(From Left) Matt Idle, Anne Minto, Peter Parsons, Vivek Gaur, Richard Bonelli, Sanjay Drabu

Our High School was inaugurated on March 25th. I was very memorable day for all of us at OM foundation. When we started in 2002 we didn’t even know how to run a school. It all started with 20 kids , giving them a bath , ironing their clothes, feeding them and educating them. Personally it has been an enriching experience, seeing something grow brick by brick. We had challenges but we never considered them as hurdles. Passion remained the same. We always set small targets and we achieved them. Our founding members Richard Bonelli & Mona Kaul provided us the financial and moral support we needed in this journey.

Our biggest challenge was what do we do after grade 5. If we put them in a govt school, our seven years of hard work would have gone waste. The other option was to put them in a public school but then there would have been a social disconnect for these wonderful kids. As some one says you take one noble step, Divine takes care of the rest. That is what exactly what happened. British Gas walked in as an emissary of the Divine. I would name this six month (time took to reach this stage of high school) journey as ” Junkyard to Temple of Knowledge“.

In this journey so many people and organizations contributed their bits and we are thankful to them. What we are today is because of our teachers who worked day in and out to build this institution. Two people the foundation will always remember Col Kailash & Sunita Gehrotra. Sunita has been instrumental in getting High school on ground. Col Kailash contributions to the foundation cannot be quantified. Personally he is my mentor, guide & friend.

Last but not the least I want to thank my business partner Vivek who allows me to work for the school at the cost of our business.

I am indebted to my family who have been great support in this project.

For us at OM the journey has begun . We need to build a good career for these children , make them responsible citizens and I am sure we will succeed. I request all of you to visit the school and bless the children.

For more details please log on to www.omfoundation.in

Courtesy: Sanjay Drabu, Trustee

Om Foundation - Painting Competition - Organized by Setu Foundation

A painting competition was organized by Setu Foundation at DPS, Noida on Jan 23rd. Many prominent schools of Noida such as Amity International, Rockwood, Khaitan Public School, Kothari International School and many more participated in this Painting Competition. The children from Om Foundation School also participated in this event. The Judges appreciated their work.

Setu foundation is an organization playing a vital role in promoting economic causes and is helping in healthcare. They aim at reducing poverty through co-operation promotion. They are working towards strengthening organizations and increasing their effectiveness so they can work better for poverty eradication and humanitarian support. They work mainly by grants or loans to organizations working for underprivileged. They help children education through scholarships, books and uniforms. They also work for providing help to old age homes and underprivileged children shelters.

Setu foundation has taken initiative to organize a painting competition for school students. Through this painting competition they arranged resources for betterment of underprivileged children. They are planning an annual painting competition. The student of Om Foundation School also took part. This competition gave an opportunity to the students of Om Foundation School to showcase their creativity and share it with others. All the students gathered at the DPS, Noida the venue for the event. This competition has proved itself a nice way of expression for children. The students participating in this event painted and had fun. Those who did not get awards too, got the opportunity to express their talent. All the students from Om Foundation School enjoyed the event. We are thankful to Setu Foundation for providing this platform to children so they can show their talent.

Republic day Celebration 2009

Republic day is one of our national festivals. It is celebrated across the country on 26th January. We at Om Foundation also celebrated the Republic day. It is a way of introducing children to our rich national heritage, history and achievements. All the children participated and enjoyed the Celebration thoroughly. It was a nice experience for them as they knew about the importance of this day in history of India.

The celebration started with flag hoisting. Our tricolour national flag was hoisted and all of us present there saluted to the flag. Then followed an array of programmes. Children enjoyed a host of dance and music programme. Small children from the Om Foundation School represented colourful dances. They came one by one on the stage to show their dance performance. They were dressed in beautiful clothes for their performance. They were looking so good in their colourful dance attires. It was a great specter to see small kids performing. It was such an amazing sight that our guests could not move their eyes away from them.

