Singing Skylarks

Vision

Singing Skylarks aims to make India a country free from illiteracy, poverty, child labor and corruption. Singing Skylarks members visit various villages and outskirts of cities to identify the children who need education and help children employed in hotels, shops, and other industries to get education. The team strongly believes that every child deserves equal education and proper education will lead the country free from poverty, child labor and corruption. The NGO has worked extensively on providing scholarship for deserving poor children, and aims to provide "education for all" in few years by setting up schools in cities, towns and villages and providing quality education at subsidised cost for poor and deserving children.

Mission

The objectives of Singing Skylarks broadly include the following:

Anti-Smoking and Career Counseling

Singing Skylarks undertook a project to counsel a child who was addicted to smoking and drinking at an early age. To get him to quit, the project included arranging regular visits of the child and parents to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and counseling them on rehabilitation at the tobacco de-addiction center. The child showed rapid signs of recovery. Student Counseling

Equal Opportunity For Disabled Persons

Singing Skylarks volunteers visited the Shrishti Special Academy in Bangalore in 2008 to provide counseling for the physically disabled children. Many volunteers from the group visit the NGO every year to provide support and guidance to the children there.

Education Sponsor Programs

Singing Skylarks covers part of the education expenses for deserving students every year. As part of scholarships, the organisation allocates 1-2 Lakhs INR towards this cause annually. The program started with education sponsorship of a poor girl Deepa, who lost her parents at a young age. The volunteers continued to counsel the girl related to her studies. The progress of the girl was reported periodically and monitored till the year 2010. She is currently employed in a Nationalised bank. Singing Skylarks strongly believes in the empowerment of women and sponsored the higher education of a female security guard in 2011. Her progress was tracked by one of the NGO's volunteers, she is now employed in an accounting firm in Bangalore. All the other students who have been sponsored till date are monitored continuously for progress and show cased to the donors and this program has been a phenomenal success.

Dance Classes in Government schools

Singing Skylarks started a project to imparting dance knowledge to students in government schools on August 21, 2010. Not all government schools are able to teach dance or music, and even at those who do, many children cannot learn because of fees charged by teachers. A Singing Skylarks volunteer who has learned Bharatnatyam for about 10 years started the project and teaches to around 25 students in a government school near the Hebbal flyover in Bangalore.

Singing Skylarks Article on Bangalore CITY BUZZ Magazine

Better Living Conditions

Singing Skylarks learned about a village named Kerethanda which is located in the North Karnataka region in Hospet town. The village lacked even basic amenities, and the school was poorly maintained and without basic materials. Around 20 volunteers from Singing Skylarks from software companies visited the village twice in 2010 to counsel the students and donate books and geometry boxes to the school. Singing Skylarks in Kerethanda Article in DNA newspaper The NGO has also arranged for employment for the youngsters as security guards in the Bangalore area.

Environmental Initiatives

In 2010, Singing Skylarks learned about the problems existing in a lake in Bangalore near Bagmane Tech Park.

With the help of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Motorola Foundation, and Bagmane Builders, Singing Skylarks completed beautification of the lake, including the installment of a fountain and the planting of about 100 saplings.

Mobile Library Project

Singing Skylarks was presented with the CEO Award for Volunteerism 2009 from the Motorola Foundation, which brought in a grant. The grant is used to sponsor education for children and mobile library projects.

Singing Skylarks Awarded CEO Volunteerism for 2010

Education Sponsorship Projects

The education sponsorship worth 30000 INR is done until 2011. Two students from the KR Puram area studying in a government school and two students studying in a government school in the Karur area of Tamil Nadu have benefited so far. Singing Skylarks volunteers Zakir and Karthikeyan are spearheading the efforts and will monitor the progress periodically. Along the same lines, a sponsorship of 6000 INR was used during 2011 for the education related activities and higher studies of girl child and women. Education Sponsor Program details

The Quest For Knowledge Project (q4K)

Mobile Library

Singing Skylarks as an NGO, has set up Library for 30 Government schools till date in Bangalore East area. Volunteers of the organisation with the help of software organisations has gathered close to 4000 books till date benefiting around 2000 students in this area.

All the government schools identified had no Library or Library with least books which were not used much by the students. The program is having a great impact on the students since the volunteers keep visiting each of the schools identified in round robin basis, set up an effective library system and trained the teachers and students to start using the library in an effective manner to gain skills on various subjects such as Maths, Science, Social studies and General Knowledge.

Village Upliftment Project

Singing Skylarks has planned to execute and extend the various activities (Mobile Library and Education Sponsorship). Kerethanda in North karnataka (Introduced transformation over 2 phases with the citizens on the evils of alcoholism and importance of Education and uplifted the government school there). KR Puram Hobli (Learnt about the garbage pollution in the lake in DRDO KRPuram of Bangalore and improved the Sanitation by introducing enzymes, planting trees around and installing a fountain in the lake). Adopted Kodumudi in Erode district to introduce spoken english and computer classes to the schools and counseling for the villagers about the importance of these.

Promoting Music and Arts

Singing Skylarks works towards promoting classical music and dance amongst young students and conducts concerts and dance programs every year through Jaagrithi awareness events. Recently, the group has released a music album under the flagship of Lahari Music Label and a total of 20K INR raised is used for education sponsor.