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On the auspicious day of the Republic Day, 26th January, 2023, our Shaktis were very busy running around the city of Gurgaon. We were so fortunate to get invited to perform at many different places. All the Shaktis were divided into three different groups and performed at various societies like The Park Place, Exotica, The Crest, Bel Air and La- Lagoon. We are so grateful to our core team volunteers, Leads for the projects Shakti Sewa, Shakti Speak, Shakti Sanjeevani and Shakti Shiksha- Tripti, Ritu, Chetna and Alka for helping organize our showcases in their upscale localities in Gurgaon where thousands of appreciative audiences watched our showcases! Rhythmic Yoga on the patriotic song Ae Watan from Raazi They also performed at a Government School at H Block and at the Community Park of H-Block. They performed Yoga, Vande Mataram, Sarvam Poem, Puspanjali, Gurubrahma and Pink amidst the chilly weather of winter. Many of the residents of the societies appreciated the work of the Sarvam Foundation and dedication of the Shaktis. They showed their appreciation by distributing sweets and snacks. Vande Mataram- dance, Yoga, martial arts, contemporary At the event in various locations, we introduced Sarvam Foundation and told them about the values that we inculcate at the organisation like self worth, compassion, kindness and confidence. This is to help spread the values that we as human beings should possess and share among ourselves. Leading a march despite the cold:) With our core team members, Tripti and Chetna! Shaktis performed at over 10 venues! With our core team member Alka Sondhi!

Our guiding light, our unending inspiration and a mother to us all- our Chief Empowerment Officer, Hemangi Bhatnagar gives us SO much love. We prepared a skit on her kindness towards us and also gave her SO many hugs and letters of our love. Thank you Maam so much for making us stand on our feet, believe in ourselves and have this amazing identity as accomplished women!

Sarvam Shaktis live by a healthy lifestyle, no matter how straitened and constrained the means are for their parents who come from economically marginalized backgrounds. They are trained to eat healthy on limited budgets and also NEVER consume refined foods and to limit dairy as a treat very occassionally. The idea is to ELIMINATE inflammatory foods while also adding more nourishing vegetables to the diet. The Shakti Sanjeevani project is a milestone in health as vegetable juice made of 15 vegetables and fruits is given to the girls daily along with black chana dal and banana. To promote our thought process and raise some money too, we held a food stall with Gluten Free Ragi Bhel, brainchild of our Digital Lead Shakti Alka Sondhi at an upscale Gurgaon event recently! Alka Sondhi with our CEO Hemangi and the Shaktis Neelam, Gudiya, Khushboo and Soni who managed the stall! To invite us to such local colony stall events, do email us on culture@sarvamfoundation.org! It helps raise awareness on our work whilst also promoting good healthy information to citizens.

Nehha Bhatnagar visiting the Bengaluru studio of Sarvam in 2023 One of the senior Shaktis leading the session under the able guidance of their teacher, artiste Kruthi! Kruthi works as a corporate employee in an MNC, is a dancer and also a volunteer teacher at Shakti. We are so grateful for her heart! Nehha's sister-in-law Dr Shylaja Rudraiah, a medical doctor generously donates her time in speaking to the girls and their families on health and wellbeing. Nehha's in-laws have so generously donated their home's third floor as a full fledged studio with a wooden dance floor and mirrors and lots of breeze! Please see Kruthi's impressive resume here- Shaktis here come twice a week and work on various Kathak skills under Kruthi's guidance! We hope to make this a regular centre as our Delhi and Gurgaon ones with 40 more students in the coming year:) If you know of any artistes who may wish to volunteer their skills at Sarvam Shakti in West Bengaluru, please do write to us at culture@sarvamfoundation.org

Tripti, our head of outreach at Shakti (the Shakti Sewa project) held an amazing workshop with the Sarvam Shaktis at the Gurgaon centre. It was on self-worth, trusting and loving ourselves and how important we should be to ourselves. If our cup is empty, how do we fill that of others? We should love ourselves deeply and truly see ourselves as strong, beautiful and trustworthy. We are our own best friends. Tripti with the Shaktis The girls were deeply moved through the question answer sessions to look at themselves in the mirror and truly send themselves loving kindness. Tripti comes with a background of project management from the technology sector. She is the Vice President at Natwest Bank From her: Throughout the years of my professional work, I have gained lot of expertise in Financial Service Sector, especially in Capital Markets and Investment Banking Domain. I am especially proud of wider tech implementations that I have led in the capacity of Business Analyst and Project Manager, which was both challenging and fulfilling.Apart from this professional career, I have passion to give back to society and to participate in serving humanity. I believe in living with purpose and giving meaning to life. What really gives me zeal in life is contributing towards society. With Sarvam Shakti, I found wings to this passion. Girls in Sarvam Shakti are true examples of Living with Values’, by learning yoga and Indian classical dance forms they display the power of ancient art forms. Every step and move they perform on stage indicate the devotion they have put in learning and practicing these arts with full vigor. Cultured, full of mannerism and with lots of joy in their heart they are epitome of unconditional universal love. Tripti Sharma Saraswat

For so many of our Shaktis, the idea of visiting a 7 star property like The Leela as invited artistes - the only group invited to perform at the opening of the massive District 3010 conference where such eminent Rotarians, national and international, were present. Shaktis were invited by senior Rtn Pran Mehta, a massive supporter of our work since the past few years now. Just hear the excitement from two Shaktis whose first performance this was in a hotel. They are the daughters of daily wage labourers- contract painters who live in a small room in the Sikanderpur urban slum. Infact the girl on the left, Soni was almost too scared to even speak when she had first come to us. And now she is brilliant at conducting Rhythmic Yoga practice sessions and also Kathak dance! Hear the daughters of auto-rickshaw driver bhaiyas share their experience of the stage- they are a bit more seasoned at showcases for the past year with Sarvam Shakti! Watch their performance!

