Day 1 of the 'Joy of Giving Week'

As a part of my plans for the Joy of Giving Week, I went to an NGO on the first day of JGW to spend some time and donate something. As I was in a dilemma which NGO to choose for the donation, my friend Prateek sent me the details of an NGO called CHERISH(Commitment for Health,Education & Rehabilitation of the Impowerished and Struggling Humans).

My 1st gift was a donation of Rs.1700 ( My donation Rs. 500 + M Rajasekhar Rs. 500 + Avinesh Rs. 500 +  V Sreekanth Rs. 200 ) to CHERISH.

About CHERISH:
CHERISH interacts with street, slum and working children. It mainly concentrates on a comprehensive help for the children in all ways with Commitment for health, education and rehabilitation as a complete program for the homeless and unprotected children aged 4yrs to maturity (skill development stage). It offers shelter, medical assistance, nutritional supplement, education, vocational training and character re-building. The children are taught through non formal, formal and condensed methods to care for themselves in a normal way and given guidance. Older children are given responsibilities based up on their propensities and talent.

About the founder:
Mrs. Neelima Simhadri is an MBA graduate from Vijayawada. She used to work in a company in Vijayawada in the HR department. During this period she was associated with few NGOs. After her marriage, she relocated to Hyderabad and started CHERISH in 2007. She is a homemaker and has a daughter.

Expenditure(per month):
Rent and electricity: 10000
Provisions: 15,000
Miscellaneous 4,000

Current donors:

• Kingfisher sometimes provides them some provisions like dal and rice.
• People who do a onetime donations – during bithdays, anniversary, etc.
• A doctor named Pradeep Roy visits the place whenever the kids are sick. He works in Sri J.R. Clinic, Attapur.

Future Plans:
Mrs. Neelima is constructing a building near Budvel. She plans to re-locate Cherish to this place in April 2011. She hopes to cut down about 10k in her monthly expenditure by moving to this place. She desires to increase the number of children after moving there.

Concerns about the place:

• The expenses are currently met by Neelima’s husband who is employed and by adhoc donations. We couldn’t see a financial plan in place to sustain the home in the long run.
• Mrs. Neelima doesn’t have much support from family/friends and is running this more-or-less single-handedly. There is too much dependency on a single person here.
• The current place is in a very bad shape and has limitations in offering children an conducive environment for all round development. The neighbors also do not encourage the home.

Contact Details:
Mobile: 9866268700
Email: neel914@yahoo.co.in
Address: Tallagadda bus stop, opp dargha, Beside TV repair shop.

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