Revive Vellayani

Revive Vellayani

About The Lake

Vellayani Lake is a rich wetland that was once the home of an abundance of Flora and Variant Fauna, the second largest wetland and freshwater lake in Kerala. This lake is on the threshold of an untimely demise. This would be a major offset to the fragile ecosystem and will affect the livelihood and age-old lifestyle adversely. It can be said in all fairness that a large percentage of the lake surface has been covered by weeds, some of which are of foreign origin and unsuitable for the unique environment of the lake. The lake is already lost its visitation of a large number of migratory birds. This eco-impact, while immediately unrecognizable, will surely create a huge environmental deficit to the already stretched ecology not only in the periphery of the; lake, but of the entire district.

The Project

The plans to revive the lake and to sustain its sanctity shall be a four-pronged attack, on five, key root causes. The identified causes are

1) Weed Growth and Invasive Alien Species that threaten the native aquatic flora.

2) Using the lake to dump waste including non-degradable items.

3) Lack of awareness and sustainable interest among the local populace

4) Absence of a reliable biodiversity register

5) No serious attempt so far to invoke the interest of International Conventions like RAMSAR CONVENTIONS.

The plan of action shall be:

The de-weeding of the lake.
Immediate and effective prevention of dumping waste in the lake (c) Involving the local populace in the activities…
Run awareness campaigns in the locale and in schools in the district to spread the message of environmental protection, and more locally, the importance of the preservation of the lake.
Create a well-documented and photo and video graphed bio diversity register for perusal and a referral point for the future.
Creating sustainable lake centric livelihood, among the local population, to ensure sustained local involvement in the protection of the lake.

Home

Swasthi Saukhya

Swasthi Saukhya is a specialty initiative, launched aimed at creating a task force to address the growing menace of inadequate healthcare in the society and has been active over the last five years. This specialty initiative has garnered the active involvement of specialist doctors and has run various campaigns. The Brand ambassador and Mascot of this initiative is Ms Mamta Mohandas. Under the banner of Swasthi Saukhya, there have been a pro-active drive against cancer, aptly named Snehathalam, in partnership with Malayala Manorama, a wholly owned patent of the partnership.

This initiative has also run campaign for vulnerable groups like differently abled children, people from tribal belt and those people who were affected by natural calamities like the flood of 2018 and the Okhi Cyclone. Swasthi Saukhya has also taken on the onus of protecting the health of the protectors of democracy, the Police Force and special care packages for the brave fishermen who saved countless lives during the flood and the auto rickshaw drivers who have been assisting hapless patients at various hospitals in Trivandrum.

The team of doctors who comprise the operational end of Saukhya are all well known doctors with thriving practices of their own and the time they spent for the Swasthi Saukhya Campaigns are all completely free of any monetary remuneration. They are the spearhead that has given all Swasthi Saukhya drives the impetus. Swasthi Saukhya has become the very backbone of Swasthi Foundation Operations.

www.swasthifoundation.org

Snehajwala

Snehajwala is a women’s self-defence program, organized by Swasthi Foundation, in partnership with SAI(LNCPE), United Shito Ryu Karate Association, Metro Manorama and Manorama Weekly and Kerala University Union. Snehajwala, intends to train women and young girls in basic martial arts, enough to protect themselves. This program is intended to cover the entire length and breadth of Kerala.

www.snehajwala.com

Snehajyothi

Along with mission partners SAI-LNCPE, Santhigiri and CIMR, the foundation has started a program aimed at bringing out the artistic and sporting talents in differently abled children. The Ekata18 Special Olympics for differently abled children was held from 11th Jan 2018 to 14^th Jan 2018 at Trivandrum. The meet featured more than 10000 differently abled children from the length and breadth of the state. The talents on display, prompted a chain of thought that later translated to Snehajyothi 3 day camps, currently run on a monthly basis. The healthcare of these children were taken up by the foundation.

