I write to you on joining the blog. Your sensitivity to children and their safety and well being of Mumbaikars is well known and laudable.
It gives me pleasure to write to you and share with you that Mumbai is highly prone to many kinds of man made and natural disasters like Terrorism, Earthquake , Tsunami & Sea level rising, Cyclone, Flood, Drought, Climate change threats & Environmental Degradation, Fire, Chemical, Biological and Nuclear hazards.

It is worth mentioning that life in Mumbai is insecure due to these threats of man made and natural disasters. Children, street children, women, disabled, aged and the poor in Mumbai are most vulnerable to these disasters and loose their innocent lives.

Mumbaikars are least sensitized to develop safety culture to save their lives and lives of their near and dear ones. Terrorist attack on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 and devastating floods of July 2005 have shown us that how important it is to prepare people to develop safety culture.

Towards this cause, Saritsa Foundation with its committed zeal, has prepared and build knowledge and developed culture of preparedness amongst 78,000 schoolchildren, women, disabled, poor, street children and children of sex workers to protect them from disasters in Mumbai and Maharashtra.

The participants groups for this mission include 2000 teachers of MCGM, 350 teachers of Pune Municipal Corporation and 250 teachers of Nashik Municipal Corporation Schools so far have been provided preparedness and capacity building knowledge and practical training to cope with disasters and Impacts of climate change.

Nationally, Saritsa Foundation has prepared and built confidence amongst 162500 people including about 7200 disabled people in states of Maharashtra, Gujarat Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Pondicherry, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Predesh and Jammu and Kashmir Assam and Arunachal Pradesh since its birth on June 2000. 40 percent of these participants who have been prepared are women and girls and about 45 percent are school children.

It has conducted about 832 workshops for schools students and teachers, 200 workshops for youth, women and poor communities and 82 workshops for the disabled people. 84 community rescue teams (including police personnel of respective zones) have been prepared for coping with floods in flood prone wards of Mumbai in a period of about 9 years.

It has also conducted two innovative pioneering campaigns to educate and train poor and common people at grass root level to minimize risks from disasters and impacts of environmental degradation and climate change as under:-

• National Campaign from Ahmedabad Gujrat to Leh and Ladakhin Jammu & Kashmir to sensitize preparedness for disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change by a mobile team of experts, trainers and motivators during October and November 2007.This campaign covered remotest rural villages and towns of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh with 5 other states making a total of 7 states.

• National Campaign from Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to build capacity for disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change amongst most vulnerable communities across 12 states of India by a mobile team of experts and trainers and motivators during October to December 2008.

Preparing deprived and discriminated women and girls in distress to cope with disasters and to be trainers and motivators from rural and tribal areas of Maharashtra to reduce risks from Disasters and Climate Change. It also aims to integrate these with poverty eradication goals at grass root level. The project commenced in September 2008 and has been completed on 30 May 2009.Saritsa Foundation has also conducted a workshop for the children of the sex workers on the eve of women’s day on 8 March 2009 at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.

In continuation of its mission Saritsa Foundation has now planned to launch a “Safer Schools, Safer Hospitals and Safer Mumbaikars” (Mumbai Risk Reduction initiative) Campaign.

The aim of the campaign is raising awareness of people of Mumbai by information, knowledge and education to reduce risks from disasters and impacts of climate change.

It is visualized that this awareness campaign shall empower people to protect themselves and their families to respond to these risks. It will also complement the initiative of local Government Authorities.

Saritsa Foundation has planned this campaign for 2 years with People’s Partnership during year 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The campaign is planned in 6 phases as under:-

Phase 1 –
100 workshops for schools children and teachers.

Phase 2 –
72 workshops for communities and staff of Municipal Corporation of Mumbai.

Phase 3
10 workshops for women groups.

Phase 4
5 workshops for persons with disabilities.

Phase 5
5 workshops for hospital staff and administrators.

Phase 6
2 seminars for experts, NGO’s, practitioners, local government’s representatives and corporate managers.

Request

Your zeal and enthusiasm for well being of people of Mumbai is well known. You have always been making a very laudable contribution for this purpose. You also love children and their safety and security in Mumbai.

Terrorist attack on Mumbai on 26 November 2008 and devastating floods of July 2005 have shown us that how important it is to prepare people to develop safety culture. The above project is aimed for the same.

I request your partnership, support and encouragement for this campaign in Mumbai. You are fully aware about vulnerability of people of Mumbai to man made and natural disasters like Terrorism, Bomb Blast, Floods, Sea Level Rise, Earthquake, Cyclone, Global Warming & Climate change, Chemical, Biological and Nuclear hazards,.

I humbly request you to be a champion of this cause in Mumbai and support minimum of 20 school safety or 20 Street children safety programs or 20 community workshops. Kindly contribute Rs. 200,000/-(Rupees Two Lacks only) for this benign mission. Organization of each workshop will cost Rs. 10,000/-.

I request a meeting with you. Kindly communicate me date and time as per your convenience.

Your kind acceptance for this benign cause shall strengthen Saritsa Foundation in its campaign.

Thanking you,
With warm regards and good wishes.

Yours Sincerely,

Colonel Nagar M Verma

Iam 33 years old and a mother of a four year old.I have never been skiny though ever in my life but never been fat either. After my pregnancy, I could beat 50% of the excessive weight I had put ,but battled with the rest.Now after four years,I weigh 80 Kgs and my height is 5′4 and a half.Everyday,I get up thinking that I need to shed this weight as its coming in the way of my healthy being but by the end of the day Iam not able to achieve what I intend to.I feel low and just want to get back to my old self. I don’t know if you would help me but I would be grateful if you could. Thanks.