Inauguration of the Rising Star Home

Seven months after the blessing of the land, Rising Star, Maher’s 24th Children’s Home was inaugurated on 4th July 2010 with usual fanfare and enthusiasm.

The inauguration ceremony began with Maher zanz pathak (Cymbal) leading the guests and others present to the new building. Marjan Holtvluwer, Chief Guest for the function, who had substantially donated toward the construction of the building for the home symbolically, cut the ribbon to mark the formal opening of the building. As part of the ceremony, Madhav Vaze, Guest of Honour, broke the coconut while Ashok Pawar, MLA from Shirur, unveiled the plaque at the door of the Home. Catholic Bishop of Pune, Thomas Dabre, Bhante Kanhu Gaikwad (the Budhist monk), Maulana Hafiz Nazruk Haque of the Islam religion and the Hindu pujari kindly attended the function to bless the home.

At the main ceremony, after the lamp was lit by the guests, the Maher children performed a dance that symbolized respect toward all religions.

This was followed by felicitation of Maher children who had shown a very meritorious performance in their 10th and 12th standard examinations.

Following this, Father Francis D’sa released the 29th issue of Maher Newsletter on the occasion. Earlier and later various Maher children and workers spoke about the activities of Maher. Dr Hemant Devasthali also briefly spoke to the audience about the activities of Maher in English.

This was followed by several speakers informing the audience about Maher activities. Mangesh Pol paid compliments to Sister Lucy on behalf of the young boys who will shortly make Rising Star their home. Ashok Pawar, MLA, and Balasaheb Argade, film producer, also spoke appreciating Maher’s work.

Madhav Vaze, actor, film critic and the Guest of Honour for the function, struck an excellent chord with the children who were listening to him in rapt attention. Vaze spoke very absorbingly about the requirements for becoming an actor and how he himself came to be an actor. The programme was compered by Sayyad Gaus and Jayashree Maher children, Megharani Patil and Harish Awchar the staff of Maher.

The function was attended by a large number of guests, including religious teachers representing different faiths, caste. We are happy that they made it convenient to attend the function and bless the Home. The function was followed by a simple family meal where everyone intermingled and had engaging conversation with each other. There were children from all Maher homes and they spent a very pleasant and joyful evening talking and meeting their friends from other homes.

Maher Dharma Bharathi Sneha Bhavan

Introduction:

Maher was started in the year 1997 to cater to the needs of battered and destitute women. Soon it became  a home for the destitute children. Maher tries to create a caring and nurturing environment for the children at Maher, where everyone is loved and respected. It provides essential skills, education, counselling, resources and other services- not only to the Maher inmates, but also to its surrounding communities. Over the years it has grown into a thriving community that moves beyond the relief of social symptoms to address the causes of these problems in Indian communities. Maher being an interfaith, intercaste project  goes beyond all religious and caste barriers and believes in “Sarva Dharma Samabhava” and “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. Hence it serves only organic food to the children and women.

In addition to providing shelter and care to women and children, Maher has embarked upon several village-level activities to improve the lot of rural and tribal women and children. These include about 288 self help groups (to inculcate saving habits), 16 kindergartens, a day-care centre in a tribal village, tuition classes in several hamlets, bore wells in a number of villages, health camps, and awareness programs on various topics such as  alcoholism, tobacco addiction, superstitions, health andhygiene, environment  preservation etc.

Maher meets Dharma Bharathi Foundation:

Responding to the signs of times and to the dire needs of the destitute and downtrodden has been the objective of Maher right from its foundation. Further, it is guided by the fundamental vision that every human being has the right to live a dignified life irrespective of caste or creed, name or nationality, race or religion. Because of its strong objectives, Maher received an invitation from Swami Sachchidanada Bharati, the founder of Dharma Bharathi Foundation (DBF), Kerala, to work in collaboration with him and Maher responded very promptly to their invitation. 

