The second part of Chaitanya Saradhi program is to give mentoring talks and produce videos helping the students to understand the value of education, success principles, communication skills, personal presentation, career counseling, etc. We remind the students of their social responsibility in helping to build a wealthier, healthier, and fairer society in India. In that context, Mr. Vipin and I addressed a huge gathering of girls students at Khamma hostel in Guntur. The hour long interactive, inspiring talk on various aspects that pertain to students was a memorable event for both the students and the speakers.

India Trip Nov 2016 – Related Press Coverage and Gallery

Dr. Purna Bikkasani has travelled in the govt schools with in Suryapet and Khammam Dist in the State of Telangana.
Here is the news covered from the Suryapet District Press.

 

 

India Trip July 2016 I took a 2-week trip to Nalgonda, and Khammam districts on behalf of Chaitanya Samadhi program in the month of July 2016. The following schools were visited: July 1st, 2016: We spent the whole day at Nadigudem Girls High School; this is one of the pilot project schools.      We hired a full-time computer instructor last year. The students who took computer classes were pleased with the teacher. She is doing a good job.      We have started an I&DL program (Internet & Digital library program) in this school already. We have shown a video I produced in Telugu to the students on the value of Internet education. I watched and discussed the meaning of the video with them. We visited most classrooms motivating students to excel in studies and complementing teacher’s dedication in their profession.      I had a separate meeting with teachers. I introduced the purpose of the I&DL as a teaching aid and urged their active participation. We talked about their needs, promised to pay for educational materials, books, and tools they need. I asked the teachers to identify the students in need of financial assistance in order to enable them to attend a Jr college after the high school education.      Headmistress, Miss Shiva Kumari is one of the most dedicated educators that I know. She asked me to fund a vocational training in tailoring to the senior girls. I have approved her request. The program had started right away.   July 2nd, 2016: We visited ZPHS Girls High school, Kodad.       This was our first visit to this school. Over 550 girls students attend this school, nearly half of them live in the nearby Government funded hostel.       The purpose of this visit was to launch an I&DL program.       I addressed all the students at the start of the school. I was delighted to give a motivational speech to so many young girls at once. The headmistress, Miss Satyavati Devi also spoke very eloquently on the value of Internet education and she thanked Chaitanya Samadhi.      Afterward, we met with Headmistress and her staff separately. I discussed the idea and the benefits of the digital library. They were excited to have one in their school. We have hired a computer instructor for the school at their urging. We have supplied all the equipment and supporting technical help to begin the library.      Later that day, we visited a primary school at kokkireni, Nalgonda district. This school bears my parents name since my family donated the land and built the school.  We met the teachers separately and addressed the students.  The Headmaster told us they hired two more English teachers to introduce English instruction. Because of it student recruitment went up by 50%. They requested us to hire an “AAYA” who will clean up little children after bathroom visits and to keep the classrooms and the grounds clean. We have approved a salaried position going forward. At the conclusion, both my children distributed sweets to the students and teachers.   The following week I visited the schools in the Khammam District:   ZPSS, Jallepally, Khammam District.      First of all, I gave a motivational speech to all the students sat on the open school grounds. I give interactive speeches to ignite their curiosity and interest in becoming self-learners. I stress on how high school education will decide their financial, and lifestyles trajectory for life.       I met the headmaster, Mr. Satyanarayana, and all the teachers separately to discuss their progress and challenges. They were excited to have an I&DL program set for the school. They also requested for an Inverter to have sustained electric supply. We have already supplied all the equipment needed to start the digital library. The headmaster is a great charitable human. he received a cash gift from the state government for his good work at the school. He was generous enough to invest half of that cash in buying an Epson projector for the Digital Library.      The teachers identified two students in the school, who needed financial assistance, one for healthcare (cancer treatment) and another girl for best academic achievement. I have agreed to assist both of them. I met their parents. I am gathering a bit more data on them.      Afterward, we toured the school and visited the newly built toilets that Chaitanya Saradhi paid for.   ZPSS High School, Kokkireni, Khammam district       This school is a grade A Government School. The credit goes to the headmaster, P. Venkateswarlu garu. He is dynamic, involves his staff and students in the upkeep of the school, grounds, toilets and the compound wall. He lets the student paint and draw beautiful paintings on the compound wall. Classrooms are flushed with students made educational diagrams, paintings, and tables drawn on the classroom walls and hung from the ceiling. They maintain an active student library too. He takes full advantage of the Government grants to the commuting students from the neighboring villages. On my recent visit, I met dozens of parents, mostly mothers of children who have received a stipend from the Government.      We have embellished the school with the provision of a computer instructor. She is doing a great job. Next day we visited two Government schools in Khammam city proper. 1. Khammam Government Girls school: as usual we met R. Sadyasree, the headmistress, and the teaching faculty to discussed their needs and the benefits of I&DL that we were soon to install in their school. They were very pleased with our decision and expressed full cooperation.       We have already appointed a full-time computer instructor Miss Anusya to the school on my previous visit. She has been teaching computer lessons to the Schoolgirls. Since my recent visit, we have supplied the necessary equipment and made arrangements set up and run the program. 2. Our next stop was Government High school Rajendra Nagar, Khammam. We met K.Venkateswerlu garu, the headmaster and the other teachers in the school. We had an open discussion on the benefits of a digital library in their school.       We had appointed Miss D. Padma Latha as a computer instructor on our previous visit. She was given the responsibility to set up and run the digital library in the school besides teaching computer classes to the students.                                                                                                                              