The Social Service League once again lived
up to its reputation of hard work and selfless dedication in the
colourful and by gone year 2008-09. Maintaining the tradition of the
past years and adding a lot more feathers to its cap, SSL continued
to stand by its motto "Service above self" and this has been proved
by the overwhelming response shown by the college students who
volunteered for its various events.
The Social Service League began its activities with the Vision
Correction Camp which was held on 11th and 12th of August, organized
in collaboration with Johnson and Johnson. We had more than five
hundred people appearing to get their eyes checked up. The highlight
of the event was the fact that unlike earlier years, the camp
managed to primarily cover the underprivileged people.
The second "Clean Campaign" was conducted on the sixth of September,
2008 in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Govt. of NCT,
Delhi and Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Smriti, Delhi, with the aim of
raising awareness among the students about cleanliness and hygiene.
This year, we managed to cover more areas than last year and this
included Kamla Nagar, Hudson line, Vijay Nagar, to name a few. This
event was a huge success with 157 volunteers turning up from various
colleges all over Delhi.
The next event was the Blood Donation Camp which was conducted on
the 12th September, 2008 in the College Hall in collaboration with
the Rotary Blood Bank .This event saw fewer people than last year
and we registered 450 people of which around 300 people donated. The
problem was partly to do with the documentary film that Mrs. Chibbar
filmed to spread awareness about blood donation. Looking at the
larger picture, we realized that the film would manage to convince
more people, and we were glad that Mrs. Chibbar had chosen our
college to be part of this glorious effort. Mr. Sudharshan Agarwal,
the former Governor of Uttaranchal was present at the event. All
these three events were organized in the first term itself,
something of a record and due credit goes to all volunteers and
executive council members who worked extremely hard to make this
possible.
Regular events like evening classes for the children of the college
karamchari's and other underprivileged children across North Campus
and reading for the visually challenged students continued to take
place as usual. SSL also screened Ice-age for the evening class
students on the 14th of November, 2008. The children's day party was
also organized on the 20th of November in the college hall where the
students of evening classes put up an exciting and entertaining show
for the entire college. The evening class picnic was organized on
the 8thof February where children were taken to the Nehru
Planetarium and India Gate. This year, apart from formally
installing the 2 GB MP3 players in the library which are regularly
issued to the visually challenged students, we also set up the
Braille Notice Board and had the first Delhi State Competition for
the visually challenged held in collaboration with the Blind Relief
Association of Delhi. This event was an attempt to give the 70 odd
students who participated from all over Delhi a platform to showcase
their talents.
The most important but unsung events of SSL are visits to Nirmal
Hriday and the Orphanage. Not only did these provide company to
elderly and destitute people, but also provided a feeling of inner
satisfaction to all of us who went there. We also organized a
cultural programme at Nirmal Hriday on the 31st of January, 2009
which was one of the most satisfying events that SSL had in this
academic year. More than 20 volunteers came for the same, marking a
definite rise from previous years.
The Social Service League (SSL) of St. Stephen's College also
organized a rehabilitation project to Barkhua village, Chatgaon,
Bihar from the seventh of November, 2008 to the 14th of November,
2008. The project was aided by Prajapati Mission in collaboration
with Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti. Interestingly, as we learnt
from the villagers, we were the first team to reach the village. We
also learnt from both the villagers and the SDM that we were the
only team to actually rebuild the homes of the affected families and
all of us are extremely proud of this. We built twenty homes
constructing them with bamboo, jute rope and tarpaulin sheets.
Despite initial difficulties, we were able to accomplish our primary
objective with help from the families in question. Where the
families had lost all working members in the flood, the neighbours
pitched in to help and we were able to finish building 14 houses in
ward 13, three in ward 12 and three in ward ten. After that, with
the studies conducted by the survey team, we gave one blanket, one
mosquito net, and one gamcha, thirty kilos of rice and five kilos of
dal to each of the 20 families whose homes we had built, and also to
15 more families who were economically the most deprived. We also
gave the medical supplies we had bought to the local civil hospital,
that was already short of medical supplies and was working overtime
to help the people of the nearby villages. We would like to take
this opportunity to thank Mr. C. K. Mishra, the Resident
Commissioner of Bihar Bhavan, Mr. Sarvan Kumar, the DM of Supaul,
Mr. Ajay Yadav, the SDM of Triveniganj, Mr. Chandra Mohan of the
Prajapati Mission and the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti without
whose help the project would not have been possible. We would also
like to thank the college authorities who were most supportive with
this venture.
The SSL also organize the second service project to Dehradun with
the Leprosy Mission of India (TLM) from the 24th to the 26th of
January, 2009. This has become a regular event of the SSL and
prepares volunteers in field work. It also forges ties among the
members themselves and hence this project has proved to be extremely
useful and one hopes that it is continued in the future. Apart from
that, we also conducted a mini-clean campaign drive at Sahastradhara
where we cleaned up a small section of the river, just like last
year. We would like to thank Mr. Ashok Massey for his support.
Apart from these events, we are also conducting a "First Aid"
workshop in collaboration with the Times Foundation and Red Cross /NDMA
from the 19th February to the 26th February, 2009. This is an
attempt to train volunteers in first aid so as to tackle emergency
situations. After the certified first aid course, volunteers will
also be placed in government hospitals around Delhi in the emergency
wards to gain first hand experience.
We have chalked out events in slum development and also
rehabilitation of sex workers' children with the World Carp along
with the Universal Peace Foundation, an associate organ of the
United Nations. We hope this particular venture grows to be a full
fledged one as its scope transcends national barriers and the Social
Service League of St. Stephen's College, arguably being the most
active social service society of Delhi University, should be at the
forefront of this endeavor.
This year, the society has grown in strength and has started
numerous new events that should continue. The Social Service League
continues to maintain its excellent work culture and hopes to carry
on its tradition of Nishkama Karma into the following year with
added zeal and zest. We at SSL take it upon ourselves to help anyone
in society who needs help, in whatever circumstances. The aim of SSL
should be to provide a helping hand not only to solve problems but
also to prevent them. This is of vital importance. This will be our
vision statement for the years to come and we hope that we are
successful. As always our motto shall be "Service above self".