Other Initiatives

Rakshaka Raksha. / Kaaval Kanninu Kaaval & Nitthya Prakasam

Swasthi Foundation also has taken up the healthcare of the members of the Police Force of Kerala under the banner Rakshaka Raksha. This project provides complete cancer care to the policemen and their families. Kaaval Kanninu Kaaval is the Ophthalmology care side of the same project.

Nitthya Prakasam is the eye care program for the general public and is run in association with Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Divya Prabha Eye Hospital.

Snehasagaram

Kerala State in the month of August, 2018, witnessed unprecedented rains and eventual flooding. Nature unleashed on the unprepared state, havoc of unseen proportions, rendering large tracts of residential areas unreachable. The state rescue mechanism and that of the nation were stretched to the maximum and yet many lives were in grave danger.

At this juncture, the fishermen of Kerala, largely from Alappuzha, Kollam and Trivandrum Districts, on their own, took upon themselves the task of saving the people stranded in their own houses and bringing them to safety. They took upon this responsibility voluntarily. Most of these houses were unreachable by the inflatable life rafts boats and dingy used by Fire and Rescue Services and The Indian Navy, due to the strength of the flood water. The Fishermen in their larger boats that were powered by sea going engines reached these hapless people ad brought them to safety, often at the risk of their own life and limb. It ought to be remembered that these boats were their only source of livelihood and a great many of these boats were damaged too.

Swasthi Foundation and mission partners, Malayala Manorama, Kollam. S N United Mission, QSSS, IMA Kollam District, Kerala Police Officers Association, in association with Divya Prabha Eye Hospital, Jyothidev Diabetes and Research Centre, Government Medical College, Trivandrum, Sree Gokulam Medical college, GG Hospital, PMS Dental College, Government Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Dental College, set up the mission Snehasagaram, to provide complete and lifelong medical cover to the fishermen, who took active part in the rescue operation and their family members.

The opening medical camp was held at Karmala Rani Training College, Kollam on the 16/12/2018. The day long camp was inaugurated by Hon Minister for Fisheries, Smt Mercikutty and the function was presided by Former Kerala Police Chief, Retd DGP Sri Jacob Punnoose, Chairman Swasthi Foundation and numerous notable personalities from Trivandrum and Kollam

With over 40 prominent doctors in attendance, representing all specialities, the camp was attended by 556 beneficiaries and their families. They were all screened for various diseases and some were referred for further evaluation. In all the camp covered all the brave fishermen in Kollam, who participated in the rescue mission and was able reach out to them in a manner that was much appreciated by the beneficiaries and the local populace in general. The camp closes at 4 pm.

Snehathalam

Snehathalam aims at early detection and treatment of Cancer. Thus far Snehathalam has conducted camps all over Kerala. Cancer is a completely curable disease that can be completely reversed if detected at the very onset and that is the attack initiative taken up by Snehathalam. The camp are conducted close to the areas of habitation and are manned by some of the very best oncologists in the state. These camps are also accompanied by awareness seminars that are aimed at enlightening the general public about Cancer. The initial drives have targeted Breast cancer, Oral Cancer and Cervical Cancer. The project aims at achieving the target of screening one hundred thousand people and providing them with the necessary support and advice

Phase 1 of Snehathalam targeted breast cancer and aimed at covered 10000 people in camps spread all over Kerala. Breast cancer makes up a third of the occurrences of Cancer amongst women and is a completely curable disease without surgical intervention. This phase screened 9842 women of whom 947 were referred to Swasthi Clinic. 53 Mammograms were suspicious and 8 were diagnosed as positive. Phase 2 targeted Oral Cancer. There were 42 detection camps, screening 3527 people. Phase 3 was a combination of Breast and Oral Cancer detection camps. Phase 4 aims at screening at least one hundred thousand people in a marathon, year-long program and is currently ongoing.

www.snehathalam.com

Feel GoodClininc

The single greatest factor that acts as a deterrent to the mental and physical health of the current generations, is stress. It is a fact that not just the executives in corporate offices or businessmen suffer from this deadly affliction, even young children barely out of their kindergarten are subject to the ill effects of stress. And this single largest contributor is on an alarming rise.

