Unnati Newsletter April-September 2021

What’s Inside

Note from our CEO

Events

Student’s testimonials

Mr. Ramesh Swami

Dear Friends!

Life is always about Hope and Love. The pandemic has taught us many things in life and among them what have come out very strong are the emotions of hope and love. The year 2022 is on and we all step into this New Year with a lot of hope and enthusiasm. We are extremely grateful to the Almighty for helping us through the most difficult times ever faced by mankind.

Unnati bounced back brilliantly and in spite of the very tough times which we faced during 2020-2021 and the first quarter of April to June 2020- 21, we are on the way to achieving our target for 2021-2022, in a period of 8 months. Unnati has always been a progressive organization and has looked at solutions for the future. Even when the pandemic was on we knew that we will get over it and a situation where a lot of youth would be rendered jobless will have to be addressed on a war footing. We geared ourselves for the same, planned it in advance and today are executing one of the shortest ‘term programs’ in the world, 35 calendar days, with a guaranteed job at the end of the training, irrespective of their qualification.

We effectively utilised a lot of the time during the pandemic months to strengthen our curriculum, IT infrastructure, LMS (Learning Management Systems), Train the Trainer Program, reviving connect with our alumni and above all optimising our cost of operations.

All our 30 centres have been functional from July/August. Our special appreciation to the entire staff of Unnati, right from the changemakers (Trainers), Community Change Agents (Field Executives). Our Admn Staff, including accounts and security, HR, Placement Team and Volunteers, who have braced the pandemic and yet delivered. Hats off to their resolve and dedication in coming out daily to their respective centres to help the underprivileged youth get trained and placed. When majority of the country worked from home, we had our team delivering on the ground. For me, they compare to the covid warriors who were engaged in ensuring all the people received essential services, across the country.

There is joy, pleasure, and happiness in walking that extra mile. Come 2022, I urge everyone to definitely walk that extra mile. I can assure you that the reward compares to none. I wish you all a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I share below a wonderful paragraph on Madame Katherine Hepburn which will leave your hearts churning and ready to take on the New Year with all the required energy.

This year sharing with you a true story from the childhood of the great Hollywood actress Katherine Hepburn. It is titled ‘JOY OF GIVING’.

JOY OF GIVING – the real-life story from the childhood of the great Hollywood actress Katherine Hepburn.

One among the great Hollywood actresses, Katherine Hepburn was possibly the only person who won the Oscar four times,  apart from being nominated a dozen times but was never present at the grand ceremony to receive it. 

She believed that the affection and love of the people who enjoyed her acting and cinema were her greatest awards.

Katherine Hepburn was from a middle-class family with a modest upbringing. But her parents constantly instilled strong values in her growing up days. 

One such incident was narrated by her later, in her own words:

“Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.

Finally, there was only one other family between us and the ticket counter.

This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. 

The way they were dressed, you could tell they didn’t have a lot of money, but their clothes were neat and clean.

The children were well behaved. All of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands.

They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, animals, and all the acts they would be seeing that night. From their excitement, one could sense they had never been to the circus before. 

The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be. 

The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, “You’re my knight in shining armour.” 

He was smiling and enjoying seeing his family happy.

The ticket lady asked the man how many tickets he wanted. 

He proudly responded, “I’d like to buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.” 

The ticket lady stated the price. The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man’s lip began to quiver. 

Then he leaned a little closer and asked, “How much did you say?” 

The ticket lady again stated the price.

The man didn’t have enough money. 

How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

Seeing what was going on, my dad reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and then dropped it on the ground. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) 

My father bent down, picked up the $20 bill, tapped the man on the shoulder, and said, “Excuse me, sir, and this fell out of your pocket.”

The man understood what was going on. He wasn’t begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking, and embarrassing situation. 

He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering and a  tear streaming down his cheek, he replied; “Thank you, thank you, sir.  This really means a lot to me and my family.”

My father and I went back to our car and drove home. 

The $20 that my dad gave away is what we were going to buy our own tickets with.

Although we didn’t get to see the circus that night, we both felt a joy inside us that was far greater than seeing the circus could ever provide.

