​14th July 2018, 4 pm and the community centre of Alok Vihar 1, sector 50, Noida  was  bustling  with life as our children could be seen talking and giggling among themselves with spark in their eyes, impatiently waiting for their names to be announced. Yes, it was their day… as Sunshine Society had organized “Felicitation Ceremony” to acknowledge the hard work, sincerity & dedication of these children and award them for their fabulous performance during the academic session 2017-18.
The chief guest for the occasion was Shri. M. M. Mathur, retd  IRS Officer. Shri Mathur retired as commissioner of customs & central excise and is presently patron of Meghdootam Senior Citizens Welfare Forum (a registered  trust  founded in 2014).The function was graced by the presence of  our beloved  teachers V.P. Gupta Sir,  Pradeep Kulshresth Sir, Mahinder Singh Sir, Madhu Mittal Ma’am, Shashi Srivastava Ma’am,  Renu Ma’am and  Mamta Hegde Ma’am. Pawan Kumar Sir and Sulekh Chandra Jain Sir were missed by all due to their absence from the function. Mr. Deepak Methi, who has been associated with Sunshine for past so many years and is helping in many of our projects by sponsoring them was kind enough to take out time and attend the function. Ayushman, Shwetank and Harshit, our young volunteer teachers were also invited to motivate the children with their presence.
 Shri. Mathur shared  inspiring experiences from his life. He talked about his struggles and the final success. He motivated the children not to get deterred by failures and to study and work hard because that is the only way to success. Later awards were distributed to the students of Noida & Indirapuram who had stood at 1st and 2nd position in their classes.
5 students, now in different colleges of Delhi University and Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Noida- Shilpi, Aanchal, Shikha, Vipin and Gulshan were presented cheques of Rs. 5000/- each for their fabulous performance in class 12th board examination this year. The prize money to all the 5 children was sponsored by Shri. N.D. Tiwari, who has been associated with After School Study Programme at sector 50, Noida since 4 years now.
Sunshine Society presented to all the teachers gifts sponsored by Rusta as a small token of appreciation for their selfless contribution towards educating these not so privileged children. The function finally got over with happy clicks, tea and refreshments for all. The children were distributed  banana, biscuits, buttermilk and chocolates sponsored by Alok Vihar 1 residents Sonali Kumari, Shalini Chandra, Sapana Dubey, Akansha Gupta & Anupama Sinha.
Madhu Mittal Ma’am from JanJagran, Noida  was kind enough to arrange  50 steel  glasses for water and tea, making the event environment friendly.

One decade of continuity, compassion and service to the society is what Sh. Vinod Prakash Gupta has been giving to the community.
Doing something useful after retirement from State Bank of India, is what Sh. Gupta set out to do. He found his calling in a child who was whiling away his time instead of going to school. Sh. Gupta decided to take up the cause of education of the economically weaker section of the society so that the children become literate and become an asset to our country instead of turning to crime and being a menace.
What started with four children is now a full fledged 3  After School centres in 3 locations with ~ 200 children.
The 10 year celebration was to celebrate the growth and education of the children and to thank all the teachers and patrons who contributed from time to time to ensure that the children are educated and are exposed to the same level of education as the children from other schools.
Gupta sir thanked all who have helped him along in this journey. His special thanks went to Mrs. Inderjeet Ahuja, Mr. Yadav, Mr. Jain, Jyotsana who helped him in the early years. He thanked Mr. Vimal Sharma, President, RWA Sector 50, who has provided all support by allowing the classes to be held at the community center.
In his address, after giving away mementos to the teachers, Mr. Vimal Sharma announced that he will provide wifi  to the Sunshine children for their connectivity so that they can continue their online classes. The children, very happy with this announcement, gave a big round of applause to the RWA, sector 50.
The children performed beautifully and engaged the audience with their talent and capability.
Mrs. Bhupender Kaur motivated the children to do well in their lives and prove to be the Nobel Prize for their Gupta sir.
Sh. Pradeep Kulshreshtha, who teaches the children Physics and Maths, traced the journey over 10 years.
Sh. Gupta in his vote of thanks, thanked all the teachers for their contribution and encouraged more to come forward and teach the children.
The teachers who have been teaching the children over the years are:
Sh. Pradeep Kulshreshtha, Sh. N.D. Tiwari, Mrs. Madhu Mittal, Sh. S.N Rai, Sh. Pawan Kumar, Sh. Sulekh Chandra Jain, Dr. Subhash Joshi, Sh. Raj Singh, Mrs. Mamta Hegde, Mrs. Shashi Shrivastava,  Mrs. Monika Dembla, Ayushman Pandita, Kritika Gupta, Tanya Bhasin, Sh. Rajinder Tihara, Sh. J.L. Kapur and the list is endless.
Almost all who came to attend the function brought goodies for the children, The lunch, Milton water bottles, registers, chocolates, cakes and many more…
The function ended with a lot of excitement and cutting of cake brought in by Mrs. Bhupinder Kaur.

