Udaan Welfare Foundation

Saksham encourages and conducts various activities in the forum of Art, craft and Music.

  • Bi-weekly tabla sessions were conducted through the year with 5-10 children participating in each session under the tutelage of Mr. Niranjan Bade until January 20 for more than two years. We were also happy to receive a tabla set from a donor.
  • Chess Base India, in association with Udaan, organised a Chess training camp on the 9th and 10th December, 2017 at Saksham. Seventy children from Ma Niketan and the Azadnagar and Patlipada slums participated. The camp was conducted by Mr. Aditya Pai, editor of ChessBase India magazine. Renowned visiting coaches – Mr. Vivek Rane, and Master – Mr. Vikramaditya Kulkarni guided the children. ChessBase India also donated chess sets for the children. As a direct result of the event, 14 girls from Ma Niketan started coming to Saksham every Sunday for two hours to learn chess from Mr. Akshat Patil. These classes were held for six months.
  • On March 24th and 25th 2018, Mr. Sanket Ray, a professional photographer, conducted a 2-day photography workshop for 6 children at Saksham. The objective was to teach the children the basics of using a camera and some techniques to click great photos.
  • Self-Defense classes were organised at Saksham for children and women in the summer. The classes were conducted by Mr. Kankar Singh from Beed, and 16 girls and 25 boys participated. This activity was sponsored by United way of Mumbai.
  • Manorang, a theatre group based in Thane, Maharashtra, set up a 3-day workshop for children at Saksham, from 30th April to 2nd May 2018. This workshop, which spanned 145 student-hours, prompted many kids to consider acting as a career.