It all began in the town of Bellary in Karnataka where Anjina lived as a 10 year old. Then in 1983 she moved to NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh.
Saikripa is an NGO for the welfare of needy and abandoned children through its projects Home , schools, and vocational training center in Sector 12, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, Every week, she would see groups of children beating drums and carrying notebooks, walking down the streets, knocking at every door, collecting donations for the orphanage they lived in. Coming from a happy and well-t
o-do family herself, Anjina would feel sorry for them. Then one day her family moved from Bellary to Sandur and she soon forgot about these children. Years later, in 1976, the family moved to Delhi in order to get over a personal tragedy and she took up a job. She was deeply disturbed by the sight of children being exploited all around her and also by the reports in newspapers and magazines about exploitation of children. Images of Bellary came back to mind, which was how the dream was born …… A dream of providing a home for these children, where they would not only get shelter, clothing, food and education but also feel as secure and confident as their more privileged peers. Another decade passed before she could turn her dream into reality due to her responsibilities towards her family. In 1988, a chance meeting with an old friend directed her to PRADAN, a voluntary organization, for guidance. PRADAN offered her a fellowship of three months to enable her to visit various homes all over India and make an in depth study of the aspects involved in such projects. One such home where she spent twenty days is the Antar Bharati Balgram at Lonavla, near Mumbai. By this time she was able to identify friends who were willing to help her. The Society SAIKRIPA was formed and by March 1989 they succeeded in getting their society, SAIKRIPA, registered.
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Ms. Anjina, a Keralite born in Vijayanagaram, Andhra Pradesh, brought up in Karnataka was a stubborn and naughty girl as a child. However, the influence of her parents who were always at the service of the poor made her sensitive to others. She along with her sisters and brothers lived in Bellary for the purpose of education under the guidance of two care takers, while her parents lived in a mining area called Tummeraguddi as her father was a Mines Manager in a Manganese & Iron Ore Mines.
Ms. Anjina was studying in St. Philomena’s Convent High School, Bellary as 10 years old when she would see groups of children beating drums and carrying notebooks, walking down the streets, knocking at every door, collecting donations for the orphanage they lived in. Coming from a happy and well-to-do family herself, Anjina would feel sorry for them. Then one day her family moved from Bellary to Sandur where she completed her schooling at Sandur –Residential School, Shivpur, Sandur and she soon forgot about these children. In 1976, the family moved to Delhi in order to get over a personal tragedy and she took up a job. Then in 1983 she moved to NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh. She was deeply disturbed by the sight of children being exploited all around her and also by the reports in newspapers and magazines about exploitation of children. Images of Bellary came back to mind, which was how the dream was born …… A dream of providing a home for these children, where they would not only get shelter, clothing, food and education but also feel as secure and confident as their more privileged peers.
Another decade passed before she could turn her dream into reality due to her responsibilities towards her family. The Society SAIKRIPA was formed in 1988. A chance meeting with an old friend directed her to PRADAN, a voluntary organization, for guidance. PRADAN offered her a fellowship of three months to enable her to visit various homes all over India and make an in depth study of the aspects involved in such projects. One such home where she spent twenty days is the Antar Bharati Balgram at Lonavla, near Mumbai. This helped her in taking the right decisions in actually running the home - Balkutir which could be started only two years later after strenuous running around to get the society functioning.
It was a sweltering summer morning, the last day of April way back in 1990. Anjina Rajagopal was rushing to her office in the News print stores department of The Times of India, Delhi, when she stopped in her tracks. A roadside vendor was beating a little boy who was cowering by the pavement, trying to avoid the blows. The child appeared to be no more than nine or ten years old. Drawing closer, Anjina realised he was a child with special needs. His heart-rending whimpers touched her deeply. No one knew anything about the poor child, except that he’d visit the vendors daily asking for food. Anjina returned home that night to plenty of soul-searching. She could not get the little boy out of her thoughts. By morning her mind was made up. She returned to the place and sure enough the child was still there by the roadside. She brought him home that day… And so began one woman’s incredible journey of courage, of faith, and most of all, love. The home project of SAIKRIPA provides shelter and care to the orphans and abandoned children of our society. Balkutir is now a home to more than 55 children of all ages. The strength keeps varying. More than 395 children have so far been rehabilitated by Balkutir. At Balkutir we ensure that our children inherit human values and education, which is life-long and passed on from one generation to the other.
