graduates 2007
Sumit
Dalia
Sabina
Sanjib
Yougesh
           

happy monsoon

Yes, it's the rainy season in Kolkata. We anxiously await the rains to end the heat of our very short summer, but we look forward even more to the wide variety of mangos which ripen during this season - this is absolutely the proverbial "silver lining" in our monsoon clouds.

new uddami video!

In January one of our major donors, The Shadhika Foundation, came with a Netscape film crew to video the projects they support in Kolkata. There always seems to be obstacles in Kolkata and this time there was a bandh (general strike) on the day Uddami was to be filmed.

So we ended up filming part of the interview at the Taj Bengal, a very posh hotel where the film crew was staying, courtesy AOL. The other part they managed to do one morning at Uddami before they filmed another project in the afternoon. We would like to thank Alexia Prichard, Maninder Saini and Molly Zenobia for being such an easy film crew to work with - after just a few minutes of filiming, we forgot they were even there!

This is the link, it's a short video, only 8:27 minutes long which includes an insightful interview with Rabia Khatoon, one of our first graduates who has been teaching at Uddami CTC for over five years... Netscape in India Episode 2
   

thank you party

On June 23rd the working students of Uddami threw me a surprise party to thank me for teaching them computer skills, helping them find jobs, improving their English and helping them find confidence in their abilities.

This party was the idea of Somnath Sardar who has been working at our partner project Tomorrow Foundation for almost three years and now heads their computer program.

I couldn't have been more surprised. Somnath began the party by saying that "thank you" is not part of Bengali culture. But he and all the other employed graduates wanted to express their gratitude to both Bryan and myself for all we have done for them.

It was amazing to me to look around the room at all the smiling faces of former students of Uddami CTC who are now working, many of them supporting not only themselves but their families also.

The graduates gave me flowers, a delicious chocolate cake and an engraved plate with the date of the party. Even more impressive they managed to gather together a sizable cash donation to give to Uddami!

Thanks also goes out to all of you, our donors, because without your financial help none of this would have been possible. So THANK YOU!

   

Aid for Education

Thanks to our donors these students have been able to continue their education: 		 

Megha attending Class 8 - thanks to Kevin Barker
Reena finishing her Class 12, thanks to Marc Gold and 100 Friends
Sabina finished her Class 10! Thanks to Marc Gold and 100 Friends
Prasanta attending Class I - thanks to Sonja Anderson
Rabia Khatoon enrolled in Diploma of Information Technology
Ciara O' Reilly, Emer O'Neill and Kathleen Quinn support Rabia's diploma course
   

Thanks again for all your support - together we really can change the lives of our students!

Best regards,
Alison Saracena
Project Director in India
Uddami CTC :: 158/4 Prince Anwar Shah Road :: Kolkata 700 045 :: W. Bengal, India

Uddami :: 200 Brannan Street #114 :: San Francisco CA 94107 :: USA
http://www.uddami.org

To give a donation to Uddami please click here.

 
Special thanks to these recent donors:
The Shadhika Foundation, Kevin Barker, Rochelle Forrester, Michael Branton, Arlyn and Louise, Yiwen Stewart