​Children enjoying a day out @Decathlon sports day. Thank you Decathlon for being so kind for making our children feel so special!

Commendable work being done by Dr. Preetika and Dr. Rajat Gupta of Indirapuram to improve health of Sunshine students.  So far, they have provided free dental check-up to 38 students.  Oral hygiene quality of most students was found to be poor to very poor.  They have now pledged to treat cases requiring immediate attention, free of cost.  Thank you Dr. Preetika and Rajat Gupta

​It was a day of much excitement and enthusiasm when the World Bank came visiting Sunshine Society’s After School Study Program at sector 50.
The children were very curious to find out what the visit had in store for them. World Bank to them was any other bank and they wanted to know if they could open their accounts!
The World Bank team, led by their India manager Hisham A. Abdo Kahin, along with Arvinder (Ruby) Singh, Kumudni Choudhary, Rohit Singh, Sandhya Krishnan, Shagun Ahuja, Sivaramakrishnan Kumar, Jyoti Sriram and Poonam Ahluwalia, met with V.P. Gupta who started and has been running these classes for the past 9 years. They also met with Madhu Mittal and S.C. Rai who teach the children on a regular basis.
 
The team came prepared to engage the children in various activities.  Hisham started the session with the older children explaining to them about the World Bank. He encouraged them to think beyond the set known options of professions and to work towards a broader horizon. Children had a lot of questions to ask Hisham about where the World Bank gets the money to operate? How do they decide on projects? and many more… seeing such enthusiasm, Hisham invited the children to their World Bank office in Delhi for an experience and a picnic to Lodhi garden post the office visit. The only wait being the weather to get better to enjoy the outdoor in the Lodhi gardens.
After Hisham’s interaction, the younger children were enthralled by Poonam who wove a wonderful world of Bhalu, Panda and Billi which subtly talked about the importance of hard work and value of friendship.
While the younger children were busy understanding the Bhalu, Panda and Billi’s friendship, the middle school children were taught to sketch with words like dog and cat and were also given lots of material to cut stick and make beautiful greeting cards. Jyoti and Shagun ensured that each and every child was able to sketch and get the material of their choice to make a card. They also showed the children very easy way to draw the animal figures. The older children were taught the art of quilling by Sandhya and the children made beautiful earrings and were totally hands on while trying to make various artistic things.
The children had an appetizing time relishing the muffins and frooti.
Kumudni wrapped up the session by reiterating that though all activities open the mind, it is very important to study and stay focused and disciplined towards their academic goal.
It was a wonderful exposure for the children where they were made to see the wide horizon, participate in different activities, a chance to interact with professionals and above all an invitation to visit the World Bank office in Delhi and a picnic in the Lodhi gardens.
We sure are waiting for September and the weather to improve!
A Big Thank You to the entire World Bank team for making this happen.

