Aum Sri Sairam
Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation ~ Gujarat
The future of the country depends on the skill and the sincerity of the youth. Only when the youth transform themselves with good character, will the world be able to experience ideal virtues. Therefore, the necessary enthusiasm and encouragement must be generated among the youth.
With the above motto, a 2-day State Youth Festival on the theme Youth for Nation Building was organized by Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation, Gujarat at Surat on 22 – 23 December, 2018 with the intention of spreading Swami’s message to the new generation. Colleges across Gujarat were asked to send 2 youths each who they think can be social leaders in long term. About 375 youths participated where in most of them were new and did not know about Sathya Sai organization or its activities.
This event was envisaged by the State Vice-president, Shri Avinash Rao and not only that, he also chalked out the whole program and joined hands with the youth to implement it with great zeal and commitment
This festival was more of activity and less of speeches and thus 10 different kinds of service activities were showcased, which are being carried out by our organisation regularly. All the youths were distributed in 10 groups and 4 hours of hands-on service activities in the form ofworkshop was conducted under the leadership of Sai Youth and team. The activities were Medical Camp, Blood Bank visit to understand importance of blood donation, Narayana Seva– preparing and distributing food, SaiNet– medicated mosquito nets, Hospital Visit, Old Age Home visit, SSSVIP village, SSS Vidya Jyoti project– empowering schools, Vedam & Bhajans workshop and Sai Protein. The youths were taken to the concerned place by buses and the activity was done in presence of real beneficiaries. Each youth was informed the importance of the activity, how it is helpful to the beneficiary and how it helps us as a sevadal. Also method to provide this seva was explained in detail and they were asked to carry out seva themselves during the program. It was first time for most of them to be present in such kind of activities.
Dr. Shashank Shah was the key note speaker and he delivered two motivating speeches during the event. They were on the topic ‘WATCH method of Leadership’ and ‘Youth for Nation Building’. He emphasized youths to utilize this period of life when they have highest energy level, innovative ideas along with highest confidence level in working for the society and building a strong nation.
‘Walk with Values’ rally was organized and each youth selected one of the values (Sathya – Dharma – Shanti – Prema – Ahimsa) for which they were walking and wore a badge for the same. They also held a placard with a quote which they wrote on their own. A Talent show and a bhajans Sandhya was organized in the evening for the participating youths.
In the morning, participants were allowed to choose any one out of Yoga – Jyoti Meditation – Self Defence – Aerobics – Laughing therapy and they were conducted by experts in that field, who wasa Sai youth. Also a blood donation camp was held immediately after the event and 20 units of liquid love were collected.
It was a great learning experience to the youths in social services. Almost all the youths were very happy with the event and felt sad to leave it in just 2 days. In the feedback, most of them wanted this to be 5 days program so that they can understand all the 10 activities in detail. The whole event was planned and executed by the youths and elders were made as mentors for each youth. The anchoring was also Sathya Sai School past students. A Participation certificate, a Pen Drive with State and National website Url printed on it and Swami’s photo as memento were given to each participant.
An exhibition of activities conducted by SSSSO Gujarat was displayed and today’s youth’s favorite Selfie zone with life size cutouts of Swami with Samadhi background and Lord Vishnu with Himalayan ranges background was arranged.
State president Shri Hemant Patel, National council member Shri Manohar G. Trikannad, State youth co-ordinators Shri Rajiv Gosai (Male) and Dr. ShilpaPopat (Mahila) actively participated in the festival.
Day 1 Speech by Dr. Shashank Shah on the topic WATCH method of Leadership :~
Day 2 Speech by Dr. Shashank Shah on the topic Youth For Nation Building :~
~ Jai Sairam ~