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How amazing is it when a marginalized girls skills project becomes an example for children from wealthy families in big schools to learn from! We are SO grateful to the amazing school The Heritage School Vasant Kunj for inviting us as performers at their Founders Day 2023 celebrations. Sarvam Shaktis were inspired to speak and share the following amazing tips and life skills they learn at Shakti- A) How posture makes the body healthy and why is it necessary for students B) Sitting cross legged has innumerable health benefits and prevents aging of the knees C) Learning extra-curricular activities like dance and Yoga are KEY to wellbeing and emotional intelligence. Any skill is important if taken up seriously and MUST be incorporated instead of spending time on devices such as TV and iPads. D) Healthy eating and maintaining a fit body are again key indicators of wellbeing and the Shaktis shared their diets and how they DO NOT eat white sugar, consume dairy on a regular basis and also eat refined flours. E) Why pranayama and meditation are important especially from a students point of view. The Principals, teachers and students were SO blown away. The video captures the testimonials straight from their heart. 69 ARTISTES from Shakti in a bus on way to The Heritage School! Founders Day 2023 celebrations Cheered on by the middle school!!! CEO of Sarvam Shakti with the Principal of THSVK The role models Sarvam Shaktis inspiring the middle school! Being an Odissi dancer and Indian Dance teacher it gives me immense pleasure to watch Sarvam Girls perform on stage as I can feel that these young girls are working hard to preserve our Indian Culture with so much passion and dedication. They are the one of best example for the people who talks about "women empowerment" It's been almost 4-5 years I have been watching these girls growing up not only as a good dancers also I have seen the development of their overall personality. 4 years back when I got associated with Sarvam Shakti for a dance project through The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj there were only few number of students. But today, I am so glad to see around 60/65 Sarvam Shakti girls. I wish them all the best for the future and May they keep inspiring each one of us, specially our young generation. With best wishes, Pallavi Pramanik Dance Teacher at The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. Do see our previous collaboration a few years ago with The Heritage School Vasant Kunj where students of Sarvam Shakti inspired and taught the students of THSVK and vice versa! What an amazing learning over few weeks for both schools. Economic backgrounds can truly drive people poles apart but a meeting of the hearts through emotional intelligent skills is key. This project was the brainchild of our Founder, Nehha Bhatnagar

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

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

One of Nehha Bhatnagar's first disciples at her soon to be NGO project Sarvam Shakti was Shweta Kumari, a shy clumsy child with the sweetest smile. The daughter of a mother with a leg injury from Polio who works as a maid and a father who is deaf and mute who cleans windows in malls in Delhi, Shweta lives in a room not larger than 7 feet by 7 feet in Delhi's Rangpuri Pahadi urban slum. The oldest of three sisters (all students at Sarvam Shakti), she has been training in all of Shakti's programs since 2013 and is a seasoned Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, performer, teacher and has travelled far and wide to showcase her skills. She is a pleasure to interact with and learn from, her students tell us. Yes, her students! She is a dance teacher part-time (she is also pursuing her Bachelors in Delhi University and studying make-up seriously!) at MCD school Malviya Nagar, Delhi where she is paid 1250 Rs. an hour to teach Bharatanatyam and Yoga. Check out some really cool recreations of memorable pics from 2013 and 2023 of Nehha Bhatnagar with Shweta and her students! Check out Shweta's resume here! Shweta, aged 8 in 2013 with Founder of Sarvam, Nehha Bhatnagar Shweta with her students in 2023 with the Founder of Sarvam, Nehha Bhatnagar Nehha Bhatnagar teaching Shweta the basics of Bharatanatyam in 2013 Nehha Bhatnagar teaching Shweta and Shweta's students in 2023! Check out Shweta performing with the Shakti troupe at India International Centre earlier this year for international delegates! Shweta standing front left dressed in blue dance costume A short video on Shweta and her family- Shweta choreographs reels on Instagram using her skills in Classical dance as a base for exploring different styles of movement. Check her out on shweta_shah41!