Ever so grateful to Mr and Mrs Kohli of H Block Dlf Phase 1 for hosting the Shaktis to a sumptuous hearty lunch today with so much love and care❤️ 125 girls were on top of the world to be given so much respect. It goes a long way in building their confidence and self-worth. The Kohlis are amazing generous souls who feed our girls every year to a vast spread of healthy meals. If you wish to donate food for Shaktis, please write to us on culture@sarvamfoundation.org

We were graced by the presence of Mrs Meenakshi Prabhakar, director of HR at the awesome Hyatt hotel, Delhi. The Shaktis have performed for Womens Day 2022 at the hotel premise for all employees and staff and the director and her team were very impressed and volunteered to visit us to explore possibilities of such confident girls one day maybe working at the hospitality chain. The girls presented various pieces of their skill training and genuinely blew away the guests with their talent, composure, discipline, cleanliness and presence! Nehha Bhatnagar, our Founder has been teaching the Shaktis abhinaya or facial expressions and that is an amazing focus based and emotional intelligence empowering skill to learn. Yje delicate balance of only expressing facially and also communicating feelings to the audience is a special beloved skill the girls cherish and learn. The juniors and seniors demonstrated some pieces for the visiting guests. Piyu Bole abhinaya piece from Parineeta O Palanhare from Lagaan Mrs Prabhakar was very touched and profusely thanked us for presenting such a beautiful evening and also offering some healthy snacks. It was emotionally touching for all of them and ended on a very emotional note. At last, the Shakti gifted her a pot of flowers as a token of appreciation.

More than 60 of our Shaktis performed at the Inner Wheel Club Annual Sports Events at Jasola Sports Complex which is located at Jasola Vihar, Delhi. Many boys and girls from various NGO and schools from Delhi came to the event to participate. Many of our Shaktis participated in different races which included three-legged race, 100 meter race etc. Some of them presented a cultural dance show as an awareness to save trees and water. Our Chief Empowerment Officer, Hemangi Bhatnagar was a track and field champion in her younger days and needless to say was thrilled to mentor the girls in running practice weeks before leading up to the event! Our Shaktis running and winning! Some of them even won medals. Members of the Inner Wheel Circle welcomed us warmly. Lunch was served at the event. Our Shaktis set an example to the other participants by maintaining the decorum of cleanliness at the event. Few of the mothers of the Shaktis came along with us to witness the events. We are grateful for their support and for taking care of the children. The Shaktis enjoyed the whole journey back to the centre by singing and merry making. The mothers showed appreciation to Sarvam Foundation for giving them the opportunity to come out of their houses and explore. They expressed heartfelt gratitude to Sarvam Foundation for not only changing their daughters’ life but also their lives. 60 Shaktis dancing!

A workshop on “Compassionate” was conducted by Pheiroijam Anju, a psychologist who is also our Programme Specialist. The workshop was conducted for the middle school Shaktis. As an Ice Breaker, an activity was introduced to teach the value of accepting people and things as they are. As part of the activity, the kids were asked to look at others who share the same answers when asked some questions. They were also asked to look at others who answered differently from themselves without judging the others. This way the shaktis were taught the importance and how to practice compassion towards others. The kids also showed their skills of dance and yoga to each other. They were encouraged to show compassion towards each other and towards themselves. The Shaktis were so delighted to learn about a value such as compassion towards others and themselves.

Our Shakti Rinky, who is in the 2nd Year at the Applied Art Department of Meera Bai Dseu Maharani Bagh Campus conducted arts workshops for school children by visiting Delhi Government schools. She has exhibited more than 50 art pieces at the art exhibition organised by her department at her institute. Rinky was initially involved in dance at Sarvam Foundation. She even went to Poland to perform dance through the Sarvam Foundation. But as she became older she showed interest in Fine Arts. Therefore, the organisation funded her for her further studies with her mentor Mrs. Ritu Singhal, a renowned artiste. WATCH A VIDEO OF some of the exhibits- https://www.instagram.com/reel/Co9xefVPbOg/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D She then got admission into the prestigious course at the institute. Rinky has topped 2nd, 3rd and 4th Semester in a group of 100 students at her college. Here is the marksheet- look for rinky sahoo's name!! We even helped her family get electricity connection to her house to be able to study better. She truly is a powerful Shakti breaking barriers in life. She is one of the most inspiring Shakti who is giving light to all the Shaktis of the organisation. See our previous post on Rinky and some of her paintings:) https://www.sarvamshakti.org/post/rinky-the-fine-artist-and-topper-student-from-sarvam-shakti

Namo Namo, choreographed by the young Shaktis! The Shaktis performed at the Bengali Mela on 12th Febraury, 2023 which was held at Sector 27 for the Bengali community in Gurgaon area. There were many stalls which were beautifully set up. The stage was also gorgeously set up. The place was well decorated with a Bengali theme. Many people, especially from the Bengali community, who are residing in Gurgaon, visited the mela with their family and friends. Most of the stalls were very attractive due to their arts and handicrafts items. They performed the Sarvam Poem, Namo Namo, Naa-kato, Vande Mataram, Dholida and Yoga at the event. Many of the dignitaries and organisers of the mela appreciated the Shaktis for their beautiful performances. The crowd cheered and enjoyed it. At the event we introduced Sarvam Foundation and the workings of the organisation. We also told the crowd how Sarvam Foundation is working for the upliftment of the marginalised girl child of the society to bring a change in their life to help build a career of their own and to help spread the same values that the organisation upholds.