When teachers decide to teach a concept which is socially and environmentally relevant, they always come up with innovative methods. 
On 28th April, Gupta sir's children at the After School study program, sector 50 had a field day learning about, germination, reproduction, healthy eating and environment consciousness.
Mrs. Madhu Mittal and Mrs. Shashi Raj Srivastava got together to explain to the children about healthy meals.
The children were asked to sprout the grains and between the two teachers, they brought sprouted chana, sprouted dal and all the ingredients required for a healthy breakfast and snack. They  made the children prepare yummy sprouts and bhelpuri and also healthy thandai. The children were explained the importance of eating healthy and showed them the ease with which the healthy snacks can be prepared. To spread the environment consciousness, the children were asked to bring their own spoons and the snacks were served in the environment friendly donas.
While showing the children the sprouted grains, the concept of germination was also explained and extension of the same as reproduction to the senior children.
The older girls were told the importance of menstruation and maintaining hygiene. The girls were given Menstrupedia comic books to read and understand about the process and the body changes that occur during the time.
The question and answer session was handled very patiently by the two teachers.
Overall, a fruitful and a very educative session for the children.
Sunshine Children are lucky to have Mrs. Madhu Mittal and Mrs. Shashi Raj Srivastava as their teachers.

Sector 50 After School Study program's children were given an opportunity to visit the CSIR hall at the ongoing trade fair at Pragati Maidan on November 16.
Dr. Beena Pillai, Senior Scientist at CSIR and also a member of Sunshine Society invited the children to see the various fields CSIR is active in and also to get a first hand experience to see the contributions of entire CSIR at Techno Fest  2016 at hall no. 12A.
November 15 was the day for Aerospace and strategic sector. The Children very excitedly boarded the bus (sponsored by CSIR) and reached Pragati Maidan. They were so happy to reach the venue and were wide eyed to see the enormous venue.
The fun begun the moment they stepped into hall 12A. The welcoming team from CSIR not only made them comfortable but also encouraged them to ask questions thereby starting their thinking process.
The children had a field day visting all stalls and were happy to see the various products displayed. They were very impressed by the leather products made out of waste.
Since Aerospace was the theme of the day, the children got an opportunity to hear the scheduled talk on Aerospace engineering. 
The children were happy to compete in the paper plane flying contest too and were thrilled to receive prizes for the paper plane that flew the farthest.

Thank you Dr. Beena and the entire team of CSIR who gave our children an opportunity to witness first hand the various fields that they can work on. The exposure for the children was very relevant and has left an impression on their minds.
​They are now ready to explore various fields that interests them. 

Independence day is a day of pride, pledge and planning for progress. We at Sunshine Society constantly try to work towards progress by educating children in ways to make our country proud. Whether it is looking after our environment, making our environment green or remembering our heroes, our endeavour is to ensure that children from all walks of life are given equal opportunity to make our country proud.
After School study Program at Hoshiyarpur, Sector 51, Noida had Nidhi Foundation coming and organising a drawing competition for the children. The program concluded by prize distribution to the winners and singing patriotic songs.  
The children at  Indirapuram planted saplings at Hathi Park for our greener future and pledged to look after them. Singing and dancing brought smiles on the children's faces.
​Rimaa and Kumud with their teams made this possible. 
Some glimpses of the celebrations: 

40+ children get the benefit of After School study Support now at Indirapuram too. 
The untiring efforts of Ranjana, Mr. Mehrotra, Neha, Priti and Meenu bore fruit and the After School study Program finally started in Indirapuram, opposite ATS.
Mr. Sanjay, founder Chahak, has very kindly provided the hall for the classes to be conducted daily.
The amazing team of Indirapuram - Kumudni, Sangeeta and Priya turned this vision into reality. 
It is very easy to talk about what should be, but very difficult to make it a reality. A salute to the entire team who works tirelessly for doing the rough ground work.
​The enthusiasm and eagerness of the children to study was evident from the first day. We look forward to holding their hands and making India literate.
​ 

What started as Sh. V.P. Gupta’s initiative in 2008, has now gathered momentum and the after school study program for underprivileged children is now supporting 104 children.
On May 29, 2016, a felicitation program was organized by Sunshine Society at the Sector 50 community center. In this program, the top performers in each class were awarded merit certificates along with prizes. The prizes for academic excellence were contributed by the residents of sector 50 and members of Sunshine Society NGO.
 