Swasthi Foundation in association with Kerala Police, have initiated the Feel Good Clinic to address this growing menace. They have zeroed in on stress and plans to devise new ways to reduce stress in day to day life of common people. A free clinic is set up at the Swasthi Foundation Office, under the guidance of renowned psychiatrist Dr. Mohan Roy. And Dr. Arun B Nair under the watchful eyes of Dr. Thomas Mathew. The announcement to this effect was made earlier by Sri Jacob Punnoose IPS, retired DGP of Police and Chairman Swasthi Foundation, in the presence of the State Police Chief and DGP, Sri Loknath Behera IPS at the venue of World Mental Health Day at Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, on the 10th of October 2019, during the seminar on prevention of suicidalal tendencies, especially among adolescents.

The launch of the FEEL GOOD CLINIC was held on the 01 Nov 2019 at Swasthi Foundation Office at Nanthancode with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp. Doing the honors was Dr Thomas Mathew, Principal, of Trivandrum Medical College. The gathering was welcomed by S Gopinath IPS followed by the opening ceremony. The contingent from Kerala Police representing Kerala Police Officer’s Association included State President D K Prithviraj, Zulfikkar. Suresh Kumar and Anil Kumar The gathering had notable personalities in attendance like G Rajmohan, Fr Mathews Chakkalakkal, D Chandrasenan , Dr. K K Manojan, E M Najeeb, Dr G Kishore, Dr Babu Mathew, Dr Chandramohan, Dr Devin Prabhakar, , Dr Karthika Gopan, Dr Soniya Feroze, Hanshi Vinodkumar, Harikrishnan, Manu Nair, Joshy John Mathew, R S Shibu, Dileep, Rajamoorthy, Shankar Kesavan , Tiju Thomson, ,N V Ajith, R. Bhasker, , Zin Charles G j, Adarsh Prathap, Devi Mohan, Asha Subramoniam , Meera Bhaskar , Beena Annie,, Merin, Abey George and Mohan Pillai,

Rakshaka Raksha. / Kaaval Kanninu Kaaval & Nitthya Prakasam

Nitthya Prakasam is the eye care program for the general public and is run in association with Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Divya Prabha Eye Hospital.

Snehasagaram

Sukhino Bhavanthu

Sukhino Bhavanthu is Swasthi Foundation’s firm step towards environment protection. This is Swasthi’s drive to bring all section of the society to a common platform for the purpose of protecting the nature and all it has bestowed.

Swasthya Shakthi

A women’s initiative for CULTIVATION of ORGANIC vegetables

Introduction

This is a project that seeks to install at least one lakh homestead farms in the state at residences, back yards and roof tops and will be a wholly women’s initiative.

This project will be run by women-folk from all over Kerala and an all women team shall be the initiators, supervisors and promoters of this project.

The project is envisaged as the ideal way to incorporate women force in agriculture, especially women who are the frontline users of such produce. They are the people most aware of the quality of the produce, the quantity and the hygiene required in its production. This solves the problem of the disconnect between producers and end users.

The production of a household’s need for vegetables, tubers and where possible, fruits.

One of the bottlenecks that such agro projects hit is the scarcity of seedling of quality – this project seeks to train women in producing seedlings out of seeds and sprouts from vegetable, fruits and tubers they use on a daily basis and to choose the best among them for cultivation. This would be a part of UKSATI project of Swasthi Foundation under Nutri Forage banner.

The project is currently supported by Vanitha MagazineThe project would also provide grow bags, potting mixture and seedlings for the cultivation where they are unable to produce their own seedlings.

