Project Ganesh

Project GANESH

The fundraiser on 4/14/08 was a tremendous success. With your help, over $10,000 was raised for the Sandipani Muni School in Vrindavan, India! (Please see below for a description of the actual fundraiser)

This money is going to be used as follows:

*** Build a proper playground for the kids. Currently, there is no organized playground for the children to simply play and have fun. A playground seems the perfect way to bring some healthy joy into these young childrens' lives.

*** Construct a bullock cart to be used to bring some of the children to and from the school. Many of the children live some distance from the school, and have to either endure a long and tiring walk, or travel by expensive and potentially unsafe rickshaw. The bullock cart provides a safe and environmentally effective means to travel to the school.

*** Establish a $1,000 medical emergency fund. Most of the poor families in Vrindavan do not have the resources to deal with medical emergencies. In the event of a medical emergency, they delay treatment as long as possible, often resulting in tragic consequences. This medical fund will facilitate immediate medical attention when needed, and the fund can be replenished later through donations.

*** Food For Families program. This recently started innovative program aims to tackle the scourge of hunger in Vrindavan. Although children are well fed at school, many of them go hungry at home. Their siblings and parents also go hungry. This program provides for rice, dhal, cooking oil, sugar, etc. to be delivered to the family at the beginning of each month. Not only does this serve the worthy goal of feeding the hungry, but it also serves as an incentive for the family to keep their child in school. All around, this appears to be a winning combination.

Project GANESH is pleased to be able to support the Sandipani Muni School in this fashion. We are also very pleased to inform you that all of the costs for the fundraiser were borne by a generous benefactor. This means that 100% of funds collected go straight to the Sandipani Muni School - there are NO overhead charges.

Fundraising Event Summary

The fabulous fundraising event that made all of this possible took place in Goleta/Santa Barbara on 12th April, 2008 at the Goleta Valley Community Center. Around 100 attendees were treated to a evening of fine Indian entertainment, including both traditional and modern dance performances. The program began with an inaugural bhajan performance by Lalita Lily Diamond. Lalita, a long-term resident of the Santa Barbara area and ardent Project GANESH supporter, invoked the blessings of Sri Ganapati Ganesh, and the evening was off to a fine start. The momentum grew with additional bhajans by Sarvatma Das in classical Bengali style.

Dance students from Paulomi Pandit's widely respected Rangashree School of Fine Arts then performed different classical Indian dances. Two folk dance items were a kummi (a South Indian folk dance done in a circle with clapping) and a rumal (a dance to wedding music). Two Bharatanatyam items were a kirtanam on Lord Krishna, and a tillana. Suhasani Ramakrishna, the star of the 2007 fundraiser, performed as part of Paulomi Pandit's dance troupe, and her performance this year was as inspiring as it was last year. For more information on Paulomi Pandit and her dance studio, please click here: Rangashree School of Fine Arts (external link)

Angelica Scherp followed with an upbeat modern Indian dance, which invigorated the audience. Seven year old Radhika Buckory of Ventura then took the stage. Radhika dedicated her dance performance to the students of the Sandipani Muni School. Radhika has been a dance student for almost half of her life, from the age of four, and the dance was both moving and inspiring to the audience. The evening's perfomance was concluded by Angelica Scherp and her two daughters performing a modern Punjabi bhangra dance, providing the perfect finish to a well-rounded evening of entertainment.

Dr Rupa Raghunath then gave an introduction to and update on the Sandipani Muni School. A number of worthy projects have been completed in the past year, and the school continues to grow. There are now over 900 students in the school! Other projects over the past year include bringing potable water to nearby villages, as well as cleaning the streets of Vrindavan and helping clean the Jamuna river. The audience was moved to learn of the plight of so many of Vrindavan's young, and strong supported was expressed for helping to uplift these less fortunate members of society. Monica Dabos then conducted the raffle for various door prizes, before the grand finale of the evening - the raffle for two international airline tickets.

Seven year old Hara Guttierez of Carpinteria, CA, who, along with her family, sponsors 12 year old Saraswati at the SMS, drew the winning ticket from the raffle drum. With great fanfare, ticket number 072, issued to Ale Aleman and Nico Lebrero of Santa Barbara, CA was announced as the grand prize winner. Both Nico and Ale were in the audience, and Ale gave a dance performance on her way up to collect the prize that rivalled anything the earlier entertainers had performed! Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to all who participated in this very worthy event.

The real winners, of course, are the students of the Sandipani Muni School and on their behalf Project GANESH thanks you!

Click here for photos of the fundraiser

GRAND PRIZE: TWO INTERNATIONAL ROUND TRIP AIRLINE TICKETS. FROM JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE TO ANYWHERE. (on the Star Alliance: United, Singapore, Swiss, SAA etc. Some restrictions apply)