A 10 year old girl came to our centre to celebrate her birthday with the Shaktis. She brought cake for all of the shaktis. She expressed her dreams for helping the marginalized kids in the future. We thanked the mother for encouraging her daughter to take up such courageous and generous actions. We wish her all the best for her future. We have had many such individuals come celebrate their anniversaries and birthdays with our Shaktis. If you wish to do the same, we request you to write to us on culture@sarvamfoundation.org

An older couple from Gurgaon Mohinder uncle and Mohini aunty from Canada, now residents at Crest Gurgao came to visit us to donate school bags for the Shaktis. They have been since then, coming periodically to support us with some goods in kind. They have seen our Shaktis perform at Crest previously and were thoroughly impressed by their confidence and level of skill. They expressed their heartfelt appreciation for the work the organisation has been doing for the Shaktis. We are so grateful to have such generous people with us. The world is a happier and kinder place because of such souls. To know ways to get involved with us, please visit https://www.sarvamshakti.org/get-involved

The Shaktis were invited at the Family Day function of the SITA Day, an aeronautical company. The performance was at a beautiful hotel venue in Gurgaon where all the family members of the employees were out for a day of celebrations. The Shaktis performed various pieces of Bharatanatyam, Kathak and rhythmic Yoga at the event and compered the pieces themselves. They even choreographed the Namo-Namo piece by themselves! The families, many of them, had never seen Classical before and were pleasantly surprised by the interest they could maintain while watching it. The girls were treated to a sumptous lunch and were taken pictures with by all the employees! To invite us to any corporate or other events of organizations means giving a much needed confidence-building platform for our Shaktis. Do write to us on culture@sarvamfoundation.org to let us know your thoughts and ideas on this!

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.

A workshop on “Introduction to Mental Health” for the middle school Shaktis was conducted by Pheiroijam Anju, our Project Specialist. The kids were introduced to the importance of mental health and how it is important to know the different types of mental disorders in life to help people as well as themselves. The workshop started with the gratitude song by the kids and some breathing exercises. The Shaktis were also taught to identify mental health related problems. Some of the awareness videos meant for the kids were shown to the Shaktis to help better understand the concept. They include stories about how to help their friends when they are in need after going through a traumatic incident in life. Including technology based kinds of teaching makes the kids more interesting and fun.

Chetna who is the head of our nutrition vertical, Shakti Sanjeevani, conducted a workshop on Nutrition at the Gurgaon centre for the middle school Shaktis. Here is an audio recording of her talk- super simple and informative! https://drive.google.com/file/d/18yNCNkagZUIuUzEi7Hxy_9c613oFCm4F/view?usp=share_link They were introduced with the various nutrients that we get from the foods we eat to the water we drink. They were taught that these nutrients can be present in all the vegetables and their products that we eat everyday. Since all the Shaktis belong to the marginalised community they were taught that they can get these nutrients in affordable products too. The little Shaktis were so grateful to learn about all the nutrients that we need in our body to lead a healthy life. The Shaktis went home eagerly wanting to share the information with their family members. Chetna has been involved with the Shaktis since a year now and the Shaktis were so happy to learn from her once again. About Chetna: She hails from Mumbai and has completed her majors in Nutrition from the SNDT Mumbai. Chetna has been passionate about Child Nutrition since the time she was in college and that passion got extended to her taking it up professionally. She had her initial stint with Nestle post which she ventured out on her own to craft PediaNutri. With two boys of her own aged 9 years and 12 years now, her hunger for crafting and sharing ways and means of proper upbringing grew manifolds. Chetna carries with herself 17 years of enriching experience that spans across one to one consultations, creating meal plans, guidance on child upbringing w.r.t eating habits, taking sessions for young moms. She specialises in tackling specific issues like obesity, fussy eating and sports nutrition (for kids) and healthy eating & sustainable weight loss (for Adults). Chetna is a regular blogger with Momspresso, Say Cheese and First Moms w.r.t experiences on Early Life Nutrition, Baby Food Recipes, Meal Plan, Cool Foods for Warm Days, Raising healthy, Child habits and upbringing etc

Our organisation was visited by two young African ladies- one was an accountant and the other a nurse back in Malawi. Our trustee Captain Ajit Balaram is funding their education and they were visiting India to attend Ajit's daughter Suma's wedding. Incidentally, Suma is the talented graphic artist who has made the Sarvam Foundation logos! They were presented with various dances by the Shaktis and were so fascinated to see the little Shaktis excelling in dance and yoga. They also were enthusiastic to learn Kathak and Bharatnatyam. Our Shaktis proudly taught them the steps for Kathak and Bharatnatayam. They also taught the Shaktis, African dance steps and danced together. Both of them showed great interests in Bharatnatyam and Kathak. One of the ladies was so fond of the dance uniform of the Shaktis and requested to give her a uniform. So, our shaktis gifted a pair of uniforms to her which consisted of salwar suits with dupatta. Their friend Violet in the new Shakti uniform dress!! It was such a great pleasure to have them among our midst. The kids enjoyed their presence and were elated to learn African dance steps which were so new to them. The kids made a lovely memory of the evening by laughing and dancing with them.