Basic training would be imparted and advanced help provided in the installation of rooftop farms, vertical farm gardens and grow bags. This would optimize the scarcity of space at home. Preparation of necessary manure using household kitchen waste would ensure the safety of fertilizers used. The training would also ensure the preparation and use of bio repellants to keep pest away, avoiding dangerous pesticides.

www.swasthyashakthi.com

SWASTHI SHISHYA

Every young mind is a treasure trove of creativity. Talent that lies latent within these brilliant brains, need to be unearthed and brought to the fore. Academic excellence is among one of the reasons why a search for these innate abilities is abandoned at a young age. Parental pressure for academics often act as blinders, hiding the wider vista from the child and can be burial caskets for youthful dreams and sky high ambitions. In short, academics excellence, while being an absolute necessity, can also build high fences between a child and his dreams. The budding sportsperson, the brilliant artist, the great orator, the visionary statesman, the innovative manager and the adventurous spacefarer who takes birth in the young mind should never be allowed to die untimely deaths, within those very minds.

Introversion, shyness, inability to communicate, fear of voicing one’s opinion, phobia of public notice etc are some reasons why, despite academic brilliance, a lot of young people end up being second best. This is especially true of the youth in Kerala. It is a well known fact that, children from Kerala while being top academic performers, often end up being an ‘also ran’, in various competitive forums, almost invariably led by outspoken and assertive youth from other states. Does this mean that Malayalee boys and girls lack the cutting edge – the ability to be noticed for their talents? Definitely not…..

Swasthi Foundation, with the hindsight of its research in the field of youth development, over the years, has realized that giving a boost to some key skills can offset this problem effectively. With this end in mind Swasthi is launching an overall development project for academic toppers from the schools in Trivandrum. These training projects aim at unearthing certain key skills in children, who are already achievers in academics.

Improving Interpersonal Skills: You are who you portray yourself as. Ability to present yourself and gain respect for what you represent is one of the basic skills that need to be developed. This is one skill that requires to be imprinted early in life.
Developing Communication Skills: The ability to communicate is one that needs to be developed in children for them to succeed. A person with great knowledge of a language is not necessarily a great communicator. Great communication requires clarity of thought, ability to read/listen, seamless thought-speech interface and attractive linguistic quality. The program aims at instilling in a trainee, this ability.
Enhancing Public Speaking Skills:: Public speaking is a skill that some people are born with. In others this need to be developed. Even among the naturally endowed, it needs to be polished. This is one quality that makes a great impact on a person’s persona and the public perception of him.
Instilling Leadership Skills and Qualities: Leaders of an earlier age led from the front, leading great masses to newer terrain. The picture of a leader depicting a sword wielding , horse riding hero has given way to the innovative, smart thinking, team maker. These skills play a key role in deciding whether you were the leader of the pack or the second line runner.
Training in Management Skills: Management over the last century has evolved into a science of its own. What use to be associated with board rooms is now applied in every side of life from your daily routine, family management to matters of international import
Creating Social Skills and Values: You are part of a social machinery. However it is for you to develop yourself as a vital cog in it. Your social skills decide your social status, and your adherence to social values sustain you.
Giving an understanding of Traditional Values:
Developing Debate and Group Discussion Skills

It also aims at helping them develop personal attributes like Positive Attitude, Self Confidence, Cool Temperament and Level Hotheadedness.

Nutri Forage

The fresh fruits, greens, beets, tubers that we grew in our backyard. The feel of the wet soil and the aroma of raw freshness. The mangoes, jack fruits, yams, sweet potatoes and tapioca……

Confined within the fences of our compound by the COVID-19 pandemic, a society is quickly reassessing itself and its priorities. It is redefining its interaction with nature and her largesse. It is the time for us to full our minds from the ready foods, in myriad colour packs, to a more sustainable, healthier choice of food. By choice or circumstance, we have been done a good turn by the need of the times. What the health experts have cried themselves hoarse over the various media have now come calling, without invitation.

