Charity At Home

Manavata Chaitanya Yatra (Humanitarian Enlightenment camp) was a 500KM cycling camp along with self-less service activities which is aimed to promote awareness among youth and to inspire them in taking social responsibility .This 6 days long camp demonstrated a successful team work.

Manavata has taken this initiative as a proactive approach to prevent social problems. “Before people getting into problems and before experiencing any worsening climate changes we thought we should make people enlightened to act on it and every one should realize their responsibility on this earth”. So every activity in this program is focused on empowerment and sustainability whilst inspiring people.

A great effort from around 500 volunteers who helped 2000 patients in medical camps, 20,000 poor people through clothes distribution, planting 6000 saplings, touched around 25,000 youthand inspired them through personality development, health awareness sessions. Overall it was a great success. Along with Manavata many other organizations like Prakrithi Jeevana Vidhanam, Vivekananda Seva Samithi, Jana Vijnana vedika, All friends foundation, Ramananada Theerdha institute, Forest department (Hyderabadand Khammam) and many more have participated. It was a great learning in this camp. People have given us warm welcome everywhere, encouraged us and many youth have got inspired by this event. Some people have questioned us.. it is like a common question “Why are you doing this? are you getting any benefit or money from government?” when volunteers said it is a self-less service and they donate some money from their income and serve people through these camps, it was a kind of surprise for them. Coming to cycle route, Choutuppal to Suryapet high way is bit dangerous, as it is just a double road with no dividers. But fortunately lorry owners were in strike at same period (5^th until 10^th), so we had very less traffic on the road. Khammam to Rajahmundry road is very good and not much traffic as well. We have learned several things in different aspects like social, cultural, nature, agricultural, behavioral and spiritual. We have seen several types of lands, crops, lifestyles, natural resources etc. Rice, sugar cane, maze, papaya, guava, banana, coconut, palm, mango, cashew nut, red gram like lintels, ground nut, chilly, tobacco and many more cultivated in areas in this route. Different kind of soils red, black, mixed, sandy, rocky etc. We have also found suffering people from illness like arthritis, diabetic, BP etc, a puppy crying due to a small bike accident to her leg where bike fellow went off from there without taking care of puppy, but some local kind lady took care of it.

Route map: is as shown in following picture, which covers places in Andhra Pradesh state of India, Hyderabad ,L.B.Nagar, Choutuppal, Chityal, Narketpalli, Nakirekal, Suryapet, Potlapahad, Khammam, Vyra, Kallur, Sattupalli, Aswaraopeta, Jangareddygudem, Dharmaraopet, Koyalguda, Kovvur, Rajahmundry, Dawaleswaram, Kadiyam, Dwarapudi, Anaparthi, Polamuru, Rayavaram and Lolla

Volunteers organized themselves into four different teams:
1. Cycling
2. Cloth distribution & plantation
3. Health and Medical camps
4. Personality Development.
The respective teams played their respective roles very well.
Whole program was planed well in advance by Manavata team. Local volunteers for plantation, institutions for PDP, villages to organize health camps and stop over for night halt were identified, in advance, through a route survey by a set Manavata volunteers in order to organize different programs smoothly.

A great team work from different manavata chapters mainly Manavata Hyderabad, Manavata Ashram and Manavata UK chapters have done a great work. A brief update on day-to-day activity of the camp is as follows:

Day 1: (Hyderabad - Pochampalli - Chityal) - 80KM (5th Jan 2009)

The day started with a prayer and then rally was flagged off at Astalakshmi Temple, Dilsukhnagar. Team 2 had started their activity before night at 10PM. They loaded the truck with clothes at share-a-service office in Hyderabadand collected saplings from the forest department at 2am. Srinivas and Prakash have prepared breakfast (crushed wheat upma) for all the teams. Program started with an initial strength of 25 volunteers including all the teams, which includes 9 for cycling.While the cyclists were making progress km by km, the other teams in parallel were advancing in their respective planned activities.
Health: A team of volunteers under the leadership of Dr.Rudresh, reached Pochampalli and conducted a Ayurvedic medical camp at 11 A.M and another one in Koyyalagudem in the afternoon. Around 600 patients were benefited through these camps.
Environment:Saplings & clothes were distributed in multiple villages, which were pre-identified in our route survey.
Education: A team of volunteers under the leadership of great orator Sri Cheekala Suryanarayana have visited Swami Ramananada Theerdha rural institute. He has given one excellent lecture before the learned audience at this institute in Pochampalli. This area is the place of weavers who are having dexterity in making Sarees. CS has taught about personality development for the 350 students and Mr.Srinivas Chowdary Alluri, founder of Manavata and the head of Chaitanya Yatra team taught ethics and purpose of human life - on this glorious day after completing first 50KM of his cycling. Dr.Hanumantha Rao, Director of the Institution has extended his full support to the team. His hospitality is laudable and happy augury to all the members on the first day. He has arranged lunch for all the teams. Cycling team reached to Chityala at 7 PM after completing 80KM. Panchayat president, local eenadu reporter and other villagers have enquired about the camp and showed their hospitality. Teams took rest in a dormitory.

