In mid- 2003, on successful completion of the first project, we undertook the renovation of a Government school building in another village, Byrasettyhalli. The building was in terrible shape with leaking roofs, damaged cement floors, broken windows and doors.  The teachers were continuing the lessons with great difficulties since there was no alternative.  We took up the renovation, changed the roof, flooring, windows and doors which has given a completely new look to the building.  It took almost 6 months from August 2003 to February 2004 to complete the project.  We also provided wooden school desks for the children and built toilets for this school, which was partly funded by the state government. The happiness of the children sitting on the new desks in the renovated building was beyond imagination.

A PLAY DATE FOR BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Inviting a group of 20 blind and visually challenged children to Shreyas for a day’s fun and activities; this was a profound experience that made us realize the need to take up social responsibilities with the lesser privileged. The children spent their time like all children; cycling, singing, dancing and playing that it was difficult to imagine they couldn’t see.  Their ability to accept their limitations was an inspiration for all of us who crumble at lesser setbacks in life.
The staff of Shreyas all spent time with them and provided them with clothes, sweets, stationery etc.  It was an enjoyable yet humbling experience.  Since then it has been our endeavor to provide an opportunity to our guests to spend some time with the local village children and help them with whatever possible means. 

LAUNCHING CSE FOR OUR GUESTS

In February 2005, we offered a Community Service Exercise to our clients for the first time -   a team of 20 senior executives of a firm based in Mumbai.

The voluntary exercise was mainly to serve a meal to children at a local village school. The team of executives was inspired to go the extra mile; some went to the nearby town to buy provisions and vegetables (our young organic vegetable garden had little choice at that time; now we are practically self-sufficient), others helped our chefs in cutting the vegetables, cleaning the vessels etc and some helped in cooking the food.  One person procured the use of a tractor to transport the cooked food and the servers to the nearby school Arjunabettahalli and served about 120 children. They sat and ate the same meal with the children, spent time playing with them and enjoyed their interaction thoroughly. It was a completely new experience for them; and for us and lay the seeds what became a regular part of programs at Shreyas. 

With the first initiative a success, we extended our Community Service exercises to other individual guests who were interested. These “voluntourism” exercises - the interactions with the children, and the appreciative smiles of the villagers had generated lot of enthusiasm among the guests.  These exercises worked to reduce anxiety and calm the mind for some of the guests as they experienced the joy and humility that arises from the simple and positive act of giving.  Every guest who has participated in the community exercise has appreciated the initiative and felt they have benefitted personally from the experience.
Inspired with feedback from guests, we included a “community exercise” within a 7 night’s package for individual guests. The exercise includes picking herbs and vegetables from our organic vegetable garden, helping the kitchen in cutting the vegetables, cooking, transporting the food in a tractor and serving the children at a local village school or an orphanage.  Guests also spend some time singing, playing fun games or sharing a skill with the children. The whole experience is an opportunity not only to serve the children but also experience simple, joyful living of the villagers who typically work long days for little wages to earn their daily bread. 

We have since designed a special package -“The Joy of Giving” for those who wish to share their love, time and maybe resources with those who are less privileged than us.

The community exercises, with the help of voluntary contributions from the guests, have gradually grown from providing the books and stationery to the schools to building rain water harvesting tanks in the villages.

OUR ASSOCIATION WITH AN ORPHANAGE

In December 2007, a guest from United Kingdom who had come to Shreyas for a week’s stay along with her friend made a special request to visit an orphanage instead of a school. We visited the orphanage “Kaveri Vanitha Seveshrama (KVS)” at Hessaraghatta village about 10km from Shreyas for the first time, which was running in a old asbestos sheet-roof building with 24 disadvantaged women and 22 children.  We were really touched and impressed by the lady, Susheelama who ran the orphanage.   This 60 year-old lady has been serving disabled women and children for the past 40 years.  She had initially set up Sumangali Sevashrama with 10-12 other women in the city. In the expanding activities to rural areas, Ms. Susheelama moved to Hessaraghatta village to open KVS and later moved to sheet roof building donated by a third party. She also remains a committee member of KVS.

Our guests were very impressed by her enterprise and spent a lot of time with her after serving food to the children. They volunteered to provide mattresses, pillows, bed sheets etc. Until then all the inmates were sleeping only on floor mats. After that, we have included this orphanage in our agenda and organize visits for guests regularly.

Our guests have been kind enough to take care of the orphanage in various ways. Many have given provisions, school bags, clothing, books, stationery, uniforms, bicycles, sports items, cooking vessels, refrigerator etc. We found the children amazed to see the story books, sketch pens, pencils etc brought by the guests from their own country.

FUNDING A NOBLE CAUSE – PERMANENT BUILDING FOR THE ORPHANAGE

Our guest from the UK did a charity walk to generate to raise £1500 to repair the orphanage building.  As the building is very old and considered irreparable, we have used her contribution to start a corpus fund for constructing a new building on a 2400 square feet plot donated by a local donor.

Another guest and his wife who had stayed at Shreyas for 1 week in January 2010 were very impressed with the project after visiting the orphanage. He gave a commitment for £5000 and has provided a lot of moral support to start the construction. In an especially wonderful gesture he arranged for a Shreyas reunion with few other guests in London to generate the funds. He impressed one of the guests to contribute £2000

In the next 2-3 weeks, we received contributions of Euro 1500 from one guest who had visited Shreyas in December and US$1500 from 2 guests who had visited Shreyas in January for 4th time. 

Apart from taking care of regular requirement of the orphanage and distributing books, stationery, uniforms etc to the school children, we have so far carried out the following initiatives:

1. Toilets and bathrooms for old aged women at an orphanage in Bangalore city run by Christu Seva Samaj.
2. Compound wall for Gollahalli Village Primary school
3. Drinking water facility and cooking vessels to Gollahalli Village Primary school
4. Building Renovation for Byrasettyhalli Primary School
5. School desks for Byrasettyhalli Primary School
6. Submersible pump and motor for the Basavanahalli Village
7. Building the toilets at Byrasettyhalli Primary School with the funds drawn by the school from the State Government’s allocation for the purpose
8. Building a Kitchen for Arjunabettahalli Primary School by topping up the funds drawn by the school from the State Government’s allocation for the purpose
9. School Library building for Byarasettyhalli High School and PU College.
10. Rain Water Harvesting cum water storage tanks for 62 homes in Arjunabettahalli village.
    

We would not have been able to achieve these initiatives without the valuable contributions from our guests, staff and owners.

Currently we are helping the orphanage to construct a two storied permanent building. This would allow separate accommodation for boys and girls and, more importantly, the disadvantaged adults. The building is already in progress and we have recently casted the first floor slab.