Diwali Dhamaka at Anmol should be a well known event by now.
Last year was my first experience with these girls. Needless to say, it was an amazing one.
Today Anmol 2009 is underway... in fact it must have begun at 8.30 AM already and as usual, I am running late.
The theme for this year's fest is Education.
With the Right To Education bill being passed, and the ever increasing school dropouts, there couldn't have been a better theme to drive home this year.
Farida Lambay, who is a Vice Principal at Nirmala Niketan along with being the Founder Trustee of Pratham, has been invited as the Guest Speaker this year... while Dia Mirza and Genelia D'Souza shall be adding up to the glamour quotient at the event.
Apart from gyaan and some delicious bhojan, Anmol puts up stalls selling its wares, conducts fun games and competitions and rounds off the celebrations with an hour long Dance Dhamaka.
It's always a challenge to manage the 1000 strong crowd and serve food to them. But as always seen, noble thoughts end up attracting large hearted hearted volunteers and donors.
One also gets to meet other small and big NGOs involved in myriad initiatives in and around Mumbai.
To experience this fest and have a first hand dekho at what Anmol does, you can drop in today, at any time between 8.30 AM to 5 PM at the Auxilium School, Wadala.
This is what we do...
The Drawing Contest...
Volunteers at the Anmol Stall...
Mehendi and artwork stalls at the Mela...
Sea Of Faces at Anmol -
Girlies with Siddharth "Bhaiya"
Lost babes asking for Direction...
Excitement on being "Clicked" !
Taare Zameen Par :)
The Dancing Dolls
Priya Dutt & Eknath Gaikwad
Listening To Priya Dutt's Bhashan
A Big Thanks to Vinod, Pari, DS, Abhishek, Yuvraj, Vikas, Namrata, Anshu & her friends, Prabhdeep, Amol, Siddharth AND Pramod for making this a memorable day !!
Thanks To Savia for introducing me to Anmol !
I have been working with an NGO called Anmol.
It's a project for girls at risk - basically all street girls, runaways, orphans, etc.
Anmol has an in-house residential facility for girls aged 5-18. These are sent to local schools and taught various vocational skills that shall fetch them income after they decide to move on.
Apart from this they also conduct street classes at Wadala & CST and provide in house counseling for emotional development of girls.
Anmol organises Diwali Fest every year.
This year the event is slated for Saturday, October 25.
This shall be a full day event with various games, activity and food stalls being put up by Girls of Anmol. There shall be free lunch and evening snacks for the crowd.
Magician's Shows and various Dance performances have also been arranged for entertainment value for little girls and all guests.
Various NGOs that work with girls shall be present with their volunteers and wards in full throng.
We are expecting a crowd of 1800 for the Diwali Celebrations.
This year, the guest list includes Priya Dutt, Eknath Gaikwad, Renuka Chowdhary & Teesta Setalvad. We have also had Boman Irani, Raageshwari, Perizaad Zorabian and M.N. Singh adorn the event in the past.
What's special about Diwali Dhamaka 2008?
Anmol has chosen to expose the girls to a whole range of career options that they might not have heard of. Some might have aspired to achieve but had no direction.
Some of the careers that Anmol will focus on are Teaching, Nursing, Call Center Executives, Tailoring and Fashion Designing, Computers, Clerical work, data entry operators, cooking and bakery.
The aim is not to just pass them information. But to help with the goal setting. So any interested girl can be helped to evaluate what she needs to do to achieve her dream. In the process, Anmol will offer all the adequate support that she might require.
We have contacted a few PR agencies and have been assured of regional media coverage for pre and post event activities.
Please help spread word about this noble activity and help make this Diwali a true Fest of Lights !
Cheers !