Day 2: (Chityal - Suryapet - Potlapahad) - 70KM

The day started at 5am, and arranged plants and clothes for local panchayat in Chityal with the support of local volunteers. We had a brief meeting in village Panchayat along with village president and explained them about the program. We all did 10 minutes of meditation after the meeting. President and the villagers have felt very happy after seeing the teams’ enthusiasm, to teach about environment and health. We started cycling around 7:30AM.
There was lot of wind in opposite direction and bit of uphill, which made cyclists work hard. Srinivas has reached Suryapet prior to other cyclists to attend the PDP program.
Harif from All-friends-foundation in Suryapet helped us to organizing a PDP session in SV College. Session started at 10:30am with Sri Suryanarayana’s lecture to the young aspirants. By the time he was closing his talk, Srinivas has joined this program and gave a brief talk on youth’s responsibility for their own development and social development. While Srinivas was addressing in the PDP, rest of the cyclists were nearing to Suriapet and managed to reach at 1PM. We all had lunch together. SV college staff & all-friends-foundation gave a warm welcome to the team and arranged refreshments.
All-friends-foundation volunteers took responsibility to do plantation and clothe distribution locally as per plan.

Mobile office for co-ordination:
There were several things in pending state for next day’s program. Srinivas managed to find an internet center to sort out pending issues. It was a busy spot in that area and there was hardly any place in side the i-cafe. Then Prakash requested a shop owner who was kind enough to plug in a power extension box.Team have found some space on corridor and did a quick office setup at roadside with Prakash’s laptop and GPRS / Bluetooth connection. Srinivas, Prakash & Sudheer quickly made a few calls to project managers of different teams, doctors, local IMA and mandal PHC for more doctor volunteers. As there were more than 300 patients expected in next day’s camp in Potlapahad team was trying to arrange more doctors. Since it was a working day doctors were bit buy with their day to day duties. Prem’s mother managed to convince two of the local doctors to attend this camp. The next challenge was to sort out the plants for next day in Khammam. Srinivas has prepared a letter for forest department as requisition from Manavata and emailed to Naveen. Then Naveen Gurram went to Khammam forest department and managed to get the approval with the help of this letter. Md. Shahanwaz took list of medicines required for the camp from Dr. Veerappa and emailed, which was downloaded quickly onto laptop and ordered medicines. In an hour time team could manage to sort out all pending issue.
Potlapahad: 18KM away from Suryapet, it is an interior village. We have reached there by 8PM. Prem’s parents welcomed volunteers and made them to relax in open air peaceful weather in their house. They have arranged dinner for all the volunteers. Due to power cut for a while it was a bit dark that night.

Day 3: (Potlapahad - Suryapet - Khammam - M. Venkatayapalem) - 75KM
The day started at 4:30AM. Team did a prayer (Vishnu sahasranam) in Prem’s house and had breakfast at 6:30am.Then some clothes and plants were dispatched in the village, which local volunteers agreed to distribute locally.
Team reached Suriapet and picked up Dr. Veerappa Kenche who had come all the way from Mahaboob Nagar to conduct Medical camp in Potlapahad. Team gathered at one place in Suriapet at 9AM. As roads were not proper for potlapahad some cycles had to be repaired. Volunteers finished repairs etc by 9:30am and started cycling. Plantation team went straight to Khammam to collect plants on to a lorry. Medical camps team (Dr. Veerappa, Prakash, Raja, Krishna, Sudheer etc) went to potlapahad along with medicines and doctors. Camp went on very well, Dr. Veerappa had spent lot of time with each patient and motivated them to follow healthy habits before giving any medicine to them. Camp went on until evening, many patients were benefited through this camp
Medical camp in potlapahad, Nalgonda Dt, AP:

Mr.Naveen Gurram has also organized personality development programs in two different colleges in khammam. We have organized speaker from Hyderabad in co-ordination with RK math. Naveen has gave an introduction about Manavata and importance of social responsibility in youth in both sessions.
Mr. Gause Saheb from Hyderabad took two different sessions on Personality development in Swarna bharathi institute of technology (SBIT) and Khammam Institute of technology and sciences. Around 350 students were benefited from these sessions.

Cycling team reached Khammam at 2:30PM and had lunch there. Naveen Gurram received teams and gave directions to M. Venkatayapalem village where night stay and local activities were planned.
It was a nice 9KM cycling from Khammam. The village and people were very nice. Village President Gurram Achayya welcomed the team and gave accommodation in Panchayat. After volunteers relaxed a bit, many youth started approaching them including local media.

