Creating Awareness - Streetplay at Kharghar Station and Belapur Station

The students of ITM have totally engaged themselves for a noble cause and are making people aware about the different initiatives which HEART Foundation has undertaken.  

The students kicked of their event of street play at Kharghar railway station and Belapur railway station on 15^th-16^th October. The confidence and willingness to bring a change in the society was transparent in the electrifying act these students performed. They perfectly interacted with the crowd and their eye to eye contact with the audience made sure that the message of drug abuse and Meals a Day initiative etched in their memory for long.

                                                             At Kharghar Station

At Belapur Station

The founder of Heart Foundation Dr. Jayakar Ellis has been closely involved with Navi Mumbai police and has rescued many children from drug addiction and child abuse. The students of ITM along with Dr. Jayakar Ellis have tried to create an awareness for the above issues and tried to bring a small little change in their own way.

Spreading Awareness - Good Shepherd School and Municipal School

How can Child Sexual Abuse be handled?

Reach out, seek help, bring the culprit to justice and most importantly - do not blame the child.

This is what Heart Foundation tries to do with it's PACT(Prevention of Abuse of Children and Teens) initiative and is actively spreading awareness about the reality of child abuse. This, along with Heart Foundation's other initiatives like SEED (Save Earth from Eternal Destruction) and HeartBites (which has an initiative of its own called Meals-A-Day) are also being emphasised.

This time, it was the Good Shepherd School and Municipal School in Belapur which had the chance to interact with Dr. Jayakar Ellis (Founder of Heart Foundation) who was accompanied by the students of ITM Business School, Kharghar. Although the latter school was Marathi medium but as they say - message from the heart does not need any words or language.

The students of both the schools were only too happy to open up their minds and let in what Dr. Ellis had to convey.

Still there are a lot of hearts to be touched, a lot of awareness to be spread. After all, we're here to do good!

Creating awareness - Ryan International School,Vashi

HeartBites continues to spread it's message of sharing and awareness on child abuse.

The Team of 6 from ITM Business School , Kharghar , was more than warmly welcomed amidst a Unique,thundering clap of Ryan School students which they fondly call it as a Ryan Clap. The smiling , gleeful faces of such young, innocent kids can never fail to  brighten anyone’s day!

The seminar was begun by Dr Ellis who was leading our team  from ITM. He began by setting a fun-filled and a light mood for the  children by telling them sweet little jokes about school life and thus  connecting to them while also introducing the HEART FOUNDATION and its Projects to the Ryan students and Faculty.

The seminar  was continued by  other speakers from ITM who were successful in  driving all the messages of Heart Foundation - importance of not wasting of food, sharing of food ,helping ourselves and others ,significance of saving water and electricity. The team was successful in covering all the aspects of what Heart Foundation stands for.The entire seminar was a completely interactive session and fun filled at the same time where the children did more talking,shouting and cheering than our team!!!

The kids listened with undivided attention and showed great enthusiasm and participation in all the issues covered, proving both their concern and interest in all the social issues. The students of Ryan were also mature enough to respond and take in well the sensitive issues of Drug Abuse and Child Abuse.

The seminar was concluded in their Dear way by using their extremely special Ryan Claps, touching all our Hearts again!

It was followed by a brief Photo session with the kids to record our sweet memories forever.It was one of those days when you wonder ”whether Kids  learn from you or you learn more from them”.Kudos to Ryan and to Heart Foundation  to reach out to them to make a difference,teach and grow empathy!!

Creating Awareness - St. Augustine School,Nerul

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

A solution to people addicted to drugs or caught in the vortex of sexual abuse have is counselling,reaching out and medical assistance if necessary. But what if we address the problem in the root itself by spreading awareness about the ill-effects of Drug and Sexual Abuse, and how we can combat and face them?

That’s exactly what the students of ITM Business School,Kharghar did at St.Augustine School, Nerul.

The B-school students briefed school going children from class 7^th to 10^th about the various social issues like child abuse,child labour and harmful effects of smoking and drugs and poverty. They also spoke about the Heart foundation initiatives which help in reducing and eradicating such menace from the society.

The students were like sponge, absorbing each and everything that was being said and were highly interactive as well. They connected well with the ITM students and were ever so enthusiastic to come up with a myriad of questions to ask the presenters!

It was pretty much a fruitful interaction for both the set of students. We hope we can have the same impact in other schools as well!

And...here we go!

And we've done it!

The students of ITM Business School,Kharghar have tasted the essence of promotion through street play. They performed for the NGO Heart Foundation, whose initiative PACT (Prevention of Abuse of Children and Teens) works against drug abuse amongst children and impressionable teens. This initiative has reached over thousands of children and youth in different corporations and private schools to spread awareness about the menace.The second theme of the Street Play was wastage of food and it's impact - which is the underlying basis of another initiative - MAD (Meals A Day).

The students, on their part , chose the crowded Nerul Station at evening 6.30 P.M, which at that time filled with people returning home from work , schools or colleges. It wasn't easy to catch the attention of people rushing home, but after initial hiccups, we managed to make heads turn and notice us.The message was loud and clear - Say no to Drug Abuse and Say no to Food Wastage!

People stopped in their tracks to see what message was being conveyed. Some clapped, some looked thoughtful, while we spread the pamphlets of the NGO that showed the work they were doing, and clearly, they were listening and certainly emphasised with what we wished to do - bring about a change.

We're here to spread the message...and we've started our show!

Get set GO!!

It's time to walk the talk! The students of ITM Business School, Kharghar are preparing to get the message of NGO HearBites initiative of Meal-A-Day and the HEART Foundation's stand against rampant drug abuse. And it's a campaign that's going to catch the eye of the people of Navi Mumbai soon enough.
With the theme of food wastage and effects of drug abuse, the students are hoping the campaign reaches as many people as they can
The sweltering heat and humidity is not going to let down the students in their quest to do good to the society - for many of whom it's a first time of working with an NGO. 
Here's a glimpse of how the students are getting all set to catch your attention across various locations of Navi Mumbai like Nerul,Vashi,Kharghar and others.

Interns practising for the campaign under the guidance of Dr. Jayakar Ellis

Catch them making an impact tomorrow at Wonder's park, Nerul at 6.30 P.M...don't miss it!

First Step...

The students of ITM have rolled up their sleeves and gotten down to work for promoting a social cause – Meals-A-Day (MAD) by HeartBites- Love at First Bite. HeartBites is an initiative under the project STREE (Smash Tradition, Rehabilitate, Educate and Empower) of Heart foundation and aims at providing employment opportunities for abused women and the less educated by teaching them to cook and run the outlets. The revenue from HeartBites would go on to provide meals to the under-privileged and orphaned children in and around Navi Mumbai.

ITM, Navi Mumbai students working towards the Meals-A-Day Plan

The founder of HeartBites, Dr. Jayakar Ellis believes that the society can only progress when the people come together , cooperate and co-exist. This thought is what has driven him to work with the poor and needy for the past 15 years and has made an impact on their lives as well. 

Dr. Ellis has been closely involved with the Navi Mumbai police to also help the victims of child abuse, sexual abuse and drug abuse. His actions have greatly led to a fall in child abuse, as evident from the numbers from the newspapers.

Now Dr. Jayakar Ellis in association with the interning students from ITM Business School would now be concentrating on the MAD campaign that would help destitute children have a full meal a day. With this project people can sponsor upto three meals a day for individuals or families who cannot afford the food. After all, education can only be effective only when there’s no worry for where the next meal would come from. 

Dr. Jayakar Ellis with the interning students

HeartBites proposes to teach the young children to join hands and help their mates through the Joy of Giving week through this MAD initiative.