VSO MAHE Celebrates Magnificent Festival ‘Daan Utsav’
Mangaluru: Volunteer Services Organization (VSO), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Mangalore-Wing provides a platform to the students to serve the society. VSO targets to cultivate the spirit of selflessness by responding to the community’s needs and addressing the various social obstacles. Everyone from the students to the faculties strive to ameliorate the conditions of the impoverished and the less fortunate. We all come together in hopes of shaping a path to a better society by conducting various monthly and yearly events. One such annual event is DAAN UTSAV.
Daan Utsav, India’s most magnificent festival is celebrated every year from Oct 2 to Oct 8 in order to commemorate the joy of giving. “Daan” pertains to the act of sharing, caring and thereby spreading joy. It provides an opportunity for each and every person without any disparity to explore the most intriguing ways to lighten the burden of those suffering.
VSO, Mangalore since 2015, celebrates Daan Utsav every year with a diversity of projects focusing on every aspect of life. This year VSO presents with 30 events from Oct 2nd to Oct 8th.
On 2nd October, this week-long festival was inaugurated with a Street-play to create awareness about self-defense at the Mangalore, Central Railway Station.
Followed by this, Project-Annamitra was conducted wherein food and clothes were distributed for residents of Kavoor slum.
Another project, Rangreeti was held at an NGO for orphan kids between the age of 8- 16, which involved kids painting diyas and making cards along with the volunteers. As a gesture of love, stationery was distributed to these tiny tots which was sponsored by ScaleneWorks.
On 3rd October, Project- Aanshi was conducted which targeted the training of Basic Life Support Dr Jeedhu Radhakrishnan from the Department of Emergency Medicine to the dental students.
Project Aarohi was conducted at an NGO for adolescent girls, which involved highlighting the importance of menstrual and oral hygiene. Along with this, toothbrush and sanitary napkins were also distributed.
On 4th October, Project- Suraksha was held in Kasturba Medical College in association with Mangalore city police wherein, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic and Circle Inspector addressed the students about traffic rules and safety on road.
On 4th Project- Rangankan, a bottle-painting workshop was conducted wherein; volunteers decorated used bottles with the aim of raising funds to fulfill the wishes of orphan kids.
Furthermore, on 4th Oct, we conducted Anubhava, which was a skill exchange workshop that saw a huge turnover as people taught and learned various skills ranging from playing guitar, quilling to learning makeup and calligraphy.
On 5th October, GyaanDaanSaptah was organized by the Department of Forensic Medicine wherein, the gates of Forensic museum were opened to students of SDM Law college.
On 6th October, various events were held in the City Centre including Twist on words, dance poetry on various social issues to create awareness on social issues among the general public in an innovative manner. Others included a flash mob, Candle sale, Game On and Wishing Wall. These projects aimed at fundraising and full filling wishes of orphan kids.
On 7th October, we conducted Chai Pe Charcha where we distributed tea and snacks for night duty guards in Mangalore.
On 8th October, we conducted YogDaan, which was a free yoga session.
Throughout the week, Blood donation drive in association with Kasturba Medical College Hospitals, Cloth Donation Drive, Rice bucket Challenge and Wishing Well were conducted.
We would like to thank ScaleneWork People Solutions, Bangalore for their sponsorship & support. Scalene in the past has done multiple drives and campaigns to give back to society and was very happy to join us to celebrate DaanUtsav this year.