Vol 5, No 8 | August 2009       »www.vibha.org » info@vibha.org  

Finally, there is some positive movement in the Right to Education (RTE) bill in India. This bill guarantees free, compulsory and quality education to every child between the ages of 6 and 14 in India. The reach and effect this bill is likely to have on the primary education landscape is immense. Recently, the bill was passed in the Parliament of India and is soon on its way to becoming a law.

Few salient features of this bill:

• Free, compulsory education for all kids from all ages 6-14.
• Mandated quality of education, including periodic teacher training, and quality monitoring.
• Focus on continuous evaluation of students.
• Local community participation in schools.
• Government will set up or upgrade existing schools to meet quality, or it will provide for transportation and fees to nearby private schools.
• Private schools will have to admit economically poor children up to 25% of total enrollment - government will bear the academic expenses for these children.
• Special provisions for disabled children.

It will be interesting to see how the schools runs by various non-governmental organizations, including the ones supported by Vibha, are going to be positively impacted by the bill. The government of India is financially and logistically committed to implementing this initiative, and this is a very welcome development that could transform the education sector in a positive way. You can read more about the bill here.

Washington DC is in news. No, it is not only because of the heated debates going on for health care reforms in United States, but also the exhilarating success of this year’s Vibha DC Dream Mile. On Sunday, August 16, over 150 participants, volunteers and spectators came together on a beautiful Sunday morning for Vibha DC’s annual 5K Run/Walk.  Participants experienced a picturesque race route through the woods and around a lake.  In addition to the scenery, participants enjoyed fresh coffee, orange juice, bagels, pastries and fruit before and after the race.  

Vibha DC is particularly proud of the tremendous growth in popularity that the Dream Mile has gained over the past 5 years. The race has evolved from a small-scale event to a professionally managed race with many more enthusiastic runners joining us this year. This year, the top finisher, Josh Levin-Soler, completed the race in a blistering 17 minutes.

This year, Vibha DC had the help of about 15 teenagers from the Teen India Club, a local temple youth group, who came out early to volunteer and serve as guides along the race route and cheer on our participants. The entire Vibha DC team is very proud of the success of this year’s Dream Mile. Running and walking attracts people from different backgrounds and is an ideal way to reach out to a broader audience and convey Vibha’s message of bringing hope to many more underprivileged children.

On July 25th 2009, Vibha Minnesota partnered with a local non-profit organization - Feed my starving children to hand-pack meals formulated specially for undernourished and starving children, which are later shipped to more than 60 countries across the globe.

Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) has worked with leading scientists representing major food companies such as Cargill and General Mills to develop a food mixture that would be easy and safe to transport, simple to make with only boiling water, and culturally acceptable worldwide. The simple yet balanced formula consists of:

1. Rice, the most widely accepted grain around the world.
2. Extruded soy nuggets, providing maximum protein at lowest cost.
3. Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian chicken flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need.
4. Dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition.

Packaged in small pouches—each of which provides six highly nutritious meals—this easy-to-prepare food blend has won rave reviews all over the world. While the formula was designed to save the lives of severely malnourished and starving children, the ingredients also improve the health, growth and physical well-being of children who are no longer in immediate danger of starvation.

An enthusiastic group of 16 Vibha volunteers & friends spent a little over an hour packing these meals. Abbey - who was turning 9 that week was also there celebrating her birthday with her friends. In a very short amount of time, amidst friendly competition, loud cheers and birthday greetings the group of 30-35 volunteers packed a total of 9936 meal packets! To put things in perspective, these packets of food would provide a year’s worth of meals for 27 children across the world saving them from the trenches of starvation leading to death.

Your feedback is important to us. Vibha welcomes any comments, suggestions or questions you may have about our projects, programs, products, monitoring etc. If you are particularly interested in a topic and would like to see Vibha showcase it please let us know.

Together, we can do much more!

Dream a Little! Do a Little!

Vibha 1030 E El Camino Real, #424 Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Phone: 408-997-9992 | Fax: 775-593-1061

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Vibha is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit, non-religious, non-political organization that seeks to restore; underprivileged children, their basic rights to food, shelter, health and education - in short, a future. All donations to Vibha are tax exempt in the US.