The After school study program was supported in early days by Mr. Yadav, Mr. Nagar, Mr. R. Agarwal, Ms. Jyotsana Joshi and is continued being supported by Mr. Pradeep Kulshreshtha, Mr. N.D Tiwari, Mr. Paresh Tewary, Mrs Madhu Mittal, Dr. Beena Pillai, Dr. Souvik Maiti, Dr. Alka Mittal, Mrs. Anita Hajela, Ms. Ruchi, Dr. Subhash Joshi and many others.
 
Three years ago, the Sector 50 RWA very kindly allowed Sh. Gupta to continue the classes in their premises. Mr. Vimal Sharma, president, RWA sector 50 continues to extend his support by way of including the children in the various functions organized, providing the children with stationary items and uniforms and also donating a computer for the children to start on the technological journey which has so become a part of our everyday lives.
Sunshine Society (An NGO for children and senior citizens) joined hands with Sh. Gupta to ensure no child quits school. Sunshine Society is now paying the fee of almost 170 children (38 are part of the after school study program at sector 50) and ensuring that the children do not quit school due to inability to pay the fee.
 
The children who joined young in 2008 have now passed class XI and XII. Their commendable efforts have secured them good percentages. The felicitation ceremony was to motivate them to continue concentrating in studies and make our country literate.
 
Mr. Vimal Sharma, president, RWA sector 50, who was also the guest of honour at the function, congratulated the children on their excellent result and blessed the children to continue to excel in all spheres of life.

​31st May 2016, will be a date many children will remember for a long time to come. This will be the date when they learnt the importance of their dreams. This was the date when Sunshiners went to watch Nil Battey Sannata.
Sunshiner Shalini and Sunshiner Meena insisted that we take our children to watch this movie. A plan was made overnight and the children informed.
Though the movie Nil Battey Sannata has been declared tax free but the tickets per child would have still come to Rs. 105 per child. This too is not affordable for our children. So a quick decision was made amongst Sunshiners to contribute for the tickets. It was a great gesture by the staff of PVR Logix to sponsor Rs. 45 per ticket for 52 children! The team of PVR logix consisting of Tanya, Rahul, Rakesh and Arun decided to take on the cost amongst themselves. It was not just the cost that they took but also the experience that they gave to our children. Our children were made to feel very comfortable from the time they stepped into PVR Logix.
The movie of course was a huge learning experience but so was the experience of going into the mall, seeing the cinema hall and using the washrooms!
Sunshiner Archana procured the biscuits and frooti’s for the children.
It was a hugely satisfying moment to see the smiles through misty eyes after the movie. 

Web enabled classes  started on April 10, 2016 and  will be a regular feature at the After School Study Program in Sector 50 Community Centre.
The credit goes to Sh. V.P. Gupta who has groomed the children so well that they are now very enthusiastic, courteous and bright and now are ready to learn as much as they are taught and more.  Organisations and people who contributed to the effort are: Premas Biotech who donated the Projector and Laptops. Ranju who sent more laptops from US. Dr. Subhash Joshi who followed up to ensure that the setup is ready and who actually took the class too. And of course Sector 50 RWA who has given the place and infrastructure where the children can be taught.

Bright Saturday afternoon, 42 children from Sunshine's After School Study Program, visited the Kiran Nadar museum of art in Sector 126, Noida.
Sunshiner Shubhra coordinated the entire visit and the children were accompanied by their mentor Sh. V.P. Gupta, Leena, Shubhra and Vaishali.
The children saw the paintings by five contemporary artists and understood the different mediums of paintings used by them.
After the museum the children were also given a short workshop explaining to them about the basics of Warli art and Saumya at the museum encouraged them to draw and practice the Warli art form.
Many thanks to Kiran Nadar museum of art for having us over and giving us the opportunity to understand different art forms.

Continuing with her regular workshops, Dr. Suchitra Jain conducted another session on Top to toe hygiene, menstrual hygiene and good touch and bad touch  for the children of Sunshine's After School Study Program in village Hoshiyarpur.           
Concluding the workshop, Sunshiner Rimaa summarised the whole workshop and distributed the hygiene kits with Deepak Methi from Pankaj Electronics  who sponsored the hygiene kits. 