It was in 2004 when Kerala’s coastal area was struck by the deadly Tsunami waves killing millions of people and ruining lives of many others including the innocent children that DBF was prompted to offer timely care and relief to the tragedy struck children. Maher became the major collaborating partner of DBF in this whole rehabilitation process. Due to the lack of funds and committed Staff, Maher was asked to take over the Dharma Bharathi Sneha Bhavan which is the second unit of DBF. Since the aims and objectives of DBF were in line with that of Maher, it took charge of this project without any hesitation on the 1st of June 2009. 
 
Maher Dharma Bharathi Sneha Bhavan:

Dharma Bharathi Sneha Bhavan is located in the village called Perumpilly, Mulanthruthy, close to Ernakulam in Kerala. It is in this village that Maher is deeply involved in the welfare of its people by providing education to children who are the future of the nation. Maher organizes various programs for these children apart from providing them formal education. Maher’s main aim is to make them good citizens of India and to foster a sense of independence in the present generation and strive towards development of the generations to come.  At present Sneha Bhavan offers shelter to 40 children out of which 10 are the direct victims of Tsunami and other 30 are either deserving or orphaned.

World Women’s Day celebration at Maher

With great vigour and enthusiasm a major event of World Women’s Day was organized by Maher Staff in Vadhu (Maher´s main centre) on the 8th March at 3 pm, to mark the services women have rendered to the society and to uphold the dignity of women especially in rural India where women are treated as commodity and who often become the victims of domestic violence. Around 800 women from all stratum of society i.e., lawyers, doctors, educators, entrepreneurs, social workers and house wives took part in this event. Guest speakers at the function were Vandana Dambre,noted lawyer, who spoke on the rights of women, Dr. Varsha Shivale focussed on woman’s health and social activist Deepali Shelke addressed the social evils such as oppression, dowry deaths, domestic violence and the empowerment of women.

Even though it was a global day for celebrating the economic, social and political achievements of women, it was just an ordinary day in the life of a mentally disturbed woman whom Maher staff picked up on that same day from the streets.  This depicts the paradoxical scenario of Indian societies where on the one hand women are occupying the top posts and on the other women go through dehumanizing situations. It is really very pathetic.

Award of Excellence

The Top Management Consortium (TMC) felicitated 24 eminent people, including government officials, social workers and businessmen, with Awards of Excellence 2008-2009. Sr. Lucy was one of those eminent people who had the honour of receiving this prestigious award for the dedicated and selfless service she and the Maher staff has rendered and continues to render to the humanity. The prize was given at the hands of Dr. D.Y. Patil, governor of Tripura at the function held at the Symbiosis Education Complex, Viman Nagar on Wednesday the 10th March 2010.

The TMC is a forum where government, public and private sectors come together and solve problems of industry, trade and society at large and has been active since 1990. The main objective of the award was to have a strong and active TMC forum wherein knowledge can be shared and applied for reducing poverty and empowering the poor. Maher has been instrumental in changing the face of rural societies by rendering service to the under privileged.

Liquor Prohibition Program



On 3rd April we had Rasta Roko – Daru Bandi program(Liquor Prohibition Program) at Shikrapur. The S.H.G. women had organized an anti liquor voting campaign. The women were full of enthusiasm as they had suffered a lot under their alcoholic husbands. Children had seen much violence. The day came for voting the women realized that their drunkard husbands had taken away their identity to vote. The women were threatened by men as the men were bribed by liquor shop owners. The women became furious and went in for Rasta Roko (Stop the traffic) Vikas Lavande, Yuvak Kranti dal helped them and Maher staffs too were questioned by the locals. For two hours the traffic came to a standstill. Sr. Lucy was called by the staff to control the women. If not things might have an ugly turn out.

Vasudha Sardar from Nav Nirman Niwas requested women to follow the Gandhian way of “Nonviolence”. The women sat on the road in scorching sun requesting the authorities to get back their identity and right to vote again. Mr. Nawale , the Prant Officer gave the promise that he will help them to vote again. The women moved from the road and traffic was allowed to move. Thousands of people were witnessing the show.

Sr. Lucy and Fr. Kilian in MAHER