That day I learned the value of Giving. If you want to be large… larger than life, learn to Give. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – it is only concerned with what you are willing to give, which is everything.

• Katherine Hepburn

ADDRESS –

Unnati Centre Temple Road, Sadananda Nagar, NGEF East Bangalore – 560038.

Events

01/04/21

Our ChangeMaker Mr. Nanda Kishore conducted sessions on “Calling” both Audio & video calls. The students went through the demonstration and understood how to respond to questions under pressure situations.

01/04/21

Our ChangeMaker Mr. Nanda Kishore conducted sessions on “Calling” both Audio & video calls. The students went through the demonstration and understood how to respond to questions under pressure situations.

03/04/21

Our ChangeMaker Ms. Poonam Malagi from Belagavi centre, conducted sessions for the 38th   batch on “Handling customer queries”, students actively participated and enacted different roles.

03/04/21

Our Attur centre students’ chart activity on positive attitude session from life skills.

14/04/21

Public speaking session held at UNNATI’s Hospet centre for students of 35th batch.

15/04/21

Our centre in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, engaging students in various activities monitored by our ChangeMakers Mr. Arun and Mr. Surya on topics such as ‘Ill effects of alcohol consumption and ‘stress management.

16/04/21

A counseling call was held for the 47th Batch students in Kirtinagar Live from HO. It was conducted by Ms. Sharmila. She interacted with students individually to find out their interests in various job roles to provide them a better platform for placements.

20/04/21

UNNATI’s UNXT changemaker Mohammad Haroon conducted an orientation for the final year students from the Government ITI Beguru, It feels like a good beginning to work with the college. Happy with the pitch, college authorities are excited to associate with us in the future too.

20/04/21

UNNATI is proud to announce that our changemakers conducted UNXT orientation for 37 students of the Govt ITI college, Channagiri, Many of the youth signed up for the program.

24/04/21

Students celebrated the birth day of the security person at Unnati HO Mr.Purushotam’s. It was a beautiful gesture by our students. It was well appreciated by all.

28/04/21

Mr. Jeyaraj, conducting Tally classes at our Unnati Centre, Madurai. 

01/05/21

Orientation program in progress for the 10th batch of youth at UNNATI’s Madurai centre in Tamilnadu conducted by our changemaker Mr. G.Jeyaraj.

26/05/21

Orientation for new batch 105th at UNNATI’s Head Office in Bangalore. The students were taught about the necessity of life skills and their benefits, the importance of every session they would undergo during the 35-day program, a familiarization of schedules, and the making of “Ground Rules”.

29/05/21

The session on sales & marketing strategy was taken by trainer Mrs. Vijaishri for our 105th batch at Unnati Bangalore.

04/06/21

A session on ‘Store Operation & Management, Hubli Centre From the 3rd Batch, Here, students were asked to enact a conversation between a customer and a store operator. Through such activities, our youth learn about store operation work, daily store checklists, Inventory management, branding, store decoration, safety, and security at the workplace.

05/06/21

Unnati Kirtinagar celebrated World Environment Day and Kabir Jayanti through an e-class programme. On this occasion, students took part in many online activities. They made eco–friendly bags, posters and wrote slogans on the theme ‘Save Environment.

08/06/21

UNNATI’s Kirtinagar centre in Delhi, under the supervision of our changemakers there, conducting a session on ‘Workplace Ethics’. We train our students to understand the importance of workplace ethics and values.

05/06/21

“We feel humbled to inform you that with the support from Tally Solutions, Unnati Foundation has provided 4 Nos. of Oxygen Concentrators to Sathya Sai Multispeciality Hospital Bhattarahalli, Bangalore 560049”

24/06/21

 This month our Unnati Ballari team conducted a parent’s meeting for the ongoing 34th online batch wherein the Changemakers interacted with the parents to understand the positive changes in their children since admission into the course.           

13/07/21

A parent-teacher meeting was held at Unnati Hospet centre.

17/08/21

Our “Unnati Kirtinagar Center” has started the 50th batch with an admirable strength of 30 students.    

09/08/21

Change-Maker Mr. Ashok conducted a UNXT class for 0505 batch students at Government ITI College, Bagalkot.          

