Sant Hirdaram Swami Basantram Sewa Trust has been a ray of hope to the weaker segments of society. The activities range from free tuition, free ration, healthcare, vocational training, income-earning equipment, scholarships, medical camps, financial assistance for higher education, house repairs, adoption of poor students, etc.

 

Serving the poorest of the poor

There are still people in our society who do not know where their next meal will come from. The Trust works towards removing such uncertainty among the most vulnerable sections of society - widows, poor families and destitute individuals. Through a system of registered card-holders, the Trust provides a kit containing essential provisions like wheat, rice, cooking oil, dal, sugar, tea leaves, salt, soap etc. to over 425 families every month. Besides this, after distribution among registered card holders, food grains are given even to the families who have not been registered on case to case basis. The objective is to ensure that no family approaching the Trust goes without food grains.

Lighting the lamp of knowledge

The Trust runs free tuition classes for class I to X standard students studying in Government schools. Such children are also exposed to extracurricular activities like singing, dancing, stage activities, drawing, painting, etc. With the dedicated care and personal attention of the teachers, the children are flowering. A lot of them are performing better than children in private schools. As a result there is a big demand for such tuition classes for which the Trust requires larger infrastructure and more number of teachers.

The Trust also provides scholarships to poor children on the basis of School Board results and their financial background. Besides this, the Trust attempts to remove impediments to the pursuit of higher education by the very poor yet bright students by providing support in terms of tuition fees, college fees, transport charges, etc.

With the financial support from Jeev Sewa Sansthan and Shri Chellaram N. Kripalani, the Trust has adopted poor children whereby the entire expenses towards school fees, text books & note books, uniform, shoes, school bag, nutritious food, etc. are borne by the Trust.

Healthy initiatives

Dr. Naresh Himthani - MD, of Apollo Hospitals, visits the premises of the Trust every fortnight to offer free consultation. More than 100 patients benefit from his medical advice and the trust provides them medicines free of cost.

Even sufferers of chronic diseases and critical illnesses requiring intense medical care like, dialysis, kidney transplants, heart surgeries, stem cell / bone marrow transplants for thalassaemia, accident cases, etc., involving costly treatment are provided help in some measure by the Trust. The Trust helps the patients by paying the hospital bills and also for purchase of medicines. However, with the increase in the number of patients coming for medical help and the cost of treatment, the Trust needs to mobilize more money and resources to help them all in a more comprehensive and effective manner.

The Trust is also sponsoring thalassaemic children for free blood transfusion and drugs for its side effects, with Indian Red Cross Society, Ahmedabad. It also arranges cataract operations for poor patients at private hospitals. The Trust conducts blood donation camps, eye check up and operation camps, urology camps, thalassaemia awareness and detection camps, general health check up camps etc. periodically.

Learn to earn

With the inspiration of Rev. Sidh Bhau Saheb, the Trust has started 'Smt. Giyanibai Deoomal Golani Vocational Training Centre.'

The first initiative of the Centre is a free tailoring course of five months’ duration. More than 750 girls have been trained since its inception in June, 2008. On completion of the course, the girls are provided with a kit containing a certification of completion of the course, dress and religious and sanskar books like 'The Sukmani Saheb'. Very poor girls are also given sewing machines as income-earning assets.

The Trust also runs mahendi classes which is a one month course. On completion of the course the participants are given certificates.

The Trust is planning to start counseling and coaching classes for UPSC examinations and Computer classes soon.

It has also been planned to start vocational courses for Plumbers, Electricians and Carpenters within a short span of time.

Other activities

The Trust undertakes the repairs of huts and houses of the poor who do not have even the basic sanitation facilities.

The Trust also provides necessary help to the poor families at the time of their daughters' marriage.

The Trust sometimes pays house rent, electricity bills and even makes cash payment to the aged, lonely and helpless couples. The idea is to solve the small problems of these hapless individuals and bring back a smile on their faces.

Akhand Ram Dhun, Sri Sukhmani Path Saheb, Bhajan Kirtan, etc. are regularly held every Sunday at the Trust premises.

Future programmes planned

The Trust is in the process of acquiring small plots lying open in front of its existing premises ‘Sant Hirdaram Kutiya’ to meet with its growing requirement of infrastructure. For the purpose, the Trust requires an initial amount of Rs.10.00 lacs to acquire the plot and an additional amount of around Rs.25.00 lacs to create the required infrastructure to meet with its growing demand.

The Trust plans to construct houses for the homeless families. This is a challenging plan involving a lot of funds for purchase of plot as also for construction of dwellings.

The Trust envisages to start an 'Old Age Home' for senior citizens who do not have anybody to look after them and needs love and care in the evening of their lives.

The Trust has plans to give loans to poor people enabling them to start their own business and earn livelihood instead of borrowing the money on heavy interest rate. The project will require large amount of corpus fund.

The Trust would also like to start a small naturopathy centre on the lines of Arogya Kendra and a Sanskar Kendra for teaching of Gurmukhi to adolescent girls for recital of Sri Guru Granth Saheb, similar to Manju Sanskar Kendra at Sant Hirdaram Nagar.