Blood Donation Camp by Somaiya Social Cell

Unavailability of blood still costs many lives. It is thus safe to say that donating blood is our Social Duty, and its only fair that if we are healthy, we should help some one who isn’t!

To enable SIMSRites to do their bit towards this cause, the Somaiya Social Cell in association with the Somaiya Hospital, Sion organized a Blood Donation Camp on Tuesday, 8th of September 2009. Students came in large numbers for over 5 hours from 11 am to 4 pm to donate blood and those who could not donate themselves gathered to motivate their friends.

At the end of the camp, the camp had managed over 50 donations. Although there was a turnout of near about 90 students, around 35 of them were rejected on account of low haemoglobin levels or low blood pressure.

The camp was held in the TT room of the Management Hostel. A team of 11 from the hospital, including a social worker, 2 doctors, 4 technicians, 2 nurses and 2 ward boys had come to help organize the camp. They had brought with them a total of 5 beds and all necessary equipments. The donors were first asked to fill a form to verify whether they were fit to donate or not. Weight measurement and haemoglobin tests followed next. This was done to ensure that only healthy and able students should donate. After the donating, each donor was given refreshments as recommended by the doctors.

All donors would be issued a donor card form the Somaiya Hospital, blood bank which will have a lifetime validity.
The Somaiya Social Cell would like thank all the donors for coming for the camp despite it being a working day.
Also, the event would not have been a success without the enthusiastic support of the Social Cell volunteers for their co-ordination with the medical team, their concern towards the well being of the donors and thus for making the purpose a grand success!

Old Stuff Collection Drive @ SIMSR

We all have a lot of old stuff; old College bags, stationary sets, books, clothes, footwear etc. all accumulated over time, with which we don’t know what to do!
Little do we realize that these items which we want to just get rid of could still be invaluable to many people who are not as privileged as we are. Stuff like old clothes and book and shoes which are no more of use to us could bring cheer to lives of those who never had these to begin with!!

It is with this thought of helping those in need that GOONJ in collaboration with DHL (Deliver To Help) has started VASTRA SAMMAN the aim of which is to collect old stuff from students and give them to the needy. To contribute our bit to the cause, SIMSR’s Social Cell coordinated with the NGO GOONJ and DHL (Deliver To Help) and Joined VASTRA SAMMAN as a part of Joy Of Giving Week which was celebrated nationwide from 27th September to October 3rd 2009.
Students were asked to donate anything from old uniforms, books, clothes of all sizes, toys, footwear, lunch boxes, water bottles, geometry boxes, story books, blankets, woollens, raincoats newspapers magazines, monetary contributions etc. The enthusiastic response was ascertained from the filled donation boxes kept near the hostel entrance. All the donations collected were given to GOONJ which would go to its ‘SCHOOL to SCHOOL’ initiative.

It is through the success of these programmes small and big that we at Somaiya Social Cell feel we are Touching hearts... Challenging Destinies....

SIFE Somaiya does it once again!!

On July 1st 2009, SIFE Somaiya belonging to the Somaiya Social Cell was declared the Western Region Finalist in the Regional round of SIFE competition for the second time.

SIFE, Students in Free Enterprise, is an international network of students, academia and business leaders committed to the cause of bringing betterment to the society. Its mission is to bring together the top leaders of today and tomorrow to create a better, more sustainable world through the positive power of business. SIFE works with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize university students to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders.

SIFE Somaiya, the SIFE team of K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, came into being in 2004. It works on the similar lines as SIFE international trying to make the much needed difference in the lives of the underprivileged. It works with the following motto in mind ‘Touching hearts…Challenging destinies…’ The guiding principles of both SIFE and SIFE Somaiya address the same issues thereby making Somaiya work on similar lines as required by the SIFE criteria (A set of criteria required to be satisfied for qualifying the various rounds in the competition among the universities).

Participating students form teams of their university campuses and apply business concepts to develop outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. An annual series of Regional and National competitions provides a forum for teams to present the results of their projects, and to be evaluated by business leaders serving as judges.
The SIFE Somaiya team has been participating in the SIFE competition every year. The team has been on a winning spree since past three years. The latest feather that was added to its cap was the Regional Winners title. The team presented the work accomplished by them over the past year under Project Warli and Sahas. The team was greatly appreciated by the jury for the commendable work done. On the jury were some important and prominent faces such as Mr Anil Agrawal: DGM-Head-Finance at Syntel Ltd, Mr. Amit Arora: National Head at Reliance Money, Mr. Ujjwal Banerjee: Executive Director of Anupam Kher Foundation and many more dignitaries from KPMG, Syntel, Reliance Money, PWC, HSBC and the likes.
The team had a tough contest against well established and competent teams from around the western region. At the nationals there was a close contest between Alpha College and SIFE Somaiya. Somaiya finished second in the league just a few points behind Alpha College.
Other achievements under the SIFE umbrella have been the HSBC Financial Literacy Grant for consecutive years from 2006 to 2009, the KPMG grant in 2008 & 2009 for ethical business practices and the Syntel Seed Grant for 2009.
The SIFE competition is thus a medium for teams to show the world the revolution that is taking place.