24/08/21

Unnati was featured live on “DD Chandana” on the show “Hello Geleyare” which was hosted by Mr. Venkata Swamy on 24/08/2021.

25/08/21

Our UNXT Change-Maker Mr. Mushtaq Patel, conducts orientation in government ITI College, Basavakalyan. Students and staff were excited about the commencement of the UNXT program in their college.

27/08/21

Campus interviews at our Unnati Tiruvannamalai Centre by KOTAK Mahindra Bank. Students attended this interview & were selected and placed. Happy placements.

28/08/21

TPDDL Zonal Manager Mr. Nitin Goel visited our Unnati Jahangirpuri Centre and gave a talk on “Building successful careers” in the future.

28/08/21

Our Mira road Centre has completed the valediction for the 3rd batch of students.

30/08/21

Our Unnati Nagpur Centre commenced the 21st batch, As part of the course orientation, the students created the “Ground rules” which they will adhere to during the 35-day Unnati program.

30/08/21

Our Unnati Hospet Centre has started the 39th batch. This picture is taken during the 1st activity, where students create their own ground rules.

31/08/21

Unnati Tenkasi centre celebrated the 31st batch valediction.

31/08/21

“Unnati Davanagere Centre” has completed the 39th batch.

03/09/21

These are the pictures of our “Unnati Bidar Centre”. Our 36th batch students attended their 2nd counseling and placement calls.

03/09/21

Pictures from the “Pat A Back” session of “Be A Changemaker” training session for our newly recruited Changemakers at Unnati Ho, Bangalore centre. All the very best to our newly recruited Changemakers!! 

04/09/21

Unnati Mira Road Centre started its 4th batch recently. Here you can see students with the “Ground Rules.” 

09/09/21

Unnati Redhills Centre has started the 40th batch this week. Students are creating their own ground rules. Creating ground rules is the first teamwork we do at Unnati.

11/09/21

Unnati Bellary Centre, wrapping up a “Pat A Back session” for the 36th batch. We see smiles everywhere! 36th batch valediction day

14/09/21

Unnati Bellary Centre has commenced the 37th batch. These are the photos of the Ice breaker activity session conducted for the new joiners.

14/09/21

Parents meeting of 51 batch was held at Unnati Kirtinagar Centre.

14/09/21

Unnati Badarpur Centre has started the 61st batch today. These are the pictures from the orientation session.

18/09/21

The 32nd batch students of Unnati Hassan Centre on their valediction day.

20/09/21

37th batch valediction day photos from Unnati Tumkur Centre.

22/09/21

UNXT ChangeMaker Mr. Siddaroodh, conducting UNXT classes at Kittur Rani Chennamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi.

22/09/21

Students of 53rd batch at Unnati Raichur Centre, attending their virtual counseling calls organized by Unnati Head Office.

22/09/21

44th batch students of Unnati Mysore Centre with their “Ground rules” and a life skills session on “Managing emotions”.

29/09/21

The TPDDL team visited our Unnati Jahangirpuri Centre to conduct an awareness session on the symptoms of Tuberculosis and Interact with the students.

29/09/21

37th batch students of Unnati Bidar Centre, attending their first Counselling call.

30/09/21

Unnati Nagpur Centre conducted the 22nd batch youth orientation session.

Name – Ms. Soumya Batch – 109th Unnati HO, Bangalore Job after Unnati – Fab India Before coming to Unnati I had a lot of stage fear and lacked confidence in public speaking. Once I joined Unnati, I attended daily assemblies which helped me to gain self-confidence and now I can communicate with people without any hesitation.

Post Unnati I was recruited by Fab India which made my parents very happy.

I am thankful to Unnati to provide me the training and guidance which I will be able to leverage throughout my career.

Name – Mr. Vijay Kumar Batch – 110th Kurnool Unnati HO, Bangalore Job after Unnati – Fab India My life has changed a lot since I joined Unnati. They have taught me life-changing skills like Values, Life skills, corporate work ethics and helped me to improve my communication skills as well. I can now initiate a conversation with anyone without any hesitation.

Post Unnati I got offers from 3 companies and I decided to join Fab India. I am thankful to Unnati for helping me get rid of my self-doubt and to make me what I am today.

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