Serving with love at Sanawadia
Sanawadia, a village on the outskirts of Indore, 9 km away from The Daly College, surrounded by lush green hills and fields growing Maize and Jowar. We have adopted a basti or hamlet outside Sanawadia. The primary occupation of men and women in the basti is casual labor.
The 'basti' has been provided with a narrow cement road, on both sides of which are temporary and poorly built residences. Recently two other facilities have been provided - electricity from the main grid which is available for a few hours a day, and a synthetic water tank for the use of the community. However, there is no drainage, toilets, water points to individual houses, electric street lights, community hall, sewage, soak pit etc.
The 'basti' or hamlet of 30 families is close to the main road. All the families are bhil tribal who have moved to this area in search of employment. The nearby village of Sanawadia is dependent on these tribal for labor and has settled them on strips of village land some distance away from the main village.
This was the site where the students worked on building the integrated wind and solar energy source is on a small hillock overlooking open fields and hills. It is a scenic and clean area. This work was done by students who attended RSIS project in December.
The RSIS team consisted of eighteen students and three adults from St. Clements, Westfield, Ivanhoe (Australia) St. Cyrians,South Africa, Gordonstoun (Scotland) Windermere St. Annes (England), Vivek School, Doon School, Indian school Muscat.
The Project was an initiative to help environmental sustainability for Sanawadia hamlet. The Daly College & RSIS team helped this hamlet by providing: sustainable street lighting, wind generator and solar power for the community. The underlying value of this project was to allow every individual to achieve a self realization of the psychological, social and physical benefits of giving up ones time and energy in the service of someone or something else. Dr. (Mrs.) Janak McGilligan & Mr. James R. McGilligan (OBE) who are at present looking after Barli Institute for upliftment of rural women helped us throughout the project. The project involved : painting of 18 poles & electric point fitting, digging and preparing the base for tower for wind generator. Digging and preparing base for secure anchors points for 4 guy wires for tower. Construction of base for tower and anchor points. Digging and preparing the base for all 18 poles. Preparing area and frames at the proper angle etc for installation of photovoltaic panels. Construction of base for photovoltaic panel and Installation in frames at the roof. Construction & painting of cabinet for battery and inverter. 1.9 KW energy is produced of which 0.9 KW is solar energy and 1 KW energy through Windmill, each pole has 14 watt CFL bulb. These 18 poles which light the street of the hamlet and light the dreams and hopes of the 30 families.
Successful efforts were made to familiarize the team with the local community. Initiatives like art and craft, story telling and playing games with the locals were adopted. Creating awareness on basic health and hygiene, clean housing and good habits was taken by the volunteers.
Survey of the hamlet was done by the Daly College students in the month of September 2010 to understand the problems and aspirations of the inhabitants. The scheduled work was completed before time. The credit goes to the hard work put in by each individual and the commendable leaders.
Our regular visits saw an increase in the participation of the locals. We became role models as the locals started making efforts in keeping their surroundings clean Creating awareness amongst the children about body cleanliness. The Daly College team will also be building a community hall for them.
The Dalians made an earnest effort to raise funds for the community hall. The casual day, the traditional day, student dance, fete and brochure with advertisement at the prize giving were the various fundraising strategies which the RS student committee planned and organized to raise funds to build the community hall. The students are making contribution towards construction work on regular basis on the week ends. Seeing this the Government has agreed to match expenses made by Daly College.
The service project offers an opportunity to know the problems which rural India faces and learn about the difficulties the under privileged children undergo. It sensitized us to difficulties the children face & yet happiness they spread with the smiling faces. It takes education beyond academics and offers meaningful learning experience for the life. The students are committed in their own little way to do for the education of these children.
This is just a modest beginning and a long way to go. We are thankful to our school to lead and guide us towards the making of a caring society where each individual has something to offer to make the world a happy place to live in.
110 years woman walking down to the camp site all by herself was a shocking yet a wonderful experience at the camp this year. Spreading awareness about the eye camp among the residents of the chosen site was a matter of great concern so the Daly College students armed with 13000 pamphlets set out on a door to door campaigning and distributed pamphlets informing people about the eye camp. In out attempt to reach out to maximum number of people in the Muslim dominated khazrana area, the students attended 'Namaz' at 14 different mosques anticipating to find maximum crowd under one roof. 
What was most fantastic was the fact that the students from the E'rmitage who did not know Hindi still managed to do almost everything even communicating with the local people and winning their hearts with phrases like 'Aaslam Valikum', 'Aayie', 'Bethiye', 'Sukhriya' etc. During the eye camp we really missed the presence of Mr. Christopher Hunter, Principal L'ermitage, but we always felt we were connected with him by way of text messages all the time.
The most important lessons which we learnt at the eye camp was one of patience, endurance and mutual trust . I sincerely wish the eye camp continues for years to come bringing 'light and hope' in the lives of thousands awaiting such rare medical opportunity. 
In the end we would like to thank our school to provide us with such a wonderful opportunity and support. Our special thanks to Mr. Santhnam, Mr. Pascal and all the teachers of Daly-Ermitage team who inspired us to work diligently. The Daly College support staff gave us more than their wiling support. Their unmatched dedication towards the camp needs a special mention.