Warli Exhibition at R-city Mall

SIFE Somaiya Social Cell organised an exhibition cum sale of Warli paintings by Warli artists from Dahanu at R-City Mall in Ghatkopar from June 6 to July 5, 2009.

Warli is an ancient folk art of Maharashtra, which is slowly dying. Project Warli is an attempt is to revive this art. The Cell acts as a catalyst in bringing forth the talent of Warli painters and facilitates marketing and sales by finding a right place and right price for their products. The purpose is not only to help the underprivileged artists to earn a livelihood but also to instill a spirit of entrepreneurship in their lives.

One such initiative towards this purpose of project Warli was this exhibition where the painters got the opportunity to get first hand information of the market demand.




Ethnicity shop owners provided with the free space for marketing the Warli products. Realizing the importance of adapting to changing tastes and requirements of modern day urban families, the Warli artistes came up with innovative Warli designs on products like pillow covers, bed sheets, pen stands, flower vases and so on.

Jayesh Dhanap, Raghunath Vangad and Kamlesh Dulcha were the three artistes who had come from Nareshwadi in Dahanu to showcase their talent. They were housed in the Somaiya campus during the duration of the exhibition.

In this exhibition, the artists also experimented with different colours like red and blue. They attempted to depict simple village scenes like a wedding celebration or a village life with hills and animals on dress materials, sarees and even pillow covers.

Jayesh the 16 year old young artist stated, “I learnt Warli art from my family members. This is the first time I have come to a big city like Mumbai.” Kamlesh on the other hand is an experienced artist who knows the pulse of the urban market. “Originally, Warli paintings were done with rice flour but now we have shifted to modern mediums like Fevicol and white fabric colours”, he remarked.



The feedback given by the Warli painters about the ‘Exhibition experience’ thus speaks it all about the success of this initiative in meeting its desired purpose.

Cleanliness Drive at Juhu Beach

Beach pollution is a persistent problem today in every coastal state. Besides being hazardous to the environment, it also degrades the aesthetic appeal of the location, discourages swimming and impacts local economies which rely on beach-goers.

Juhu Beach – a prime tourist spot of Mumbai is frequented by over 3000 visitors at a time in the evenings. Known as much for its mesmerizing sunsets as also for being the hawker’s paradise, Juhu beach also happens to be one of the most polluted beaches of India!

The team

The sea water here is being subjected to the worst form of pollution with the constant influx of domestic and industrial effluents from areas like Juhu Koliwada, Irla and Malad. An equal contributor is the plastic waste brought in by the visitors as also the particle pollution created with Ganpati immersions every year. The wanton degradation of the beach water is inexcusable in these times when domestic and foreign tourism is being promoted.

As an attempt to contribute towards this cause and to spread awareness about beach pollution, The Somaiya Social Cell in collaboration with CII and The Juhu Senior Citizen’s Welfare Association organized a Cleanliness/Awareness Drive on Wednesday i.e. 18^th March 2009 at Juhu beach from 4 p.m.

The event kicked off by performing a well-rehearsed skit explaining how a cynical family finally understands that it is each citizen’s responsibility to keep the beach clean. The commonly used Hindi dialogues of the skit appealed to all onlookers. Till the end of the day, the skit was performed at three different locations across the length of the beach attracting new spectators at each place.

Social cell members spreading the message

The skit performances were punctuated by actually undertaking cleaning activities in between. Over 50 volunteers all geared with protection gloves and huge sacks started picking up garbage in small groups and filling up sacks of it; thus cleaning various stretches of the beach.

The purpose of the initiative was served from the applause and encouragement received by the spectators after each skit performance. It also was served from the fact that bystanders started helping the volunteers in the cleaning activities and were hesitant to throw any new garbage on the beach. The event concluded with a feeling of satisfaction among all volunteers that they could contribute their bit and more importantly inspire people to continue doing so in future!