Guests of Honor On the 22nd of May this year, Sankalp India Foundation celebrated being 7 years old. To mark this milestone, a small event was organized at MSRIT. Well wishers, parents of volunteers, members from the blood banking community, friends, and people from organizations with whom we work were all part of the event. Like every year, this is the day in the event calendar where we come out in the open to all our people and place before them a complete perspective of what went by in the previous year.

Unfortunately that very morning, a plane lost control on the runway in Mangalore airport and crashed. 158 innocent lives were lost. For the volunteers of Sankalp, this incident was like a major blow. As a mark of respect to the people who died and to condole the tragic loss, a 2 min silence was observed at the very beginning of the anniversary programme. Also, the pomp and gaiety was toned down. The anniversary was kept mainly as a yearly event rather than a big celebration.

Skits, songs, talks were all presented by our volunteers. The annual report was also presented. The annual report was a 15-20 min talk which covered the most major growth areas of Sankalp over the last year. Being crisp and to the point, it gave our well wishers a brief idea of where the organization focused its energies in the year that went by. A detailed report by each team is present in the Sankalp annual magazine. A Video highlighting the 10 best strengths of Sankalp was also shown. It gave the audience a deeper insight into how our volunteers perceive the work culture within the team

Unveiling of Abhivyakti - The Annual Sankalp Magazine For the first time, the organization decided to invite somebody as the chief guests for the occasion. Parents of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan (who died fighting the terrorists in the November 2008 attack on Mumbai), Mrs and Mrs K Unnikrishnan were invited as chief guests. Mr Unnikrishnan addressed the gathering. Dr NandKishore, Blood Bank Officer at MSR hospital blood bank and Dr Sundar from Nimhans blood bank also addressed the gathering.

The annual magazine, Abhivyakti, was unveiled by Mrs Unnikrishnan. The annual magazine is a complete collection of all the things about Sankalp that happened in the year went by. Also filled with numerous blogs and experiences, it allows you to peek into the volunteers' minds. The usual cake cutting ceremony was called off as we decided that it is inappropriate to do so when a big disaster has occurred. Finally the guests left after light refreshment that had delicacies from Indore, Dhanbad and Bangalore. The magazine and the annual TShirt was on sale too. Also present outside at the refreshment area was a Sankalp gallery where posters, banners etc used by the organization for publicity was displayed

For the volunteers, this was a big day. The dream reached another check post. It renewed their spirits for more things, for the year ahead. It gave them the hope and belief that so many people are with us when we embark upon our journey towards addressing a problem in the system in our own small but special way.

In case you are interested in getting a copy of the magazine, you could do so by sending an email to sankalp.admin@gmail.com with the following subject line.

Request for Annual Magazine 2009-2010:

The magazine cost is Rs 120 per copy. The magazine can be collected through one of the Sankalp Volunteers.

Also, details about the T Shirts and purchase is given @: http://www.sankalpindia.net/drupal/sankalp-t-shirt-7th-year-anniversary

Guests