Sai Shiksha Sansthan- However, providing a home was not enough. Children needed education and hence a co- educational English medium secondary school in village Wazidpur Sector 134, Noida was started from nursery to class II in the year 1991 with a subsidized fee of Rs 35/- per child with just 80 children, has now grown to be a secondary level school with about 420 children in strength. The heavily subsidized fee of Rs 35/- per month has been progressively increased to Rs. 500/- over the years. The children from below poverty line families are given free education. It is notable that the same kind of education is given in the schools run by non NGO bodies on a fee ranging up to Rs.3500/- p.m. So far 16 batches have successfully completed their 10th Std.
Sai Bal Sansar- Being a Sai Devotee, she used to go the temple every Thursday and the sight of children begging outside the Temple disturbed her. She spoke to the Temple Authorities and started a free educational center inside the Temple premises in the year 1999 with a strength of 80 students. But after two years she moved out of the Temple as people did not stop giving alms outside the Temple. The Temple Authorities also did not take heed to her requests to stop this practice and begging continued at the gates. Hence this informal school was shifted to Village Agahpur, sector-41, NOIDA as this place is surrounded by slums. The provision of mid-day meal has been necessary as without proper health, education is not possible to be absorbed by the children. So far 1500 children have benefitted from the services of the school out of which 150 children have joined our own formal school or some other schools elsewhere to complete formal education. Any child out of school is a child labor. These days the down-trodden parents want to ensure that their children would not be doomed to live the lives they have themselves been condemned to. It is also seen that poorest of the poor would go to any lengths to ensure their children had the opportunity to get education.
Sai Vatsalya Vatika – This is a special school at primary level in the same complex of Sai Bal Sansar for the children needing special care and attention with provision of midday meal. Saikripa incepted this school in the year 2009 with learning environment to cater education to these kind of children with not only physical disabilities but also learning difficulties such as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) etc. Due to lack of space we have very few children in this section. However, teachers in this school play multiple roles with every child by being friendly and caring with child cantered approach. This school practices art based pedagogy i.e. learning through integrating various subjects with different modules of art such as painting, drawing, paper cutting, theatre, dance etc.
Sai Vocational Training Centre - The inception of fifth project Sai Vocational Training Centre was in the year 2010 on a low fee mostly for the underprivileged section of the society who cannot afford to send their children for higher education in professional courses or for those children who drop out from the school at middle or secondary level due to lack of proficiency, interest in academics or any other reason. This is a skill development centre for ensuring and accelerating their progress towards achieving a job. The students are given adequate training in skills such as tailoring, computer course, beauty culture and spoken English course on highly subsidized fees and made future ready to thrive in the society. Every year around 200 students get trained from the center and many of them have secured jobs.
Apart from the funds given by UNWG we get partial support for a few projects from funding agencies like Concern India Foundation, Charities Aid Foundation, Give India. Apart from this donation are received from corporates, general public, etc.
The funds from UNWG are utilized for the project Balkutir to meet the expenses against Healthcare of the children, Health drinks for the children, extra-curricular activities, books and stationery, Power Bill etc. that is almost 1.43 % of the total budget of the Balkutir.
Ms. Anjina has gone through many endurance tests in her thirty years of running this charitable program such as financial constraints, hurdles in observance of rigid govt. rules, moral discouragements due to disappointments in expected results in the efforts for getting enough funds for creating improvements in the infrastructure of the projects. These have not dampened her passion for continuing her services to the society despite her senior citizen status. It is relevant to note here that her services have been recognized and she has been awarded by many including the latest “CNN IBN Senior Citizen’s Award” given by Shri. Amitab Bachan on 2nd Nov. 2013 at Mumbai for those who are still in the field of social work even after crossing the age of 60 years.
It is also notable that Ms. Anjina is infusing younger generation of staff to back her in her efforts in running Saikripa and the results are noticeable.
Being on guard to maintain a good learning level among the increasing rural children who are mostly first generation learners is indeed a challenge.
Of course, the often repeated challenge of the payment of adequate emoluments to the teachers at least to their basic requirements if not at par with the government scales still remains due to the insufficient resources despite the Concern India Foundation’s unstinted support though tapered to about 23% of the school’s total budget now.
The available funds through donations/grants are unsustainable to run the projects due to the increasing operational cost.
It is a fact that Saikripa has taken care to provide basic infrastructure facilities like drinking water and toilets in their schools. Despite this, space required for accommodating ever increasing admission in Saikripa’s schools, remains still a matter of concern.
The most difficult task so far has been the generation of capital funds needed to acquire land to construct a school building.
Saikripa organizes many events for the children and students on various occasions like annual day of Saikripa, Independence day, Children’s day, Annual day of schools, celebrate festivals like Diwali, Holi, and Christmas. Educational trips during Summer, inter school sports activities etc. Besides Saikripa celebrates Birthdays of every child.