Team went to a centre of a colony to arrange a health awareness session. Local volunteers got actively involved and went to each house and invited people for this session. It was amazing to see that 70 to 80 people turned out in 15 minutes before starting of the session. Srinivas gave a brief introduction about Manavata and it’s humanitarian work and encouraged people to involve in such social initiatives. Then he gave a 20 minutes session on healthy food habits. He emphasized upon using whole foods as natural as possible. He encouraged people to adopt eating brown rice than polished white rice. Similarly he has given several tips on children health, hygiene and malnutrition, which can be easily adopted by poor families with a cost effective approach. He also raised concerns over alcoholism and smoking. The villagers followed the talk very carefully and silently. Mr. Surynarayana also gave a brief talk on healthy habits.
Then the village president & Naveen Gurram hosted dinner for the teams. At about 10:30PM teams called off the day and went to take some rest

Day 4: (M. Venkatayapalem - Khammam - Sathupalli - Bhadrachalam
) - 80KM
The day started at 5AM. Team has dispatched some plants and cloths for local people. Team had papaya for breakfast, which our plantation team got from forest department.
At 8AM team had food in Khammam and then team started cycling. As per plan the other teams went to visit villages and distributing clothes and plants with the help of local volunteers.
Near Gangaram village one of the local social worker stopped his car and took interest to enquired about the program, he took some pictures of our cycling volunteers and requested team to stop for breakfast in next 2 kilometers. By that time team reached covered next 2 km, he was ready with nice breakfast for the team. His name is Kishore kumar reddy who runs a social service organization for environment. He was quite impressed with Manavata’s work and showed lot of interest to work together. Srinivas has given him some suggestions to improve his service activities and encouraged him to inspire more people through his work.

After this brief break team started cycling again from Gangaram. At 2PM cycling team took a break and had lunch in Kallur. On the way we had several fruits and coconut water too. The team covered 80 KM and reached Sathupally by 4.30 PM. Then team kept their cycles at Sathupalli bus stop and went to Bhadrachalam by bus which is 2.5 hours journey. At 8:30PM team reached Bhadrachalam temple accommodation for night stay.

Plantation team has reached their destination (Lolla, EG Dt.)after distributing the saplings & clothes at various villages.

Day 5: (Bhadrachalam - Sathupalli - Jangareddy gudem - Dharamarao pet) - 70KM
The team took bath at the secret River Godavari at 3AM, and visited Lord Sri Rama Temple. After prayers, team started at 4:30am for Sathupalli by bus. Team started cycling from Sathupalli at 8AM and reached Jangareddy gudem and had lunch there at 2:30PM.
Other side our medical team was conducting homeopathic medical camp in Dharmaraopet which was started at 8AM. Due to good response from the villagers, camp went on until 8:30PM. Cycling team has reached Dharmaraopet at 6PM and accompanied medical team. Village President Mr. Krishnam Raju arranged accommodation to all the volunteers in their house and treated us with great hospitality
At 8PM team organized a health awareness program for villagers in a temple. Several villagers gathered at venue and temple authorities organized mic and speakers which helped the message to reach large audience in entire village. Srinivas has given a brief talk on healthy food habits. Since he came to know from medical team that many people in the village are suffering from BP, diabetic and joint pains, he covered natural food remedies for those deceases.This village is related to two of our volunteers Mr. Subbaraju & Mrs. Poornima, every one was quite impressed with the arrangements made. Volunteers took rest very well at this place.
The village president has arranged for the team. The team expressed their gratitude to the president for his hospitality and warm treatment. Plants and clothes were also distributed in this village.

Day 6: (Dharmaraopet - Kovvuru - Rajahmundry - Lolla) - 120KM

The day started at 5AM. After completion of a prayer (Vishnusahasranamam) the team had a breakfast and started cycling at 5.45 AM. Team started cycling early today as they need to cover 120 KM on the same day.
In the morning glow, the team reached Gopalapuram and entered into the Sarvani School as one of the volunteer Chakradhar Adabala had requested to visit this school. Team met the teachers and explained about health, personality development and environment programs. Srinivas requested them to pass on the inspiration to their students in order to involve them building healthy society. The authorities were inspired after hearing the activities of Manavata and promised to participate in the Manavata activities. The team reached Rajahmundry quite early at 10.30am. Team was very happy when they were cycling on the river Godavari bridge as team knew that they were very close to their destination. Team relaxed briefly and had lunch there.
Several volunteers from Manavata ashram came to Rajahmundry along with their cycles.
Around 20 volunteers started cycling at 3PM and reached Anaparthy. Team was campaigning about youth day program, health and environmental awareness during this camp with banners and pamphlets. Team reached the final destination of cycling camp Lolla village where Manavata ashram is located and Srinivas’s birth place. Villagers and volunteers gathered at Ganesh temple in Lolla and had a brief celebration meeting. Srinivas appreciated all the volunteers who have done a great job with lot of dedication and commitment. He has explained local youth how this camp has increased the confidence level of participants and shared some of their experiences. Ashram children and local youth were quite excited to hear about these achievements.

Winning team: There a several volunteers involved directly and indirectly in this cause. Including regional volunteers there were around 500 volunteers participated. Some of the key volunteers listed below:
Voulunteers contributed in Manavata Chaithanya Yatra(500km Cycling Camp)in Jan 2009: