Deepalaya - Enabling Self-Reliance

“I was one of you” And he pointed towards a group of children, who had especially come to meet him & tell him about what they’ve achieved in life so far, no matter that they were not-so-fortunate. ‘They’ were the children from Deepalaya, & ‘he’, the then-President of the largest Republic of the world.

The primary wing of Modern Convent School, Dwarka were taken by a spell on learning about an entirely different lot of contemporaries, who they had never met, never seen & never imagined until Deepalaya approached them. The result was spectacular with little children up to grade five raising over Rs 1.25 lakhs as part of Deepalaya’s School Fund Raising (SFR) activity. Ms Parashar presents the cheque to Mr Roychoudhury.

30th September saw an unusual morning assembly for the staff & students of the school. It was a formal cheque presentation ceremony, where Modern Convent presented a cheque worth Rs 126, 928 to Deepalaya. This money had been voluntarily raised by children to support education of Deepalaya children. The event was graced by presence of Wg Cdr SS Roychoudhury, Director Resource Mobilization, Deepalaya and Mr AS Mann, Mr AS Rana and Ms Geeta Parashar, Chairman, Vice Chairman and Principal respectively, Modern Convent School, Dwarka, among other eminent people. The money has been raised to support various Deepalaya projects in & around Delhi.

The programme started with news reading by the primary children, followed by words of encouragement from Principal Ms Geeta Parashar, who praised the children for their act of kindness. She threw light on Deepalaya, which will soon complete 30 years of its operations, and told the children how through Deepalaya, their support would help enable children who are underprivileged and struggle to make ends meet.
The Principal could not help but sponsor a child from Deepalaya on coming to know about such bright prospects for children who are talented, but not-so-fortunate. She now looks forward to meeting Sonal Kumari, her IV grade sponsor child from Deepalaya School, Kalkaji Extension. Mr Mann awarding certificates to children

Wg Cdr SS Roychoudhury expressed his thanks towards the school & its children as he distributed prizes to the ‘star fundraisers’. Class III E bagged the highest fund raiser’s title with a collection of Rs 10, 320. The children represented by class teacher Harpreet Randhawa, were awarded a Lord Ganesha memento made at one of the Deepalaya projects. Special awards were given to Vikrant Dutt of IV B and Jyoti Bakshi of III E for raising Rs 2, 400 & Rs 2, 202 respectively as individual funds. Every child was given a ‘certificate for social work’ for supporting the noble cause of enabling self-reliance. In addition, students were given Deepalaya wristbands, badges and mementoes for touching specific fund targets.

Mr Roychoudhury, who also awarded tokens of appreciation to the highest achievers in secondary classes for year 2008, invited the students to come and visit one of Deepalaya schools & see for themselves the cause & vision they’ve shared. Despite the heat of the scorching sun, there was warmth of happiness in air, & little children were the most happiest to know that they have done a good job. Getting Deepalaya goodies only added to their joy. country comes first

The ceremony concluded with National Anthem.