Thank you,                                                                                                                                                   Saradhi (Purna Bikkasani)                 ​ ​ HAPPY UGADI !! Date: April, 03, 2016 Location: Tampa, FL Dear founders and friends, I wrote this article for a souvenir celebrating Ugadi by Telugu association of Florida. I wish to share with you all the same spirit and wishes for Telugu New year. Let our Ugadi wish be sharing and caring! Dear Telugu families and friends, We wish you a happy Ugadi! Dr. Neeraja Jasty has asked me to share my thoughts on Chaitanya Saradhi. It is a non-profit charitable trust committed to helping high school students in Telugu speaking states in India. We inaugurated Chaitanya Saradhi in October 2015. So far, we have adopted one girls’ high school, a co-education high school for the pilot project, and reinstated computer instructors in four additional schools.  We chose to help government schools in the rural areas among the poorer communities. Students in these communities commute several miles on foot or bike to these schools. At the request of the teachers, we have built a compound wall for the girls’ high school, set up for running water, supplied benches, books, and sports goods, etc. Our thrust is improving education, not merely the facilities or supplies. We also provide instruction on various topics, including the importance of education. We conduct workshops to motivate teachers and students. I give motivational speeches to high school and college students in the government and private schools. I also give interactive talks on education, health, the environment, and social responsibilities. We are excited about the tremendous support given to us from teachers, students, and the communities. We also have formed a non-profit trust named Awareness USA that begun serving the Tampa Bay area this year. The philosophy of the Chaitanya Saradhi program is scripted by the principles of social evolution. The central principle is sharing and caring for one another in a community. The human species, Homo Sapiens, shares the collective knowledge and know-how in gathering food, making tools, and adapting to environmental disruptions and instabilities. Due to these qualities, Homo Sapiens survived and thrived while the Neanderthals perished, lacking such attributes. Since the beginning of Homo Sapiens on the planet earth, each generation has utilized all the available knowledge and wisdom to improve their lives and the lives of their posterity. Basic human instinct and wisdom have been to have a good life for self and one’s progeny.  For the last three thousand years or so, generation after generation has rolled out massive quantities of human knowledge and wisdom in science, technology, mathematics, engineering, economics, philosophy, psychology, geography, and virtually every domain of life and living. I call this massive human knowledge and wisdom collective consciousness (C.C). This intellectual property belongs to everybody who has ever lived and will live on earth. People fulfill their dreams by utilizing all of the required intelligence and skill from C.C to become who they want to be, whether a skilled worker, a teacher, a manager, a businessman, a doctor, an engineer, or an IT consultant. The pool of collective consciousness is the lifeline for everybody’s education and training in a society. Your intelligence and hard work certainly deserve credit for your accomplishments, but never forget to pay your debt to C.C. So, my friends, consider sharing your success, money, and time with society in return for what you have received; it is a fair deal. Sir Isaac Newton described his success by stating: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Through this quote, Sir Isaac Newton acknowledges and expresses his gratitude for all the help he received in formulating his discoveries in physics, math, and optics. Every person in society placed anywhere on the socioeconomic ladder is always standing on the shoulders of many others in society. People at the very top and the very rich depend on an even greater mass of people to maintain their status. None of us could have been who we are without a million other invisible hands working together. The truth is humanity thrives on sharing and helping each other. You can see this reality when you are ready, which is where the need for mutual support and the spirit of sharing springs from. Sharing makes greater sense once we realize all the people on earth are cousins, emigrated out of Africa. The diversity in color, language, culture, customs, geography, and faith among people has evolved through natural selection. Therefore, diversity cannot be the basis for discrimination, bias, conflict, domination, or exploitation. Instead, the apparent diversity as a basis of beauty and feeling of cousinhood should be a source of love and care for the poor, weak, and disadvantaged among us. Lately, we have seen a greater realization among the rich and super rich to give away large chunks of money to charities. Mr. Bill and Melinda Gates, Mr. Warren Buffett, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and former President Bill Clinton’s foundations have been doing incredible service to the neediest people in developing countries. They want to witness and derive the pleasure of giving during their lifetime. Alternatively, passing on a large estate to one’s posterity doesn’t seem to guarantee their long term health or happiness. Somehow, wealth not earned seems to vanish easily. The best we can give to our kids is the education that fulfils their dreams and earns enough to support their desired lifestyles, which is supporting organic growth. Better yet, the surest way to help our descendants in the long term is to help build a fairer, kinder, more peaceful, and more stable society. In order to build that perfect society, we are working along the forces of social evolution. The most propelling forces for social reform are education, teachers, and students, or what I call the trinity of education. Education has planted the seeds of social reform at every stage of human progress, from gathering and hunting to agriculture to industrial to the information age. Teachers have been the transfer agents while students have been the messengers, which is WHY Chaitanya Saradhi focuses on the trinity of education to assist this reform movement. Awareness USA is more than a charitable trust; it works with a clear purpose and in the direction of assisting social evolution. Awareness USA is looking for volunteers and members. If you are interested, please contact us at officialawrenessusa@gmail.com or call 8134442790.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Thank you,                                                                                                                                       Saradhi (Purna Bikkasani)

 Videos  of the Volunteer Conference and Inauguration