....A visit to Isha Yoga Centre...

... Last sunday we visited the Isha Yoga Centre, where our colleagues Amanda,  Benjamin & Vasek  spent a 4 day retreat!  We did the visitor tour, and as highlights we visited the Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple where we meditated for 15mn and we  went to the Theerthakun pool for an immersion. 

Dhyanalinga Yogic Temple

Theerthakund

Theerthakund

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...'Experience Blidness'...

Last sunday, october 9, it was World Sight Day 2011 and in Coimbatore, Sankara Eye Centre organised in Brookfields Mall an event to increase awareness and support for their Vision 2020: 'The Right to Sight'.  This was aimed at the 20% paying customer base and it was great hearing today that it did pay off an that Sankara did get more customers in this week!
In the event a competition was set up for children to paint what they felt was the gift of vision and then an activity to 'experience blidness' for men & women volunteers.
Alex, Sverre & I participated as volunteers and, in separate men & women groups, once we were blind folded, and shuffled, we were to create a human chain holding hands. It was an experience in which once you were blindfolded you realised how dependent you are on others and how important it is to make efforts to help those blindly impaired.
In addition to some pictures of the event, this time we also have some small press coverage where our team members appear: Sverren is quoted in this article, and Alex, Sverren and I are photographed in the Coimbatore Chronicle & Coimbatore city express newspaper, you can see the copies below

Coimbatore Chronicle article on October 11th

Blindfolded.... ready to 'experience blindness'

Coimbatore city express, October 12th.  press coverage after Sankara World Sight day event

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Experiencing Sankara's 'Gift of Vision'...

Under Sankara's 'Gift of Vision' programme the poorest of the poor in rural areas are given eye tests and surgical treatment free of charge.  Last saturday, Sverre, Alex and I had the great opportunity to visit, as part of the 'Gift of Vision' programme an outreach camp in Devanurpudur (in Udumalpet district), near Coimbatore.

These events are prepared in advance and take place at week-ends once the outreach department has identified a group of patients needing eye tests. The venue in which these cams are help is typically a school. The patients reach the camp, their eyes are tested and if they  are in need of surgical intervention, on that same day,  they are driven by bus to Sankara's hospital where all their needs will be catered for until the surgical intervention takes place and they can be dismissed back home.

You could see the women and men walking to the camp, and going through the tests. Those needing surgery were sitting waiting to go to the hospital. It was very emotional to see those ladies sitting patiently to go into hospital to have their sight restored!

These are some photos of the day camp:

Vision testing

Vision testing at the outreach camp

Vision testing at the outreach camp

School where the camp took place

dedicated rooms for screening

Ladies selected for surgery at Sankara

As usual more photos of the day can be found in this link

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Vijayadashami/Dasara/விஜயதசமி ... the tenth day festival of Navatri

In Tamil Nadul, during Vijayadashami workers keep their tools for puja on the ninth day of Navratri (Ayudha-Puja,); these are taken back and used after puja on the tenth day (Vijayadasami). The practice is so old that in many parts of south India, even non-Hindus follow this tradition.
We experienced this special Puja at Sankara hospital, you can see some pictures below. Also after the puja, the food offered was shared with all those that participated. We got cheak peas, a sweet and some rice crispies!

Puja in preparation at Sankara's reception

Decoration at the hospital's entrance

Instruments used during the year & put aside for Puja

Puja ready

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...Navatri festival 2011

From September 28, 2011 to October 5, 2011, the Navatri festival has been celebrated.  Nav' means 'nine' and 'ratri' means 'night'. Thus, 'Navratri' means 'nine nights'.  The first three days of Navratri are dedicated to Goddess Durga (Warrior Goddess) dressed in red and mounted on a lion. Next three days are dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity), dressed in gold and mounted on an owl and finally, last three are dedicated to Goddess Saraswati (Goddess Of Knowledge), dressed in milky white and mounted on a pure white swan.

During this festival it is a custom, in Tamil nadu, to display a "Kolu". Kolu is adorned with dolls – predominantly with that of the gods and goddesses depicting mythology.  Dr Ramani invited all of us and Professor Alagar to his house so that we could see first hand 'Kolu' and the festivities for these days.

Kolu at Dr. Ramani's house

Kolu at Dr Ramani's house

 For this special occasion, the Sankara team (Sverre, Alex & I) dressed in our Indian costumes.

Sverren, Alex & Mercedes dressed to go to Dr. Ramani's house

We also had the pelasure of enjoying 'Gujarati' dancing because there is a group of Gujarati ladies being trained for the Sankara hospital in  Mogar

Overall, again, an excellent experience, and a great demonstration of the hospitality, friendliness, warmthness and care we are being provided by our NGO partner, Sankara


As usual other photos for the day are available

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...& on sunday an opportunity to travel!

... we arranged for an early start and decided to take it easy and go to Top Slit and Parambikulam wildlife reserve.... where there are about 1700 tigers...

Part of the team on the sunday day out

Benjamin, Sverre, Alex, Vasek, Amanda... Gastón & I with professor

On the way to the reserve we stopped at Arulmigu Masani Amman Anaimalai temple:

in temple, goddess Arulmigu Masani Amman is the presiding deity

Then we arrived to Top Slit and after lunch went, over the border, to Kerala, for a 3 ride to hopefully see some wild animals the Parambikulam wild life reserve is well known for.

We were lucky and did see wild indian elephants, monkeys, marsh crocodiles, gaurs, sloth bears, sambar deer ... the countryside was worth while because the Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary lies in the southern part of the Western Ghat, between the Anamalai hills and Nelliampathy hills.  We saw the highest peak,  Karimala (1438m), and two out of the three man-made reservoirs namely Parambikulam, Thunacadavu and Peruvaripalla.

Team at a sight seeing spot

Wild elephants

...as usual more pictures can be seen in my album store

Tomorrow I will write about today's great Golu experience at Dr, Ramani house

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...Statement of work reviewed and agreed

... The first week of working in Sankara - monday to saturday- has been very productive.... we have learnt much about how the Sankara hospital works, its processes and moreover have been able to review and agree with the CEO, Mr. Shrivatsan, on the scope of work.... reality is that it is 99% unchanged over the initial scope of work we received.

Our work consists of creating a framework for the departmental processes of the hospital and then providing an implementation plan to convert this into a knowledge management system.

What has called mostly my attention during the interviews with the ICs (In Charge) is that all are extremely proud of working for Sankara and are very committed to achieving the yearly & monthly KPIs (key performance indicators) that have been set for each department. These KPIs and the service level statements affecting patients are displayed very visibly.

We were treated by the logistics manager to a tour of the water treatment plant, laundry service; the kitchen manager  showed with much pride the kitchen to us and invited us to breakfast. We also met with the logistics department who, in their daily planning to collect & drop camp patients, also had a red line to provide transport for Alex, Sverre and I!

I think you might want to see some pictures of the Hospital.... the rest can be found in this link

Patient's waiting time

Spice table in the kitchen

Canteen restaurant

..Chillies....

Meeting with logistics department

Logistics plan for the day.... in red schedule for 'foreigners
'

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