(Bangalore, India)

 “It is said that the second blooming comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about…It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts is rising in you”.

While there is nothing wrong with this definition, it remains somewhat incomplete. With all the talk about how “selfish” we are today, it is amazing to see how many people have real difficulty being able to receive. This is why we chose “SANDHYA KIRANA”. Read more »

(Bangalore, India) Following the success of visiting Shristi as a part of GTT 2008, a creative plan was levied this year to support the environment of Shristi. The proposition was to repaint the children’s dining hall. Unlike last year, it was a two day event which involved Scrapping and Painting this year. We were glad to give time together, dividing into two groups, the “ADROIT SCRAPERS” group which visited Shristi on 30th of April, 2009 followed by the creative second group “SHREWD PAINTERS” on 5th of May, 2009. Read more »

Imagine not being able to return to your desk after having coffee this morning because you just cannot remember what you had to do.
Imagine not being able to understand emotions that appear on a face.
Imagine a world without your voice in it.
Imagine a world which is ready to give you a long, awkward stare but cannot give you a few moments of understanding.

The Sabre GTT team

This is the world of an autistic kid. And I will never forget the day of May 7th that brought me face to face with this world I was unaware of, for so long.

I am so special, I have special needs
Am I not special, I don’t see cast or creed?
Am I not special, I don’t have foes or friend?
I am so special, if only you comprehend…

Autism is a severely incapacitating lifelong developmental disability that typically appears in the first three years of life. It is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain. The most alarming fact is that the cases are increasing in number every year and that the causes have not yet been ascertained. So, if you have never been thankful to God despite having all that you have you must meet the parents of these children. They can teach us how to thank God and be hopeful even though after suffering setbacks almost every day because they see a child who is courageously fighting life’s battle and striving hard to survive despite all odds. To sustain that hope in these children as well as the parents could be one’s way of thanking God. ASHA (which means ‘hope’) Academy for Severe Handicaps and Autism does just that! The mission of this organization appropriately states “We will endeavor to render exceptional love, care, hope and educational assistance to children with special needs to help them develop and utilize their potential” Read more »

Is it possible to feed and clothe people in Europe and India, when you’re based in the UK? All in a day’s work for the members of the GTT UK team!

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Employees gave their time to attend an overview of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. This charity offers a strategic mid-day meal programme to promote literacy among underprivileged children in India. It provides hot nutritious meals for over 800,000 children across India per day and aims to reach a million by 2010. This is normally the only proper meal they have in the day and encourages school attendance and increased education.

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The Sun rose with spinning heat waves on April 22, 2008, also the Earth Day. It was a dry and dusty day with sultry and a very sweaty weather around Bangalore.
 

The volunteers, slowly began gathering at the Shree Ramanna Maharshi Academy for the Blind, almost  30 kilometers from the workplace. Most of us were already tired from the long journey and the hauling traffic that we braved through to reach the point of the GTT event.  

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Give Time Together. A theme so simple, yet something so difficult to achieve, taking into consideration our work, responsibilities, commitments and daren’t I forget: conference calls. All excuses, if you ask me over a lazy weekend, yet during the week we all get so wrapped up in our existential issues that such a fundamental responsibility is often forgotten. The responsibility to give back to the community, the responsibility to help the less-than-fortunate, and the responsibility to play my role in a community where not only is each man made equal in the eyes of God, but each man is crucial equipped with every chance, and the means to succeed.
“Childhood is the most beautiful period of our journey here on Earth because it is the time when we get to know many things and experiences that contribute and influence our way to maturity”.Yet, I don’t know if someone can imagine, what is there in an orphan’s soul, a child who has always wanted to know his own family, to spend at least a day with his loved ones. How happy must a child be when his mother hugs him, when he comes back from school and lays his head in his mother’s lap forgetting about all problems?

I am proud to say that I believe I have discovered at least ONE such place: the SOS Children’s Village, a small heaven away from heaven located just on the outskirts of Bangalore.

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The one day iteration plan adhering to Agile standards for the GTT event on April 23, 2008 was carefully made by the GTT volunteers team. The day was marked for visiting “Shristi –The academy for differently able”.

The day started early for many of us. A 22 seater Mini bus was commissioned into service to pick up the volunteers from various points in the city. We started of at 8:30 am from the ITPL pickup point and had a clear plan of reaching our destination by 10:30 am. As we had expected the traffic was bad. Still we managed to reach there by 10:45 am. We waited a little while for the children and instructors to come. On their arrival, Raji who is the technical instructor of the school introduced us to one of the kids. He introduced himself as Jayanth and we came to know that he was a good dancer. He promised us to show some of his dance feats later. Then, we went on to meet the whole bunch of kids They were deeply engrossed in their work of spiral binding books. We were introduced to them by the instructors. We were little skeptical about how the kids would react. But to our surprise we found a kid introducing himself “Hi ….Naveen ….What’s your name?” suddenly, we felt like the communication barrier had dropped and every kid doing the same and shaking hands with us.

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On this day, the 21^st of April 2008, we, the employees of Sabre went out on an adventure with Senior Citizens of “Sandhya Kirana” Day Care Centre for Senior Citizens. It was an enlightening and humbling experience for each and every one of us.

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