The efforts of Sunshiner Rimaa bore fruit and finally a new After School Study Program was started in the premises of New Golden Public School on February 1, 2016.
Currently there are 30 children who get the benefit of the after school study by the two teachers who manage the children of classes nursery to V.
Fifteen days on to the program and we already have Nikhil in U.Kg.(Upper Kindergarten)who promises to top his class results. 
The program welcomes all children from village Hoshiyarpur who require additional study to maintain good grades and access to help in their academics. 

Premas Biotech joined hands with Sunshine to extend their support for the After School program.Premas is a custom protein research and manufacturing organization, which delivers end-to-end integrated discovery and development solutions to leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
The Premas' team wanted to spend some time with the children of the After school Support Program. The team - a very energetic bunch with a complete conviction of the importance of education in a child's life, interacted with the children  and emphasised on the fact that education can change lives.
The team came, they saw and they conquered... everyone's heart...
They started with understanding all about Sunshine, the program and the people involved. They went on to sit with the children, answered all their questions, explained a few concepts, sang and danced with them and then opened their windows to a world full of learning. They gifted the program two Dell Inspiron 15- 3000 series and a projector. They brought the world closer to the children of Sunshine.
It was a pleasure to see the enthusiastic team, totally involved and genuinely interested about the issues concerning children and their education. 
A big Thank You from all of us at Sunshine to Premas Biotech for their superb efforts for the noble cause

This is a beginning and we hope the journey continues...
​

What started as a need, soon combined passions and energies, of the teachers and the students alike. The classes were mooted as admissions to schools necessitate minimum levels of English learning. However, the fun and energy brought a new dimension to Sunshine. Drawing up a 6 week module, was the first step and 4 teachers went on to finish the course based on the module and with the support of our volunteers.

The final day today saw the recap of the entire course, certificate presentation and some fun times for the children.
The workshop's continuity and purpose would not have been possible without the untiring efforts of the following:

1. Pankaj Electronics
2. Alok Vihar 1 Resident Welfare Association
3. Archana Chaturvedi
4. Rimaa Taneja
5. Meena Agarwal
6. Shalini Chauhan
7. Tanya Bhasin
8. Sanya Bhasin
9. Ritika 
10. Sangita
11. Arnav

The list can go on and that is the strength of Sunshine Society. Together we make a difference.
The English classes were very well received and were a great success. So until we start another batch, some photographs...

An initiative, if it makes a difference in someone's life, gives immense satisfaction and gives the motivation to go on. Our English classes is one such example. The enthusiasm of the children to study and the teachers to teach is so heartening that we know we are doing the right thing. The stars of these two weeks are Tanya and Sanya. The two sisters who have taken the responsibility to teach the children so beautifully. Their commitment to this cause is commendable and a model for the other teenagers. The children have definitely gained ground as far as English is concerned. they now know the difference between know and no in pronunciation and in meaning...

Week 1 and Week 2 were completed under the able guidance of Meena and Sangeeta and the children have now got into the groove of learning English.
Week 3 begins with Ritika taking the classes,and helping her, are two volunteers Tanya and Sanya. Tanya, who has passed class XII with flying colours and Sanya currently in 2nd year college, take their work as English facilitators very seriously. Both sisters and residents of sector 50 are committed to be the facilitators for the entire month. Their commitment and efforts are laudable.

 

End of week one and all of us are overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm of the children to learn English. One indicator is the continuous stream of new children joining in.
What started as a result of mainstreaming process where we realised that  despite being very bright, the children were not able to clear the entrance exam due to lack of understanding of English. Thus started the initiative to increase the knowledge of English of the children by identifying the problem areas and laying stress on the basics. The result was a plan of a six week workshop starting May 18 - the start of summer vacations.
first day saw 30 children all ready to learn English and as the week ends today, we have 57 children all eager to get into the process of mainstreaming.

Like earlier times, we are overwhelmed at the support that we received from all corners. Thank you to RWA of Alok Vihar 1 who very kindly provided us with a space to hold the classes. We have Sangeeta and Meena who decided to give regular time to this cause and what is interesting is  we now have older children who are more than keen to do some constructive work and are coming forth to give their services in teaching the children.
Watch this space for regular updates on this summer workshop!