Retail on wheels was organized at Rangareddy Gardens, Neelankarai on 4th August 2016. Our vocational retail students displayed grocery products and skillfully performed customer care activities like billing, packing and even home delivery, especially for senior residents. This is the second visit by our students to this location and the residents enthusiastically participated in the event.

Our Founder Director, Mrs Radha Ganesan had an informal interaction with the residents and thanked them for their complete cooperation, encouragement, and support to the students.

It was a very colourful Independence Day celebrations at Swabodhini this year. The primary students roused the spirit of nationalism in all by their rendering of Vande Mataram song and other desh bhakti slogans. The pre vocational students displayed and spoke about our national symbols –the flag, lotus, tiger, peacock, mango and hockey. Vocational students did a bright and beautiful depiction of unity in diversity and brought out the spirit of national integration in this blessed country of ours.

Mr Srinivasaraghavan CFO of simpsons and co – from the Amalgamations Group visited the school on 22nd August and appreciated the work done by our teachers and staff. He enjoyed interacting with the students and was impressed by their art and craft activities.

Our beloved charity partner – United Way Chennai had organised an expo called Dream Madras 2016 for schools on the topic ‘Chennai as a Smart City’ on 24th August 2016 to commemorate Madras Day at Valluvar Kottam. Students from various schools enthusiastically participated in this event, where they were given several topics to exhibit like energy conservation, pollution control, green revolution, smart recycling, resource sharing and so on.

Food stalls were also arranged to distribute snacks and lunch to the students. Our Swabodhini students Mr Ramesh, Ms Lalitha and Ms Kumari participated in the event as volunteers in a food stall and did the food distribution.

Birth of little Krishna was celebrated with pomp and grandeur at Swabodhini with cute little Krishna footsteps drawn in traditional Rangoli. The portrait of the lord was adorned by leaves, tiny branches and few flowers. Akshay Narasimhan of Primary 2 and Nithyasree of Preprimary dressed up as little Krishna and Radha respectively. A short introduction of story of Krishna narrated by V Venkat Narender of Vocational group

The Pre-vocational students recited the famous verse “Yadha yadha hi darmasya…” from Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4. Translation of the same was given by our new vocational student, Kaustav. This was followed by bhajans and songs of Krishna by Mr V Venkat Narender of Vocational Unit and Ms Sowmya, our vocational intern. Our Assistant Administrative Officer Ms Ramya also participated by reciting a sloka. Janmashtami special sweets and savouries were distributed to all staff and students

12th standard Students of Chettinad Vidyashram had one on one interaction with our students as part of their psychology curriculum. 25 students participated, wherein each student had an informal conversation with each of our students, by taking the help of teachers and sub staff. It was a very enjoyable session and with a plenty of smiles and happiness.

The second Swayam shop for the month was conducted at Dev Apartments in Thiruvanmiyur. This is the first time that Swabodhini set shop in this apartment. The residents were very enthusiastic about the concept and encouraged our vocational students

We wrapped up this month with a beautiful food carnival organised by the students for their parents. It was truly a heartwarming day to see the parents of the vocational students enthusiastically participate in all the events organised by their children.

This event was ideated and conducted by Swabodhini to provide socialization and life skill training to the students. The students were made to welcome the guests. They then read out the list of games that were to be conducted and the rules of the games. After a fun filled afternoon of games and frolic, lunch prepared by the students were served to the proud parents.

Various games like four quadrants, dumb charades, passing the parcel, throw a ring, spot the recipe etc were conducted.

Winners were awarded gift vouchers from Swayam Shop. Diyas and decorative gift envelopes made by our students were also sold during the event.

The highly pepped up students started preparing for the big lunch from the previous day itself! Preparation like cutting, slicing, stringing, peeling, grating vegetables were done well in advance.

The menu was elaborate and the food was sumptuous. The parents were very proud of the food prepared and served with love and dedication by their children.

The menu for Carnival lunch included the following

• Vegetable sandwich
• Idlies & coconut chutney
• Vegetable biriyani & raita
• Curd rice
• Lemon juice