They also presented musical items. They crooned to different patriotic songs. It was a spectacular sight. These small children just spellbound all the guests present there with their beautiful rendition of patriotic song. Their sweet voices were melody to ears. Their performance made the day brighter. One of our donors Col. Gurkripal Singh along with his wife also joined our celebration. It was great to have them with us on this special day, as they are our revered donors. They supported our cause by being our guest to this function to be with these underprivileged children. Both Mrs. and Col. Gurkripal Singh distributed sweets to the children. Their presence encouraged our Children to perform better. We appreciate Mrs. and Col. Gurkripal Singh’s participation in the Republic Day Celebration and want to thank them for their support.

Om Foundation - Annual Day Celebration 2009

Om Foundation celebrated its 6th Annual day at the Indira Gandhi Auditorium NOIDA. All the 98 kids presented impeccable performances at this event on Saturday the 28th Feb 09. Present at this do were parents of these underprivileged kids and many other friends and well wishers of Om Foundation. Mr. Peter Parson, Offshore Transformation Manager from British Gas UK was the chief guest at this function and he made a spirited appeal to all-present to work towards bridging this divide in our society. Among others that graced the occasion was Mr. K.K. Verma, the program director of SMILE Foundation. Addressing the guest he highlighted their foundation’s commitment under the Action for Children Program to support Om Foundation in their endeavors. He also announced that whatever funds were raised in this event, their foundation would double that amount.

Dr. Shukla, Retd. Director of NCERT, who is helping Om Foundation with talent acquisition, also enjoyed watching the little angels perform with utmost confidence and fervor. The highlight of the event was a high voltage gig from the rock band “OORJA”. OORJA is the house band of outsourcing major EXL Services and they were kind enough to belt out some very heart warming numbers in both Hindi and English to enthrall the crowd. Pankaj a leading band member commented that they typically do only English numbers but they added some Hindi numbers to ensure that the parents of the kids enjoyed the music too. Also a large team from EXL showed up to cheer up their band. Noteworthy was the fact that most OORJA band members were working the previous night and still were present at 10 AM to spread their energy for this cause.

Speaking at the event Mr. Sanjay Drabu, Trustee Om Foundation and President & CEO of Pacific Ventures Pvt Ltd was nostalgic about how a small beginning some 6 years ago was taking shape and the big day indeed was the strategic support from British Gas. He also made a passionate appeal to everybody present to give back to society a bit so as this world becomes a better place to live.

At the end, the cozy Saturday morning offered us the right doses of fun, entertainment, music, a cause to get associated with a heart full of hope.

Gift of books!

The Pearson Group has donated 1400 books to the Om Foundation. Om Foundation is heartily thankful to Pearson group. Pearson group is the leading player in the world of educational publishing. They are the perfect channels for getting education books from school to higher education. They are our corporate partners and playing active role in our mission so that we can achieve our vision. They have donated the foundation 1400 books for its library. This gesture is going to help us in a great way.

Om Foundation is providing quality education and health care services to socially and economically backward children. They are playing active educating children especially the girls so that they can develop as confident and responsible person. This kind gesture of the Pearson group is going to greatly help us to provide quality education to the underprivileged as the foundation now finds it easy to provide children with textbooks, so learning becomes easier for them. This kind gesture of the Pearson group is highly appreciated by us at the foundation. We want to give a heartfelt thanks to them for helping us in such a big way.

Foundation’s library has been enriched by this donation and it is going to be very useful to the young children getting education at the foundation. These underprivileged children belong to the poor families having monthly income of less than Rs.3000 and can not afford the school fees or uniform and books. The foundation ensures that they get these facilities. Pearson Group has also donated some of the text books as well. We at the Om Foundation are very thankful to the Pearson Group and are looking forward to such gestures in future too. They have been playing active role in our mission and hopefully will be playing such role in future too. Once again our heartfelt thanks to the Pearson Group.

www.pearsoned.com