Blossoms Kerala, an Agro-horticultural forum has now launched this new food culture and healthy food drive aptly named Nutri Forage. This drive, firmly grounded on the ideals of Food Literacy and Self Sufficiency of Healthy Food is being organized jointly by Kerala Police, Swasthi Foundation, Trivandrum City Corporation, Bar Council of Kerala, Chamber of Commerce & Industry-Trivandrum, IMA-Trivandrum, Association of Agriculture Officers Kerala, Kerala Agriculture Technical Staff Association, Kerala Police Officers Association, B-HUB, United Shito Ryu Karate Association and Narmada Shopping Complex Ever since the first homo-sapien came down from the trees, he had had to forage for his essential sustenance. From the roots and fruits on the trees around him, to the grains he gathered from the grasses, his food habits have developed based on the basis of availability and scarcity – every area growing accustomed to the geographic and botanic essence of the area. It is based on this that civilizations, cultures and even religions owe their existence.

Nutri Forage through its various programs with the intent of

Creating a new health centric crop culture – a new and healthy AgriCULTURE that is in keeping with the environment.
Producing chemically unadulterated, non-genetically engineered, farm fresh and wholesome vegetables, milk, eggs and meat.
Creating ample platforms for marketing such farm products.
Giving farmers training and awareness on Best Farming Practices and keeping them afoot with the latest in the field through regular interaction.
Envisioning and executing programs that would attract youth into the agriculture arena.
Bring the recycling organic waste into the fold of practiced agriculture.

With these aims set as the key deliverables Nutri Forage has set forth a plethora of programs

Down to Earth (Back to the roots): This is a community farming initiative, using unused land for vegetable cultivation.
Farm Greens: Creating outlets for sales and marketing of farm wares
Diet Eats: Creating eateries and hotel chains that sell healthy food.( Project under discussion)
Agri Help: Guidance programs for farmers and wannabees in the field. This will also have an online ready reckoner for quick reference and query settlement.
Save Seed: Program to protect indigenous seeds.
Tru Value: Value addition to agro products and the process therewith.
Green Army: Training a farm front consisting of youth in the field of agriculture.
Online Weekly Bulletin: ( Name to be announced shortly )
A Youtube Channel ( Name to be fixed )

Constitution and Governance

Creation of a 40 member General Body as the apex controlling body based on democratic principles.
An elected Steering Committee for giving direction to the programs and generating work plans. An Administrative Committee for day to day routine supervision of the program. The administrative committee shall be in charge of maintaining daily transaction record, holding the letter heads, seals, registers, cash book, daily work register, service data sheet.
An Advisory Committee shall be constituted to give the drive overall administrative direction
Quality Control Committee shall set quality standards ensure product and service quality from procurement, shipment, storage, display and sale.
Finance Committee shall oversee the funding, sales collections, balancing of cost and price factors, maintaining account statements, daily remittance of collections into the bank account and ensuring timely pay outs for procurements
Review Committee shall be the redressal body for complaints relating to products, services, quality and all routine activities. They can be contacted directly by the end users and can address queries to any functionary of the drive.

weblink below

http://www.blossomskerala.com/nutri-forage/

THELINEERARUVI

Aruvikkara – A brief

Built across Karamana River, situated 15 km from Thiruvananthapuram City, was built in 1930 and named after Lord Wellington, and henceforth renamed Aruvikkara Dam, after the Durga Devi Temple, in the vicinity. This is the prime drinking water supply for the city of Thiruvananthapuram

Current Status

• Drinking Water Source
• Tourism Spot – Free Entry
• Durga Devi Temple
The catchment area of this dam is in bad state of disuse. Butchery shop waste, bottles, even human waste fills the area.. People bathe and wash animals , even defacte in the water

Objective

The Thelineer Aruvi project seeks to

Clean up the drinking water supply to the City
Increase the catchment and thus the capacity of the lake.
Conduct a comprehensive biodiversity study
Create awareness among local populace

Involve local population in upkeep

SWASTHI FOUNDATION

Projects

Revive Vellayani

The Project

A women’s initiative for CULTIVATION of ORGANIC vegetables

SWASTHI SHISHYA

Nutri Forage