking” asked poet and scholar of Indian literature in his famous essay to try and find a distinction between an Indian way of thinking v/s a western way of thinking. Unfortunately, it’s marxist or colonialist history we Indians have been taught in our schools, almost glorifying invaders while relegating our own heroes and their history to the sidelines. The India Civilization Talks project hopes to help do our bit in making a dent in this narrative and present our our history from our perspectives.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD1nfo-60R_IwotWiNeFjvBNulmVyLkbV

Funds committed: Rs. 3,00,000 per year (includes cost of video team)

Films for Kids

About: Films leave a deep impact on the psyche of people —specifically kids. Our goal with this project is to show films — films with morals, inspiration (to keep dreams alive) and rooted in Indic culture — to kids from underprivileged backgrounds. We look for community spaces such as temples in slums and urban villages where kids (and even their parents and grandparents) can congregate for watching the films. The project was started at Gaushala Mandir, Kishan Garh village with filming of “I Am Kalam”, and has now expanded to three chapters in Delhi NCR.

URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD1nfo-60R_KKslHWdQ3hpMGUYJHfvWHN

Funds committed: Rs. 1,00,000 per year (cost of video team covered by ‘India Civilizational Talks’ project)

Support for other non-profits

About: Srijan supports a few other non-profits. ‘Sakaar Sewa Samiti’ and ‘Aarohan’. Sakaar Sewa Samiti started the famous #MissionPrabhughat started to clean a few Ganga ghats of Varanasi; their mission was recognised by Prime Minister Modi himself and has now evolved into a country-wide #Shramdaan initiative to motivate youth to clean ponds and rivers near them. Aarohan runs an school program for children and offers skill building courses (such as sewing, stitching and embroidery) to adults/parents of the kids. Other than these two non-profits Srijan makes adhoc donations for supporting non-profits whose causes are aligned with Srijan Foundation’s areas of intervention.

Funds committed: Rs. 3,00,000 per year

New Initiatives

Freeing Hindu Temples from Govt Control

Among the most important projects we are taking up is to back an initiative to Free Hindu Temples from Govt Control.

You might be surprised to know that in secular India donations made by practitioners of Hinduism made to Hindu temples (including earnings from temple lands), are controlled legally by the government. The government uses these funds for causes outside maintenance and upkeep of Hindu temples including salaries of priests, in promotion of religious activities and upkeep of places of worship of religious minority communities. Ironically, this is a case of discrimination practices by the govt of India against the majority community. The situation is very acute in 7 states namely: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala, Mahrashtra and Odisha.

To know more please read:

https://medium.com/freeing-hindu-temples-from-govt-control/reclaiming-hindu-temples-from-govt-control-c9b9cf8bac45#.vcalyp8ey AND http://indiafacts.org/discrimination-hindu-institutions-talk-j-sai-deepak/ AND watch this recorded (passionate and hard-hitting) talk by the advocate, J Sai Deepak, representing the litigants:

Here’s an excerpted transcript from the video: http://indiafacts.org/discrimination-hindu-institutions-talk-j-sai-deepak/

There is a PIL in the Supreme Court petitioned by Late Swami Dayananda Saraswati. The same team is fighting cases in Tamil Nadu where the situation the worst among all the affected states.

Sh. TR Ramesh is leader of this movement; he was asked to shoulder this responsibility by Swami Dayananda Saraswati himself before he passed away. The impact of freeing Hindu temples can be huge. Here’s an insight from TR Ramesh:

The irony is the HR & CE department fights Hindus - with temple money contributed by Hindus. If I release one temple - say Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple, Mylapore, Chennai - from Government control and ensure fair rent for its properties, I would be augmenting Rs.42.00 crores per annum from the properties alone. This income can provide free education to 10,000 poor Hindu Children in Chennai, publish 1,00,000 Hindu texts at subsidized costs, run dispensaries at four different places within 3 kilometre radius of the temple, run a large ghosala and Vedapatasala. It would still have about 25 crores in hand after carrying out these charities. There are at least 100 temples in Tamil Nadu which have properties 10 times larger than that of Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple.

At Srijan Foundation we’re committed to raising money for this project. We intend to raise Rs.24,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Four Laksh only) for Sh. Ramesh to fight the cases he wishes to in Tamil Nadu courts.

And for this, i’m writing to you to donate some of your hard-earned money into this project. The amount to be raised is large, and therefore the donations need to match scale.

Please send in your donations to:

Name: Srijan Foundation Trust

Bank: HDFC Bank

Bank Account Number: 12031450000070

Account Type: Savings

Branch Name: Tower A, GF-02, Global Business Park, MG Road, Gurgaon

IFSC Code: HDFC0001203

Unfortunately, we are not registered under FCRA and therefore cannot accept donations from outside India. All donations need to be made from within India.

EKAL Vidyalaya : Mission 100,000

I will be coming soon to you to raise money directly for Ekal Vidyalayas — single-teacher run schools all over India — some 52,000 of them since the last 2o years. Here is an FAQ i’m in the process of completing: https://medium.com/ekal-vidyalaya/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-ekal-vidyalaya-d6294e49025f#.sl2imcs0n

I’m committed to finding 100 long-term donors for Ekal. A long-term donor is someone who commits Rs.20,000 per year for 5 years to atleast one Ekal school. A lifetime donor is someone who commits Rs.2,50,000 in one go — Ekal funds the school for life based on bank interest income. These donations are to be made directly to Ekal Vidyalaya.

Details coming soon.